Or sometimes azaleas become leggy and need to be rejuvenated. Pruning can improve air circulation, provide disease prevention and encourage new growth. It can also shape the plant to better fit the location it is growing in your yard. Most azaleas are just going to need a little shaping and thinning, to maintain size and health. This is easy as , and why azaleas and rhododendrons are considered low maintenance. Step 1 - wait until the flowers die off in the spring to prune.
Step 3 - prune off live stems and branches to conform the plant into your preferred shape. You can keep the plants small and cute, or have them as more of a statement shrub. Some skilled gardeners are able to trim these plants into topiaries or even grow them into a tree form by pruning.
Hand Clippers—This small tool is great for controlled cutting. Be sure the blades are sharp, and clean, to prevent foliage disease spread. Be sure to clean your tools in between prunings to prevent the spread of diseases and to remove any sap that is on the blades.
We do not recommend using hedge trimmers to shear azaleas into boxes or other shapes. This will cause the plant to look terrible and prompt the foliage and the flowers to only exist in the outer inch of the bushes. Leggy essentially means that the leaves are only growing on the outer edges of the branches, and the plant does not look full or lush.
To help encourage the plant to grow thicker foliage, selective pruning of old wood is the best strategy. Major Azalea Pruning When azaleas grow too big for their surroundings, they may need to be pruned drastically. You can cut overgrown plants down to about 1 foot in height.
Then feed them with a slow-release, water-soluble fertilizer Frequently water the plants you cut back to encourage a flush of suckers from the stumps.
The following spring, the shrubs should be covered with lots of new growth. Reduce the number of shoots per stump to two or three, leaving only the strongest and best placed ones. Choose the Right Azaleas When planting azaleas, use selections that won't outgrow the space. Gerbing' can grow 10 feet tall. Read tags and label information before buying plants, and check with reputable landscapers or your county Extension agent to ensure you're making the right choice.
A week or 2 after the flowers have fallen off your azaleas, go in for a more thorough pruning by carefully trimming areas that seem crowded or damaged. Don't go overboard; just make a few selective cuts to keep your plant healthy. For tips from our Horticulturist reviewer on how to fertilize your azaleas, scroll down! Did this summary help you? Yes No. Log in Social login does not work in incognito and private browsers. Please log in with your username or email to continue.
No account yet? Create an account. Edit this Article. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. By using our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Cookie Settings. Learn why people trust wikiHow. Download Article Explore this Article methods. Tips and Warnings. Things You'll Need. Related Articles. Article Summary. Method 1. All rights reserved. This image may not be used by other entities without the express written consent of wikiHow, Inc. Know your azalea. Azaleas are available in two main classes: native azaleas and Asian azaleas.
Native azaleas grow like vines, and they don't need pruning. If you have an Asian azalea shrub, it could be one of two main evergreen varieties: Kurume hybrids are usually bright red and don't tend to grow very large - no more than 3 or 4 feet 0. They do well with some maintenance pruning, but they may never need much pruning at all. Southern Indian hybrids grow very large and fast, and are most likely to need pruning - especially if you have one planted near your house.
Take note that when you're picking out azaleas to plant, choosing a Kurume instead of a Southern Indian will be your best bet if you don't want to worry as much about maintenance. Disinfect your pruning tools. Wipe down the shears to make sure that you do not spread diseases between plants.
You can use a household disinfecting spray, bleach, or rubbing alcohol. Let it dry before you prune. Clip out dead stems in the spring. Even though both varieties of evergreen azalea should survive the winter, you'll probably see a few dead or diseased looking stems and branches in the shrub come spring. Use hand trimmers or loppers, for thicker branches to remove dead or damaged stems where they connect with healthy wood.
Try to make as clean and small of a cut as possible, so that the healthy wood isn't left with a large cut in it; this can be an entry point for fungus and disease. Trim the bush carefully after the flowers are gone. When spring comes and goes and the bright flowers begin to die, it's time to do your annual light pruning.
Use hand trimmers to carefully trim back long stems. Azalea maze at the Getty Museum Garden - not for the home gardener! Renewal or renovation pruning is the technique that brings old shrubs not just azaleas but also viburnums, forsythias, mock oranges, spireas, and cherry laurels, among others back to the attractive and healthy form they were in when you bought it - over time.
That disclaimer about time is because we gardeners can only remove limbs and encourage new growth and then wait; we can't make it all happen at once. If your azaleas are old, overgrown or badly misshapen, here's what to do this year and the next two years: Simply remove one third of all the stems down to their origin close to the ground. But honestly, I've done this to dozens of old shrubs over the years and and seen it work wonders.
It stimulates the plant's own growth hormones exactly where we want new growth to happen - at the base of the plant, rather than at the perimeter. Sadly, we see too many examples of azaleas and other multi-stemmed shrubs being pruned or worse - sheared at the ends of the branches, which only makes more new growth happen at the perimeter of the shrub, where there's already too much growth.
The following spring, the shrubs should have produced lots of new growth at the base. Just reduce the number of shoots per stump to two or three, leaving only the strongest and best placed ones. Of course the best policy is to choose plants whose ultimate size is exactly right for the spot they're growing in, but mistakes are made, and selecting the wrong size shrubs is a common one.
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