Amendments May Test Your Constitution
We are right, almost to the day, in the middle of the azalea and camellia season. The first began blooming back in December and the last will finish up in June. Unlike most plants, azaleas and camellias are perhaps best planted while they are in flower, or just before, because as soon as they stop flowering, they start growing.
Before planting, the preparation of the soil needs to be a little more thorough with azaleas than with camellias, but both need a soil that is like that found on a forest floor. It should be acidic and full of humus.
Changing our naturally alkaline soils is not easy, but adding lots of organic amendments is a start. These amendments are sold by the bag at nurseries and are usually made of specially treated sawdust or finely ground bark, though at least one uses rice hulls. They are treated with nitrogen in a composting process so they do not steal nitrogen (that most important of plant nutrients) from the plants. This is necessary because these organic products are turned into humus by little organisms that also need nitrogen to survive and they take it from the soil.
In other words, saving your own sawdust from the table saw won’t work. Peat moss is another possibility, though expensive, but many growers favor it over all the others.
A Lot of Amendment
For these amendments to have any effect, as much as 50% by volume must be added. If you are going to dig up the soil to a depth of 10 inches, you must add a 5-inch layer of amendment on top, and then mix it together with the soil so one can’t be distinguished from the other. That’s a lot of amendment, but it is a conservative amount--some recommend adding two-thirds amendment to one-third soil. To get half soil and half amendment, figure that a 2-cubic-foot bag (the most common size) will prepare an area a little larger than eight square feet, or a bed measuring 2x4 feet.
(If you only want to fix the soil in the planting hole, make sure the hole is double the size of the container the plant comes in.)
You’ll find that when you’re finished, the soil will be all fluffed up and considerably higher than when you started, but this is good. Azaleas and camellias so like a raised position that some gardeners only grow them in raised beds or on mounds.
Don’t Overdo Water
You will also find that they need to be watered often in this fluffy soil, but don’t overdo it. Nuccio’s Nurseries in Altadena, one of the leading growers of azaleas and camellias, say overwatering is the No. 1 killer of both plants. There is no hard and fast rule, but make sure that the soil partially dries between waterings.
In time, you will discover that the camellias need less attention, but that the azaleas may start to decline. Camellias, in fact, become tough and treelike with great age. They are even somewhat drought tolerant as the camellias growing on their own in vacant lots testify.
The azaleas can be helped along by continuing to work on the alkaline soil. Always fertilize them with an acid-type fertilizer (usually labeled for azaleas and camellias), and keep a thick mulch (2 inches) of organic matter on top of the soil (but be careful not to bury the trunk or base of the plant).
In winter, it is natural for most azaleas to lose leaves. Some, such as the common Fielder’s White, lose a lot. The leaves first turn yellow then fall, but if leaves turn yellow and the veins remain green, the plant probably needs iron, a more acid soil, or more fertilizer.
First try adding iron to the soil, digging in iron sulfate or iron chelate (both are found at nurseries), or making the chelate into a spray and spraying it on the foliage.
Next, try fertilizing, but if this doesn’t work, the initial soil preparation has probably worn out. At this point you might consider digging them up, redoing the soil and then replanting them. This sounds radical, but it has worked wonders for many azaleas.
Should they be too big to move at this point, you may simply have to start over again, or you can try digging around and even under them, improving this soil, then packing it back in, something Nuccio’s suggested.
What about those long branches that shoot up from azaleas? Simply cut these back to match the rest of the plant. They are typical.
Not So Easy to Cure
And the buds or flowers on camellias that turn brown and mushy? This is not so easy to cure, and I am told there is really no good spray for it despite what some books say. It’s a fungus disease called petal blight and the closest thing to a cure is to pick off all affected flowers and buds and send them to the dump.
To prevent future infection, you must rake up all leaves and petals (and any mulch) and also send them off. The disease is spread by tiny mushrooms that sprout in this litter beneath the bushes, but it can also come from neighbor’s plants, so while you may be able to bring it under some control, you will find it hard to eradicate.
Buds that brown or fail to open on camellias (but are not mushy) are common and are often caused by hot dry weather similar to that we recently experienced. Simply pick them off.
Companions for Camellias and Azaleas
California’s own native iris are coming into full bloom this week, and they are one of the most handsome of plants to grow near the base of azaleas and camellias. The flowers range from creamy white (my favorite is named Chimes), through lavender and blue into deep purple and even some that could be called brown. The colors harmonize well with the pinks and reds of camellias and with pink azaleas. The foliage looks like a foot-tall clump of grass and is very graceful. They can take watering but will survive drought and prefer some shade like the azaleas and camellias. The Theodore Payne Foundation in Sun Valley sells them as does Vern McCaskill in Pasadena.
Other plants that go well--culturally and aesthetically--at the base of azaleas or camellias are the foot-tall coral bells (available in small packs at nurseries), ajuga and Australian violet (both are sold as ground covers and stay less than 6 inches tall). Behind azaleas or to the side of camellias, try Japanese anemones, which grow about 2 feet tall but send up flowering stems to 3 or 4 feet and flower in the fall.
