Expert: John Cawly - 4/23/2008

Question
hi dear expert,
as you can see in attached pictures that I sent to your email I have a plant but I don't know It's name, at first i ask you to tell me its name and then answer that if my plant is sick or not. because as you can see in pics the leaves that are in lower place have became dark and falled.but the upper ones are still healthy.about the flowers i have to say that they were beautiful for about 10 days and then dried and falled too.
I wish my explanation was enough for you.
is this email address a right one? edu.... !!!?jdcawly@mckendree.edu

Answer
Hi Amir,

Thank you for the photos.  The plants you have are azaleas, and they appear to be healthy to me.  The leaves may have a small amount of powdery milder, but that is not a problem.  These plants are "evergreen", and the lower, older leaves will drop as they age.  The younger, newer leaves appear healthy as well.

The flowers show signs of age, that is all.  They will brown and wither after about seven days, but while they are in bloom, they are indeed beautiful.

If you are attempting to grow these plants in colder climates, they may or may not survive the winter well.  There are several species of azalea that are able to grow in the colder climates, but many are native to the warmer temperate regions (~0-4 C minimum winter temperatures).