Azalea growth

Love this Azalea (or Rhododendron or whatever it is), but is there any way to get it to grow more bushy and have more branches?

Cheers!

 

Afraid the only way you will encourage it (Rhododendron, possibly Pink Pearl)to be more bushy and have less areas of bare branches is to prune it quite hard. It may take a couple of years to recover as well. Only a suggestion but after the plant has finished flowering you could maybe prune the tallest branch down to the height of the rest of the branches which should encourage new growth. Try to snap off all the dead flower heads so the plant doesn't waste energy producing seed (take care not to snap off new growth shoots just below flower heads) and perhaps give the plant a good mulch of bark chip or similar to ensure it has plenty of moisture during it's growing stage. If you wanted to be more drastic then prune all the branches down to about 1ft above soil level. I've done it with a few of mine but it does take a while to see the benefits of being somewhat brutal!

 

The leaves are quite yellow. Do you know what type of soil you have (ie the pH level)?

I would do as silu says but also give it some sequestered iron to try and green it up. I use Vitax Seaweed plus Sequestered Iron but Wilkos do this one which is only £3.50.

 

Thanks, I'll take all that advice except pruning it back to 1ft - don't think I have the bottle for that unless it deteriorates!

Not sure on the PH - we have a number of of other Rhododendron type plants in the garden and the previous owner of the house was obviously a much better gardener than me so I imagine the pH would have been correct at some point. That said I put a load of manure down last year - not sure if that would have changed it. I'll get a pH gauge and try the iron.