Rhododendron pruning

[Palustris]

Do Rhododendrons re grow from brown wood? IE. If I cut back ours to a foot from the ground where there are leafless stems will they regrow from those stems?

[ashley]

In principle, yes.  However in my limited experience some are less eager than others. 
Therefore for a valuable plant it's worth taking a cautious approach, by pruning part of the plant to test response before completing the job next season or thereafter.

[Palustris]

Too late I have cut the Cunnungham's White to the roots. In 60 years of gardening I have never seen as many insects on one plant before. Scale insects off the scale.

[ian mcdonald]

R. ponticum takes some killing as witnessed on Nature Reserves where it has become invasive. I can,t speak for others. It re-grows after being cut down to ground level.

[ashley]

Too late ...

     This might still be worth taking a look at.

[Maggi Young]

Success for regrowth after cuting back into old wood varies a lot for Rhodos - as Ashley says, it's best to test a part first, to see if there  is  a sign that dormant buds are willing to break into growth, before getting chop happy, especially on a precious plant.

[Palustris]

They have flowered very sparsely since we moved here and were covered in sooty mould and as I said more scale insects than I have ever seen, so even if they do not reshoot they are no great loss. It does give me 4 sq metres more to plant up though.
Thanks for the help.

[Diane Whitehead]

The most impressive regrowth I have seen -

A huge rhododendron growing close to a road was broken off by a truck. Only a piece of trunk remained.  It re-grew.