kc wrote:

As a new home owner who inherited lots of landscaping with my house, I
didn't know to cut back azealas and rhododendrens when they bloomed this
spring. I've been told if I cut them back now I will "cut off all the
spring blooms", but they are horribly leggy and overgrown and I think I have
no choice or my neighbors may picket me soon...do you think I'll get some
bloom even if I cut back now?
Thanks
Kirsten

Depending on your climate, you risk killing them. Pruning now
might promote tender new growth. If you get frost or snow in the
winter, that growth will die. Having put some effort into creating
that growth, the plants might not recover to create even more new
growth in the spring.

Leave them alone until after they flower in the spring. Prune
then. New growth will have a chance to harden before the following
winter. If any neighbor comments, explain that they can be pruned
only in the late spring.

This is not a problem in my mild-winter climate, but I still prune
my azaleas only in the spring.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening pages at http://www.rossde.com/garden/