Ellie Bentley wrote:
Hi Tom.

I wonder where you are living. I'm in West Wales where rhododendrons
flourish so much that they're despised by many. One of the main reasons
for this, from what I can work out, is that NOTHING will grow beneath a
spreading rhododendron apart from the odd highly adaptable fern and a
bit of moss. I hear that even when an old rhododendron is removed the
ground is "good for nothing", all its normal qualities vanished. So, I
know this solution demands great patience, but just WAIT and when your
rhodies are big and umbrella-like, nothing, including grass, will grow
inside and under!

The real bad thing about them is that they do very little for British
native species: beautiful for a month, but a dead loss aesthetically
for the rest of the year, and environmentally all the time. But when
they've reached the stage you describe, they make the most wonderful
dens for children. We had a magical clump with a stream running through
it which my children made their very own, and which will live in their
memories for life.

--
Mike.