Planting Azaleas
Planting Azaleas: Slightly Carefree And Completely Rewarding
The wonderful thing about planting azaleas is that it can be done through most of the warm season, even if the shrub is in bloom. Transplant can be made easy by preparing your soil a couple of weeks ahead of time, enriching it with natural mulch such as twigs and oak leaves. They appreciate acidity, and plants them near a stand of fellow evergreens is usually a big plus if you want to save on feeding and work. Planting azaleas can be a bit of a challenge at the same time, especially if you have a very hard or clay soil base in your yard. In these cases, you will probably end up infusing the soil and planting them on a mounded plot.
When planting azaleas outdoors, you will do best to plan out your sun and drainage situations a little bit in advance. Any species other than the encore azalea will prefer shade from the harshest afternoon sun, so planting azaleas on the north to northwest facing side of a building or stand of larger trees will give you a better chance at keeping them from damage. Wind is not usually an issue for azaleas, though the root system rarely digs below 8 inches under the soil surface. You can provide a wind break if you wish, just be sure that it is low enough as not to shade the plant from the much needed morning sunlight. They need five to six hours of sunlight per day in order to produce optimum bloom.
Drainage is as important as any other element when planting azaleas, and this brings us back to the mounding technique. This will bring much needed air and water movement to your azalea plot, offering them the best of all worlds in an otherwise unsuitable area. Use some nutrient rich planting soil, some natural compost, and maybe some decomposed organic material to beef up your soil before planting azaleas on the healthful mound. The roots should not be bent or twisted, so be sure that you clear an area deep and wide enough to accommodate them. When replacing the soil, be sure that you place it firmly around the roots, but don’t pack or smash them.
Once you have finished planting azaleas in your plotted area or indoor pots, you will have to mind them closely so that they don’t dry out. If the soil is too deep your precious evergreen plants will rot at the root, and flooding or sogginess will kill them quickly. Moist and soft is the name of the game here, and for the first year you may need to water them a little bit each day.