Azalea's are dying?

by Karen
(Houston TX)

I'm a beginner. I decided to redo my flowerbed and pulled all the shrubs out. I planted 3 azalea plants. The first week, we saw flowers. The 2nd week on, it's all dead and wilted. What can I do to save the flowers or am I too late? We did however buy some liquid spray plant food that suggested we spray once a week. That didn't help. Need expert advice!

Doug says the dead flowers can't be brought back for this year. This shrub produces flowers for the spring in the South and that's pretty much it. Those flower buds would have been on the plants when you bought them.

Next year's flowers are being produced by the plant (or should be) :-) right now. They would be those big fat buds at the ends and joints of the branches.

If the shrub itself is wilting, we have a transplanting or watering issue.

I'll assume you've taken them out of the pots. Many folks don't but I know you did. :-)

I'm assuming you didn't mess any of the roots up when you took them out - no cutting off or pruning or pulling them away from the root ball.

I'm assuming you planted them so the soil was at the same depth as it was in the pot. So the soil line in your garden and the soil line from the pot are the same now.

I'm assuming you've watered it once or twice a week to keep that original soil (the soil in the pot) damp. The roots aren't out of the old potted area yet so that soil needs to be kept damp. If you let that dry out, your plant is going to wilt.

If you've damaged the roots, the plant is going to wilt.

Forget the fertilizer. This plant has a root or watering issue not a feeding issue. Whoever sold you the fertilizer or recommended it doesn't know what they're talking about. You don't have a wilting plant three weeks after planting because it has run out of feed.

I'm assuming it is a Southern Broadleaf Azalea that keeps it's leaves all year round. The only thing I can recommend other than making sure it's watered properly is to spray the remaining leaves with an antidesiccant. This will stop the leaves from losing moisture so the roots have a chance to replenish the water in the plant.

I'm also assuming you didn't spray anything on your nearby lawn so that the overspray killed this plant.

And I'm assuming you didn't add a ton of fertilizer to the planting hole to "feed" the plant.

This is root damage or water stress of some kind if there's no physical or chemical damage to the plant.

Hope that gives you some clues as to where to start looking for a fix