April 04, 2007
Enjoying The Azaleas
My family and I were in Mobile for spring break and the peak of azalea bloom time. Almost everywhere you looked there were masses of this Southern favorite blooming. Pinks, fuschias, whites and even the oranges of native varieties painted the landscape.
In Mobile, it seems people are either more laid back gardeners who dislike pruning or they understand azaleas are not shrubs that respond well to being pruned into cubes or balls. All too frequently, I see these shrubs pruned into shapes that are contrary to their natural loose mounding habits.
If you find yourself pruning your azaleas or other shrubs aggressively every year to keep them in check, you probably have planted the wrong plant for the location. For example, Formosa is one of my favorite azaleas. It’s in the Indica group of azaleas and can get up to 8 feet tall and perhaps that wide. But it would not be the best choice for a planting site just two feet wide. You would spend far too much time trying to keep it in check.
There’s another problem that can occur with pruning. If you prune your azaleas and sometimes you have to remove leggy growth, do your pruning immediately after the plants finish blooming. If you wait until summer or fall to prune, you are pruning off next spring’s flower buds.
For more information on azaleas, the many varieties and how to plant and grow them, check out Azaleas, a publication from the Alabama Cooperative Extension System.
Posted by at April 4, 2007 09:03 AM | TrackBack