What to do with unwanted azaleas

14 years ago

I'm taking a general survey here; how popular are azaleas in this area? I mean if you don't have all you want already.

I just bought the house of someone who appears to have been an unrepentant azalea lover, while I am going to be kind and describe them, in my own personal opinion, as "pesky." I hate to destroy over a dozen healthy bushes but they gotta go. Are azaleas considered a glut on the market around here? Could I dump them, er, I mean, exchange them at a plant swap? Heck, I'd trade a whole truckload for some reliable heirloom tomato seedlings.

Or if someone is aware of a charitable organization in need of some quick landscaping, that would be good too. I have already posted to the Azalea/Rhododendron forum, so I know how to transplant them without damage.

Any other ideas? I would love to hear them, except for anything that involves learning to tolerate the things -- they run high on my hate list, so don't even try it.

Thanks!

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Comments (8)

gardengranma
14 years ago
Hi All: This is going to be a lengthy post. First let me thank everyone who came, and all the help offered, and sometimes not accepted. Gardengranpa who is not a gardener loves this event every spring and so do I. Here are some suggestions from my view for next year (and despite my Germanic roots, I do not like rules). Next year, could someone come forth (not the host) to align food, so we have for example enough meat for grilling? I went out and got it, and that's ok, but would it work for someone else in the future? Everyone was wonderful, and I don't want to trade this event for a complaint. But let me tell you how I see it: Whatever we don't have, I either have it or provide it - no problem. But after all is said a done, if plants or food left over, I give it to the home across the street who have all Medicaid elderly. We keep the plants for a week (sometimes some are promised and are picked up). After a week or so, I give all plants to the home (do I need anymore myself, I don't think so?) This time, a thoughtful soul picked all extra plants up for a project in DC, worthwhile - I am sure -- but without asking the hosts?) Let's be gentle with each other and favorite recipients of what he have extra -- if anyone has extra vegies or easy flowering plants, drop them off at our house for our neigbours, and if there are more - for the DC activity. What a wonderful thing to do. Love you all, Gardengranma and Gardengranpa.
annebert
14 years ago
Lashlee, you are probably wondering about Gardengrandma's post, which was about yesterday's annual spring plant swap, but somehow ended up on your thread. So you missed the perfect opportunity to ditch the azaleas (I hate them, too), but all is not lost. Select the exchanges link at the top of this forum and you can post that you have azaleas to trade and you'll probably get some takers.
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Azalea Gall. The pods start green and-or pink. Then they get a white-ish color when they release the fungi. You need to prune them off as soon as you see them and throw them away in the trash. Throw away the leaves too. Unfortunately, there are no resistant azalea varieties or a fungicide that you can use. Another approach may be to interrupt the life cycle of blisters early (by pruning these blisters) and make conditions difficult for fungi, in a way that would not harm the health of azaleas. What I meant by interrupting the life cycle ... The new bulbs have green or pink colors. After a while, the blisters develop growth similar to white mold, which is when the fungal spores start to spread. So, remove the blisters when they are green and have not released their fungal spores yet. It would take several years to be effective if you have many but, after several years, pruning off the blisters would reduce the number of blisters you get. To make the environment difficult for fungi: I would increase the sunlight in the area of the affected azaleas (you could for example prune trees or raise their canopy); replace the mulch with a new mulch (the old mulch may have a lot of fungal spores); collect all plant debris a.s.a.p. (leaves, branches, flowers) and throw them in the trash; and consider switching to drip irrigation (this will reduce the humidity of the environment and will not make branches and leaves of azalea wet). When my sprinkler broke, I replaced it with a drip irrigation system to reduce humidity because my hydrangeas had a lot of Cercospora leaf spots. If your soil is often wet or soggy, I would reduce the amount of water a little. Also, if the azalea plants touch each other, consider trimming to prevent one plant from easily infecting another plant. And just consider a little more cutting to add sunlight inside the dark areas inside the azaleas. Pruning and opening the plant in places provides more sunlight and can also dry out wet parts of plants. I guess you could call all of these things good sanitation techniques that can help you reduce the blistering problem. They make the environment difficult for fungi. I have not heard of fungicides that have successfully solved this problem, so I recommend cutting the bulbs and making them as uncomfortable as possible. But this was odd: I visited the website of the Azalea Society of America recently. In one web page on this subject, they simply said there were no effective fungicides. And on another web page, they said to collect the blisters by hand, destroy the affected leaves or try to spray the leaves with one of these products and then determine if they help or not: Bayleton ( a systemic fungicide developed by the company Bayer), Ferbam (a chemical that is often used as a fungicide), Captan (a former systemic fungicide) or a fungicide based on fixed copper. They recommended starting spraying at the end of the flowering period and continuing at 2-3 week intervals until mid-June. So try these sprays to see if they help or not (they may only help to control a bad infestation, not to cure the problem).
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oogy4plants
14 years ago
Hi Laschlee,

The house I bought had no azaleas or evergreens and I like them well enough to want some around. I may be interested in coming to get some from you depending on how big they are and where you are located. I live in Gaithersburg. Please let me know.

Thanks,
Susan
DWA in AZ Sunset zone 12
14 years ago
You could try Freecycle. Plants seem to get taken pretty quickly. I've belonged several years and gotten rid of lots of stuff just reading the WANTED posts.

Here is a link that might be useful: freecycle
laschlee
Original Author
14 years ago
Hi everyone,

Thanks for the responses. oogy4plants, I'm in Rockville and would be happy to give you as many azaleas as you can stand. Do you have a color/size preference? I have lavender, magenta, bicolor pink, little tiny medium pink, white and coral red large bushes, plus what seems to be a spider azalea -- I've never seen one before, so I'm guessing. There are also smaller (1 1/2 foot) bushes that have not bloomed yet, so I don't know what they are planning to do. annebert, I will try the exchange forum -- I kind of hesitate to ask for plants, considering I have so many that I either don't want or have not yet identified, but what the heck. And lakedweller, I never even thought of Freecycle -- what a great idea! I've dumped large items on ecstatically grateful recipients there before, but I never thought of posting plants.

Thanks again; I'm extremely relieved that I won't necessarily have to shovelprune the darn things.
annebert
14 years ago
You don't _have_ to take anything in trade on the exchanges forum. That is the great thing about the MAG group. When we have our swaps, we do some prearranged trades,and the rest is a free-for-all. If you leave your car unlocked, plants mysteriously appear on your backseat. If you pick up a plant, you have to take it. If you ask questions, you have to take 2...

Won't be long till the fall swap. By then you will have identified other plants you want to get rid of, plus things you just have to have.
collectordi
14 years ago
I sent you an email but in case that didn't work I'm interested in getting some azaleas. The smaller ones in lighter colors would be my preference. When would be a good time to dig them?
oogy4plants
14 years ago
I emailed you also about the azaleas. I am interested in some of the larger white and coral ones and the spider azalea. Maybe some small ones, too.

Susan

What to do with unwanted azaleas

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What to do with unwanted azaleas

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