Soil under pines here tends to be fairly compacted and low in nutrients. Might be different for you, however.

When you created your planting holes did you add any well-rotted amendments to the original soil - preferably acidic?

Unless the weather is ferociously hot, or your soil is sandy in composition, you are probably watering too frequently.

The mulch may be too thick - and possibly too close to the stems of the plants. You could put down a thin layer of well-rotted leaf mould around each plant to a depth of about half an inch, and top with about an inch of your pine material.

That way there 'should' be a layer which has sufficient nitrogen to form a buffer between the rapidly rotting pine stuff and the new plants.

And indicas do tend to 'change their leaves' to a thinner set to cope with the coming hot season, just as they do for winter. They look like moulting birds while they're about it, too.

We have the same conditons here in LA relative to the soil around our pines. Relative to the planting holes, I added top soil containing quite a bit of very rich composted material which came from the same area. Weather is just beginning to get hot here (high 80's, low 90's); however, when I pull back the pine straw mulch from around the plant the ground still has some moisture content to it. It really is frustrating to see these reddish-brown spots show up on the leaves cause you know they will turn yellow very soon and fall off. Wish I could attach a photo to show what is happening.

Dear sprig12,

I think vetivert8 NI-NZ 9a hit the nail on its head in his/her closing paragraph:

And indicas do tend to 'change their leaves' to a thinner set to cope with the coming hot season, just as they do for winter. They look like moulting birds while they're about it, too.

It's a natural phenomenon for most azaleas--Indicas, Kurumes, etc.--to drop leaves in the springtime as their growth cycle commences and in the late fall as they prepare for dormancy.

You are discussing evergreen azaleas and they are not truly evergreen, but are dimorphic, that is they grow two sets of leaves each year. Dimorphic evergreen azaleas have spring leaves and summer leaves. The spring leaves unfold at the beginning of the growing season and are dropped in autumn. Summer leaves emerge in early summer and are smaller, thicker, darker, and more leathery than spring leaves. They remain on the plant during the dormant period and drop in the spring, however, summer leaves may persist for several years in warm climates and may drop before spring in cold climates. The latter is called being semievergreen or semipersistent.

Here is a link that might be useful: Evergreen Azaleas