Take a look around your neighborhood this spring. If you live in a warmer section of the South, chances are you won't have to travel very far to spot confectionery clouds of pink, white, red, or lavender blooms surrounding a home.
Evergreen azaleas are not native here, but they've been welcomed with open arms since they arrived in the early 1800s. It's easy to see why the South overflows with these plants. For starters, they're evergreen, which is always a nice quality. Second, they offer a mind-boggling variety of flower form, color, and size.
Whether you're contemplating a new landscape plan, adding to your existing garden, or just looking for tips on caring for the azaleas you already have, here are some guidelines offered by Hank Bruno, trails manager at Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Georgia. This 14,000-acre garden, nestled in the southernmost foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, could be called the Super Bowl of azaleas. It features hundreds of types of azaleas that can be grown in the Southeast. Hank conducts workshops teaching visitors how to grow them. As it turns out, this is not astrophysics. Actually, growing azaleas is as easy as A-B-C.
A: Begin With Good Design.
"What I'm seeing in the home landscape is a lot of people are not being very judicious in their use of color," Hank says.
"When you've got the vibrant colors that azaleas have, I recommend people select different hybrid groups with different bloom
times so they aren't blooming side by side at the same time. Either that or try to harmonize the colors, which is what we're
doing here with our plantings. But what I worry about is that people start clashing colors, and the yard looks like a cacophony
instead of a concert."
If you want to put together a first-rate symphony, a conductor can tell you that you need to group your instruments; scattering everything randomly would not lead to harmonious music. It's the same with azaleas. Mass plantings of a single color will lend a graceful appearance to your garden. (If you're into heavy metal music, you might not be afraid of mixing lavender and orange blooms.) Pastels are easier to work with because the colors tend to harmonize well.
Another design strategy that keeps Hank awake at night is alternating red and white azaleas as a foundation planting, especially against a redbrick house. "If you want to use two colors, put them in blocks rather than alternating them," he says. "We try to encourage a color scheme that appeals to the individual homeowner. We're not trying to dictate the color; we just try to emphasize a little bit of discretion."
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