The picture above is of Rhododendron viriosum. Lochiae has curved corollas. I have grown viriosum seed and it is painfully slow - 1 leaf per 6 months. Not worth the wait when you can grow from large cuttings and have a plant in one year.

So we are in New England. The winter was unusually warm with little snow then a night of like -10 in February followed by a really hot and dry May. This messed up a lot of perennials around here. Even established ones. Recently it has been very hot, but alot of rain. That garden was made with compost/loam mix covered with about 2" of natural hemlock bark mulch. There is a row purple gems and Autumn Bonfire Encore Azalea and some are in the sun, some are in the shade of a tree. I guess its just odd that they are from 2021 and should be established and they suddenly take a turn. Emphasis on the sudden. One day they look good, the next not so much. Here is "Plant 1" from above with different closeup shots And "Plant 2" from above, the one doing worse. Looks almost dead now For comparison, this is a healthy one right next to it. And this is what both of those looked like on July 20, then on July 21...... stuff goes south.... What can I look for or try? They did great in 2022, some even bloomed a 2nd time in the fall. Thank you! Oh and on the "green carpet," it sadly has some crab grass I would have cropped out of the pictures had I known folks would closely examine ha. I will have to tell the rabbits to do a better job eating it...

how long in the pot.. when repotted... can you vouch for the integrity of the media in the pot .. is it functioning as a water management system like it is supposed to??? how do you water.. does it filter thru the center of the gob of medium.. or does it pool and run to the edge ... id vote for water failure during the heat wave.. if you want us to discuss fert as a variable.. tell us how you fertd.. what.. when.. how much.. etc .. will it be going in the ground in fall???.. if so.. i would just water properly.. and do so in a month or 3... ken

thank you, GG. when I planted all of my rhodies/azaleas I was still in the mindset of the southeast where shade is a must so I put most of them in too much shade. I have moved nearly all of them to new locations, but I have a Nova Zembla that just finished its seventh summer and has never bloomed, so I’m THAT special! it is healthy, though, and I’m assuming as it matures it will bloom like all of the other huge 15’ rhodies around it in more shade. I check it each fall and can see only leaf buds, so it’s not an issue of something happening to the buds, but I think it has some flower buds this fall. Fingers crossed. I had no idea that type of bark was possible. I’ll update in the spring and see what comes out of this different branch.