It may have just died from being too wet and surrounded by wet soggy compost-what you should have done it teased the roots out of the rootball if they were tightly matted and they would have found there way out.
That can sometimes happen if the rootball is dry when your repot it - it should be really well soaked and some of the roots teased out so that they find their way into the new compost - the azealea plant might have dried out if the roots weren't in the new soil. Sometimes, if a plant's compost is very dried out, even if you soak it the water doesn't penetrate - a tiny squirt of washing up liquid can help the water get into the compost as it acts as a 'wetting agent'.
The orange spheres are likely to be a slow release fertiliser or similar that was in the compost when you bought the plant.
Don't think taking the middle out of it will have killed it, but azelea's aren't keen on being 'hard pruned' so it won't have done it any good either.
Also people often don't realise that azaleas are forest shrubs and don't like too much strong sunshine, particularly if their roots are dry - so the sunshine we'd been waiting for for so long might have been the last straw for it.
You can either give it another go, pop it back in the pot again, this time teasing out the roots, give it a good soaking and put it in a shady corner and see what happens, or you can get another plant. I'd probably do both
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Glitzy I notice its next to an interior window. Do you keep the curtains open at night time and let the artificial light hit upon on? Plants don't really like artificial light because they don't have the same elements in it as natural sun shine does and at night time it needs to sleep so you're probably keeping it away. Try moving it to a more darker area of your garden away from artificial light and sounds and it will love you for it!
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The orange spheres are slow release fertilizer.
It may have just died from being too wet and surrounded by wet soggy compost-what you should have done it teased the roots out of the rootball if they were tightly matted and they would have found there way out.
That is my diagnosis anyway-see what others say
That can sometimes happen if the rootball is dry when your repot it - it should be really well soaked and some of the roots teased out so that they find their way into the new compost - the azealea plant might have dried out if the roots weren't in the new soil. Sometimes, if a plant's compost is very dried out, even if you soak it the water doesn't penetrate - a tiny squirt of washing up liquid can help the water get into the compost as it acts as a 'wetting agent'.
The orange spheres are likely to be a slow release fertiliser or similar that was in the compost when you bought the plant.
Don't think taking the middle out of it will have killed it, but azelea's aren't keen on being 'hard pruned' so it won't have done it any good either.
Also people often don't realise that azaleas are forest shrubs and don't like too much strong sunshine, particularly if their roots are dry - so the sunshine we'd been waiting for for so long might have been the last straw for it.
You can either give it another go, pop it back in the pot again, this time teasing out the roots, give it a good soaking and put it in a shady corner and see what happens, or you can get another plant. I'd probably do both
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
we've pulled out the roots a bit (gently), repotted and taken the dead stuff off, that might finish it off but we'll try, thank you so much everyone
there's now a very thin layer of compost over the root
Glitzy I notice its next to an interior window. Do you keep the curtains open at night time and let the artificial light hit upon on? Plants don't really like artificial light because they don't have the same elements in it as natural sun shine does and at night time it needs to sleep so you're probably keeping it away. Try moving it to a more darker area of your garden away from artificial light and sounds and it will love you for it!