Need help identifying issue(s) with Azalea 'Karen'
We planted a 'Karen' Azalea last spring when we bought our house in upstate NY (Zone 5b). We put it in a mostly shaded raised bed adjacent to our front patio, where it gets about 3-4 hours of afternoon/evening sun. The soil in the raised bed is fairly rich and loamy, and it shares the bed with two Dwarf Alberta Spruces that were there when we bought the house, along with a few Foxgloves, Primroses and Bleeding Hearts that we added to keep the deer away from the Azalea.
It bloomed beautifully last May and it looked healthy all summer, but during the latter part of the winter and now in early spring, it's looking less "happy" as you can see in the pictures below. This cultivar is supposed to be at least "semi-evergreen" down to Zone 4, and although we had a pretty chilly/snowy winter, it definitely didn't go past our Zone 5 max.
How does it look to you all? I'm seeing a lot of branches that are missing leaves, and I'm not sure if I'm even seeing any flower buds. I did already remove a few branches recently that seemed to be dead, but perhaps they had just dropped their leaves because of the "semi-evergreen" nature of this variety?
In any event, I have a few theories about what could be going on, but I figured I'd ask here to see if any of them are plausible:
1. Too much shade: I thought that 3-4 hours of afternoon sun would be sufficient, but perhaps it needs more?
2. Soil pH too high: I did test the bed last month, and it's leaning toward the neutral side...about 6.8. I know that's a it high for an Azalea, so is it suffering from that? If so, should I try to acidify the soil, or would I be better off moving it? We do have an area in our backyard that's closer to 6.2 or 6.3.
3. Deer damage: despite our attempts to surround the Azalea with a bunch of "deer-resistant" plants, we still saw some evidence that they had chewed it up a bit this winter...could that be cause for its sorry state?
4. Over-pruning last spring. I got a little aggressive in pruning the Azalea last May right after it bloomed, but I thought I was in the clear since I didn't wait very long after the blooms had faded, so it should have had plenty of time to develop new flower buds.
5. "Semi-evergreen" - if the plant did act in a more deciduous nature because of the cold winter, could that explain the lack of foliage on several of the branches? If so, should it be starting to show signs of new growth by now? And if it did drop leaves, shouldn't there still be flower buds visible?
If anyone has any thoughts on what could be going on, or how to "revive" this guy, I'd welcome them! Thanks!
Comments (7)
sah67 (zone 5b - NY)
6 years agoRelated Discussions
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6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoakamainegrower
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akamainegrower