Rhododendron x "Pastel #04"

A spontaneous hybrid, probably including Rhododendron alabamense, R. canescens, and R. flammeum, and blooming in mid-spring. Woodlanders regularly offers several numbered selections in our "Pastel Series," which we introduced, and this is number four. A happy blend of colors that adds interest to any garden.

The parentage is worth understanding, because it explains what you get. Rhododendron alabamense, the Alabama azalea, brings white flowers with a yellow blotch and a strong sweet fragrance often compared to lemon. R. canescens, the piedmont or Florida azalea, brings clouds of soft pink and a long tubular corolla with the exserted stamens that give native azaleas their spidery look. R. flammeum, the Oconee azalea of the Georgia and South Carolina piedmont, brings the hot end of the range: orange, salmon, and scarlet, and no scent to speak of. Where those three meet, the results are unpredictable, and the pastel tones that name this series are what happens when the white and pink dilute the fire.

Native deciduous azaleas are among the great garden plants of the American Southeast, and they behave nothing like the evergreen Asian azaleas most people picture. These are open, airy, upright shrubs of six to ten feet, leafing out around or after bloom, going yellow to bronze in autumn and standing as a fine twiggy silhouette in winter. Flowers open before or with the new leaves and are heavily worked by swallowtails and by hummingbirds, and in the fragrant species the scent carries a remarkable distance on a still evening. Because this is a chance seedling rather than a named clone, each Pastel selection is a one-off, propagated vegetatively from a plant we liked enough to keep.

Plant in high filtered shade or morning sun with afternoon shade, in acid, humus-rich, well-drained soil that never dries out hard. Native azaleas are shallow-rooted and unforgiving about two things: drought and being planted too deep. Set the root ball slightly proud of the surrounding grade, mulch generously with pine straw or leaf litter, and water through dry spells for the first several years. Prune, if at all, immediately after flowering. Good with Illicium, Hydrangea quercifolia, Danae racemosa, ferns, and hellebores at the foot. One caution common to the whole genus: all parts are toxic if eaten, including the nectar.