On Sat, 11 Jan 2003 13:19:29 +0800, "Elegant Embroidery"
wrote:

A couple of my azaleas seem not to be fully dropping the old flowers. The
flower has long died and withered, but still it clings to the bush, looking
very untidy. This has been ongoing with these bushes for years. The
bushes continue to grow, seem happy, just untidy.

I have about 40 plants, but this is only happening on three of them.

Any clues why this is so?

They have Azalea Petal Blight, a type of fungal infection.

Bayleton is the spray to use to prevent this in future. Spray when there is
colour in the buds then every few weeks until the plant has finished flowering
or after rain.

Wet weather makes the problem worse.

BTW, carefully remove the dead blooms and either burn them or put them in the
garbage, do *NOT* put them in the compost heap.