I have a very old evergreen white blooming azalea that is ailing. I get flowers every year but the leaves yellow and brown. If anyone has a suggestion on what is going wrong I would appreciate your input.
ailing azalea
Do you have a picture that shows the whole plant?? I have a lot of guesses based on the one (and i'll gladly give those), but I might be able to narrow it down some with a picture that shows the whole plant plus maybe 2 or 3 feet of the surrounding area? I know that's asking a lot, but it may really narrow down the possibilities! How old might the plant be and how long has it been having problems? Even without another picture, I think that it has more than one issue it's dealing with. First guess without knowing a single other thing about soil or drainage or whatever, it actually looks as though it's dealing with chemical exposure. Not to the top of it, but to the roots. i.e. new cement nearby, a newly painted house, etc. I once saw a azalea similar to this and narrowed the cause down to the fact that they washed their car in the driveway every week or two and the rhody was catching the runoff, actually i've seen that several times. But that is really a very loosely based guess and there are many other possibilities. Whatever it is... the azalea is really trying to make it!
This message was edited Apr 14, 2008 10:58 PM
This message was edited Apr 15, 2008 2:09 AM
Thank you redchic for offering to help identify the problem.
This azalea was a mature shrub when I purchased the house 20 years ago. It could have been one of the original plantings when the house was built in the '40s.
I am a strictly organic gardener so it is not pesticide exposure (at least none that I applied) but after reading your post about the soap runoff from car washing I am wondering if the close by herb/fruit /flower garden might be the problem. I know the azalea bloomed the first year we lived there but I don't know if it had any problems. I did nothing other then mow the lawn and wait to find out what I did have growing that year.
The second year I started a herb garden a few feet away, removing all the grass and adding topsoil, sand and compost . I use kelp meal and fish emulsion as a fertilizer. The azalea had a severe infestation of mealy bugs and spider mites for many years after. I hand treated each one of those leaves with a Q-Tip and alcohol and sprayed off the spider mites with a hose daily.
It always blooms and gets new green leaves that slowly yellow and turn brown.
It is a little sunny now to get a good picture but I'll try to show you what I have around it. Two years ago the azalea looked so bad I pruned it severely and added grasses and meadow plants around it. It gets run off from the roof downspout. The grasses should be cut down by now but I thought it might be helpful to see it exactly as is.
This message was edited Apr 15, 2008 10:35 AM
Here is what it looked like in bloom last year in May. It is located on a 10' wide strip of land between the driveway and a sidewalk along the house, not far from the road.
Let us eliminate or identify one seemingly possible cause of your problem. Inspect the underside of those leaves. If you see a grainy iron red matter it is a fungi called rust. Neem Oil will absolutely clear this up with three applications about a week apart. The first should be when the new leaves are just forming. You can begin anytime but be sure to repeat next spring when the new leaves are just forming. Since Neem Oil is an insecticide, miticide and fungicide it could help clear other unknown causes too. Other helps.....feed only organic fertilizers for acid loving plants and maintain a good three inch mulch out to six inches beyond the drip line of the plant.
docgipe,
I don't see the grainy iron red rust on the undersides. Am I missing it?
What is a good organic fertilizer for acid loving plants?
Congrats on the due diligence of being organic! You've put a lot of work into it! Nice garden too. The pictures are good, thanks. It helps to eliminate quite a few soil issues/drainage issues. There's probably quite a few things that it could be and may never find the true cause of. One is... there's a really good chance that it may just be "old age" of sorts, true they can live to be very old, but it sounds as if it's had a good long life if that's the case. I don't think there's a chemical issue. From the pics, rust doesn't seem to be an issue, but that would've been a good cause. Given that, the solutions for most other problems will be very similar. It looks to be something systemic, coming from the roots and manifesting in the foliage. Could be a fungus in the soil (to know that for sure you would likely need to send a sample to a county extension agency or some place like that). Could be compacted roots from sitting there a long time, crowded roots from the grass nearby, infestation from some insect underneath, etc. The solution for most of these is the same and since the plant is already unhappy, it will likely not like the disturbance---- but will be better in the long run. I would dig it up, get rid of any really hard or heavy soil, amend the soil with lots of nice, light, stuff, prune out any dead roots and roots of plants that shouldn't be in it's root system, loosen compacted roots, prune back the top a little, replant, and fertilize. If it does have a fungus or you don't want to have the soil tested but still want to be extra cautious, then you should bare root it and try to remove soil around it, replace with new, and amend. I'm not sure that it would be really worth it if it is just slowly dying of age. Good luck! I hope that someone out there knows of a problem that requires less work to fix! redchic
oh did I see lysimachia punct. purpurea in your picture? purple leaved thing in front of some cement edging blocks? If that's not lysimachia.... what is it? the thing with purple top foliage? If that is lysimachia... how do you keep it from spreading everywhere? I always deadhead mine... actually it's lucky if I even let it bloom. But the runners... my gosh. It wasn't supposed to be as aggressive as the straight species!
I think you are in an area that commonly has good garden centers and supply outlets. Ask there for organic fertilizers designed for acid loving plants. There are three or four good ones. Most centers have one or more choices. To make it easy this is your best way to find one of the several out there.
While snooping about the garden center look for Alaska or other brand fish oil and kelp for foliar feeding. Your azalia would like that very much. Between the two applications one to the soil the other to the plant you may strengthen the plant and the leaf problem could just go away. The mulch is very importent to. Any mulch.
Aside from that they do play out with age. I do however think you can git 'er done with this TLC and not need to distrub the roots. Old plants just don't like their root played with. They have not been root pruned and have sent feeder roots out there all over the patch.
It sounds easy but is quite difficult to do with older plants. I would not like to dig it up unless it was headed for the landfill.
Thank you redchic and docgipe for your suggestions. I'll try a few and hope for the best. I got your replies just in time, my computer will be down for the next few days.
redchic, thanks for the compliments on the garden. The plant you see in the front with red top leaves is Penstemon digitalis "Husker Red", tall white beardtongue. It's native for me, well not the cultivar but the straight species. I've been slowly adding native shrubs, trees and plants over the last few years. I'll see if I can find a photo in bloom.
I would love to see a pic of the plant in bloom! I need to dig out my purple loosestrife because it bullies the others plants too much. i'vetried to just keep it contained and that seems nearly impossible. Since the Penstemon has similar colorations it would fit in perfectly with the scheme in that plant bed!!!! thanks!
Penstemon "Husker Red". Just a little detour on the thread.
Thanks so much! Wow, it's a striking penstemon. And it'll make a great replacement for the loosestrife.... if I ever manage to get rid of it! Who am I kidding...I won't be able to wait until then to get it! it will be planted before then and I'll be defending it the same as I do some of the others, but only for a while. The lysimachia will find a new home sooner or later anyhow. Is that a red flowering (I forget the name) Phlox paniculata next to it? I happen to have a red phlox right next to where I would want to plant the penstemon. It would just prove to me that the penstemon belongs there! Wherever there is a discussion on plants and gardeners are involved.... there will be detours!
Detours and stupid mistakes in the gardens are our best learning opportunities.
I'll go to bed on that one. My shortest post....ever. I actually did this without stopping to wave my hands and point fingers. :)))
redchic,
Sorry for the delay in answering your question about what is planted with the Penstemon. I definitely use it with red flowers, there is a red lily next to it in the photo and it over laps with the earlier blooming red native columbine, but the phlox in front of it is the pink and white "Bright Eyes". What I really love about the penstemon are the red seed heads that can glow and look like little rubies in just the right sunlight.
No worries.... you said that you were going to be without a computer. Ahhh.... bright eyes is a good one. It would definitely be good in that scenario. I'm so looking forward to the penstemon. I'm going to try to find it locally first, maybe order it at work, if I don't... then the hunt begins! what fun!