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I recently moved to a 20+ year old townhouse with a very neglected yard.

Some of the rhodos and azaleas (I have about ten) are bare and leggy and in
dire need of severe pruning. Most of the stuff I've read about pruning them
talks about shaping, but mine need a lot more than that.

I'm considering taking off about 50% of the branches this year and repeating
that next year but I've no experience with these plants and wonder if this
is too much. All comments welcomed!

emerald

You can go ahead and prune them way back. You may not have any blooms next
year, but don't worry about it. Pruning and fertilizing of azaleas should
be done once they have finished blooming in the spring. Once you prune them
back, they will fill out with more dense branching, but may not bloom.
You'll be doing them a favor and getting fuller bushes for the future.

Good luck.

Penny
Zone 7 - North Carolina
"emerald" wrote in message
news:jOtxc.677020$Pk3.144973@pd7tw1no...
X-No-Archive: yes

I recently moved to a 20+ year old townhouse with a very neglected yard.

Some of the rhodos and azaleas (I have about ten) are bare and leggy and
in
dire need of severe pruning. Most of the stuff I've read about pruning
them
talks about shaping, but mine need a lot more than that.

I'm considering taking off about 50% of the branches this year and
repeating
that next year but I've no experience with these plants and wonder if this
is too much. All comments welcomed!

emerald

emerald wrote:

X-No-Archive: yes

I recently moved to a 20+ year old townhouse with a very neglected yard.

Some of the rhodos and azaleas (I have about ten) are bare and leggy and in
dire need of severe pruning. Most of the stuff I've read about pruning them
talks about shaping, but mine need a lot more than that.

I'm considering taking off about 50% of the branches this year and repeating
that next year but I've no experience with these plants and wonder if this
is too much. All comments welcomed!

Most would advise to only prune severely one third every year for
three years.

--
Travis in Shoreline Washington where the Rhododendron is the state flower.

I live in Florida. I have cut 5 foot high azaleas down to 2 feet, with no
problems whatsoever. The prior comment that you may not get blooms next
cycle is correct, but the plants will come out real strong and more robost
and thick.

Good Luck !!

--James--

emerald wrote:

X-No-Archive: yes

I recently moved to a 20+ year old townhouse with a very neglected yard.

Some of the rhodos and azaleas (I have about ten) are bare and leggy and in
dire need of severe pruning. Most of the stuff I've read about pruning them
talks about shaping, but mine need a lot more than that.

I'm considering taking off about 50% of the branches this year and repeating
that next year but I've no experience with these plants and wonder if this
is too much. All comments welcomed!

I prune my azaleas about once every three years. I did it this
year, cutting each plant just as the last flower faded. In a few
cases, I started on one side of a plant while flowers still bloomed
on the other side. I took shrubs over 3 ft tall and reduced them
to 1 ft, mostly to bare branches. As soon as they were pruned, I
fed them with a commercial azalea and camellia food. They are
already throwing new shoots.

These are evergreen azaleas (southern indica?). From past
performance, I expect them to bloom next spring.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 19 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a)
Gardening pages at http://www.rossde.com/garden/

Well after having some very badly neglect azaleas myself that were as
tall as my house and taller, I just knew I had to do somehting with
them so I could get sunlight back in my house and see out of the
windows. I cut them way back to well below bottom of the window
heights, and other than not having as many or no blooms the next year
they came out great. They are nicer and much fuller now. IMHO its
pretty hard to kill a well established azalea by pruning. Their old
and new wood is full of buds that will push out and give new stems
when wood or limbs are cut off. The pruning will stimulate them to
erupt and start new.

I had gone by the 1/3 rule but soon found on azaleas its virtually
impossible to harm them and other than having scragly looking plants
for a period of time they will do fine.
Visit my website: http://www.frugalmachinist.com
Opinions expressed are those of my wifes,
I had no input whatsoever.
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"news.individual.net" wrote in message
...


I live in Florida. I have cut 5 foot high azaleas down to 2
feet, with no
problems whatsoever. The prior comment that you may not get
blooms next
cycle is correct, but the plants will come out real strong and
more robost
and thick.


You can cut them back to stumps; they'll sprout new branches and
in a year or so will be in good shape. Then you can keep them
trimmed to shape.

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Blessed
statistics: A Demonstration -- Welcome to Hooterville!
Population: 2000. Elevation: 3000. Established: 1850. TOTAL =
6850