Why Aren’t My Azaleas Blooming?

About This Episode

A reader is discouraged by azaleas not blooming. Plus, Grumpy’s low-maintenance plant of the week.

Question Of The Week

"What can I do to encourage my everblooming azaleas to bloom more? They didn't bloom this spring, and it doesn't appear they've set buds for fall either. Should I just replace them?"

Grumpy's Response: I think that you need to wait just a little bit before making a decision like that. Repeat blooming azaleas such as the Encores, they need a little more sun than traditional azaleas. Those things can even be planted in full sun, so you might have to move them to a slightly sunnier spot. But I would wait on doing that until after you see what they do in the fall. Also, don't prune these azaleas any more than you absolutely have to because they bloom at several times of the year, the main bloom periods being spring and fall. And if you prune too much, you might be cutting off flower buds, and, again, that might be why they're not blooming. So the best time to prune these everblooming azaleas would be in the spring, right after they finish their big spring bloom. And then they'll have plenty of time to make flower buds for the fall bloom.

Plant Of The Week

Chaste tree is one of my favorite ornamentals because it can be either a large shrub or a small tree. It usually has multiple trunks, but it's one of the few plants that we have that will give us blue or purple flowers on a woody plant. So it's something that's completely different from all the crepe myrtles you see in everybody else's yard. It's also a great plant for pollinators. They love the flowers, and it blooms generally around June or July. Why I love it:

• Easy to take care of
• Drought tolerant
• Doesn't have any pests
• Prune in the spring because it will bloom on new growth.

There's a couple things about chaste tree that some people don't like:

• Sometimes it just grows too big for the spot you have it in. And you're having to prune a lot. And this chaste tree typically will grow to be about 15 feet tall. That might be a little big for the spot you have it in, like near the house or something like that.

Well, this new one called Summertime Blues, which is in our Southern Living Plant Collection, grows only five to six feet tall. So it's usually very good for planting just about anywhere. It's not going to take over, or block things, or shade them out. So you can use them in a lot of different places. It has lavender blue flowers, early in the summer, and they're really, really pretty. And here's another thing that's good about this one. Some people complain about chaste tree in that after they bloom and form seeds, that they get a lot of seedlings around. Well, this one won't do that because Summertime Blues is a sterile chaste tree, so it doesn't form seeds, and you don't get seedlings.

About Ask Grumpy

Ask Grumpy is a podcast featuring Steve Bender, also known as Southern Living’s Grumpy Gardener. For more than 30 years, Grumpy has been sharing advice on what to grow, when to plant, and how to manage just about anything in your garden. Tune in for short episodes every Wednesday and Saturday as Grumpy answers reader questions, solves seasonal conundrums, and provides need-to-know advice for gardeners with his very Grumpy sense of humor. Be sure to follow Ask Grumpy on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen so you don't miss an episode.

Editor’s Note: Please be mindful that this transcript does not go through our standard editorial process and may contain inaccuracies and grammatical errors.