I live in Central Florida in zone 9b. I have Red Formosa azaleas planted in partial to full shade and they have lost most, if not all their leaves.

About 2 years ago we planted a lot of azaleas around our property. Unfortunately they stayed in pots too long due to other landscaping issues, but we tried to tease out the roots and water them well before and after planting. They looked poor, but bounced back a bit in the spring and seemed to be doing okay in the summer. (They did get fertilizer in the spring and got some nice compost in the summer).This past fall, we tried to water them whenever we saw drought symptoms - assuming they had had time to establish and didn't need as much water - but they started to deteriorate. The soil acidity is currently at about PH 6.5-7.

My question is, based on the pictures, are our plants' problems just due to poor watering? I've attached pictures of some of the "better" specimens (The last picture is representative of most of the "poor" specimens). Can these be salvaged or is it just better to start over with new plants? How can we help them become healthy again? Also, our other plants are doing well, so what's the key to establishing azaleas?

Sent from my iPhone