NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — State officails are warning homeowners and gardeners to be vigilant after a deadly form of fungus recently turned up on rhododendrons plants sold a more than two dozen nurseries statewide.
The disease, known as phytopthora ramorum first showed up on a plant that was sold at the Wal Mart in Dickson. Officials believe that plant, along with dozens of others was shipped from a distrubtor in Oklahoma.
The Tennessee Department of Agriculture is asking that customers who purchased a rhododendron from that Walmart or Rural King outlets since April to monitor the plant for signs of disease, including leaf spots and dying branches or limbs.
"It's a fungus type organism and we're very concerned about it," says Tim Phelps with the Tennessee Department of Agriculture.
Phelps says anyone who may have bought an infected plant should send in a sample to the state so it can be tested. Other diseases causes similar symptoms which is why testing leaf samples is the only way to be sure a rhododendrons has phytopthora ramorum.
For more information contact TDA’s Plant Certification Section at (615) 837-5137 or email plant.certification@tn.gov.
