Azaleas Flower In Early at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

AZALEAS ARE deciduous rhododendrons and their hybrids. The name is also given to a range of compact evergreen shrubs. They are prized for their vibrant colors in late spring and for their fine foliage. Deciduous azaleas flower in early and mid-summer. They are immensely showy with good-sized flowers in fine clusters and a wonderful color range, including yellow, orange, pink, scarlet, crimson, and many intermediate shades. The flowers of some varieties are very fragrant. In some varieties, the leaves turn copper and crimson before dropping in the fall. Mollis varieties have larger and earlier flowers than the Ghent varieties.

The evergreen azaleas are low, densely branched spreading shrubs with neat leaves and small to medium-sized flowers, very freely produced in early and mid-summer. Their color range is from white to crimson, but with none of the yellow shades that characterize the taller, more open-branched deciduous azaleas, and with greater emphasis on pinks, carmine and scarlet. They are among the most showy of all shrubs when in flower and, being evergreen, give the garden a well-furnished appearance even in winter. Some good varieties are: "Addy Wery" (vermillion); "Benegirl" (deep magenta); "Christmas Cheer" (crimson); "Hinomayo" (pink); "Hinodegirl" (carmine); "Malvaticum" (mauve); "Orange Beauty" (orange); "Leonora" (lemon); and "Palestrina" (white).

Certain climbers need regular pruning to encourage flower production, to ensure the plant remains vigorous and to keep them nicely shaped. Many, however, do not need pruning, except to remove dead wood as necessary. For deciduous climbers that flower in spring or early summer, prune back the growths produced the previous year immediately after flowering. Deciduous climbers that flower in summer and the fall on growths formed in the current season should be pruned in early spring.