Rhododendron Species, Flame Azalea

The Arnold Arboretum (Boston, Z6a) has a hillside dotted with flame azalea, and in bloom they are nothing short of spectacular. They bloo...Read Morem with the leaves and not before, flowering lasts for about 2 weeks. The colors vary widely: lemon to deep yellow, apricot, salmon, fawn, pinkish/"flesh", as well as brilliant orange and scarlet.

Many people detect no fragrance (I'm one), and those who can smell it don't all find it agreeable.

Performs well in full sun or light shade here. Like all rhododendrons/azaleas, this requires acid soil and prefers consistent moisture. Does not prosper in high heat. Dirr gives Z7 as its southern limit in eastern N. America.

Many cultivars have been selected. This is a parent of the Ghent hybrids.

Our flame azalea gets some sun only in the winter; when the oaks leaf out it's in almost complete shade. It's a little leggy, but blooms ...Read Morebeautifully, early spring, here in Raleigh NC. This year it started blooming in February!
I have never watered it, except for an occasional bucket of water in the hottest driest summers--it's on the side of the house away from the hose. So it's safe to say this is a pretty un-fussy plant! The flowers are orange, but the top two petals are strong yellow. It has a citrusy smell when the weather is cool, which becomes somewhat pungent (not in an entirely nice way) when it gets hot. A great plant! I am going to buy a couple more native azaleas to go with it.

Brilliant orange flowers every May, most fragrant when fertilized with fish emulsion. A very unique shrub!

I had planted t...Read Morehese along the foundation of my house. I have since removed them. Constant watering, acidifying, and fertilizing is bad for the foundation. Chemicals leaching from cement are bad for plants, especially those requiring acidic soil. I wish I had known this before I planted them, for the sake of my cement foundation.

They never thrived due to the poor location but they did flower well and we enjoyed the fragrance very much.

A spectacular flowering shrub of the Southern Appalachians, from southern PA and OH s to northern GA and AL. Perhaps there is no better ...Read Moreplace to see this plant in the wild than along the Blue Ridge Parkway, where it is possible to see examples of its continuous flower color variation from pale yellow to deep orange-red in early June. My father cultivated a large collection of forms of this species in western North Carolina.