You can go ahead and prune them way back. You may not have any blooms next
year, but don't worry about it. Pruning and fertilizing of azaleas should
be done once they have finished blooming in the spring. Once you prune them
back, they will fill out with more dense branching, but may not bloom.
You'll be doing them a favor and getting fuller bushes for the future.

Good luck.

Penny
Zone 7 - North Carolina
"emerald" wrote in message
news:jOtxc.677020$Pk3.144973@pd7tw1no...
X-No-Archive: yes

I recently moved to a 20+ year old townhouse with a very neglected yard.

Some of the rhodos and azaleas (I have about ten) are bare and leggy and
in
dire need of severe pruning. Most of the stuff I've read about pruning
them
talks about shaping, but mine need a lot more than that.

I'm considering taking off about 50% of the branches this year and
repeating
that next year but I've no experience with these plants and wonder if this
is too much. All comments welcomed!

emerald