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Thin leafed poor blooming azaleas?

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How did your Azaleas, and Rhododendrons do this year? Did they bloom well? Is the foliage lush and full?

If you azaleas didn’t seem to do as well this year as they have in the past, or if the leaf coverage is rather thin you might want to be proactive and take some measure to help them get healthy so they’ll bloom well next season.

Apply azalea fertilizer in the spring. You might want to give your plants one light dose before they begin to bloom, perhaps just as they come out of dormancy, and another dose shortly after they’ve finished blooming. Fertilizing will encourage better growth and the plant should get fuller looking.

Lightly pruning blooming branches and bringing the flowers indoors or lightly prune immediately after the blooming season ends.

You’ll be cutting off some of the new growth, but when pruning takes place near the beginning of the season it actually encourages new growth. By pruning, fertilizing and watering regularly throughout the season your azaleas should be stronger the following year.

You might even want to thin some of the older branches after the blooms fade in order to shape the tree for the following year. It make take a few years to prune your azalea into a nice shape that shows off it’s fullness as you do not want to prune too much off at once.






Camellia Care

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Camellias, particularly ones that have been purchased and planted in the last year or two, should be fertilized with a shrub fertilizer that’s been formulated for Camellias.

if the Camellia was planted the year before and wasn’t doing well as it headed into winter just remember that it’s had the winter to grow roots and should have a fresh start in the spring, especially if some extra care is given to it in the spring.

Water your Camellia well during the summer, particularly during dry spells. Pine needle mulch is best at the base of the plants. This helps acidify the soil, and the mulch will also help retain moisture in the ground around the shrub.

If you notice that the buds turn brown and or papery before opening this means that the Camellia has had some damage from the cold in the winter. Severely damaged buds will snap off the plant.

Camellia species can vary in their bloom time. A popular species “Mrs. Cobbs” blooms in mid season.

Spots on leaves are sometimes caused by fungus, or they could be weather damage.

The best time to prune and shape a camellia is in the early spring before they start to put out new growth.

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