I love this azalea! It was hiding under some huge shrubs we pulled out and I quickly envisioned the whole border in front of the porch to have these same azaleas. (If you know the name let me know!) So I clipped off different parts of it and stuck it in the ground to see if they’d regrow. Only the branches I took from the bottom of the plant joining the actual trunk or coming out of the ground from the roots actually formed roots and grew. The ones I cut from the tips on top did not. So now I learned how to easily propagate an azalea.
These big bushes made me feel boxed in. I needed space and updated landscaping, so we pulled them out. 
They were thicker than the sidewalk! Once Andy ran off the porch and cannonballed into them and landed on a wasp’s nest and was stung. We cut each bush down to a stumpy bush, chained it to the lawn mower… And yanked it out.
After the bushes were out was when I found the beautiful azalea bush on the far end. It wasn’t blooming because it was summer and had been suffocating so close to that massive shrub. But I knew it would be a beautiful azalea next spring. (And it was!) That’s when I envisioned the whole front border full of azaleas and decided to propagate this one.
This is the azalea I found too close to the big shrubs. I took clippings and branches growing up from its roots and planted them in the holes where the old shrubs were.
The azalea on the left I actually found hiding somewhere else in the yard so I dug it up and moved it there. Then later I realized it matched an azalea by our parking spot/driveway so I moved it next to that one. They look great there together. It’s obviously a different kind. Now that first space is still empty so I need to propagate another azalea so this border looks better. It’s hard waiting for things to grow year after year, but it’s so rewarding taking parts of your current bush, sticking it into the ground, and watching it grow a new bush. And it’s free too!
To Recap: How to propagate an azalea
If you have an azalea you love and want to have 3 or 4 of the same kind across the front of your house, then propagate your azalea. I’m afraid if I bought some at the store they wouldn’t match and I wanted them all the same. I cut/ripped some azalea branches right off the trunk of the bush. I also took a couple that were growing up from a buried root in the ground several inches from the base of the bush. These are the best to take because I wouldn’t want them growing there anyway. I dug a hole, stuck 4-5 twiggy branches in, and covered it with dirt and pine straw from my pine trees. I did this in the summer where it rains nearly every day, but if you don’t get much rain, then water it every day or two. A few of the branches may die, but that’s ok. The others will grow quickly and in a few years fill out to be a big beautiful bush. Let me know how it goes!
PS. This is also the way to propagate blueberries.
