Sweet Azalea

With tropical beauty - local hardiness, the Sweet Azalea (Azalea arborescens) is a fantastic native option for an easy-to-grow flowering shrub! Featuring a loose, open branching that is mostly upright in form, these fill their canopies with lush green, pointed, oval leaves. In the fall the foliage turns bright orange to crimson or purple color before dropping and exposing the informal branching structure.

Pale pink to white fragrant flowers bloom from late spring to early summer and attract bees, butterflies, and Hummingbirds! The loose flower trusses have large, tropical-looking trumpet-shaped blooms with long, reaching reddish anthers and styles that look like they're just begging for a pollinator to land!

Also known as Smooth Azalea, Sweet Azalea is a hardy native flowering shrub that thrives in the understory, along streambanks, and sometimes boggy areas and moist woodlands throughout USDA growing zones 4 through 7. Depending on a few factors, these shrubs can grow anywhere between 8-20 feet in height and width. Fast-growing and spreading by underground runners, this shrub may develop a large multi-stem, clump-forming tree-like habit with age that can be encouraged with pruning and training.

Planting and Application:

Not just lovely as a stand-alone specimen, Sweet Azalea won't mind close neighbors either. Create thickets and let these hardy natives form colonies for your songbird population to roost in while filling your out-of-the-way areas with easy-care beauty and interest. Line your back property or create an informal hedge, interspersed with other flowering shrubs and evergreens for a light-hearted and natural property-defining hedge or shelterbelt.

Wonderful understory and woodland shrubs, Sweet Azalea looks perfect when grown in open shade gardens! They're must-have native bushes for the pollinator garden, and their appreciation of moisture makes them ideal for use in Rain Gardens. Try planting these colony-forming shrubs on a hard-to-mow slope or hillside to slow rainwater and erosion.

• Fragrant Trumpet-Shaped Pinkish to White Blooms
• Lush Green Foliage & Open Branching
• Bees, Butterflies & Hummingbirds!
• Multi-Stemmed Shrub, Tree-Form, or Thickets
• Hedges, Specimens, Rain Gardens & Backdrops

#ProPlantTips for Care:

Azalea bushes are easy to care for and do best in partial shade to full sun environments. These hardy deciduous native shrubs do best in deep, enriched, and highly organic soil that is slightly acidic. Preferring consistent moisture, install drip irrigation or provide supplemental watering during hot dry summers and dry winters. Apply a 3-4 inch thick layer of arborist pine bark mulch, extending out over the entire root system for the best moisture retention. Blooming on old wood, always prune your Azalea immediately after flowers fade to avoid removing next year's bloom! Renewal prune every 3-5 years to maintain flowering vigor, and remove suckers as needed to keep your shrub from spreading if desired.

• Full Sun & Partial Shade
• Enriched, Organic Well-Drained & Acidic Soil
• Even Regular Moisture Needs
• Prune After Flowering
• Easy-Care Native Deciduous Shrub

Sweet Azaleas are gorgeous flowering shrubs with fragrant blooms and pollinator appeal! Hurry and order these hardy native ornamental bushes at NatureHills.com today!