Rescuing an Azalea

I have never had one of these.  And as one person said, "They are in the deep South, right?"  In my usual way during the spring months, I had noticed plants outside the Rite Aid and somehow the car just drove into the parking lot. I retrained myself and I did not buy that delphinium or the salva or even the big columbine.  I wandered into the store for some other reason and saw this pretty pink plant.  i thought, "Now what is that?"  I started at it for awhile and noticed "75% off."  Whoa. that is like $3.00.  Is it worth an experiment?  of course, was my reply to myself.

I saw another lady pondering the other plant. (At this time, i did not even know it was an azalea.)  She took the words out of my mouth and said, "do you know how to care for azaleas?"  I said, "I do not." she replied, "Well, I have rescued quite a few azaleas."  I said, "Really? What do you do?"

"Well, they must be kept in diffused light, under a big tree, like in the south, under those big oaks.  I bring mine in for the winter and they bloom right through the year.  I don't ever prune them."

I went ahead and spent the $3.

I came home and transplanted to a bigger pot.

The next day, to my chagrin, the pink flowers had wilted.

Googling azaleas, I found out more important information. They like acidic soil.  I went to the pine tree and gathered up dried pine needles and started stuffing them into the dirt.  Then Tom mentioned to me, "Do you need any coffee grounds? I had made a lot of coffee for the group today."  I put some of those in and watered. I thought maybe the plant was having a little "transplant" shock.

4 days later, here is the  plant