I'm glad your plant bloomed.
That approach may may seen strange, but I picked it off a PBS gardening show where the curator of some kind of Royal Botanical Garden in England said they had rhododendrons that wouldn't bloom. Oh, the infamy: plants at the RBC that won't bloom. So, he described the method I explained above and within a few months, blooms showed up. I have tried the process many times. Most times, things went well. Others, not so much. But I did follow through with my threat to destroy the uncooperative plant every time.
Sylvain.
