Gas Powered Hedge Trimmers for Pruning Azalea?

I have a large amount of Azaleas, and it gets old quick cutting and pruning them one branch at a time by hand. What would be wrong with using a gas powered hedge type trimmer to clip em all back a bit, and even them up. Visit my website:

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Reply to
Roy
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In Japan they routinely use gas powered trimmers to prune azaleas. Azaleas there are a common plant for hedges.

Albert

Roy ( snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com) wrote: : I have a large amount of Azaleas, and it gets old quick cutting and : pruning them one branch at a time by hand. What would be wrong with : using a gas powered hedge type trimmer to clip em all back a bit, and : even them up. : Visit my website:

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Opinions expressed are those of my wifes, : I had no input whatsoever. : Remove "nospam" from email addy.

Reply to
@hpl.hp.com

First, now is not the time to prune them in the Northern Hemisphere. They should be pruned in the spring after blooming. Ones pruned now will loose the buds for next spring's flowers hence no flowers next spring.

Second, do you want an azalea hedge or azalea plants. The pruner won't do too much damage to the health of the plant, but will make them look like ticky tacky hedges. Also, they will be more disease prone since they won't have good air ventilation. If pedal blight (the flowers turning brown before the flower wilts) is a problem in your area, don't hedge prune, but shears prune to open up the inside of the plant for air circulation. Also, pick up dead flowers so they don't infect new blowers.

If you just want to take a little extra growth off the top of plants that are getting leggy, a quick clipping of the tip tops in the spring after blooming with the hedge trimmer could be used if you must.

Reply to
Stephen M. Henning

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