Rhododendron indicum ‘Balsaminaeflorum’

'Balsaminaeflorum' is a dwarf evergreen Satsuki azalea, an old Japanese cultivar of Rhododendron indicum grown for flowers that look less like azaleas than like tiny roses. Each bloom is fully double, packed with forty or more petals and carrying neither pistil nor stamens, so the flower is all soft, ruffled color. The cultivar name means balsam-flowered, a nod to the double blooms of the garden balsam, while indicum, meaning of India, is an old misnomer for a plant that is in fact Japanese.

The flowers open in soft salmon-rose, late in the azalea season, from late spring into early summer, when the earlier evergreen azaleas have already faded. Because each bloom is so densely petaled and sterile, the display holds cleanly for a long stretch without setting seed. The word Satsuki means the fifth month, marking exactly this late, early-summer flowering that distinguishes the group. Small, glossy, dark green leaves clothe the plant through the year.

Satsuki azaleas were bred and treasured over centuries in Japan, where dwarf, late-flowering forms like this one are favorites for low borders, courtyards, and bonsai. As with every azalea, the plant is for the eye rather than the table: all Rhododendron carry grayanotoxins in leaf and nectar and should not be eaten by people or pets. The fully double, stamenless flowers offer little to pollinators but a great deal to the gardener's eye.

Low and neatly mounded at two to three feet, 'Balsaminaeflorum' suits the front of a shaded border, a foundation edge, a courtyard, or a large container, and takes happily to the patient shaping of bonsai. Give partial shade and a moist, acidic, well-drained soil, as for other evergreen azaleas, with shelter from harsh afternoon sun in the hottest gardens and a cool mulch over the shallow roots. The rose-like late flowers read beautifully against clipped evergreens, mossy stone, or the raked gravel of a Japanese-style planting.