Question
I bought a keepsake azalea in Feb. 2011.  It was beautiful.  Within a few weeks after I bought it,  I took it out of the original plastic container and put it in a new container and added potting soil to it.  I noticed that after a week or so the petals started to fall off. I used a water globe to keep the soil moist.  Once all of the petals fell off I assumed it needed pruned so I trimmed it.  I kept it indoors. Now this plant/tree looks like sticks and it has not re-bloomed.  Did I kill it??? Can I get it to come back to life???

Answer
Leslie,

It will not come back to life unless there are still some green leaves on it. Repotting it to a larger container gave it more wet soil to try to dry out so the roots could breathe. You should never move any plant to a pot with a diameter more than 2 inches larger than the diameter of the pot you are removing it from. Also I do not reccommend the use of water globes for any plants. They tend to keep plants too wet and the roots rot. Azaleas need to be lightly moist, not wet. They also need lots of sun, without it they stay too wet and dry out too slowly so the roots rot.

The following websites have a lot of info on maintaining keepsake azaleas:

http://www.gardenguides.com/77813-care-keepsake-azalea-trees.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_7501825_care-keepsake-azalea.html

After reading those sites if you still have more questions feel free to write again. Goodd luck.

Darlene