Betty Montgomery: Native azaleas come in dazzling range of colors

When most people hear the word azalea, they immediately think of the evergreen azaleas that fill the gardens all up and down the east coast. The enormous popularity of these Asian species has set a standard of what some think azaleas should be -- spring blooming, lovely shaped bush, and evergreen. These happen to be the backbone of my garden but I hope I am never without another azalea, the native azalea. These azaleas have a bloom that resembles a large honeysuckle flower that are captivating and often fragrant. The exquisite flowers are considered by some authorities to be the most beautiful of all the native shrubs.

Native azaleas are quite different from their Asian cousins in many ways. They lose their leaves in the fall, can grow quite tall and tend to have more of an airy, natural growth habit. They also have many names; native, deciduous, wild, honeysuckle, bush honeysuckles, or wild honeysuckle. The latter names were probably given because they can have a slight similarity to the wild honeysuckle vine that is also sweetly scented.

Native azaleas come in a dazzling range of colors from yellow, orange, pink, red and white. They also bloom over a longer period of time, expanding the bloom season and are more-cold tolerant. Of the 17 different species of native azaleas, you can find them blooming over a longer time frame.

Native azaleas are woodland plants and do quite well in dappled shade with plenty of moisture, good drainage, and humus-rich acidic soil. They grow naturally in wooded areas. When planted, they often sit for several years before they take off. The mature plant size can range from two-feet to 15 feet tall, resembling a small tree. There is one native azalea, the swamp azalea that prefers moisture and can even grow in wet areas.

The majority of native azaleas are found growing from Maine to Florida, and many grow along the Appalachian Mountain range. I feel this group of plants is underused in the landscape and possibly because they are not sold in the larger stores like the evergreen azaleas or because they do not have leaves all year. However, they look great planted behind evergreen azaleas or mixed in with other evergreen shrubs.

Another wonderful advantage of our native azalea is that it extends the flowering season. My first ones to bloom come along with some of my evergreen azaleas in the last of March. The early bloomers are the pink shell azalea (R. vaseyi) and what some call the mayflower azalea (R. austrinum). Both of these bloom before the leaves come out, making the flowers stand out even more.

The Flame azalea (R. calendulaceum) that is noted to grow in the Smoky Mountains sports flowers that range in colors from white to peach to orange and yellow and some are red. The bloom time for some of these is April where I live but they do not bloom until June or July in the mountaintops where they grow in the wild. The bushes are quite distinct, as the branches in flower look like candle flames. One that is lovely in July in the garden is named ‘Summer Lyric’ and it is a favorite of mine. The last to bloom for me is R. prunifolium also called Plum Leaf Azalea which is red.

When two different plants are crossed, the new plant is called a hybrid. These do not grow true from seed and are reproduced from cutting from the mother plant. This work has been done for hundreds of years and many lovely varieties are the results. Different gardeners have crossed different azaleas to develop different traits. England and Belgium came up with ‘Exbury’, ‘Knap Hill’, and ‘Ghent’ azaleas.

Other crosses have been made in this country. Dodd and Dodd Nursery in Mobile, Alabama developed crosses that have outstanding colorful blooms and can also withstand the hot and humid summers of the South. They developed about a dozen called the Confederate Series. Two that I have that perform well for me are ‘Admiral Semmes’, a pretty yellow and ‘Nathan Bedford Forrest’, a showy orange.

Lazy K Nursery in Georgia, that was run by Ernest Koone, developed a large display of American azaleas and came up with some lovely shades and colors of azaleas. I visited his nursery and chose several that are quite large today.

George Beasley of Transplant Nursery started a breeding program and developed several I have in the garden: Lisa’s gold, a fragrant bright gold, Camilla’s Blush, which is fragrant pink and ‘My Mary’, named for George’s wife. This one I see available in nurseries and it is a fragrant yellow that has a red tube. It blooms in April for me.

As you can see, I love these wonderful plants and I hope I always have some to perfume my garden and to show off their exotic blooms.

Betty Montgomery is a master gardener and author of “Hydrangeas: How To Grow, Cultivate & Enjoy,” and “A Four-Season Southern Garden.” She can be reached at bmontgomery40@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Native azaleas come in dazzling range of colors