"Jenny" wrote in message ...
We have planted four plants of two different varieties of evergreen azaleas
this year, one of them "rosebud" and the other something whose name I forget
that was a nice peach color. They are in an area that stays shaded by the
house until 2 PM and only gets about 4 hours sunlight total. The soil they
are in drains well, but we have had an extremely wet summer.

They were doing fine until the past month when the leaves of both varieties
got little brown spots all over them just like those of the maples and other
trees around our property which has been attributed to the very high
rainfall. A small portion of the azaleas' leaves are yellowing, but all of
them look pretty ratty with brown spots and holes all over them. I don't see
any sign of insects except for occasional spiderwebs.

My question is, since these are evergreen varieties, will the leaves stay
crappy looking, or will the plant eventually grow new leaves in the spring
to replace the damaged ones and look okay? I don't want to go spraying
poisons on these plants. I am thinking that if they can't survive unaided
where I have put them, I will replace them with something tougher like the
yews which are flourishing beside them, as are my annuals.

-- Jenny (Zone 5 W. Mass on a slightly colder hillside)

Sounds like one of the leaf spot funguses (anthracnose, maybe a few
others), and wet weather encourages it, but it will respond to
fungicides. If you do nothing, it will recur and may defoliate and
eventually kill your azalea.

Good garden hygiene will help you avoid or minimize the need for
fungicides: this means, for example, presuming that all the litter
around the plants showing symptoms is infected and clearing it out.

--
Chris Green