Azaleas and the sub-tropical garden.

I have come to the sad conclusion that azaleas and my 10B zone garden don’t mix.  Throughout the years I have purchased many azalea shrubs, all around this time of the year.  All full of buds and flowers, and after the season ends I usually plant them in areas of the garden where they won’t be expose to our killer summer afternoon sun or I plant them in pots.  By the second year I get the flowers you see in the pictures, I know that these beautiful plants need cooler weather, but I’m a gardener I can grow anything with some extra TLC (Not these babies)  

I often travel to Atlanta on business and I envy all those gardens full of blooming azaleas especially in the spring, I have giving up on the idea that I would have shrubs looking like those in southern gardens.  I should enjoy the few flowers I’m getting now, with the acceleration of global warming it won’t be long before they will disappear altogether from southern Florida gardens.