Rhododendron Shrub Structure....

 

The Skeleton...

I am working away, Dear Readers, on the Rhododendron Blossom making process and can report that I am making good progress. I have challenged myself to see if I can make two batches of florets per day, totaling ten batches per week (with the weekends for other project pieces). The truth of the matter is, it gets easier when you apply yourself consistently to a task! But I still need to be making progress on the leaves.... and the shrub structures themselves. In the above photo you can see the "skeleton" of the Rhododendron on the right side of The Folly porch, looking the same as it has since last summer. The main stem is a gnarled ancient "trunk" (made from the same heavy gauge paper covered florist wire that I used for the Lilacs)  with one long "side branch" that stretches along the ground to the right and then makes a secondary trunk nearer to The Tree House. Why did I make it this way? Well, partly because the landscape "asks" for it.... and partly because that is what the huge old RL Rhododendron by my house has done! 

I don't know if you have ever climbed "into" a big old bush, 

but I will show you what it looks like from the inside!

The ground is quite bare.... and here

 the root can be seen snaking across the ground to the left.

Sorry about the dark picture... it was dark in under those leaves.

Here is a side view of the main trunk...

 the branching started fairly low,

 but as the shrub aged, the taller branches 

began to bend downward....

So the area under the shrub is like a huge umbrella...

and the tops of the branches sweep down to the ground.

I surmise that over time, the weight of the winter snows

 must have caused some of this sag....

 but the branches became quite twisted and contorted!

You can see how knobby and twisted the structure actually is!

And those branches keep growing outward and downward.

I was rather surprised when I first realized this!

And that is what I am trying to duplicate

 in my shrub skeleton for The Folly Rhododendron.

But before we go there, Dear Readers,

 I wanted to remind you

 of the essential feature of these shrubs....

The Seasonal Landscape Pods...

Here you can see (sorry it is so dark!) 

The Folly Garden on the right side of the porch.

And here you can see that nail is so that

 I can lift the "Pod" out of the garden...

Leaving a "hole" that will accept interchangeable "pods".

And here are the three (nearly) identical pods

 which will hold the Rhododendron Shrubs in their seasonal variations.

I plan to make a blossoming shrub, 

a plain leafy shrub (for all the rest of the year)

 and a snowy winter shrub... for those special snowy occasions!

And for that I need three identical shrub "skeletons"!

Here are two of the three.... with the basic

 root structure and trunk structure begun.

Here is the basic "prototype" skeleton

 beginning to have the branches "shaped".

Because the shape gets complicated fast....

 I have to make the same step on each shrub in sequence,

so I can be sure they will look essentially the same.

And I have to constantly fit it to The Folly garden spot

 to be sure it doesn't bump the roof or not stand straight.

Here you can see it better with the flash on... 

I have begun to trim the tops of the long branches, 

and twist them into branches lower on the stem...

And then I add glue to the joined wires.....

Here are two of them with the stems being glued.

The wire is quite stiff and hard to bend.... so I take it slowly.

Here I am just starting to add the thinner "branches"... 

the green wire.... also really stiff and hard to bend!

This is going to take a while!

And here it is in The Folly Garden again.... 

with the flash...

There is still a long way to go, Dear Readers,

 but I think I am making progress 

with the Rhododendron Shrub Skeletons!