Soft yellow flowers appears atop the compact clump of deep blue-green foliage in spring. The flowers age to dusty raspberry purple, showing both colors at the same time.
This azalea has certainly earned its name, coming off the starting line with its first 4-6 week burst of luscious pink flowers in April, gaining its second wind in July, and continuing to produce blooms tirelessly through the fall until hard frost. Disease resistant evergreen foliage gives it the endurance needed to produce such divine beauty again, and again, and again…!
Viscosum Azaleas are not used enough in the landscape but maybe this one is the variety that will get people to take the plunge! Like all Viscosums, ‘Ribbon Candy’ is a dense, slightly taller than wide plant with thick, bluish-green foliage. In mid to late June multiple buds at branch ends open to display masses of pink, star shaped flowers with a distinctive white stripe that bisects each petal and a fragrance that will put you in landscape heaven. ‘Ribbon Candy is easy to grow and loves to be naturalized in semi-shaded woodland areas.
This aptly named hybrid is a superb selection for any partial to full shade landscape. Late June reveals a cloud of delightfully fragrant, pink flowers that fill the area with their sweet aroma and covers the plant with their colorful beauty. Distinctive red-orange fall foliage color will brighten any darker border area that would welcome the presence of this remarkable deciduous gem.
What a great plant for your moist, wooded area! Pink-Shell Azalea is a tall growing, open branched decidous Azalea that is a real early spring treat. Before its light to medium green leaves emerge in late April, this native beauty is already showing off its color with clusters of shell pink colored, open, somewhat flattened flowers with deeper colored throats that are shining brightly in early to mid April for all to see. While not tolerating drought, this easy to grow plant loves to take on wet feet as much as it loves to help out early spring insects and butterflies with its ample supply of early nectar. When foliated, this plant provides great nesting and cover for birds and even provides a sweet little display of light to dark red foliage color in the fall for good measure!
This selection lives up to its name with outstanding trusses of rose-pink flowers that burst onto the scene in late April and regally strut their stuff through mid-May. You’ll love the outstanding scent these flowers have to offer and you’ll notice immediately its unusual longer and wider deep green foliage that turns an outstanding orange-red in the fall. A well-drained, moist spot in partial shade will allow this hard to find plant to thrive. Use a small group for a blooming display that will make your grounds look fit for royalty!
One of the most hardy, if not the most hardy pink flowering evergreen Azaleas, ‘Pink Discovery’ is a slightly larger growing, wider spreading selection developed in Massachusetts by the Mezitt family. Besides outstanding hardiness, the thing that will thrill you about ‘Pink Discovery’ is its burning desire to bloom as heavily as it takes to completely obscure its foliage in early May with large, vivid pink flowers. Plant it on the east side of a house for best performance with partial to full shade and wind protection, although this is such a tough plant that it will tolerate other locations pretty well, too!
A rare find in the landscape but one of the great native secrets of the eastern woodlands, Pinxterbloom will thrill you with its fragrant, late April bloom that fills the air with its sweet honeysuckle scent. For those more interested in visual stimulation, this selection delivers with rounded clusters of 1 to 1.5″ diameter pink to white flowers that bloom just while the foliage is emerging allowing you to focus all your attention on their fragrant beauty. Like most deciduous Azaleas, Pinxterbloom fills a great niche in semi-shaded areas especially when planted in groups to form a sweet smelling, easy care border planting. It thrives in moist areas but is quite tolerant of drier locations, too and provides a great early spring source for nectar in the landscape.
One of the earliest bloomers of all azaleas, this deciduous selection is an explosion of pink color in the early April landscape. Unique in appearance with flowers on leafless stems, this compact grower later reveals a deep green foliage that has a solid landscape presence.
Slow growing, very hardy, and late bloom add up to a plant that demands notice in the landscape. This kaempferia gumpo cross produces large, hot pink blooms that jump off a deep green foliage background in late May into June.