Azalea 'Lazarus'

[Shibui]

I truly though this one was gone. Early summer and I had not adjusted the watering quite enough for the hotter days. A few nearby shohin also wilted. A few were lost some leaves but this little azalea went totally brown.
Normally, azaleas don't like to get dry so it thought it was gone but decided to maintain care - just in case.
It has been totally brown for more than a month.

Now it's back from the dead.
Yesterday I noticed some green shoots on the lower branches.

When I looked closer there were new shoots on some upper branches too.


The closer I look the more new buds I can see.

Decided to take advantage and shorten most of the thinner twigs to reduce branches and maintain the smaller size.

It should still be early enough in the season for the new shoots to mature and set flower buds for next spring.

 

[fredman]

WOW that's pretty rare for azalea. Bet ya its going to reward you with stronger growth....just for believing in it.

 

[ECMist]

What a pretty little tree. So glad it survived! Hopefully you didn’t lose any branches in the process.

 

[Shibui]

Hopefully you didn’t lose any branches in the process.

Some of the upper branches don't have buds yet but on cutting back all except some of the very fine twigs are still green so I'm still holding out hope it will all grow.
If not there's still plenty to restyle it with.

 

[Glaucus]

Until it has hardened off leaves that shade some of the trunk, this one is still at risk if you aren't on top of watering.
As you are probably very well aware of. I actually clicked this thinking 'I never heard of a variety named 'Lazarus'' haha.

In a case of draught stress like this, and all the leaves going crisp, have you noticed anything on keeping the dead leaves vs pruning it all off as you figure out it all got damaged?

 

[Shibui]

In a case of draught stress like this, and all the leaves going crisp, have you noticed anything on keeping the dead leaves vs pruning it all off as you figure out it all got damaged?

Fortunately, I have not had much experience with dry azaleas - or at least they were much younger so did not matter - so I have not had chances to test whether it's better to leave or prune. Still hope I don't have to go through this very often.
Appears that leaving the dry leaves on until there's signs of recovery works. Allowing it to shoot first allows me to see which parts are still viable. Trimming soon after leaves die off I would not have any idea which parts are alive and not so could be taking viable parts off. I guess if it required pruning anyway that's not an issue.

 

[Glaucus]

For what it is worth, I had a 1 year old seedling that dried out, turned crisp. And I pruned it back a tiny bit and pulled off all the leaves. But it did not bud back before autumn came.

So so far, I'd say keeping the dead leaves on might actually be helpful. That's what happens in nature as well. There might be some benefit for retaining crisp leaves. And it worked out in your case.