I have 5 Azalea bushes in front of my house. One is a white double blooming
one. I've noticed that the blooms are turning brown and ugly and wilting.
How do you care for Azaleas? Should I pick off the dead blooms? Will new
blooms come out, kind of like petunias do? Do azaleas bloom all Summer, or
just in the early Spring? I've never had them before, so this is the first
time I've dealt with any Any help/advice is greatly appreciated

Angie

In article , "Angela Coffey"
wrote:

I have 5 Azalea bushes in front of my house. One is a white double blooming
one. I've noticed that the blooms are turning brown and ugly and wilting.
How do you care for Azaleas? Should I pick off the dead blooms? Will new
blooms come out, kind of like petunias do? Do azaleas bloom all Summer, or
just in the early Spring? I've never had them before, so this is the first
time I've dealt with any Any help/advice is greatly appreciated

Angie

You can pick off the spent blooms when they're not longer attractive,
merely to be rid of them.
It won't bloom again until next spring. So when selecting azaleas, they
should be chosen with an eye to their leaves & the shape of their limbs,
since that's what they're for the rest of the year. If they're deciduous
azaleas they'll have another flourish of color in autumn when the leaves
turn red& yellow & purple.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/

On Wed, 16 Apr 2003 12:59:12 -0500, "Angela Coffey"
wrote:

I have 5 Azalea bushes in front of my house. One is a white double blooming
one. I've noticed that the blooms are turning brown and ugly and wilting.
How do you care for Azaleas? Should I pick off the dead blooms? Will new
blooms come out, kind of like petunias do? Do azaleas bloom all Summer, or
just in the early Spring? I've never had them before, so this is the first
time I've dealt with any Any help/advice is greatly appreciated

Angie


The blossoms will fall on their own. At that time is the only time
you should prune, if at all. I take mine back with a light 10%
pruning. Watch for lacebug and other sucking insects in
spring/summer. Feed monthly (after bloom) using an acid fertilizer
until early fall. "HollyTone" is a good organic fertilizer for
azaleas. A compost pine-needle mulch will help protect the tender
surface root system. I get a few blossoms in the fall, but
insignificant. They will stay green all winter.

"Angela Coffey" wrote in message ...
I have 5 Azalea bushes in front of my house. One is a white double blooming
one. I've noticed that the blooms are turning brown and ugly and wilting.
How do you care for Azaleas? Should I pick off the dead blooms? Will new
blooms come out, kind of like petunias do? Do azaleas bloom all Summer, or
just in the early Spring?

First, azaleas only bloom once each year in the spring. To get a
continuum of blooms, you can to plant varieties that bloom at times
from early spring to early summer. They should bloom for 2 to 4 weeks
depending upon the variety and the weather. The blooms shouldn't turn
brown before they fall. If they turn brown and are mushy, then you
may have petal blight.

Flowers that exhibit small spots which enlarge rapidly and appear
water-soaked is a symptom of Ovulinia Petal Blight. The flowers turn
brown and wilt. They remain on the plant. Some fungicides provide
control if applied when or just before flower buds open. The best
fungicides are a combination of chlorothalonil and benomyl or Mancozeb
or Bayleton. During moist seasons, control may be difficult for late
blooming varieties. Sanitation practices such as deadheading and
removal of diseased material my improve control.

It is important to remove diseased material from the vicinity of a
planting. This means removing dead material that harbors spores of
fungal disease and dying material that contains eggs of insects. Dying
portions of a plant should be cut off and removed. The ground should
be cleaned of dead leaves or flower parts. Pruned parts should be
removed.

Deadheading flowers involves removing the structure left after
blooming before seed pods form. A rhododendron or azalea flower is
composed of several florets connected to the stem by a base that is
easy to break. When deadheading just grab the flower near this base
area and twist the flower sideways and break it off in this spongy
area. Try not to break any of the buds that are around the base of the
flower. In general all dead or dying plant material may harbor disease
and should be destroyed by incinerating or placing in a trash
receptacle. Wilted flower petals can harbor fungi such as petal
blight. Dead stems can harbor larva of borers. Dead leaves can harbor
spores of harmful fungi. On healthy plants, deadheading is desirable
but not necessary.

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

In Angela Coffey wrote:
I have 5 Azalea bushes in front of my house. One is a white double
blooming one.

If by double-blooming you mean the kind that blooms twice a year, you'll
get a good second bloom in the fall. But not in the summer.

Sean Quinn

dementia13 wrote in message ...
In Angela Coffey wrote:
I have 5 Azalea bushes in front of my house. One is a white double
blooming one.

If by double-blooming you mean the kind that blooms twice a year, you'll
get a good second bloom in the fall. But not in the summer.

Sean Quinn

A double azalea is a term that is very common with azaleas. A
double flower looks like the interior is filled with petals. This is
because the stamens grow into petal-like structures. The pistol may
also be transformed into a petal-like structure or may be absent.

Another term is semi-double. In this case the stamens are partially
transformed into petal-like structures. Occasionally extra petals are
present and all stamens are present also.

One term that is used in describing many azaleas is hose-in-hose. This
term is meant to describe what looks like a flower inside a flower.
This actually is a flower with a large calyx. The sepals of the calyx
are shaped like the petals of the corolla.

Another version is hose-in-hose double. A perfect example of this is
Gable's Rosebud azalea. The name is descriptive of the flowers
appearance.

I do nothing to mine ,except water and feed with acid fertilizer.
"Steve Henning" wrote in message
om...
dementia13 wrote in message
...
In Angela Coffey wrote:
I have 5 Azalea bushes in front of my house. One is a white double
blooming one.

If by double-blooming you mean the kind that blooms twice a year, you'll
get a good second bloom in the fall. But not in the summer.

Sean Quinn

A double azalea is a term that is very common with azaleas. A
double flower looks like the interior is filled with petals. This is
because the stamens grow into petal-like structures. The pistol may
also be transformed into a petal-like structure or may be absent.

Another term is semi-double. In this case the stamens are partially
transformed into petal-like structures. Occasionally extra petals are
present and all stamens are present also.

One term that is used in describing many azaleas is hose-in-hose. This
term is meant to describe what looks like a flower inside a flower.
This actually is a flower with a large calyx. The sepals of the calyx
are shaped like the petals of the corolla.

Another version is hose-in-hose double. A perfect example of this is
Gable's Rosebud azalea. The name is descriptive of the flowers
appearance.