I like the idea of burlap or evergreens. Yes snow is an excellent insulator, but 'heavy dense snow-pack' isn't. This gets snow off of the roof, and it becomes a solid glacier-like mass on top of it. Very heavy and it smashes the azalea against the ground and presses it. Everything is great for the few early snowfalls, but as the winter progresses the damage occurs. I have some scrap plywood around that I can add a couple of hinges and make an "A" frame type cover to protect it if I need to.

Give them light. Withhold water for up to 10 weeks. I wouldn't wait for a sign they're going to bloom. I have about three dozen, and they are several different kinds. Some bloom reliably in February and March. Many don't bloom until I put them outside. Since I don't really have a cold place, most of mine actually bloom in June after about two months living outdoors. I think the cold nights they get at that time help. Once they are about five years old, almost all of them have bloomed every year regardless of how I care for them in winter. One thing I think does help is to feed them regularly in spring and summer. I use a 3-1-2 NPK formula with all minors.

to agardenstateofmind. In my experience, there's no need to shred oak leaves (they curl) as they do NOT mat like maples or ginkos (I have over 2 dozen different perrenials/ephemeral species that have no problem coming up each and every spring) nor do they even remotely get slimey. I've used this approach for well over 30 years (with over a dozen mature oaks in the 60' class on the property and over 2 dozen saplings (to 15') which will replace some of those old girls when their time has come, and you know what? There's never enough oak leaves as come spring time - you look and say to yourself, where did it all go? And I selectively take oak leaves put at street side of my neighbors (as long as they don't have a lawn treatment program through the year). Mulching one's oak leaves is GREAT for the gardens (as you're not throwing away your leaves which is a good thing) and especially so if you grow rhodies, azaleas, montain laurels, viburnum, evergreens etc. This post was edited by birdsong72 on Fri, Dec 26, 14 at 6:41

dedtired, my furniture at one time, was all cherry, mahogany and rosewood and I experienced the same as you. I realized how much it had faded when I put the leaf in the table and on the LR tables, I had one that hardly got any sun exposure and one that was in east morning sun. When I rearranged the room, I saw just how faded the cherry table that sat in the sunlight was. Had I known how quickly that would happen (something my mother never told me but she had so many shade trees and an overhang porch that perhaps that was not a problem), I would have taken better care to protect the furniture. Some of that rosewood was quite old and had been my grandmother's (a little guilt trip). I used a Scott's Liquid Gold in the color nearest to my furniture as a "remedy" sotaspeak. I only put it on the table and not the leaf and applied more and more coats on the DR table. It really did help. I did that on the drop-leaf table that was discolored so much it did not match the other. I think the heavy draperies that we had growing up, the shade oaks and the large overhang porch protected the furniture I got from my family. I did not have that in a new suburban house where the contractor had plowed trees away and by the time trees were large enough to help, the furniture was discolored. This post was edited by patricia43 on Sat, Jun 7, 14 at 9:56