Meandmyroses said: I read about not using stable manure, from a library book on rhododendron's, some forty years ago. " no internet for me in those days"
I've read a lot of things in books, on the internet that didn't actually apply in my garden.
2 theories...
1) maybe the garden writer lived in a different area, and the things that seemed applicable in his garden... just wasn't at my house.
2) the theory that I prefer, the garden writer read something and just parroted the info without actually doing any hands on experiments in own garden.
The neat thing about these internet forums... we can talk about our own experience(s) in the garden... or mention that we read something in a book, but don't have personal experience with the subject.
Not to blame the garden writer(s), we all want to seem like a fount of information... but, once upon a time, they taught us to credit our sources.... Remember footnotes?