Both Azaleas and Rhododendrons grow as full plants, with beautiful blooms. Both are a lovely addition to any garden. Azaleas typically come in two varieties, either evergreen, or deciduous.

Deciduous Azaleas are usually of the Mollis, or Exbury types. They normally bloom in the early spring and have vivid orange and yellow coloured flowers. They can be grown from seed, as long as the seeds are collected in the fall and then sown on top of moist peat, at about 70 degrees F.

Evergreen Azaleas, are known as broad leafed evergreens, because they do not have any needles. They tend to bloom later in the spring and are usually grown in the fall, over bottom heat.

Rhododendrons are also broad leaf evergreens and are also propagated over bottom heat, but in early winter.

The best time to prune both Rhododendrons and Azaleas, is in the spring, right after they have bloomed. These plants start setting next year’s flower buds, during the summer and late pruning will cost you a couple of extra blooms, in the next year, so get them pruned as soon as they finish blooming. It’s also a good idea, to pick off the dead blooms, so that the plants don’t expel a lot of energy, in making new seeds. This is the normal practice, unless of course, you’d like to grow them from seed.

Seeds from a red Rhododendron, are probably likely to flower, as a pale lavender colour. Take cuttings, to ensure a duplicate, of the parent plant. Let’s look at how best to prune Rhododendrons and see what “pinching” a Rhododendron means?

Well, firstly, “pinching” is a lower impact form of pruning, that is very effective, for creating nice, tight, full plants. This applies when you are growing small plants, from seeds, or cuttings. Typically, a Rhododendron forms a single new bud, at the tip of each branch. This new bud, will develop into another new branch. Another bud will form and then the process will be repeated. If left alone and not pruned, they will produce very lanky plants, with a lots of space between the branches. This is not a nice looking plant and should be avoided.

So, if you are starting with a plant, that is nothing more than a rooted cutting, then all you have to do, is to pinch off this new growth bud, once it is about 1/2 an inch long. Just grab it between your fingers and snap it off completely. When you do this, the plant will usually respond, by replacing that single bud, with between two and four new buds. They should form in a cluster, around the bud, that you pinched off. Each one of these buds will then develop, into branches and eventually a single bud, will appear at the tip, of each of these branches. Pinch each one of those off, forcing the plant to produce multiple buds, at the end of each of these branches. This creates a much fuller plant.

The more often you pinch off these single buds, the more branches the plant will form, making a nice, tight, full plant. This is especially helpful with young plants, such as rooted cuttings, or young seedlings.

With larger plants, no special care is required. Just trim them like you would trim a Taxus, or a Juniper. The result is a very tight compact plant, loaded with beautiful flowers. The best Rhododendrons are so tightly branched, that you cannot see through them and that is normally the result of vigorous pruning. I have even used hedge shears. Sure, you can use secateurs, but I find the hedge clippers easier to use.

To keep Rhododendrons and Azaleas healthy and happy, it is as simple as understanding what they like. They like to grow in a climate that suits their tastes. Many varieties of both plants, don’t like it in the north and to prove the point, they will up and die, just as soon as the extremely cold weather hits them. Rather buy plants that are known to be hardy, in your area.

When it comes to fertilizing Rhododendrons and Azaleas, these broadleaf evergreens tend to be rather laid back and like to take it slow and easy. So, do not fertilize them with quick release nitrogen fertilizers, as it could kill them. Instead, rather give them an organic snack, like Millorganite, or a bit of well rotted cow manure, or compost. Millorganite is an organic fertilizer made of granulated sewage sludge.

Plants like it because it is plant and soil friendly. It won’t burn the plants and it actually reactivates the micro-organisms, in the soil and that’s a good thing. Most garden centres carry Millorganite, or an equivalent, like Gromor.

Some gardeners believe that Rhododendrons are acid loving plants and often try to give them more acid. The truth is they don’t like acid and any struggling Rhododendron probably only needs some extra oxygen, around it’s root system.

Rhododendrons do not like being too wet. They don’t really even like high humidity, let alone wet soil around the roots. They prefer to be high and dry and they also thrive on an unobstructed flow of oxygen, to their root systems. This is best accomplished, by planting them in a bed, raised by at least 10 inches, with good, rich topsoil added. They do well in shady spots, but actually prefer the sunlight. Just remember they don’t like wet feet.

You should read this book Easy Gardening. It has several easier ways that are shortcuts to a beautiful garden. Find out more here http://dersalsites.com/eg   

Sally Robson is an up and coming, South African internet marketer, with a vision of empowering all fellow South Africans and non U.S folk, to have equal opportunity and success on the internet. She and her husband Derek, have started a string of sites, resources, courses and articles, as part of Dersalsites. She also has a passion for gardening.

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