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Pruning azaleas

BouleverseeBouleversee Posts: 68
in Problem solving
Is it too late to prune this year?  My azaleas are overgrown and have quite a lot of dead wood on them and very few leaves in places.  They did flower well after I had sprayed with fungicide when it looked as though buds were not going to open but some are looking a bit sick.  There is lichen on the branches in places.  Am not sure how far to go after removing dead wood.  

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  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    You can certainly prune them, although whether they'll produce any flowers next year is debatable. Removing damaged/dead branches first, then pruning back to a healthy joint is the best method. 

    However, I'd address the reasons for them not doing well. The main reason for buds not opening is lack of moisture at the crucial times - ie late summer. That's when new buds form. A long dry spell, such as we had this year, just before flowering will probably have contributed too. 
    Lichen is simply a sign of clean air.
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • BouleverseeBouleversee Posts: 68
    Thanks, Fairy Girl.  It could well be lack of water, though the buds were quite big and we had had a lot of rain not long before.  Also I spend ages watering but maybe didn't start soon enough after the end of the rainy period.  It could be that they are on a slope between 2 garden levels and the water drains too quickly.  I have to confess that they have had very little pruning, just the odd dead bit, since we moved here in 2008 because of my late husband's prolonged illness.  I hadn't noticed the lichen (if that's what it is; grey/green deposit) before and it is on the dead bits mostly; also on dead bits of branches which have fallen off surrounding oak trees) though since I live quite close to a busy country lane maybe the reduced traffic due to Covid lockdown has made the air cleaner.  Interesting. A manufacturer of a patio cleaner which had failed to remove black spots on my Yorkstone patio (also a new phenomenon in the past few years) said they would be caused by lichen and I wondered whether that had caused my lung problem!


  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Lichen is abundant up here, because of the better air quality, and there are thousands of types, but the one you'll have is the most readily seen.
    It will certainly inhabit dead branches etc too, but it's a good thing to have, not a bad one  :)
    Sometimes, there's enough moisture to form buds, but it's a bridge too far to actually develop them properly. There's been a lot of queries on the forum this year with the same problem. Removing unproductive wood will help, and having a prune in general, but sometimes a shrub can be too far gone to get it recovering well. Do you know what varieties you have?
    If you have a photo, that will also help.  :)

    Is this what you have?


    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • BouleverseeBouleversee Posts: 68
    Well the trunks of my trees don't look like that, thank goodness, but I have smaller versions of the 2 larger clumps (a bit like seaweed) on branches of trees and azaleas.
  • BouleverseeBouleversee Posts: 68
    P.S. I don't know the varieties, I'm afraid, but they have quite small dense flowers.  I'll try to take a photo tomorrow.
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