Last summer one Azalea started dying, one branch at a time, slowly
spreading over entire shrub. We had a rough winter here in NJ, and I
just saw the same thing happening to another Azalea, located a
distance from the dead one. This shrub was healthy in autumn,
apparently this developed during the winter. The leaves are dying,
some leaves half green, half brown. Please see attached photo.
Any ideas?
Thanks, John

Maybe it has just "reached the end of its life span," as Dan McGill and LSU
said of a 50-year old giant in my front yard that exhibited the same behavior
(it's now 90% gone and still bravely blooming). Its identical twin, BTW---same
age, size, color, etc etc.--is its usual 7' high, 12' diameter self, blooming
like hell.

Leslie
New Orleans
zemedelec

On Mon, 24 Mar 2003 02:05:07 GMT, John Scotty Edmond
wrote:

Please see attached photo.

Please post your photo to alt.binaries.pictures.gardens. This is a
text newsgroup.

John Scotty Edmond wrote:

Last summer one Azalea started dying, one branch at a time, slowly
spreading over entire shrub. We had a rough winter here in NJ, and I
just saw the same thing happening to another Azalea, located a
distance from the dead one. This shrub was healthy in autumn,
apparently this developed during the winter. The leaves are dying,
some leaves half green, half brown. Please see attached photo.

This sounds like two different problems.

1) one branch at a time is usually due to drought. The plant struggles
to survive by shutting off one branch at a time and trying to keep the
others alive. If it progresses, the entire plant dies.

2) a leaf that is half green and half brown, it appears to be winter
damage. It could be a combination of drought damage and winter damage.
The drought stressed the plants severely. The winter then added more
stress. The dying leaves are probably the ones most exposed to the
winter sun while the roots were frozen. If you are in a sandy area of
NJ your stress could be more severe.

The second plant should survive if properly taken care of.

--
Visit my Rhododendron and Azalea web pages at:
http://www.users.fast.net/~shenning/rhody.html
Also visit the Rhododendron and Azalea Bookstore at:
http://members.aol.com/rhodyman/rhodybooks.html

Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA http://www.users.fast.net/~shenning

Steve -- can rhododendrons (Rose Elegans, as I recall) suffer a winter
damage? I've had this rhodo for at least 10 years. Always been fine,
and WAS fine until about 4-6 weeks ago. I'm zone 5, central NY, and
we've had one hellacious winter.

She looked absolutely normal (peeking out of the snowbank), the snow
melted to expose her upper half, and then the weather turned worse (as
if possible). Once some snow melted again (and I braved going out to
look) it was clear that what was then the exposed portion was
completely brown (buds and leaves), while the low-hanging branches and
parts that had been snowcovered at that point remained green and
healthy. The brown leaves are hanging down (the way rhodos do in
extreme cold).

I've looked at the sight referenced in the other "Rhododendron
problems" post, and I don't believe mine suffers any of those
blights/problems identified there.

My friend suggested it was probably just winter damage -- I just
didn't believe it could happen now after suffering through all of our
other winters. ;^)

And should the damaged portion be cut off? or will it somehow
"recover"? Not that it looks good as it is, but it'd look even
shabbier to keep only low (outward) branches.

Sorry post was so long... just trying to be clear.
Thanks for any help.
Audrey.

(Steve Henning) wrote in message . com...
John Scotty Edmond wrote:

Last summer one Azalea started dying, one branch at a time, slowly
spreading over entire shrub. We had a rough winter here in NJ, and I
just saw the same thing happening to another Azalea, located a
distance from the dead one. This shrub was healthy in autumn,
apparently this developed during the winter. The leaves are dying,
some leaves half green, half brown. Please see attached photo.

This sounds like two different problems.

1) one branch at a time is usually due to drought. The plant struggles
to survive by shutting off one branch at a time and trying to keep the
others alive. If it progresses, the entire plant dies.

2) a leaf that is half green and half brown, it appears to be winter
damage. It could be a combination of drought damage and winter damage.
The drought stressed the plants severely. The winter then added more
stress. The dying leaves are probably the ones most exposed to the
winter sun while the roots were frozen. If you are in a sandy area of
NJ your stress could be more severe.

The second plant should survive if properly taken care of.