Rosy Pink Azalea

Rosy Pink has big showy flowers with a sweet scent

The yellow tag simply read, "Azalea Rosy Pink".  The deciduous azalea was covered with big, fat buds ready to open and welcome the spring! I was a goner.  It mattered not that it didn't have a species name, I knew that a rosy pink azalea was just what the Garden of Benign Neglect needed to continue its rehab and revival. It wasn't until later when I was gently teasing the roots out of the pot (roots are delicate and need to be treated as such with this azalea), that I found a red tag under the mulch. It read Deciduous  Azalea R. periclymenoides Bloom: Rose/Pink.

Big, fat buds ready to welcome Spring

R. periclymenoides is a native azalea (lower Appalachian Mountains, Piedmont and Coastal Plains from Massachusetts to north Georgia and Alabama) also known as Pinxterbloom Azalea or R nudiflorum It occurs naturally in the Southeastern USA along streams and moist woodlands.  It's been found growing in rich pockets of acidic soil in the county where I reside.

the flowers bloom on nearly naked stems 

It can take a drier rockier spot once it's established. But, no azalea, native or exotic, deciduous or evergreen would survive in my nearly neutral, gooey wet all winter and dry as concrete all summer soil.  So work had to be done to make sure the soil was both acidic and moist enough to not only keep an azalea alive but,  help it thrive.

Lucky for me I had just the right spot on a small slope, just above the  Ozark witch hazel.  Earlier in the year, I had dug out the native soil, mixed in compost and a special acid plant woodland mix in order to plant three small Leucothoe axillaris 'Sarah's Choice'.  

This little leucothoe forms a three to four foot  wide and no more than 2 foot tall evergreen ground cover.  It tolerates neutral soil,  but will be much happier in the acid soil that it's planted in. It will give the GOBN a pop of evergreen that was much needed and it will be a compliment to the azalea in years to come.

I planted Rosy Pink with care in the moist, well draining soil and waited for her to bloom.

Slowly the buds swelled and then they opened, a few at a time and then the entire shrub was covered in stunning rose pink flowers.

Pollinated by hawkmoths, butterflies and migrating hummingbirds

I wish you could catch their sweet scent on the air~

 Rose Pink is so worth the effort to keep her thriving in this garden.

xxoogail

PS More Pinxterbloom azalea facts

• Hardiness Zones: 4 to 8   
• Deciduous   
• Slow growing, may colonize by stolons
• Drought tolerant
• Sun to partial shade; moist, well-drained soil, but will grow in sandy soil; does best with half day of sun   
•  4 to 6 feet  x 4 to 6 feet a low spreading, much branched   
• flower color varies from pink to white and has been described as cotton candy colored pink. flower color but often is cotton candy pink to white
• flowers before leaves emerge
• some are fragrant 
• hummingbirds, moths and butterfly pollinated

Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone." She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.