Rhododendron periclymenoides 'Rosy Pink'

Is this the rhododendron that can can survive my Middle Tennessee garden?

I sure hope so! For years I have dreamed of the sweet fragrance of native azaleas wafting through my garden. 

Other azaleas have come and gone. Like the beautiful 'Golden Lights' I tried four years ago. She was beautiful the first season, by the second merely pretty and then gone by the third spring. 

 I met 'Rosy Pink' last year while strolling through a favorite garden center. The yellow tag simply read: 'Rosy Pink Azalea'. The deciduous azalea was covered with big, fat buds ready to open and welcome the spring!  I bought three and planted them in the Garden of Benign Neglect in an acid soil enriched bed along with Leucothoe axillaris 'Sarah's Choice'  and an underplanting of Iris cristata and trilliums. While planting them I discovered a tag buried under the mulch that identified Rosy as Deciduous Azalea R. periclymenoides Bloom: Rose/Pink. Go here to read the original post. 

'Rosy Pink' was beautiful from her first swollen bud until all the blooms dropped off weeks later.  The garden smelled delicious every time the wind blew. Then summer arrived and with it came a drought that lasted till late fall. I was able to keep all the Rosy Pink azaleas alive, but, they didn't set many flower buds. This spring there were only a few beautiful blooms.

Naturally, I bought more. The experiment wasn't nearly over! **

Flowers range from soft pink to dark pink and are sweetly scented and very beautiful.

This time I planted them in the front garden where several Rhododendron canescens already resided. They were planted last fall, rescues from the late summer sale table.  Of course, I didn't plant any of them in my "pretty darn close to a cedar glade micro-environment" without amending the soil!  (More about this micro-environment here) Dozens of years of decaying leaf litter had made it rich and humusy, but, soil conditioner and a Woodland Soil Mix created for acid loving plants made it even better. Azaleas might like moist soil, but these also want sharp drainage. In my clay soil that means planting them high and mulching them with pine straw. I want these beauties to have the best chance to survive.

 The delicate petals curl back exposing long stamens and styles

After all, I have dreams and I'll continue to work to make them happen.

xoxogail

** Thanks to Frances of Fairegarden for inspiring me to plant our beautiful native azaleas.  Hers really rock!

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.

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.