"arkienurse" wrote:

Thanks everyone for the advice. After reading all of your different bits of
advice, I think I will leave them mostly alone, just trim out the dead
branches and scraggly tall ones. I did have one that the main bush died for
some reason last year. But there are a few new branches coming up from the
middle, and there are small azaleas all around the edge, where the low
hanging branches had rooted themselves. I would like to dig them up and
move some of them, but think I will leave them until next spring, I am
worried that I have already missed the window for moving them this year.
But we did trim back the dead bush as far as our pruning shear would let us.

Hi Vicky,

The branches that rooted around the edge rooted by a process called
layering. When the roots are strong, cut the connection to the main
plant and give them time to get established. Before moving them, do
what is called root pruning. That is going around the plant with a
spade cutting down around the area that you want dig up and transplant
eventually. You don't disturb the soil other than just cutting down to
cut any roots that extend out beyond the drip line. This helps the
plants form a nice dense root ball that is easy to transplant.
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