Azalea Trouble

[spiffycheese]

I'm having trouble with one of my azaleas. I bought it in Spring of 2013 and planted it in my front yard. I had just moved into the house, so it ended up getting too much sun and basically frying. Sad . I figured I'd replace it with a different plant the next year.

This spring, I noticed some small green leaves growing on part of it (near the soil) so I figured that it must be alive and might come back! Remembering that it got too much direct sun last year, I moved it to the backyard. I snapped off the dead limbs and water regularly. It hasn't changed. There are still about 10 small green leaves and nothing else.

Is it coming back? If so, how can I help it come back?

[ElizabethB]

Spiffycheese - welcome to the forum.

More information would be helpful - edit your profile to include city and state. Pictures would also be a big +. What variety of Azalea did you plant? I live in south Louisiana and have azaleas growing in full sun. Depends on the cultivar. As important, if not more so, is your soil pH. Azaleas like acid soil. They are at 5 - 5 1/2 but can still do well at 6. They get at 7.

[spiffycheese]

Sorry about that! I'm so eager to save my plant that I forgot some important details

I'm in Louisville KY. I have two other azaleas growing in the front yard, but they are in the shade most of the day. They are doing great, but they were there when we moved in - I didn't plant them. We can have some very hot and humid summers. My new azalea did great in the spring last year, but couldn't handle the heat.

The soil here is basically clay, but we mix it with top soil and fertilizer when we plant. Where I moved the azalea too is actually a flower bed we built ourselves. We built a raised bed around our patio (our back yard slopes), so it's actually above the ground level and pretty much all topsoil (well above the clay.)

Sadly, I'm not sure on the variety. We bought it from a nursery, on sale because it was right at the end of its bloom. I'm not sure it had a tag with it even. I just remember thinking "oh, our other azaleas have done beautifully! Let's get a red one." lol. Sorry that's not very helpful.

I just recently took up gardening as a hobby. I used to help my parents plant all the time, but that's pretty much the extent of my background until recently. Last year I just planted a few new things, researched the plants, maintained them etc. I only did a couple perennials and they all did fine except for this one. My annuals did great. This year I bought several more perennials and feel confident I can handle them. I'm just really baffled on this azalea right now - been searching for days on Google and can't figure it out!

Here is a picture of the azalea I'm having trouble with when I first planted it:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/s6qy64tpwqhiu5v/DSC06459.JPG

Here it is now:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/uieeaskc1vyru6b/SAM_0454.JPG

My other azaleas look like this:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wa9g4cf903jtc2l/DSC06461.JPG
(this was a month ago, the blooms are done now. These were already there when we moved in.)

I have Rhododendron out front that look great too!

Any advice? Is it alive? Can it be saved?

Thanks in advance! Let me know what other information you need.

[rainbowgardener]

Oh man... if it isn't dead, it is barely surviving. You can tell by scraping the bark a little. If it is alive it will be green and moist underneath. But even if it has a little bit of life left in it, it may not be worth it to try to save.

The ground where it is looks very wet. I don't know if you had just watered when you took the picture. Azaleas like pretty much water (an inch a week), but they don't like to stay wet.

[tomc]

Water and bark mulch. well, mostly water. Water like every day it don't rain water. An azalea can live through sun if its got enough to drink.

[Susan W]

Looks like several factors going against the poor baby. It is small, so too much/too little water can throw it off, as well as too much sun. By late fall stressed and not established, and tried to get through an exceptionally long and cold winter.

As for a shrub in that location, you may want to check out others that can handle the given elements (sun, water etc).