You prune azaleas after they bloom in the spring, usually about May. Indicas (the large ones) can be cut pretty far back, but I wouldn't cut them back by more than half. If you prune them too late, you'll lose next year's bloom, because they bloom on year-old wood.

You don't really have to amend the soil for azaleas (I always do just a little) but you do have to mulch them really well. They have shallow roots, so when you first plant, you need to water them at least every other day for two weeks, then every third day for two weeks, then every 4th day and on and on until you get to once a week if there isn't an inch of rain in the week.

How I used to plant them was to dig a hole twice the width of the pot and 3 inches deeper. Fill the hole with water and let it soak in. Put 3 inches of compost in the bottom of the hole. Place your azalea in the hole so that the top is level with the ground. You might have to add soil to the hole for this. Put two-inch layers of compost (or leaves if you have no compost) with the soil you dug out of the hole until it is halfway full, then fill it again with water and let it soak in. Layer it until it is almost full, then add more water and let that soak in. Top off with a handful of epsom salts scattered on top and watered in well, then put 3 inches of mulch on top of that. It doesn't matter if the mulch gets up into the bush. It will wash out with watering, and it doesn't hurt the plant. They LOVE pine straw as mulch. If you can't find that, get the pine bark. Need the acid. Start fertilizing them after 8 weeks with an acidic fertilizer. I used Miracid or an azalea fertilizer. They love coffee! Not the grounds, because while they are good organic matter, they no longer have any acid in them. It was all washed out with the brewing. Once a month or so, brew up a pot of coffee, water it down with half again as much water and pour a cup around each plant. It makes them grow like mad!

I'm from SC, and I've grown azaleas all my life. One reason I moved to Gainesville was because I missed dogwoods, redbuds and azaleas.

dirtygardner--tell me something about redbuds. We have one that is just blooming. It's about 8" in diameter and 30-40' tall. Problem is isn't very full and at that height you have to strain to see the blossoms. We just got back from GA and saw smaller more compact redbuds that showed plenty of color. I'm seriously thinking of cutting it off about 3" high to see if it will branch out and become a smaller fuller tree. Some we saw in GA had trunks as large as ours but much thicker and lower branches.

Papa JIm

apapjim - At what time of the year did you cut them back?

dirtygardener73(9a) Thanks for that information. I never thought of coffee but it is acidic and we always have it on hand. I also always have Miracle Grow acid plant food on hand. We have plenty of pine needles and live oak leaves for mulch. We'll have to buy some compost. The soil where they're going is a real dirty looking unattractive gray sand. It looks like some natural organic matter is mixed with it. The podocarpus planted along the fence doesn't look healthy at all. They don't have insect pests, I checked. Also, the sego palms are not healthy looking and they too are free of scale or other pests. The only healthy looking plants are the native ones plus an old Magnolia deformed by the Electric co. The man we bought the place from said the ground there is no good for gardening - that it's infertile so he stopped planting things some time back. He seemed to have limited knowledge on how to care for plants. When the land was developed back in 1982 it was all live oak, palmettos, those tall native palms and assorted brush. Water doesn't stand on it after a rain.

greenthumbs2 - yep, sounds like the soil at my old house when I first moved in - pure sugar sand. It will take a few years of amending the soil to get it to good condition, but you can start by doing trench composting. Just dig out an area you want to plant, fill it with leaves, add back the sand (it will filter through) and leave it for awhile. When you plant something, use the method I gave you for the azaleas. You don't have to use compost. You can just use leaves or any other organic matter like grass clippings, small sticks, whatever. Just plant the plants right in there and add your kitchen scraps around it regularly, and in a couple of years, you'll have halfway decent soil.

My house had an area that was nothing but marl. It took me many years of amending and piling up leaves on it to get it to where it would grow anything.

@apapjim I don't know much about pruning redbuds. Never had to. We had one at my mother's house that was beautiful every year, never got fertilized or anything. The rule of thumb is to never cut back a tree by more than 1/3 a year, but if you aren't attached to it, you can try drastically pruning it and see what happens. Redbuds are pretty tough trees, but I've never seen one drastically pruned. Redbuds are generally understory trees, but if they're in too much shade, they'll grow up instead of out, as yours seems to have done.

How far off the ground are the first limbs? I'd probably go up to there and prune the limbs back to about a foot or two tall before I tried anything drastic. If you prune it, wait until it stops flowering.

@apapjim I have a 5' redbud that is just now sprouting and I see a few blooms. I'm excited to see what it does because I planted it last fall.

All this talk about Florida soil reminds me of the Florida gardener that sent a soil sample off for analysis. The analysis: "Your soil needs everything but sand."

I am definitely not attached to that redbud and neither is my wife. In addition it's wood is very pretty and I'm a woodworker. It is in jeopardy!

I've installed about 15,000 azaleas when I was landscaping and kept up with all the best types for us in central Florida. I know you bought whatever you bought, but unless you design a double layer of large and semi dwarf azaleas, I would never use the large types for the reasons you all have already mentioned. Semi dwarf azaleas, like Fashion, or Red Ruffle will flower all the time between October through April/May. Once you are used to having color half the year, you will never be satisfied with 3 weeks of flowers again. They stay fairly bushy, and once they stop flowering in May, you fertilize them with some nitrogen, wait 2-3 weeks, and then trim them back a bit so you can double the amount of flowers the next time around. Around early August, hit them with some triple super phosphate, and they will set piles of flowers. The majority of azaleas I put in, were put right into the sand, but if you want to add something, just regular oak tree leaves will give you some extra organic that will give you some extra acid as they break down.

If you bought large ones, the basics of what I mentioned still pertain. After they flower, you fertilize them, wait 3 weeks, then trim. People ask me why I do it this way, and when I just sit back and watch people work in their yard, it is amazing how many people just cut back plants without thinking about this. If you fertilize your plants, you are stimulating the production of cytokinins in the roots, and stimulating new growth. When you do cut your plants back they already have energy going to help push new growth faster. In this case, if your large existing azaleas have more energy in them, it will allow you cutting them back more and insuring that will grow back well. Any time it is warm, you can do cuttings. You want the middle wood for cuttings, not the old wood and not the soft flexible material, but that light tan material in between.

If you do go with semi dwarfs, Duke, Duchess, white Duke, Fashion, red or white ruffle, and white Alaska were all really great Semi dwarfs.

plantsman56 - This is valuable info also. I am a big believer in fertilizing plants. I am going to look for the semi-dwarfs when out looking at plants. It's too dark out there (and we have bears here) to look at the tags on those with tags that I already bought. I have seen some huge azaleas in the neighborhood but most of those are leggy and not all that attractive. Flowers are also sparse. I know trench composting from up north. I had access to chicken and goat manure plus rich straw bedding from their houses and chopped shredded leaves and grass clippings. Add kitchen scraps and the compost couldn't be beat. I have no access to that here - only the pine needles, oak leaves and what I can buy at Lowe's or Home Depot. I'll let you all know how I did with the cuttings.

Would the same apply to native azaleas? I'd like to get some of those.