Rhododendron alabamense 'Frosty'

Rhododendron alabamense, the Alabama azalea, is one of the loveliest and, by wide agreement, one of the most powerfully fragrant of all the wild deciduous azaleas of the Southeast. The species grows in hardwood forests and along dry slopes and ridges from north-central Alabama east through western Georgia and into South Carolina, where in mid spring the woods fill with the scent of lemon. Clusters of six to ten white, funnel-shaped flowers, each marked with a clear yellow blotch and finished with long, arching stamens, open just before or alongside the emerging leaves. The genus name Rhododendron means rose tree in Greek, while azalea derives from azaleos, meaning dry, a nod to the well-drained upland ground these shrubs favor.

'Frosty' is a named form selected years ago in southwest Georgia by Terry Greer, whose own name is sometimes attached to the plant. Cuttings came to us from our friend and fellow plant nut Dean Jolly. The selection carries the typical white, yellow-blotched, lemon-scented flowers of the species, but earns the name 'Frosty' for handsome, somewhat glaucous foliage, that cool blue-gray cast frosted over the summer leaves. Low and rounded, usually under six feet and inclined to sucker gently into a colony, the shrub keeps a tidy presence long after the flowers have passed.

The wild azaleas of the Southern woods have been admired for generations as bush honeysuckles, prized for perfume and spring color rather than for any use in the kitchen or the still-room. That distinction is worth remembering: like all Rhododendron, the leaves and nectar of 'Frosty' hold grayanotoxins and are not to be eaten by people or animals. The flowers, however, are a banquet for others, drawing in early butterflies, native bees, and the season's first hummingbirds to the sweetly scented trusses.

In the garden 'Frosty' asks for the conditions of a Southern woodland edge: dappled light or morning sun with afternoon shade, and a moist but sharply drained, acidic soil laced with pine bark or leaf mold. Set the shrub where the lemon fragrance can be caught on a spring evening, near a path, a porch, or a garden bench, and let the glaucous foliage cool the greens around it through summer. The suckering habit suits a naturalistic planting among ferns, foamflower, and native phlox, or a loose drift of mixed native azaleas that stretch the bloom season from first warmth into early summer.