HELP. Azaleas for Austin Texas area..... :-(
Frank Gover
I planted some Azaleas last spring (August Beauty, Hino Chrimson (sp?),etc. ) and most of
them are already dead. Plants were 5gals. for the AugustBeauty and 1 gal. for Hino...
SOIL:
I prepared the soil in the following way:
It was originally Sandy Loam with Cow manure raised bed.
I added to it the same or 1.5 time the amount in peatmoss.
at the end i had 25%-50% Sandy Loam/ Cow manure and 50%-75% Peatmoss.
Didn't test soil for PH.. I assumed the peatmoss would incline the PH to the acid side.
LOCATION:
The area where the bed is located only receives sun until aprox. 1pm
CARE:
I used the Acidic fertilizer for Azaleas twice in a 2 month period..
I was watering frequently during this hot and dry summer. (every 2 days for 40 minutes)
Before I watered, I checked the soil and it was humid but not soaked.
RESULT:
Plants started to die systematically.
Out of 16 Hino.. 1 is still alive
Out of 3 August.. 1 is barely alive...
As you can see not a good success rate....
QUESTIONS:
~~~~~~~~~~
1) What I did or didn't do ????
2) Are this two varieties OK for the Austin,TX area??? Recomendations????
3) I am planning to try it again in the months of October through December when the
nurseries start bringing the Azaleas again. Should I change to another viriety???
4) Has anyone on the net had any success with Azaleas on the Austin,Tx area???
5) Is there any Azaleas FAQ????
6) Any Azaleas books references oriented to this Austin or Texas area????
P.S. Out of 4 Gardenias 3 are doing great :), 1 died :( They are in the same location...
Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Frank
go...@gani.ibmoto.com
Bill Chandler
I grow a few azaleas in Austin with varying success. Some people
in Austin that put in a lot of work have very good azaleas here.
You seemed to be properly caring for the azaleas except for
maybe giving them fertilizer too much or too often for young plants.
You didn't describe how the azaleas died, so I cannot tell if
it was a pest, disease or environment. This summer was awful in
Austin and I think you will have much better luck with a
October or November planting than Spring, unless the azaleas were
killed by insects or disease. As far as varieties go, Hino Crimson
is a Kurume variety and they are not really heat-tolerant, although
they are sometimes grown here. If you have the space, you may have
more luck with a Southern Indica, such as George L. Tabor or
Formosa which seem to tolerate heat and sun somewhat. I would also
recommend that you buy from a nursery that specializes mostly in
Azaleas, such as Sledd's. They usually have better plants than
the chains.
You can send email to chan...@austin.ibm.com if you have any
questions.
--
Bill Chandler
email: chan...@austin.ibm.com
IBM Austin
Phone 512-838-8397
Disclaimer: These are my own opinions, not those of IBM.
Menk, Donna
>From: go...@ibmoto.com (Frank Gover)
>Subject: HELP. Azaleas for Austin Texas area..... :-(
>Date: 15 Sep 1994 13:32:20 -0500
> Didn't test soil for PH.. I assumed the peatmoss would incline the PH to the
>acid side.
Not necessarily...
>RESULT:
> Plants started to die systematically.
> Out of 16 Hino.. 1 is still alive
> Out of 3 August.. 1 is barely alive...
> As you can see not a good success rate....
Ouch...
>QUESTIONS:
>~~~~~~~~~~
> 1) What I did or didn't do ????
We *did* have a horribly hot, dry summer this year. That probably didn't
help anything.
> 2) Are this two varieties OK for the Austin,TX area??? Recomendations????
> 3) I am planning to try it again in the months of October through December
>when the
> nurseries start bringing the Azaleas again. Should I change to another
>viriety???
Maybe another nursery, also...
> 4) Has anyone on the net had any success with Azaleas on the Austin,Tx
>area???
> 5) Is there any Azaleas FAQ????
> 6) Any Azaleas books references oriented to this Austin or Texas area????
>P.S. Out of 4 Gardenias 3 are doing great :), 1 died :( They are in the same
>location...
>Any help will be appreciated.
>Thanks,
>Frank
>go...@gani.ibmoto.com
Hi, Frank!
Austin's soil (being generous with the term!) is caliche. Very, very, very
alkaline. As you can see around town, some people can grow azaleas
here. It's an intensive proposition, though. On the advice of an old-time
gardener, I used to give mine a thorough soaking once a month with diluted
vinegar. (Then I moved away from that house, and I gave up on azaleas here.
Just too labor-intensive.)
I digress, however. Call Ted Fisher. If you don't know Ted yet, you're
missing a wonderful resource. He's the Travis County horticulturalist (if
I got the title wrong, I apologize! Ted's my gardening hero!), and he'll
be able to give you specific help for your planting site. His office has
all sorts of wonderful pamphlets and hand-outs. I would imagine that he'd
have something on azaleas that do best here.
As for reference books, two that I use constantly are Neil Sperry's Texas
Gardener and , oh, drat! I can't think of the author or title of the
other one! It's about gardening in this awful caliche soil that we've got
here. Both these books are available at BookStop; if you can't find the
caliche-gardening book, I'd be glad to look up the name and title.
As for replacement plants. Well. If you do decide to replace the plants, be
absolutely certain you buy them from a good nursery. My recommendation
would be to avoid the large chain garden centers for something non-native
like azaleas. (Actually, I refuse to buy anything that grows from a couple
of these outfits. I've had better results with WalMart's plants, and that's
the sad truth.) I've found the die-rate to be just too high, and the
money-back guarantee is useless to me. IF I remembered where I put the
receipt, I'd still have a dead plant and have to start all over again. And
they don't replace all the water and TLC and compost and mulch and time that
you lost. There are several really wonderful (albeit smaller) nurseries here;
and it's fun to spend a Saturday morning exploring nurseries. (Or am I the
only one who likes to do that? Oh, well...)
Anyhow, good luck with your azaleas!
Donna
donna...@radian.com
Charles Brendan Callaway
Bill Chandler <b...@chandler.austin.ibm.com> wrote:
>You didn't describe how the azaleas died, so I cannot tell if
>it was a pest, disease or environment. This summer was awful in
>Austin and I think you will have much better luck with a
>October or November planting than Spring, unless the azaleas were
>killed by insects or disease.
bring them in on days when the temperature was expected to go over 95 deg.
Here at UT, the azaleas survive outside no matter what the heat is, and I
didn't notice them being watered more than once a week. Of course, their
plants are sometimes 5 feet tall and much more established than my one
gallon plant. Anyway, here's the typical post mortem for my azaleas (I buy
one at a time, a new one each time the old one dies).
The flowers are usually blooming when I buy them. I put the recommended
amount of azalea fertilizer in every other watering (which is thrice a week).
They usually hang around for three months after flowering. Then, invariably,
I'llforget to water them for a week and the leaves will all crumple up. I'll
say to myself, "Oh, my, I forgot to water them!" I will proceed to water
them and they'll perk up and be fine for another one to two months. Even
if I water them perfectly well thereafter, they eventually start dropping
leaves off one at a time for a few weeks, until in a last fit of glory all the
30 to 40 remaining small leaves die off all at once.
Does that sound like some kind of insect nibbling at the roots, or what?
You'd think after fifty bucks for 12 azaleas over the last five years I
would've figured out what I was doing wrong.
>Formosa which seem to tolerate heat and sun somewhat. I would also
>recommend that you buy from a nursery that specializes mostly in
>Azaleas, such as Sledd's. They usually have better plants than
>the chains.
Luckily, Sledd's is three blocks away from my new apartment. :-) They
didn't have any mandevilla's, though. I can't wait until _those_ plants
come in!
-Charles Callaway
"Hey, I can grow petunias!"