Easy Gardener • Pat Howell
	Azalea Pruning Time

The azaleas were particularly spectacular this year, thanks to the rains of Õ03. The House and Garden Tour was another success. And once again it is azalea pruning time.

It is time to clean up, and prune these valuable shrubs. If you prune in June, the plants will have ample time to form buds for bloom next spring. If you wait until July/August/September, it will be too hot for the gardener and the plant. And, you will be removing the buds that will be using the Winter to do their thing as far as developing blooms is concerned.

So, to bring your azaleas to the size and shape you want, plan your attack.

 1. Water the plants well (deeply, slowly) so they will not be further stressed by heat after you have pruned them.

 2. Remove the dead leaves from the interior. Do not use a leaf blower, as this will blow more leaves back up into the lower branches, cutting off air and rainwater from getting through to the root system. If you are down on your hands and knees removing said leaves, you will see small, leafless, dead twigs on the under-branches. These act as traps for dead leaves. Small ones can be snapped off and slightly larger ones pruned off.

 3. Have on hand your mulch: Takoma Park Leaf Mulch or pine fines. YouÕll be mulching to a depth of two inches.

 4. Assemble sharp (thatÕs SHARP) loppers (long-handled, heavy-duty pruners used for thick branches; and sharp hand pruners. (Easy Gardener relies on Piney Branch Hardware for small files that travel with her everywhere.)

Put away the electric and gas shears. Azaleas should never be pruned by the Black & Decker method, unless you have a true Japanese garden where sheared mounds and no flowers are part of the design. Part of the beauty of Azaleas is their slightly wild look.

There is a tendency among us to down-size by pruning all the ends off and leaving Òsticks.Ó Resist this tendency. Rather, hand prune each branch you wish to shorten all the way back to where it forms a joint with the next branch. No stubs, please.

Part of the value in pruning azaleas (and other woody shrubs) is to remove some of the interior density, which will allow air to circulate and the plant to produce more and better blooms. By shearing just the exterior, the interior work is bypassed and usually goes unnoticed from one decade to the next. Over time, the plant interior is a ratÕs nest of dead twigs and thereÕs a dense, bad-shaped mass on the exterior.

Take the longer branches that are threatening to overwhelm the garden path first. Try not to leave huge holes in the shrub. If many large branches need to be removed, take one third this year, one third next June and one third in June 2006. This will mean less shock to the plant.

Remember to keep these shallow-rooted shrubs well mulched and watered for the hot months ahead.

 Pat Howell is a Takoma Park gardener and landscape designer/contractor. She is available for hand-holding and answering questions through Deephaven Landscapers.