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sassy270380

azalea's

sassy270380
18 years ago

what can i do to make my azalea's healthy and green?i have cypress mulch around them in my flower bed and i used that alalea stay green granular fertilizer

Comments (5)

  • morz8 - Washington Coast
    18 years ago

    Could you describe your azaleas appearance a little better so we know more what you are trying to correct? Did you plant these yourself and how long ago?

    These are not heavy feeders as far as supplemental fertilizers go, but they do require soil on the acid side, consistent water, and will thrive in soil that is high in organic content (compost) and retains moisture while not ever remaining soggy. If yours are yellowish, reasons can be several....too high a soil PH, poor drainage or root damage by insects, originally planting too deeply or not roughing up the rootball before installing in the ground, so...

    A little more information please?

  • sassy270380
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    rhe leaves are falling pretty much and the branches break with the wind blowing
    yes i planted them myself/but of course i have an annoying little neighbor that either throws things accroos my fence or god knows what else

  • morz8 - Washington Coast
    18 years ago

    That still doesn't give us much information to go on, but let me try -

    Losing leaves - if these are evergreen azaleas - and branches that are dry and brittle enough to break in wind is most likely a problem 'below ground.' There are either not enough roots to provide needed water, or not enough water is being supplied.

    If the shrubs were planted too deeply (should have been at least as high, and higher is better, than they were growing in the nursery container), the surface rooting structure may have been unable to function and the plants are dying. If the roots were not loosened from their nursery container shape, after a few months of being in the ground they could have done enough circling the plants basically strangled, or they exhausted any nutrients available in the potting soil. If that tight rootball goes through a period of becoming completely dry, it's almost impossible to wet it, no matter how hard it's raining or how much you water the surrounding soil, and the azaleas could die from drought.

    It's also possible to burn enough of the roots with fertilizer that those remaining are unable to supply adequate moisture to the top growth.

    I don't mean to make these sound like difficult plants because they are not, but they do need acidic soil, consistent water, proper planting depth and procedure to get them off to a good start.

  • lisa455
    18 years ago

    Sassy, where do you live? Could the problem be your soil ph? I live on the west side of the Mississippi River outside of New Orleans and all of the soil is alkaline in my area including New Orleans. Azaleas, Gardenias and Camellias struggle in native soil here unless it is heavilly amended. Also if your soil is not rich in organic matter they are unhappy.

  • sassy270380
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    thank you all,i have spent the last weekend redoing and re-soiling my flower bed,and today i noticed my plants seem a little greener they are not losing leaves anymore .i also have had 2 gardenia's that both started to grow and all of a suuden started to do just like my azeleas they startd losing there leaves and the whole little bush seemed as though it was fried by the sun.i bought 4 more gardenia's and some manure to mix with the soil and they seem to be doing fine.i will let you know.
    By the way Lisa I live in Morgan City La.

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