Azalea planting

13 years ago

I understand it might be a bit late to plant azaleas, but I wanted to get your opinion on the following setup for a back yard.

I want to put a rock patio in my back yard to extend my short covered patio. A sprinkler system runs across the edge of the current patio, so my idea was to put a rock barrier between my current covered patio and the new stone patio. This serves two fold: 1) reduces problems with conecting the new patio with the house foundation, and 2) means I do not have to rip up the sprinklers running currently next to the covered patio.

What I want to do with the rock covered area is plant azaleas. The idea is to have a bed of small white rocks between the patios to facilitate drainage (I have no gutters) and to be more durable than the current grass. I want to plant azaleas because of their beauty and to take advantage of the small sprinklers I have along the covered patio. (It would look stupid to have the sprinklers there watering nothing but rock.)

Now on to my questions...:)

What affect will the rock have on the azaleas? (Soil drains well where I plan to plant them and the soil is rich.)

Will I need to fertilize young azaleas? If so, how many seasons? Can I get away with fertilizing them upon planting and then not doing it again?

If azaleas are not the best choice, please give me a recommendation for plants to fit my project.

Thanks!

Dave

Comments (3)

luis_pr
13 years ago
Hello, daveleau. I would contact Robert "Buddy" Lee of the Azalea Society of America LA Chapter, telephone 504-878-3567 in
52063 Ridge Crest Road; Independence LA 70443 to see what he recommends where you live.

As long as you provide protection from afternoon sun, well draining acidic soil, constant soil moisture (as constant you can provide) & 3-4" of mulch, any azalea good in your zone would be "good to go" in your garden. In alkaline soils, you can ammend the soil with garden Sulphur, green sand or liquid iron-chelated compounds. In clayish soils, you may want to try raised beds to provide well draining soil.

You should be able to plant them at this time if you wish. Technically, you can plant them at any time but there is less stress when you plant early in the Fall.

Luis
morz8 - Washington Coast
13 years ago
Do I understand you correctly that you want to plant the azaleas within the drip line of your covered patio roof without gutters? If so, depending somewhat on the size of the roof shedding rain water, that's rarely successful and leads to damaged plants both from the falling water on stems and compacted soils.

I'm not a fan of rock mulches for azaleas. In the wild, azaleas are faced with a constant accumulation of dead and decaying organic matter falling around them. All roots of this genus are fibrous and fine textured and do best in a lightweight, porous, well-drained-but-moist soil....these roots are shallow, quite near the surface, and seldom do well under a rock mulch. Other considerations are the heat a rock mulch will reflect, and its weed seed catching ability.

Azaleas, when grown in soil of average fertility and the right PH may need no fertilizing. Young plants purchased in containers will likely have been fertilized, you shouldn't need to add more at planting time.
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rhodyman
13 years ago
I agree with morz8 that you have many potential problems. Azaleas like good drainage, not sprinkler irrigation. Azaleas like cool roots mulched by cool organic material, not hot sun baked rocks.

I would think more in the line of a heat loving, water tolerant plant, not a heat sensitive plant that is killed when it has warm wet roots.

Iris comes to mind such as Iris pseudacorus. Your stone bed will visually resemble a body of water. Iris and other wetland plants would look natural in this setting and tolerate lots of water. This includes canna lilies and iris.