Question
I have a area in front of our house where I have a number of bushes planted.  At one end of the area I had an azalea bush that was planted from a cutting 15 years ago.  I was of the opinion it was an outdoor plant.  It bloomed  each year and even in 2006 the light pink flowers covered the entire bush completely and show no signs of any lack of substance or color in the blooms.  In the spring of 2005 we planted two deep red azaleas close by the pink azalea bush.

About one month ago I noticed that the leaf foliage on the pink bush had browned off and had become dry and much had fallen off the branches.  I checked it periodically to see if it would improve as the weather became warmer.  No luck.  Today, I took another look and all the foliage has become dried but of more concern I saw that the two red azaleas we planted last spring and bloomed so well in 2006 had also dried off and most of the foliage has fallen off.  

We did not water the bushes during the winter and left it for the snow to provide moisture.
Do you have any possible reason that we would lose all three bushes over the past winter?

Frank Mastromano    
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Answer
Frank,

To lose three plants with that much of a age difference means only one thing in my estimation, winter dessication. Winter dessication or winter drying, occurs during periods of extremely low temeratures on unprotected evergreens. If you are in any area that received above normal temperatures at the beginning of the winter, then the problem was compounded.

I would recommend giving them a good fertilization this spring to encourage new growth and to increase their overall health. They should recover nicely.

Good luck,
Ed Gulliksen