We will all be eager to hear from you over time re: the blood orange, Mary.

Thanks Bobert. I've done a fair amount of research and see lots of stuff about flower blooms and buds turning brown and mushy, but nothing about brown and crispy. At the old house I finally took out a lovely old white azalea because I couldn't get a blight under control that caused the blooms to turn brown and then slimy and it spread to the camellia. I suspected botrytis, but never saw any gray mold and the foliage never seemed affected. This problem is different. Again, no mold, but the blooms become dry and husk-like, and do not shed. There were (are) two different varieties of azalea, both with small, densely packed blooms. The early one is a coral red - not particularly tall, but very erect and narrow in grow habit.   and the later, but still earlier than most, is a compact shrub with clear pink blooms. Whether disease or thrip, the plants bloom, and shortly after at least half of the blooms are open, the browning starts - which is one reason I am still wondering about thrips - the timing is congruent with bloom time, not date time. Of course, diseases also time themselves to stages of plant growth.