Has this azalea reached its dispose by date?

[Primrose]

A few weeks ago I was given a lovely flowering indoor azalea but it hasn't thrived, presumably because the centrally heated room was too warm for these greenhouse reared plants. All the flowers have wilted & dropped off. . Will it flower again if I plant it outside in spring or are these kinds of plants simply not suitable for anything except a short indoor life?

[Geoff]

Depends how much space you've got - we've got one that has hung on by a thread for about 10 years and gives a few flowers but if you want every bit of your garden to work for its living it is likely to be a waste of space. Ours is one of the small flowered ones, I think the larger flowered types are even less likely to prosper.

[Elaine]

Hi Primrose. My friend bought me one of these a few years ago, the idea being , that I could plant it out in the garden afterwards. I couldn't understand why it didn't even survive the week, let alone thrive.

When I took it out of the pot to investigate, I found there was very little root ball to speak of and what there was of it, was enclosed in a tiny plastic "basket". The roots hadn't even begun to grow through and the poor plant hadn't a hope of survival. What a con!!!

Had I bought it my self, I would have taken it back.

Cheers.

[Chantal]

Hi Primrose

I have several in my garden that were "indoor" plants which didn't live very long in the warmth. I thought they were just about dead, but they've been out there for almost 20 years and although are still quite small, they flower beautifully every year.

[Monika]

My mother had a knack of keeping the indoor azaleas for years and getting them to flower again. As far as I remember, she always planted them outside in spring (in their pots), in a shady corner of the garden, brought them in in autumn, repotted them into peaty compost and then kept them on the windowsill of a very cool room (in fact it was usually only used for famlly gatherings, so remained unheated most of the time. Perhaps that was the secret: cool and bright during flowering time!

[Primrose]

I suspect a cooler temperature is the secret with these plants. Whenever I've seen them for sale in garden centres their environments are normally much cooler than the average room temperature. After the holiday I'll investigate the root system, report it if the roots are adequate housed and perhaps put it on the garage window sill until it's warm enough to plant outside in a shade place for the summer. I find it very difficult to throw plants away if there's any hope of rescuing them.