Moving Azalea Bushes (grown, fertilizer, trees, front yard)

[srtalada]

I purchased my home in August of last year and have 6-8 azalea bushes that the previous owner planted in a wooded, completely shaded area. The bushes, like the young trees around it, have grown straight, tall (1-2') branches trying to reach some sunlight. I believe the bushes are 4 or more years old and I want to dig them up and relocate them so they can grow properly and bloom. I am looking for advice as to when or if I should try this, and then should I cut back the branches to help the plant become more bushy. I am thinking of planting under an oak tree in my front yard, which gets filtered sun, with direct sun for at least 1-2 hours a day during summer. Any ideas?

[Briolat21]

I have moved bushes that old, and have had some success. Main thing is time of year (depending on where you live - now might be okay if the ground is unfrozen but the shrubs are still dormant). Usually early spring or mid-late fall. Otherwise - just making sure you get as many roots as possible (digging a hole nearly as big as the reach of the branches). Cutting back some of the branches to make it bushier, as well as allowing the shrub to put more energy into root growth would not hurt either.

I always give the newly transplanted shrubs a drink with a root-growth fertilizer, and make sure I put some decent soil amenment at the planting site. For azalea you'd probably be okay with some peat moss as it is acidic as it breaks down.

Good luck!!

[andthentherewere3]

Azaleas are very easy to transplant, I've transplanted dozens over the years and never lost a single one. Don't cut them back too hard though, you don't want them to go into "shock". The best time to trim them back would be immediately following their blooming; if you wait too long you will be cutting off next year's blooms. Spring is definitely the best time to transplant, or early fall. Good luck!

[srtalada]

Thank you! - I will use your suggestions, looks like now would be a good time as I am located in Virginia and we are just now starting to see buds on some trees.

[RDSLOTS]

In all of the years I have been gardening and working in my yard(s), I have often relocated azaleas, and like others have said, have been very successful.

I would suggest you go ahead and do it now, while it is still a bit cool. I would prepare the area ahead of time -- turn the soil over, mix peat with it, and maybe a little fertilizer to help the roots establish themselves, too. If the shrubs are as scraggly as what you suggest, I would trim them by a good 1/3 to even 1/2, before I moved them. Set them in their new home, and mulch, and water them in, well. Don't drown them over the next few weeks, but keep the soil from drying-out. Pine straw makes the best mulch for azaleas.

You will sacrifice blooms this Spring, but if the azaleas are leggy, you wouldn't have seen many blooms anyway. In the future, prune them after they bloom in the Spring, and feed them with an acid-loving fertilizer.

Azaleas are fairly hardy and rather forgiving. My husband has moved huge, overgrown formosas that just to get them out of the ground meant severely pruning them back, and losing some of the roots, and they survived.

We have planted azaleas everywhere we have ever lived -- more, if they were already there. I've been intrigued by these 'encore' varieties that will bloom as many as three times in a year.

[crj777]

I received a small blooming azalea bush for Easter, can I transplant it into a half whiskey barrel?