One of many of the azalea bushes in my backyard now blooming.
Growing Tips and Varieties
The Almanac Garden Planner - Use It Free for 7 Days!
Plan your 2025 garden with our award-winning Garden Planner.
Known as “The Royalty of the Garden,” azaleas have long been adored for their brightly colored flowers and outstanding form and foliage. Here are a few tips for growing azaleas in your garden!
How to Grow Azaleas
The best time to plant azaleas is in late spring or early fall. Evergreen azaleas do well in partial shade with some wind protection. Deciduous varieties flower more profusely in full sun.
- Provide well-drained, humus-rich soil that is slightly acidic (pH 4.5–6).
- Mulch well. Shallow-rooted, azaleas tend to dry out quickly if not mulched. A mulch of oak leaf mold, pine needles, or aged oak, pine, or hemlock sawdust will keep soil acidic and moist. Read more in our Mulching Guide.
- Fertilizer isn’t needed. The decaying mulch will provide all of the nutrients that azaleas need.
- Seldom bothered by insects and diseases, azaleas require little care once established, except for watering during dry times.
Read Next
Varieties to Fit Your Landscape
With thousands of varieties, there are azaleas for just about every landscape situation:
- Deciduous varieties are considered the hardiest, many growing as far north as Zone 4. Some, such as the bright-pink roseshell azalea (Rhododendron prinophyllum), are even hardy in Zone 3. With few exceptions, most evergreen azaleas are only reliable in Zone 6.
- Low-growing ground cover azaleas such as ‘Joseph Hill’, a bright-red-flowering evergreen that grows only to about a foot.
- Tall varieties include the white-blooming sweet azalea (R. arborescens), a deciduous plant that can reach 20 feet tall.
- Weeping azaleas, such as ‘Pink Cascade’.
Late-Blooming Varieties
While most azaleas flower in spring, there are varieties that extend the season:
- ‘Flame Creeper’, an orange-flowering ground cover azalea, and ‘Weston’s Lemon Drop’, with peachy-color buds that open to a soft yellow, both flower in late June or July.
- The pink-flowering ‘Sweet September’ is an exceptionally late bloomer.
“The Royalty of the Garden” seems to be a fitting name for this beautiful and majestic plant, but we’ve got a hunch that once your garden is filled with the colors and fragrance of beautiful blooming azaleas, you’ll probably think that it’s you who’s getting the royal treatment.
See our Rhododendron and Azalea Plant Guide for more information on how to plant and care for these gorgeous shrubs.
ADVERTISEMENT
Can azalea ton Sutton sleeve be planted outdoor
I have an Azalea, it's old, hasn't been able to live a good life. Last year I transplanted it, now I would like to know if It has a chance of making it.
Is it dried after winter. if no then hw to care it ?
Are there any azaleas that grow about 4' tall and can survive in a shady wind-protected area?
We would recommend visiting the website of the American Rhododendron Society. They have a wonderful search feature that allows you to input the characteristics you’re looking for and find an azalea or rhododendron that fits your garden: https://www.rhododendron.org/search_intro.asp
Suzanne O'Rourke's picture in your article is the one I've been trying to locate for years! It's a dwarf variety a European gardener planted in our yard decades ago! Any chance someone knows its botanical name? Thanks. silvergirl
We have an azalea that is 50 years old it was always bright yellow, we remodeled and moved it it has come back quite nice moved it 10 ears ago has taken awhile to come back to full bloom but now the blooms are very pale in color. Is there something I should add to brighten the color of the bloom?
We can’t be absolutely certain but many “problems” stem from poor soil (assuming other matters are the same, e.g. sunlight). Per above, make sure you
- Provide well-drained, humus-rich soil that is slightly acidic (pH 4.5–6).
- Mulch well. Shallow-rooted, azaleas tend to dry out quickly if not mulched. A mulch of oak leaf mold, pine needles, or aged oak, pine, or hemlock sawdust will keep soil acidic and moist. Read more in our Mulching Guide.
- Fertilizer isn’t needed. The decaying mulch will provide all of the nutrients that azaleas need.
Hope this helps!
hi, i have azaleas that are over 50 years old , I want to cut them back maybe a foot tall, how should I do so, i want to keep them, they still look very beautiful, but over grown and to high for the front of the house,
Azaleas are generally treated like rhododendrons. Both are generally pruned after flowering, which would be in spring. However, you can remove dead, damaged, or diseased branches at any time. To induce growth from roots, snip branches from weak, leggy plants. We would advise waiting until spring (which, depending on where you reside could be a different time; North Carolina Cooperative Extension, for ex., suggests that February would be the right time. To find the Coop Ext service nearest you, click here: https://www.almanac.com/content/cooperative-extension-services ).
Cutting back to a foot or so should not be a problem. Keep the soil moist afterward and some sources recommend fertilizing with a high-nitrogen (leaf-promoting) fertilizer, such as a 12-6-6.
