Whether you want to add charm to your garden or decorate your newly opened roadside café naturally, Azalea is always a good option to go. The bright and colorful flowers of this plant can instantly be lit up in a place. Azalea is evergreen, so you’ll enjoy its attractive colors most of the days if you grow the traditional ones.
However, before you start seeding azalea in the garden near the installed pipe or close to the road you must learn about its root system. Or else you may not be able to treat it right to grow and bloom healthily.
Also if this plant has invasive roots planting it near roads or structures can be a questionable decision.
So to fill you with information about Azalea, its root system is explained below.
Azalea root system explained
Azalea has shallow roots that don’t grow much deeper. It doesn’t have an invasive root system. Azalea roots are usually 12 inches deep from the top. But depending on its variant a few inches can be more or less. The short roots of azalea are delicate, thin in texture, and don’t spread too far.
Azalea is a flowering shrub. It grows as a nice shaped bush with bunches of bright colorful flowers in between the green foliage. It might look widely spread as a shrub but if you get to learn about its roots, they are not similarly growing.
Azalea roots lack depth. They are hardly deeper than one foot in length under the ground. It has a shallow root system that doesn’t spread too far from the trunk. So they never collide with any other underground structure.
The depth of azalea roots is 12 inches in most variants. A few types of azalea plants are longer thus their roots go more than 12 inches often, but it hardly crosses the common depth most shrubs’ root has.
Azalea roots are thin in texture and don’t grow in any direction aggressively. The root system of azalea is not invasive. They don’t interfere with any underground structures or even roads and roadside projects.
Here we’ve explained two types of azalea flower plants’ root systems:
Azalea bush:
Traditional Azalea bush looks quite broad and spread. It’s because of their leaves and branches mostly. This plant grows upwards and spread on the top of the ground but its roots don’t grow much deeper. Azalea bush roots lack depth under the soil.
Azalea bush has a non-invasive and shallow root system. It usually stays near three to six feet of the trunk and 12 inches deep from the top. Even they don’t go too far from the trunk of the plant.
Azalea roots aren’t invasive. Azalea roots stay within 36 inches of its trunk. Also, they are less growing. So there is no chance the roots will travel deep and far and get involved with different underground structures or facilities such as pipes, lines, or building foundations.
Encore azalea:
Encore azaleas are evergreen. They will amaze withy with their royal appearance every year. However, their roots aren’t different. Encore azalea roots are shallow and non-invasive similar to traditional common azalea.
Encore azalea roots don’t grow too deep. Their depth is around 12 inches from the top part of the ground. The roots don’t spread more than 3-6 feet from the trunk under the soil.
Encore azalea has shallow roots. Their roots aren’t invasive or aggressively growing in a random direction. They stay close to the crown in a less deep state.
Does Azalea have deep roots?
Azalea doesn’t have deep roots. Their roots are shallow and barely go more than 1-foot-deep in the soil when fully grown. Azalea doesn’t own an invasive root system.
Azalea is a flowering plant that offers mesmerizing beauty. It has eye-soothing pastel-shaded flowers that mostly brighten the plant in the summer and late-fall seasons. Azalea is a plant that can be grown in a small or less wide place.
Azalea is basically a shrub type-plant and so grows as a bush. Though it looks much wider as a flowering shrub, the root of azalea isn’t that deep or invasive. The depth of azalea root is mostly around 12 inches from the ground.
Azalea has shallow roots. Even the roots of this nice bright flower plant don’t spread too much. The texture of its root is thin and fine, they aren’t strong enough as well. Most of the time a fully grown azalea’s root is one-foot-deep under the soil from the top. But depending on the plants’ variety the depth might vary.
Evergreen azaleas never get long roots that are more than 12 inches but the longer plants often get deeper roots to support their strength. However, the roots are still not too deep.
How deep are Azalea roots?
Azalea roots are usually 12 inches deep. But depending on the plant’s height the depth of its root may increase a few inches.
Azalea is a bush-type flower plant. This plant’s root is not much deep. Azalea has short and less deep roots. The roots are so short that they can’t absorb water reaching the water level of soil like most plants.
Azalea roots are mostly one foot deep when the plant is grown wholly. The depth is not more than 12 inches even for a 10-year-old Azalea. But this flower has a few types. Some of them have longer roots than the usual ones but those can’t be noted as long roots.
The finely textured roots of the Azalea flowering bush don’t widen a lot. There is no chance this plant’s roots will travel longer distances and act invasive. Azalea roots are not aggressively growing at all.
For most types of Azalea flower plants, the root barely crosses the 12 inches depth. A few might be longer such as 13 or 15 inches. But most varieties of these beautiful flower plants aren’t’ much longer, so Azalea root isn’t deep as usual.
Can Azalea roots damage the foundation or pipes?
Azalea roots aren’t invasive. They are short, less growing, and don’t run aggressively in any direction. If planted maintaining proper distance Azalea doesn’t reach any installed pipes underground or foundation and damage them.
Plants that have invasive root system often causes trouble for structures, pipes, sewer system, or connections built or went through underground. The roots of these plants are deep and can go a long distance from their trunk and get into these projects. Thus the facilities gest interrupted and damaged.
Azalea roots are shallow around 12 inches, sometimes a few inches more. Azalea roots lack depth. They can’t even reach a level where they can fetch important nutrients or water to absorb.
If not planted too close to a structure or foundation, Azalea roots will not interrupt the facilities since the length of their roots is usually not more than 12 inches. Moreover, Azalea roots are very weak and delicate type. The thin textured roots can’t travel much further to penetrate any strong foundation or ruin it in another way.
Azalea is slow-growing. Its roots are shallow and non-invasive. So if planted correctly, azalea roots will not damage any foundation, pipes, or lines underground.
Do Azalea spread or multiply?
Yes, Azalea can spread or multiply. Azalea is a shallow-rooted shrub. However, the roots of these flowering plants grow and spread but maintaining a range. Azalea roots usually spread from 36 inches to 72 inches depending on the shrubs variant.
Azalea roots spread in a controlled way. Since the roots lack depth they can’t reach a long distance by the spread. According to experts, the roots multiply three times their space from the crown.
All most all types of Azalea flower roots stay within 3 to a maximum of 6 feet from the trunk. This flowering shrubs’ root spread is on average 36 inches to 72 inches. New Azalea saplings can be found through their growing roots.
But other than Azalea’s self-spreading ability, it can be multiplied through cutting, grafting,
or layering. Azalea can spread by applying the tissue culture method as well.
Or you can sow the seed and get a new young plant within two weeks. Within four years Azalea flowers can be seen after germination.
Final Thoughts
Azalea is a shrub that grows slowly. It has a shallow and non-invasive root system. Azalea roots can’t go more than 12 inches deep under the ground except for a few that might go a few inches deep. The roots stay within 3 feet of the crown and don’t grow too far destructively.