emerald wrote:

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!

I prune my azaleas about once every three years. I did it this
year, cutting each plant just as the last flower faded. In a few
cases, I started on one side of a plant while flowers still bloomed
on the other side. I took shrubs over 3 ft tall and reduced them
to 1 ft, mostly to bare branches. As soon as they were pruned, I
fed them with a commercial azalea and camellia food. They are
already throwing new shoots.

These are evergreen azaleas (southern indica?). From past
performance, I expect them to bloom next spring.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 19 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a)
Gardening pages at http://www.rossde.com/garden/