Azaleas and rhodos like to extend long reaches mainly on the stems that flower the best. When that occurs the shrubs begin to lose their compact rounded mound shape. If one wants denser shrubs to be covered with blooms next season, it is best to prune them to be more compact and uniform in height and shape. If the shrubs are pruned after each blooming, any further growth or seasonal fall blooming that the shrub accomplishes will be better maintained in that dense mounded shape. They do not have to be cut back to the ground, unless there is some other purpose one is wanting to accomplish with doing that. I have found it easy to simply prune back to the the desired height in contrast to the rest of the shrub's growth of my young azaleas that have yet to reach their mature height. This method helps keep the shrubs compact without preventing the mound from getting taller each year and without preventing the shrub from eventually reaching the desired mature height that I planned for its location in the bed.

Just know that you are not alone... we had a magnificent row of white pines (on our property but overhanging the street) butchered by a town employee, riding in the bucket of a front-end loader with a chainsaw. As they raised the bucket, crawling down my curb, he cut a line straight up to about 12 feet. All to accommodate the snowplow, which had not in all the previous years ever bothered to plow all the way to the curb anyway, but which all of a sudden was (so we were told) "endangered" by the white pine branches (I personally have never met a white pine branch that was any match for a multi-ton snowplow, but there you are...) Needless to say, this resulted in many letters, many complaints, intervention by the first selectman and a reprimand for the "nonprofessional" "pruning" by the town. The reprimand must have REALLY ticked off the Public Works director, because next thing I knew (literally -- 8 am the VERY next DAY!), he sics the power company on my trees. Says his crew saw "plain evidence of arc-ing" (which if true, would be dangerous, I agree): of course, the power company themselves had "pruned" (i.e., topped!) the trees less than a year before. Pure retribution as far as I could tell! One more tree story: In that same line of trees lining the street (and forming, when we bought our house, a virtually solid privacy wall!) was a magnificent elm. A real, American elm. We spent a fortune injecting it to protect it against Dutch elm disease, and it was flourishing (not necessarily because of that, of course, since we subsequently learned that there was significant question about the merit of such treatments. Nonetheless, we did them and they weren't cheap!) Then the power company's tree guy came to the door on one of their many visits to butcher (ooops, "prune") the white pines, to ask my permission, as they must. I said (reluctantly) okay, but prune as lightly as possible and leave the elm alone (since I didn't think any of its branches were impacting power lines and I didn't want any unnecessary pruning of this beautiful specimen). We walked out together, he agreed with me, and told (while I stood there) the crew to leave it alone. I looked at about two hours later to see them lifting the bucket up to the elm. I RACED down the drive, planted myself at the base of their truck, and shouted up to the guy in the bucket: "SORRY GUYS -- You're DONE here!" (Further discussion ensued, of course, but in the end, they left, grumbling about "people like you, lady...") And as for line-of-sight, don't even ASK about my magnificent forsythia that the town wanted to remove. Even when a police officer came by and agreed it did not impede line of sight, they still sent someone out to "prune" it back. So a lovely old fountain of gold that never bothered anyone was turned in five minutes into a round little gumdrop. The public works guy -- when I confronted him in tears -- said "gee, lady, it looks MUCH better don't you think??" -- to which I (sobbing) said "take it OUT! if you're going to do that to it!!" (To which HE said "I can't take it out, I'm not authorized to do that..." Your tax dollars at work... Which is all just to say that I SO feel your pain! The irony is that two years after we moved from that house, a former neighbor told me that ALL those big white pines (which DID lose branches like mad every storm!!) had been taken out by the town! The reason: the roots were growing into the sewer lines in the street. Thank goodness I wasn't still living there -- they'd have had to lock me up for the duration! Final bizarre note: After the front-end loader butchering incident, the town offered, in response to my squawks, to "underplant" the trees they had butchered the lower 10 feet of, to try to fill in and restore some of our privacy. So in their infinite wisdom, what do they suggest they are willing to plant UNDER these troublesome white pines that are apparently destroying their snowplows? WHITE PINE SEEDLINGS!!!!!

Looks as though you've asked a popular question, Barb! I wrote all this out THEN I found a video that shows exactly what I wrote. Watch the video, it's easier, lol. Knowing what I NOW know about moving or removing large bushes, let me say this: If you have enough willing people and think the moving process through, I'm convinced a 2-4 teenage/adult group of people can do it without the machinery. The hand digging is a must to free the shrub's rootball. Just "Google" the subject 'Transplanting large shrubs' and a half-million links show up with all sorts of advice and devices used in large tranplantations. Much more care has to be used (like NOT putting a chain around the trunk) if the shrub is going to be saved. If the shrub is going to shrub heaven, then de-branch it (if that's a word), leave a few feet of the trunk to use as a lever to rock the roots, and basically chop or use a pruning saw on the rootball. The size of the trunk will help indicate how large the rootball is. Bear in mind that mine are 2.5 to maybe 6 caliper trunk size, and it was pouring the whole time the guys were digging so those rootballs were larger than perhaps necessary to help ensure their survival and they were dripping wet. A drier rootball on a thinner trunk won't be as heavy. I had specifically requested that I wanted them carried by machine because I didn't want a Come Along used fearing bark would be injured. Dee: I would not hesitate to move your already pruned rhody by hand. With helping hands, you can most probably get a tarp under the rootball and pull it out and to its new site. Barb: Go for it. They can live 100 years+, but if your 70 years old guy is unhealthy or its lack of prime is making the owner unhappy, life goes on. I didn't want to lose my old pine trees and cried when they were felled, but today my street border is very alive, neater, and very colorful. My 3 rhodies were moved roughly 75 feet down on my street border. The naked land where the pines had been felled was scraped and 18 yards of new soil was spread where the rhodies were going and it cost $1000. It was the only way I was going to get an instant 15 foot tall border and I have no regrets. For those who remember that saga, 'Pining Over Pines', I have also placed 5 flowering trees in front of the rhodies to give them more filtered shade and the whole border is underplanted with azaleas. To me, gardening is outdoor housekeeping and design. Sometimes the 'furniture' needs rearranging. Kindly, Jane Here is a link that might be useful: This Old HouseTree Stump Removal Video

As a southerner transplanted in the Pacific Northwest I would say the biggest thing I have found here is the lack of warmth and sunshine to grow certain things I took for granted back home in Louisiana. Just to name a few of the simple things that I took for granted back home are marigolds, which I started from seed back in april and are JUST blooming now. My zinnias started at the same time are not even close to blooming. Tomatoes are for the most part just beginning to set fruit. My cucumbers are only about 4 inches high...no fruit. On the positive side, Hydrangeas which bloom in May back home and only for a short time are blooming now and will continue to do so for a lot of the summer (I think because of the LACK of hot humid days). There are several things we do grow in common that always remind me of home when I see them. Especially magnolias, camellias and azaleas. Getting back to your actual question though, my former mother-in-law back in Louisiana, was a fabulous gardener and always willing to take a chance on plants that weren't necessarily suited to her climate. She would just try to creat a microclimate of sorts within her garden. For instance she always wanted a blue spruce which obviously doesn't grow naturally in the deep south. She planted it in the coolest spot in her garden on the north side of the house. It seemed happy there, although she only lived in that house with that spruce for about 3 years, so who knows what happened to it. She also tried ferns that were native to the northwest, rhododendrons and other things that were unavailable at local nurseries. I also traded plants with many folks around the country and received and grew things that I wasn't sure would be suited to the hot climate, but by putting them in "cool" spots they did ok. This may be a complete generalization, but I also am finding something to be true up in this part of the country. There are many nurseries that offer a MUCH wider variety of species plants than I found back home. I think the point I am trying to make is that there may be a lot of things southern gardners could be growing, but aren't because apart from mail order these things are not marketed widespread or even available.