Azalea bushes are an excellent addition to the garden. But if you’ve had an azalea for several years or decades, you won’t see the same results as you once did. This may prompt the question, “can Azalea bushes be cut back?”
Yes, you can cut azalea bushes back. But, there are equal chances that the bush may or may not grow back.
Why Would You Want To Cut An Azalea Bush Back?
There are two reasons why you would want to cut an azalea bush back.
- To help it grow after a long period of inactivity and unsuccessful minor pruning attempts
- Or, to try to shape an azalea plant if it becomes too leggy and unappealing (very common among older azalea bushes).
Have you been pruning your azalea bushes only to be met with no results? This might just be the time to do something a bit out of the ordinary! Cutting back an azalea bush is usually the last resort that is considered in situations of no growth.
It might just be time for you to take a new path if you want to see any change and growth.
Another instance of cutting back an azalea bush is when the plant begins to look leggy and unappealing. Perhaps this has happened because the gardener has missed a few pruning sessions, leaving the plant looking neglected.
This comes as no surprise actually because older azalea plants tend to get unshapely easily. Once this occurs, it is very hard to get them back in shape.
This prompts a difficult decision, to let them be or cut them back completely.
Types of Pruning
Pruning a plant has several advantages. It helps to keep the plant neat, tidy, and appealing. Pruning increases a plant’s lifespan by making its stems stronger and more tolerant to the elements.
In some plants, pruning even increases the output of flowers and makes them more likely to flower. An example is lavender plants which with pruning can bloom twice or thrice a year.
Cutting back is a type of pruning but it is not the one everyone uses often! Besides this method, there are various other methods that are used to achieve a specific result.
Here are the types of pruning that apply to azalea plants.
Radical Pruning/Cutting Back
For older azalea plants, something more than basic pruning is required. This is mostly owed to the fact that the plant’s stems and trunk are hard. You may struggle to prune such old azalea bushes using your conventional pruning tools.
In some cases, cutting back or radical pruning requires complete removal of dead and diseased wood prior to pruning. But, be careful how you do this. It directly affects how easy it will be to shape and maintain the plant.
Cutting back azaleas in a single season should be avoided as even skilled azalea growers avoid doing it. Instead, undertake radical pruning over a period of two or three seasons to avoid presenting the plant with stress. Such drastic pruning in a short time frame can even kill your azalea plants!
Staggering efforts to cut back azalea plants will be most effective. Especially if you want to encourage growth and stay ahead in azalea shaping activities.
Rejuvenating Pruning
Young and flourishing azalea plants will rapidly grow to devour any space available to them. Keeping them looking neat and attractive will be the need of the moment at such times.
Rejuvenating pruning is one way to help with such problems that can render your plants or garden unappealing!
You should carry out this type of pruning in winter while the plant is still dormant. Thus, you will not affect flowering too much. Select the three main stems and cut them so that they appear staggered. Cut stems till they are between 1 and 2 feet high.
Use this cutting back method if you want assured shooting. Gardeners will want to stimulate shooting because it yields flowering. But remember cutting azaleas back too much may result in a long three-year wait for flowering!
Maintenance Pruning
The ‘maintenance’ word probably gives you a clue as to why gardeners undertake this type of pruning. It is to maintain the plant and make sure it retains its quality of life.
Following winter freezing or rapid temperature changes, the bark of an azalea plant may split, crack and eventually peel. This is bad news seeing as all the branches above such injury sites die off.
This process of death may take months to happen. But, this is a false hope! Even though it will take a while it will make the plant’s core weak and reduce its lifespan. Maintenance pruning is the best way to carry out the removal of affected and damaged plant portions, particularly related to stems.
You will want to provide maintenance pruning to your azalea plants before they shoot out with new growth. So, early spring is the best time to do it.
Sadly, maintenance pruning will nullify any flowering efforts for the current year.
But, don’t be upset since it will provide two other benefits:
- The plant will grow to fill space and appear healthy
- The plant will have enough time to shoot and mature before winter arrives
To conduct maintenance pruning, cut and remove faded flowers, yellow leaves, and diseased leaves and stems. Cut around ½ an inch above new growth to avoid further damage or contamination in foliage. Make sure to cut above dormant buds.
Pruning Tools
To get your plants the type of pruning you want to, you may have to have an arsenal of pruning tools. Trying to give your azalea plants a new life with the wrong tools will not work out too well for them.
So, to avoid disastrous pruning, make sure that you equip yourself well for pruning. There are basically a few tools that many garden enthusiasts particularly use for their azalea plants. Here are the most important and useful of them:
Hand pruners
These are the most basic pruning tools everyone has. If you don’t have a pair you should get one since it will come into use for any plant you grow. This short-handled tool allows you to trim and prune the outermost accessible foliage and stems of an azalea plant.
Loppers
The lopper tool is identifiable by its very long handles which assist it in reaching difficult areas. It also happens to be the largest hand-pruning tool!
A lopper tool will especially help in pruning hard-to-reach portions of a bushy azalea plant. Your lopper can even reach into the bush and make cuts. It is a handy tool for mature azalea plants.
Pruning saw
The addition of the word ‘saw’ gives an idea of a pruning saw’s purpose in gardening. It is used for cutting thick stems which are otherwise impossible to cut with the other two tools. The saw is a long jagged blade that cuts through bark and wood.
You will commonly find these characteristics on older azalea plants that have been growing for several years or even decades!
Azalea Pruning Tips
More often than not, pruning is an unavoidable activity for anyone interested in growing flowering plants. Azaleas are no exception and pruning will be a constant process one should not even try to neglect to carry out.
So when pruning your azaleas, here are a few tips to keep in mind. People with insufficient pruning knowledge and experience can take note of these tips.
- Always sterilize your pruning equipment before using it to cut into your azalea plants. Failure to do so could result in the unintended spread of disease and fungal infections. Eliminate pathogens on tools by wiping with a cloth saturated with bleach or denatured alcohol.
- Pruning timing is elemental to success! Pruning in early spring prior to the formation of buds is the most beneficial pruning time. Also, another pruning effort can be put in after flowers are spent. This will stimulate a better flowering potential the following year.
- Never cut back azalea plants to 6 inches from the ground or less. This is a drastic step and it could possibly even kill the plant.
- Instead of cutting the whole plant down to a single bare stump, choose to do it a few stems at a time. Ideally, choose two or three stems at a time.
- Don’t carry forth radical pruning in a very short time frame. Instead choosing to do it over a few seasons will likely yield the best results.
Will An Azalea Bush Come Back if I Cut It Down?
Cutting down an azalea bush is a bold but brash decision that anyone should not make in haste. Especially since it may decide the fate of your azalea plants.
Cutting back is occasionally a successful pruning technique for rejuvenating azaleas. But cutting down the whole plant may not work out for any azalea if all the growing conditions are unsatisfactory.
If asking the question of will an azalea bush come back if cut down, the reality of the outcome is a 50/50. Timing and environmental conditions are crucial if an azalea is to bloom and shoot back after you cut it down.
Conclusion
Pruning is an essential activity for growing azalea plants and cutting back (radical pruning) is a type of pruning. But, cutting back is not always the type of pruning the situation and conditions call for.
Reasons you would want to cut back your azalea bush include :
- To induce shooting and growth after the azalea plant has being failing to grow for an extended period of time
- In an attempt to shape an azalea which has been neglected and grown into a leggy and unappealing form
It is usually older azalea plants that require cutting back due to their hard woody stems. Choose the right time to cut back your azaleas plant to give them every chance of shooting back.
FAQs
If you want to cut back an azalea, avoid cutting back or cutting down all of the branches. But, instead, you can pick out two or three major branches that make up the plant. Cut these branches to half or a third of their size.
As for all the other stems, cut them as if you were just shaping the azalea plant.
There is much difference in the amounts of azalea stem that you can cut back, some say 12 inches while others say 6 inches. You can choose which one to adapt by observing the size of your azalea and using your judgment.
