How To Prune Evergreen Azaleas
Evergreen azaleas do not require pruning. However, a yearly pruning can be performed to control the size of the plant and keep tidy. How you will prune your azaleas will depend on the type, size and age of the plant. Timing is important too. If you prune your azaleas at the wrong time, you might remove all their buds! No buds, no blooms. So here's some general azalea pruning tips:
CAUTION: Encore Azaleas require a different method for pruning. SEE: Pruning Encore Azaleas Encore Azaleas bloom two or more times a year. Some varieties bloom from Spring to frost!
Pruning Young Azaleas
Pruning on younger azaleas (typically 1 to 10 years of age) is best performed right after they stop blooming and the flowers have faded in Spring. Use hand pruners to cut back the few branches that might have outgrown the rest. Make cuts a couple inches or so above the dense form of the plant. Also remove dead or broken branches, or one's that spoil the shape of the plant.
Pruning Mature Azaleas
If your older, mature azaleas have become spindly or overgrown, rejuvination pruning may be necessary. The correct method for rejuvenation pruning is very straight forward. The plant in question should be pruned to 6" stumps or less. This is the only way to remove all of the old wood and provide the plant with one hundred percent juvenile wood loaded with leaf buds.
Azaleas are one of the many plants that respond beautifully to heavy rejuvenation pruning. The best time to perform rejuvination pruning is right before your plants would ordinarily flush out with new growth in the Spring. Do not fertilize the plant after rejuvination pruning. In a very few short weeks you will be utterly amazed at the new growth. After this procedure, it would be wise to keep your azalea full by pruning a portion of the branches to the ground, thereby forcing foliage to emerge lower on the plant.
TIP:
Use the SEARCH at the top of every page on the web site to locate any specific shrub. Once you have located the shrub in the Search, click to go to its Plant File. In the Plant File you will find pruning instruction for that shrub.
Select a category below to see pruning instructions for other types of shrubs:
Choose from a category below to find pruning instructions: