10 Tips for Beautiful Azaleas

Azaleas are one of the most beautiful and showy spring shrubs.  They are a popular choice for adding color to the landscape and can live for many years with proper care.  They come in lots of beautiful shades such as lavender, hot pink, fuchsia, red, white, and others.  If you are looking to attract pollinators to your garden or landscape, azaleas are also an excellent choice.  Check out my 10 tips for growing and maintaining your azalea plants!

1. Placing azaleas for best results requires just a bit of planning.  They prefer shade from the hotter afternoon sun, so ideally should be placed in an area of your space that catches the morning sun and is shaded in the afternoon.  They also like to be placed under taller shrubs and trees too.  

2. Azaleas love soil that is more on the acidic side with good drainage.  They also love to be planted near conifer trees because of their acidity.

3. Azaleas have a shallow root system so they don't need to be planted too deeply.

4. When planting an azalea, make the hole twice as wide as the container.

5. Space azaleas at minimum about three feet part, as they can grow quickly and become larger in size as they get older.

6. Ideally, when planting, try using a 50/50 soil/compost mix.

7. Water the shrub in well after planting.

8. Mulching around your azaleas is best to ensure they stay moist because of the shallow root system.

9. To fertilize, there are a variety of azalea fertilizers available, but compost also works very well too.

10. To maintain and prune, be sure to trim them up right after they bloom.  They will start to make new buds for next year after the blooming season, so pruning right after blooming is best to ensure you get maximum blooming for next year.

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