Just like rhododendrons (azaleas are just a form thereof), they can be rejuvenated by hard pruning. Wait until after the bloom period and cut back as hard as you like. Fertilize lightly after pruning with an appropriate rhody, azalea and camellia fertilizer and keep well watered.

Here's a link that might help.

Sorry they got "hit". Mine too in February. But they either tend to come back from the base (see below):

Or, if there was no bark split in the branches, the branches may leaf out after a long period (it is hard to see below but the same big branch has new large leaves and the new tiny ones to the right):

It took more than a month for mine to show "new" signs of life. For that reason, it is best to continue maintaining the soil well mulched and moist while waiting for new foliage. Fertilize only after more signs of life. Then monitor for further injuries as summer approaches (if the leaves cannot get enough moisture at the end of injured branches during the summer, the leaves/branches may brown out and die). After about 2 months of waiting after the original injury, I would prune dead wood and shorten partly dead branches. I prefer to leave green leaves out there even if part of them are brown as they still produce food for the roots. I also like to wait 1-3 years sometimes to prune branches that are alive but that are much longer than the rest of the plant... not necessarily to let the new growth catch up size-wise but to let the extra long branches continue feeding the roots.

Hard to say what the impact will be on your flower buds. I have had blooms from severely injured azaleas this year down to -2F but it varies, more blooms on some plants than others. You can rejuvenate in winter when they are dormant.

give them a few more weeks to further bud out .. and they will show you were they can be cut back to ....

having not lived there .. you really dont know if they were properly planted nor any history ...

if they dont sprout out with more vigor.. if might just be time to go ... if so.... when you dig them out.. you might find the problem ... like improper planting.. leading to water issues resulting in lack of vigor ... all of that not helped by a winter event.. whatever that might be in z7 .. lol ...

ken

ps: just fyi from snowland.... snow itself is rarely an issue ... per se .. in and of itself ...

btw .. up here in MI ... the most fail proof As were deciduous ... and frankly ... this is how they looked every spring .. lol ...

in TN i wouldnt expect them to look like this ... but my point was.. its still early .. give them some time to leaf out .. or not ..

and.. front and back gardens... can be different micro climates... so it doesnt surprise me that plants might grow different depending on where they are ....

ken

Thank you for your responses! The azaleas struggling seem to be younger plants (still with tags on them) while the ones in back I know are encores because they bloomed all fall and were lovely! Hope spring is starting for everyone!

Keep in mind that if you cut them back to below the dead patches you are going to be looking at stubs afterward. With full recovery taking a period of years - do you want that look in that spot in the meantime?

Another consideration is that killer winters may come in clusters. And it is not like there isn't a variety of evergreen azalea cultivars (and other kinds of evergreen shrubs) on the general market - in my area they even have them at warehouse stores during the spring flowering period. So you don't need to stick with a kind that may sometimes freeze.

Good point. It is quicker to fix by replacing the plants but, you have to shell $$$ and that is difficult for some. And also, in your area, you have not been impacted by a bad freeze. Over here, it is so bad that some local plant nursery stores are so empty that they look like they may be about to go bankrupt for lack of plants... They are just sold out or lost tender inventory. And many of their local wholesale suppliers of plants lost most or all of their plants too. So now, there is too much demand and little supply. Home owner associations are having to give multi-year waivers because people cannot find replacement plants.

Evergreen azaleas tend to be on the inexpensive side, as far as retail pricing of container grown broadleaf evergreen shrubs goes. Out here most garden centers are managing to fill their beds and shelves but sales have been strong with for instance items that might usually sell by the pot going out the door by the flat. And the production and supply end being affected by impacts of the pandemic on labor availability. So that getting certain specific product lines like David Austin roses has become problematic.

the formosa azaleas are not reliably hardy in your zone, being one of the southern indica group. i grow quite a few of those, myself, but i am a full zone south of you or almost so. they do very well in east central alabama. i like those big, floppy flowers.

perhaps if protected by a tree canopy they may perform better. the site in your photo appears to be fully exposed though we can't tell if there are limbs overhead.

maybe try one of the other more cold-hardy types such as gable, glen dale or robin hill hybrid groups. if encores work in the back yard, perhaps they will be good for this location, too.

@jeff_al Thank you for the information about cold hardiness. We received a lot more "winter" here than I was expecting! (I lived in MD for 20+ years which is about a zone colder)

@Embothrium yes looking at a struggling to survive plant in front of our yard is not a great "look". Maybe I could move them to the back yard (I have some bare areas that need more plants) and keep an eye on them?

If I transplant them, what should compost/dirt amendment should I use?

Same dirt back in hole that came out of it, as always with woody and other long term plants. With installation followed immediately by mulching. In other words organic additives on the ground around the plant instead of in the hole. With arborist wood chips being the best choice. And these last being put far enough out that they don't end up touching or covering the root crown of the plant (they tend to get moved sideways - presumably by pecking and scratching ground birds if nothing else).

There are some azalea that just never seem to go any where. In a week we well have mounds of blossom while those in other areas are struggling.

One thing that was not mention that will keep the plants small is Deer. Regardless of what you read, Deer well eat azaleas. We planted some about 10 years ago, and it was a struggle to get them to the point where the deer could eat what they wanted and the bush would produce what they ate, plus enough to gain in size. It took years for the ones that are now blooming, to reach that point.

We now will only buy plants large enough that they can handle grow plus provide a suitable meal for the deer.

A basic problem with deer resistant plant lists is that the species of deer upon which specific listings are based is almost never mentioned. And it matters. For instance apparently white tailed deer back east love evergreen rhododendrons whereas in my region these are consistently off the menu for mule deer.

Except recently I found out they go for Rhododendron augustinii at a rhododendron display garden south of me.

Otherwise I cut the evergreen azaleas that came with the property I moved onto in December off because the presumed mother and daughter deer duo that frequent my place had started defoliating them.

After winter was mostly over.

And I'm not wild about evergreen azaleas anyway.