Purple azalea ‘Elsie Lee’ and a yellow deciduous azalea make a great combination.
Despite the recent cold and cloudy weather slowing down the start of our azalea blooming season, the official Tyler Azalea Trail annual celebration kicks off Sunday, March 22 with a ribbon cutting at the Pyron’s lovely garden on Dobbs Street in Tyler. Some nice sunny and warm days should speed up bud break and the wonderful display, not only on the Tyler Azalea Trail, but all across our region.
Deciduous and evergreen azaleas are perfect landscape plants for east Texas gardens, and the Pyron’s open garden during Tyler’s Azalea Trail is a great example.
I have written about azaleas many times before, and why not? Our climate and soils are so well-suited for these plants that add so much beauty to our landscapes and gardens. To thrive, azaleas need soils which are acidic and well-drained, and many of the soils in in our area meet those conditions. When planting azaleas, spend your money and time in preparing the garden soils by adding of lots of organic matter, such as a finished compost, finely ground pine bark, or peat moss. Avoid poorly drained soils that stay wet long after it rains or after an irrigation.
Azaleas do best with partial sun – morning sun and afternoon shade is ideal. Too much shade and they will not bloom well. Give too much sun and they may stress if soil moisture and other conditions are not ideal. Avoid planting them near trees like elms or maples where their shallow roots will compete with the azaleas for soil moisture and room for root growth.
Be ready to water azaleas regularly, especially for several months after planting. Check the soil for moisture content, because, while you don’t want them to get too dry between waterings, you also do not want to keep the soil constantly wet, either. Once established, they you won’t need to water as often.
Apply mulch over the surface of the soil to reduce water evaporation. Pine straw is an excellent material, and pine bark works well, also. The mulch should be about 3 inches deep, and will need to be replenished periodically as it breaks down. No need to remove the old mulch prior to adding a new layer. The decaying products enrich the soil and will support healthy root growth.
Blue Danube azalea
Types of Azaleas. There are so many different types of azaleas that can be used in our landscapes that sometimes it can be hard to make a decision. Not only do you need think about flower color, and combinations of colors, you should also pay close attention to the ultimate size of these shrubs. Sizes can range from low-growing types like the Gumpo azaleas, to medium large shrubs that grow 8 or more feet tall if unpruned, represented by many in the Southern Indica hybrid group. I suggest you take advantage of the Tyler Azalea Trail to see how different kinds of azaleas grow, and get ideas on color combinations.
Blooming season is another thing to think about when selecting azaleas for a garden. Many of the popular types are considered early bloomers, starting mid- to late March and lasting until early to mid-April. Other varieties are mid-season, with heavy bloom displays starting in early to mid-April and lasting for several weeks. Still others, like those in the Gumpo and Satsuki hybrid groups, wait until May to start blooming.
Encore azalea ‘Starlight’ in IDEA Garden
Then there are those that will bloom more than one time per year. A few older varieties tend to bloom again in the fall, and then along came the Encore varieties, that were purposely bred for their reblooming qualities. There are now a couple of other azalea series like Deja Bloom and Bloom-A-Thon that have been developed to bloom more than one time per year.
One of my favorite types of azaleas are the deciduous azaleas, which have markedly different growth habits and flower colors. Most are native to the southern and eastern parts of the U.S. These azaleas differ from the more familiar evergreen counterparts because they lose their leaves in winter, and typically bloom before or as they put on new leaves in spring. The flowers are more tubular, and often very sweetly fragrant. And the colors are very striking, from the clusters of pale to medium pink flowers of the Piedmont or Honeysuckle Azalea (R. canescens), to the striking gold, orange, yellow and blends of the Florida and Flame Azaleas (R, austrinum, R. flammeum) and the many hybrid varieties. These plants typically grow tall, up to 8 feet, and work well in the back of a shrub bed. Fortunately, they are becoming more readily available as nursery growers have developed better methods for propagating these difficult to root types.
A snapshot of the original planting of the Ina Brundrett Azalea Garden at Tyler Jr. College.
Places to See Azaleas. In addition to the 2 routes on the Tyler Azalea Trail, be sure to check out the Ina Brundrett Azalea Garden located on the campus of Tyler Jr. College, near the “duck pond”, west of the Tyler Museum of Art. There you will find many types of azaleas, including large plantings of the reblooming Encore varieties.
If you are looking for additional places to see lots of azaleas in one location, make the short drive to the Ruby Mize Azalea Garden, located in the SFA Arboretum in Nacogdoches. They have one of the largest public garden collections of azaleas in Texas, including a very large number of deciduous azalea varieties. Free and open to the public.
