Azaleas

Q. I have about 50 azaleas which receive the utmost in care. Currently 49 are in full bloom. One looks absolutely stunning except it has no blooms. It has lush green foliage but not a bloom in sight. I feed 4 times a year after bloom and late summer with Osmocote rhod. and azalea food and in late fall and late winter with cottonseed meal. I water and mulch also. I was reading on a popular Azalea website that one possible reason for an otherwise healthy azalea not to bloom can be if they are too healthy and have too much vigor they don't take time to bloom. My purple leaf plum has been in the ground 3 years. To this day when we get a general rain all the branches droop under the weight of the water so that it almost has the appearance of a weeping willow. I would think such a tree of 15+ feet would be hardened off by now. It has grown well since planting. Could I be creating an environment so conducive to growth that this tree just keeps growing but doesn't bloom?

A. You have brought up some good fertilizer questions. High Nitrogen food leads to good strong healthy branches and leaves many times at a detriment to the flowers or lack thereof. This could add to your ideas about the plums having too much Nitrogen and therefore too busy to bloom. I have heard of such happenings before but not with plums rather veggies and fruit but I can sure see a link.

But with the high Nitrogen why would the growth be spindly and weak as to droop under rain? I would see a big push for flowers causing a side effect of lack of stem vigor. That would make sense as I have seen tons of plants who flower so much that they forget to grow! Recently I judged an African violet so profuse with blooms maybe 50 on a semiminiature plant that the center died and we could not judge it! But that would be a result of too much Phosphorus.

As for the one azalea which is not blooming while the others are champs I would not concern myself. Try giving it a hit or two during the season of superphosphate. If it does not snap out of it and bloom next spring I recommend pulling it as the true 'lemon' that it is. No need worrying yourself about your culture with odds like that. My other questioners should be so unfortunate!

Q. My new azalea I bought is dropping its flowers and the leaves are slowly turning yellow and falling [July]. I live in Texas. I water it every other day. What can I do to save it [it is my first one]?

A. In Texas with your heat no azalea is going to bloom right now. They will bloom in the early spring as March-April. Once the temps rise flowering will stop. That is why you are seeing the flowers dying. Pick them off and discard. They do not bloom in the summer. Once in a while you may get a little flowering in the cool fall but usually not.

The plant hates heat but loves moisture and humidity. The bright beating Texan sun is harsh so make sure that the light it gets is only in the morning say until 11 AM and some allowed after 6 PM.