Actually, this is a community college
class taking one of those
"Introduction to the Internet"
type of courses.
That doesn't mean we can't grow
azaleas.
We just have a lighthearted approach
to life.
Here are the Top Ten Questions we've received since
this Web page was picked up by the search engines.
How can I grow azaleas
in Idaho/northern Minnesota/Alaska/Nevada? It's cold here.
You have two choices. You can try deciduous azaleas, or you can grow
potted azaleas and keep them indoors during bad weather. Deciduous azaleas
come in beautiful colors. The Northern Lights hybrids are the hardiest
on the market, able to handle temperatures as low as -40 F. They can grow
to a height of six feet, too. Even these need some shelter and a good mulch
in winter, though.
The real issue is keeping the roots protected. With most azaleas and
rhododendrons, the roots actually suffer more damage than the branches
when temperatures drop well below freezing, say at about 20-25 degrees
F. If you want to put potted azaleas out on your patio but you still have
a chance of a few cold nights in May, layer some mulch over the soil as
extra protection for the roots.
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How can I grow azaleas in
the sunshine in Texas? It's hot here.
That's true. The issue is, it's also cold in some parts. Texas stretches
across 5 climate zones and some very different soil types. Here are some
general guidelines for the more moderate parts of the state. You're going
to have a hard time with the deciduous azaleas due to warm soil as much
as to the warmth of the air.
Talk to your local garden center and be sure to get evergreen azaleas
grown in a nursery either nearby or in a similar climate. Once you get
them home, the keys to success will be location and reliable water. The
location must involve acidic soil, shade from direct sun in the middle
of the day, a loose mulch, organic matter in the soil, and good drainage.
If you can't provide these, grow another shrub which suits your soil and
will thrive in your garden.
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If you buy from
a grocery store, is it considered only a house plant, or in the spring
can you plant it outside? Or is it best to buy it from a nursery for outdoors.
How do you keep it alive in an office or at home?
The answers depend on your climate and your soil. Are azaleas a popular
garden plant in your area? If so, a "grocery store azalea" probably
will adjust to life in your garden. One problem with azaleas sold as potted
plants for gifts is that they rarely have tags to let you know what variety
they are and how much cold they can tolerate in the winter.
As a general rule, though, you are right -- a local nursery is usually
the best source for outdoor plants that will grow well in that region.
Now your third question, can an azalea be kept in an office or a home
successfully? Yes, especially if it's a Satsuki, Belgian, Indian, Kurume
or other azalea commonly cultivated in pots and sold as a flowering potted
plant.
A potted azalea needs:
- enough water to keep the soil moist
- repotting after flowering ends in late spring.
Use a slightly larger container and add peatmoss to fill in.
- regular fertilizing
- a half-shady to half-sunny window
As the days become longer and the sun rays stronger, a potted azalea
will tolerate more shade, especially through the middle of the day. However,
toward the end of summer it is important to move the plant into more sunlight
and to water a little less. This is to harden the wood and encourage a
heavy bud set for next year's flowers.
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I planted an azalea.
(Or, somebody else planted an azalea twenty years ago.) Can I move it?
Azaleas transplant quite well because they have very shallow roots.
They gather most of their nutrients and water from the top six inches of
soil, so even large bushes do not have a heavy root mass. You can move
them at any time of year but now, right after blooming in the spring, would
be better than waiting until the summer. That's because moving after blooming
would be less disruptive to the formation of new growth in July and the
bud formation in September.
I had to move six large Kaempo azaleas four years ago on a 104 F day
in August -- yuk -- to get them out of the way of a construction crew.
The weather was awful, but they were moved and have done very well since
them. They had to be watered every other day all the rest of the summer,
but every one of them survived and is now thriving. The trick is to do
the digging for the new locations first so that you can pull them up from
their old positions and plop them directly into the new holes. Azaleas
have to have good drainage and are usually planted a little "high"
in their holes for that reason. If you need to add sand or peat moss, you
can do that first. With azaleas, it's much more effective to dig a wide
hole 7 or 8 inches deep than to dig a deep, narrow hole. The roots will
spread out, but they just won't go to a depth where they cannot access
oxygen. No deep digging -- another reason to like azaleas.
When you dig them out, get as much of the root as you can. Situate
the plant a little high to help drainage, and fill in with soil and peat
moss. Water immediately and continue to keep the plants well watered for
this first summer. Fertilizer is not particularly important or helpful
at this point for azaleas; it's better to make sure that the soil is fairly
light and well-drained.
Your azaleas may take the transplanting process better than the container-grown
plants at a garden center would. The ones raised in artificial soil mixes
have more trouble with new roots and water regulation than azaleas which
have grown in regular soil.
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Here's a picture
of the azaleas in my yard. They are pink. What is the exact name of this
type of azalea? I want to get ten more exactly like it.
There are hundreds and hundreds of azaleas, and lots of them are variations
of pink. It's always best to get the NAME OF THE CULTIVAR when you buy
azaleas and to buy only these named cultivars if you want to have plants
that match. Named cultivars are clones of an original parent plant which
had specific characteristics.
Your best bet now is to wait until your azaleas come into bloom again.
Snip off a branch and go to the garden center near you with the greatest
selection of azaleas. Try to match yours. If there are no azaleas quite
like it, then look for a purple, white, rose, or a bi-color that will blend
with your pink ones instead of clashing.
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Azaleas are a shade
plant, right? Will it kill mine if I plant it in a sunny place?
One general rule of thumb with azaleas and rhododendrons is that the
larger the leaf, the more shade the plant requires. Most azaleas, then,
can tolerate sun better than most of the rhododendrons to begin with. Other
positive aspects of growing azaleas in sun are that they develop more compactly,
produce more flower buds, and develop tougher stems. In too much shade,
they tend to be tall, leggy, and have fewer blooms and branches.
Azaleas can tolerate sun much better in areas of high humidity. The
real problem with sunshine occurs when summer days are in the high 90s
and the humidity drops. (This isn't the usual pattern on the East Coast,
where hot and humid go together.) On a very hot, dry day, moisture evaporates
from the leaves so quickly that there can be considerable destruction of
chlorophyll, causing the leaves to turn light green to yellow to brown.
What can you do about all this? Azaleas will thrive in full morning
sun if they can get some afternoon shade for protection during the hottest
part of the day. Trees, buildings, or larger shrubs can provide this. A
good watering is essential for azaleas in full sun when a few days of hot,
dry weather strike. In addition, a loose organic mulch will help keep the
soil cool and moist, which promotes even growth.
Something to remember when you read an American gardening book is that
the author has to take into account a wide variety of climate conditions.
"Full sun" means one thing in a Florida summer and another out
on the cloudy parts of the West Coast and still another in Delaware or
Texas. Authors have to write in very general terms about sun.
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I asked that stupid guy
at the garden center for some azaleas that would do well around here, and
he said azaleas don't grow well here and I ought to buy lilacs. Tell me
some azaleas that would grow well here in .............
Maybe the guy isn't so stupid. Trying to grow any plant in the wrong
climate, wrong soil, wrong humidity, wrong rainfall, etc. is a doomed effort.
If you live in a area with harsh winters, alkaline soil, dry air, and infrequent
rainfall, azaleas will be a lot of trouble and a bad idea. Grow something
that thrives where you live. Maybe lilacs?
My azaleas keep dying.
What's wrong with them?
Here's what azaleas require -- Is this your yard?
Soil
- Acid rather than alkaline, pH 4.5-5.5
- Reasonable fertility
- Good drainage
Light
- Sufficient light indoors or out 50 percent or more of the day to produce
buds
- Shade from the hot afternoon sun
Other
- Porous mulch to keep the soil temperature moderate
- Protection from drying wind
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My azaleas are too big.
They grow like crazy around here. How can I make them stay the size I want?
Are you asking about young azaleas and keeping them dense and well-shaped,
or old azaleas which bloom only on the outer tips of the branches but are
full of dead wood inside? It's not difficult in either situation to control
an azalea.
First, the time period for pruning runs from early spring to about
the end of July. By August the plant will begin setting flower buds for
the following year, and you will lost much of of your future bloom by pruning
then or in the fall. Azaleas do make a nice cut flower for arrangments,
so you can combine your pruning with the flowering season.
A young plant: Azaleas have potential buds scattered all along the
stems, so you may cut them back to any point. Check the long shoots, and
cut them back to the point where you would like them to branch. Within
a month or so they should develop branching shoots. Azaleas can develop
too many branches which results in smaller flowers and shading (and death)
of the inside branches. If this is your situation, prune out any weak branches
with poor development to let some sunshine reach the inner areas.
An older plant: Sometimes an azalea has developed an awkward shape,
or has been sheared off so often that the bush seems to consist of nothing
but wood and a few leaves and flowers on the outside. That calls for severe
pruning. In about 2-3 years you will have a much smaller and more attractive
plant. Check whether there are any small shoots at the bottom of the plant,
indicating that some light is reaching that area already. If so, cut the
wood back drastically to the height you desire, reducing the height from
say, 5 feet down to 2 feet.
This will look pretty drastic as you transform your flowering shrub
into a mass of stubs, but if you do it at the right time (perhaps May/June),
the plant does have time to recover in June/July and begin to form some
buds in August for next spring's growth. It will flower even more successfully
the next season. The alternative is to cut about 1/3 of the branches down
to the desired height each year for 3 years. This practice allows more
light to reach the inner branches so that the plant will be more filled
out with foliage by the time you take down the last tall branches. It looks
less drastic.
A final idea is consider whether you really want to transplant an overgrown
azalea to another spot and replace it with a *new* and different variety
which will naturally grow only to the height you really want. Azaleas transplant
well, and your local garden center should be able to give you advice about
what varieties would suit your requirements for size and color in the local
climate. Go ahead and prune. Azaleas are very forgiving and recover well.
Just get it done before midsummer.
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I planted a row
of twelve azaleas, same kind. Three of them are dead, and I can't remember
what they were. Tell me what to do about it.
It never turns out to have been a great idea to plant a row of any
shrub and expect them to grow exactly the same way. You have your twelve
plants, and what happens?
- #3 dies
- #5 grows just fine, but the foliage is always a different green from
the others and looks funny
- #7 won't grow
- #10 dies
- #11 grows twice as fast as any of the others
So that's what it looks like most of the time, right?
Make it look like you intended to have a mixed shrub row by
adding either different azaleas or other bushes which like the same conditions
--mountain laurel, rhododendrons, enkianthus, tea olive. Add a small evergreen
that will be a good background and a windbreak for the azaleas. Add some
small wild flowers such as bloodroot, solomon's seal, lily of the valley,
or larger perennials such as hostas or ferns. Try a few daffodils and tulips,
or add arum for color in other seasons. The resulting contrast can be more
interesting and satisfying to the eye than a matched row of bushes that
bloom for ten days and look slightly mis-matched for the other 355 days
a year.
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Anne Wolf
CS129
Howard Community College
Columbia, Howard County, Maryland
(Zone 7a, natural oak forest, great place to grow azaleas. Alas, no volcanos,
though)
Last updated November 24, 1997