Caring for Van Veen Plants

by Joe Bruso Hopkinton, MA

Presented here is a guide for members ordering Van Veen plants for the first time, and a reminder for those who are veterans. Plants purchased from Van Veen Nurseries require a little special care during their first year in order to achieve a high degree of success. This is no different than other small plants, such as those we get from other nurseries. The same holds true for plants grown from rooted cuttings.

This information is based on my experience and that of others in the Massachusetts Chapter. As always with plants, there is more than one way to be successful. You may develop your own methods or adapt these for your own conditions and materials on hand. The basic principals still apply, however.

How to Kill your New Plants

Take them home in early spring and expose them to late spring frosts; Dig a hole in the landscape, plant them, water them once, then forget them.

In a mild spring followed by a rainy summer and mild winter you might get lucky, but usually the results will be predictable. Even landscape-sized plants should not be treated this casually, let alone rooted cuttings and small yearling plants.

Proper Care

Proper care for Van Veen plants can be divided into 3 timeframes:

Prior to last Spring frost
First Summer
First Winter

1. Prior to Last Spring Frost

Key to Success: Protect from late frosts.

Potting Up

Van Veen plants arrive in mid to late April. Since Spring begins much earlier on the west coast (Portland, Oregon), most plants will be in active growth on arrival. Some will be in bloom and/or have the current year’s growth partially to almost completely expanded. This new growth is damaged or killed if exposed to frost. Thus, they need to be protected when frost threatens. The best way to facilitate this is to pot up the plants. This will allow you to move them into your cellar or garage when a frost threatens. Some prefer to plant them right into a nursery bed, covering them when frost threatens. With this method, a prolonged freezing period may still damage the new growth.

Potting Considerations

Van Veen plants are grown in an “artificial” medium. It has been observed that rhododendron roots are reluctant to grow out of a medium they are used to in and into a much different medium. To help prevent this problem, some people partially to completely wash off the original medium before potting up or planting. In any event, one should try to include in the new soil at least some of the ingredients found in the medium the plant was grown in. This usually includes peat and pearlite. I do not remove much of the original soil, but rather plant them into a mixture that is 50% soil as exists in their future nursery, and 50% of an approximation of the plant’s original medium. This works for me. The pot should be large enough to easily contain the root ball plus allow you to put new soil all the way around it. Avoid pots that are too small for the root ball such that you have to jam the roots in with little room to add new soil.

Alternately, avoid oversized pots in proportion to the root ball. A container that is several times the volume of the root ball is too large. The objective is to provide new medium for the roots to grow into, with enough volume both to prevent the pots from blowing over and/or drying too quickly, yet not surround the root ball with so much new medium that it remains soaked after watering for an extended period of time.

Little to no fertilizer is required at this time. Better to err on the stingy side than over fertilizing, which can be lethal. I use a half teaspoon or so of slow release fertilizer spread over the pot’s surface.

The root ball needs to be kept moist at all times. Letting it dry out completely is the surest way to kill the plant. This is especially true of plants grown in a medium with a high percentage of peat, since once peat dries out completely, it becomes hydrophobic (water repellent), and is very difficult to re-wet short of soaking in a bucket of water. Conversely, the root ball should not be allowed to remain saturated for any length of time. Leaving in an undrained bucket for days can be just as fatal as letting the root ball dry out.

Plants arrive from Van Veen a little on the dry side to keep shipping costs down. We keep them boxed up until the sort/distribution day to prevent desiccation. While the sort is in progress, we keep the exposed root balls moist by spraying with water.

2. First Summer

Key to Success: Prevent desiccation.

The two most common methods of achieving this are to either keep the plants in pots and water daily or as needed, or to plant them in a “nursery”. A nursery is defined as a prepared bed with amended soil, at least partial shade, no tree root competition, and with the plants relatively close together. The average sized Van Veen plant can be planted a foot or less apart. This simplifies care, especially watering. The nursery should be watered every 1-2 days or so at first, gradually decreasing the frequency as they become established and/or as weather allows.

Whether kept in pots or in a nursery for the summer, they should be located in a partly to mostly shaded location. The north side of a structure is an excellent location. High shade from oak or pine trees is also great. If they must be exposed to direct sun, early morning sun (as on the east side of a structure) is preferable to noontime and evening sun. The more sun your plants get, the more often they will need to be watered. Avoid deep shade, as found in a dense grove of white pines with low hanging branches.

3. First Winter

Key to Success: Protect from extremes of winter temperature, sun & wind.

A commonly used practice is to build a simple box to cover the plants. It can be small enough to cover one plant up to the dimensions of an entire sheet of plywood or larger, depending on how many plants you have. I use boxes 4 feet by 8 feet and 2 feet high. These are easily constructed from plywood, with 2” x 4” studs used in the corners to join the pieces together. I use wood screws to attach the pieces so that I can easily take the box apart in spring, storing the parts until the next fall. The box has no bottom. Potted plants are placed as close together as possible on the ground inside the box. Mid-November is the usual time of year for this. The top is covered with a sheet of plywood before real bad weather arrives. The pots need to be well watered before covering. I put a mouse trap or two and/or some rodent bait inside the box to guard against disaster, should mice or voles make their way in. The top can be either screwed down or held down with something heavy. A slight gap (fraction of an inch) should be left on one or more areas of the top to provide minimal ventilation. I bank woodchips or some other loose material around the base of the box to cover any gaps between the wood and the ground. Once it freezes, it helps rodent-proof the box. If you have planted your plants in a nursery, the box can be built or placed over the nursery.

After their first winter, your plants can be handled in one of several ways:
1. Re-potted and grown on in larger pots for another year or two.
2. Planted in a nursery.
3. If large enough, planted into the landscape.

Summary

The keys to success with Van Veen plants are very simple. Protect from late frosts, keep them regularly watered at all times, and provide some protection their first winter. Beyond these three basics, there are other practices which will help increase your success rate. If you follow none of this advice, you may or may not suffer complete catastrophe. However, with just a little care you can be very successful.