I remember years ago driving through a large subdivision in the Houston area with my father during azalea season. Most of the homes were about five years old at the time, and many, if not all, had plantings of azaleas. Dad pointed out to me that some azaleas seemed to be doing a lot better than others and asked me if I knew why. I thought it must have had something to do with fertilizer, but my father, who had landscaped a number of the homes in the neighborhood, stopped the car in front of one house and told me he wanted to show me something.
Walking up to a bed of azaleas, he lifted one straight out of the ground with relatively no resistance. He noted that this azalea had been planted several years ago, yet the root ball looked as if it had just come out of the nursery container. We then walked next door to a house that he had landscaped, and he asked me to pull an azalea out. It wouldn't budge. This little lesson soon led to my learning the importance of properly preparing azalea roots before sticking them into the ground.
As it turned out, the homeowner that had the under-achieving bed had asked for some help in getting his azaleas to look as good as the next-door neighbor's plants. We went back over the bed and easily popped out twenty or so plants. Dad took out a big screwdriver and proceeded to poke holes in the root balls and loosen the azalea roots. Next he tugged at the roots and spread them out away from the base of the plant. He explained that azalea roots like to spread out and grow fairly close to the surface to take in water and nutrients. Since the soil in this bed had been properly amended when these azaleas had originally been planted, there was nothing else to do but make an indentation in the bed shaped to receive the newly freed root system, gently backfill, and water in lightly.
That afternoon I attacked the remaining nineteen plants with the screwdriver and fondly recall driving by that house several years later and enjoying the sight of what had grown into some beautiful, large, blossoming azaleas.
Robert Leffingwell, Smith County Master Gardener
Texas Cooperative Extension
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