Marty did say that Azaleas are hard to propagate from cuttings as compared to other plants (I believe she said she has about a 30% success rate.)

Actually you don't stratify azalea seed, you sow it fresh. Seed pods are ripe when they're turning mostly brown and the tips of the pod are starting to separate. Around here they're ripe in mid to late November, but you can get seed that hasn't blown out of opened pods into January.

Some native species are relatively easy to grow from cuttings (easiest is R. austrinum, usually about 50% take), and some are just about impossible (0% success on R. alabamense and R. vaseyi so far) -- for me, anyway. But all are easy to grow from seed if you use the right method, and get as big as a cutting the first year.

I'll post complete directions for sowing in the next few days. I'd do it now but I'm wasted. Did an installation today (yeah, working 7 days a week) and the ground was so dry and hard it took a pickaxe to make a hole for a 1 gallon pot. The tree roots and rocks didn't help, of course. Guy who was helping me runs a trencher for laying waterlines during the week and he said the ground is dry as powder 12 feet down. Last meaningful precipitation we had in this neck of the woods was Katrina 7 weeks ago.

Pray for rain!

Marty