rhododendron advice for a novice

[MabelBee]

We recently planted a rhododendron which has been covered in beautiful flowers for the past couple of weeks. Today they are all looking a bit droopy and dead. Do I cut them all off to get new flowers? Should I have cut them before they started dying?

Marking my place...I need to know this, too!

According to my RHS Plants and Flowers Encyclopaedia, you should dead-head spent flowers wherever possible to encourage energy into growth rather than seed production. So if you were to dead-head, I don't think you would get another lot of flowers this year, but the plant would be better able to put it's energy into new growth and therefore you would have a bigger plant with more flowers next year, iyswim?

Sorry for random apostrophe above, of course I meant to say, put its energy...

Thanks! So am I right in thinking that we will only get one lot of flowers each year? There is no way we can encourage it to flower for longer next year? I seem to recall the label saying flowers until August.

I don't know tbh, sorry. Maybe as it becomes more established you will get more flowers over a longer time period? Everything in my garden seems to be flowering too early, I think the warmer weather is confusing the plants!

We once had a rhododendron that flowered twice a year in May and October. It was a gorgeous lush specimen that never was deadheaded. I've never found another one :(

Garden is full of rhododendrons and I've only ever known them to flower in May time and we've lived here 11 years and they were fairly established then. I've never dead headed but last year pruned them back quite drastically and they seem to have more flowers this year...however, that may be to do with the weird winter..I don't know!