"Cate" wrote:

My question is this: with the rest of my yard just now thinking of greening
up, I'm warily eyeing my azaleas. All their leaves are totally brown. Do I
need to do anything to them to ensure their continued good health? Pluck the
leaves? Cut the ends off branches?

Don't do anything now except to prevent it from drying out. Don't cut
back until after it blooms, that is if it does bloom. Also, even if the
top dies back, the roots and inner parts may still be alive. By late
May you should know where you stand and you can decide then what you
want to do. You can cut back any dead parts then. Don't water too much
since over watering kills more azaleas than anything.

You may have a green house azalea that is not hardy enough to plant
outdoors. These are house plants and usually hit the compost heap after
a couple seasons when they get straggly.

--
Visit my Rhododendron and Azalea web pages at:
http://www.users.fast.net/~shenning/rhody.html
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Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA http://www.users.fast.net/~shenning