"Rachel" wrote:

I recently moved into a home with small, scraggy azaleas planted all
over in strange places. They almost look like several children just
kept giving them to mom for mothers day, and mom had to find a place to
plant them I'm talking literally 30+ of these things. I'm sure
they could be beautiful, but I have NO idea what to do to try to get
them to fill in. They're all different kinds, some deciduous, some
evergreen.

It could be a number of things. First, azaleas like a moist, well
drained acid soil. They don't like a lot of fertilizer, especially
after early summer. I recommend using HollyTone now per the
instructions on the package. It will help acidify the soil. If you
need to increase the acidity more, use powdered sulfur. Garden centers
sell aluminum sulphate, but it is a bad idea. It will eventually hurt
aluminum sensitive plants. That could be your problem now. If you have
a poor clay soil, then the azaleas should be moved to a raised bed with
good rich acidic soil like a mixture of top soil and peat humus. For
more, visit my website.
--
Pardon my spam deterrent; send email to
Visit my Rhododendron and Azalea web pages at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~rhodyman/rhody.html
Also visit the Rhododendron and Azalea Bookstore at:
http://home.earthlink.net/~rhodyman/rhodybooks.html
Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA Zone 6