Azalea
Rhododendron
Acid soil and steady moisture are the whole bargain — meet them and it flowers hard in shade, miss them and nothing else will save it.
Spacing & sowing
- Plant spacing
- 3 ft 11 in
- In-row spacing
- 3 ft 11 in
- Between rows
- 3 ft 11 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
Growing
- Type
- Shrub · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Sunlight
- Partial shade, with shelter from wind.
- Watering
- Keep it evenly moist, and use rainwater where the tap runs hard.
- Feeding
- An acid-loving-plant feed after flowering, over an acidic mulch.
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- April
- Pruning
- Prune lightly after flowering and deadhead as the blooms go over.
Through the year
- Mar–Apr Bud Break
- Apr–May Flowering
- May–Oct Growing
- Oct–Dec Leaf Fall
- Jan–Mar Leaf Fall
Companions
Rhododendron, Camellia, Pieris, Ferns
Pests & problems
- Lace bugs Lace bug on the leaf undersides
- Vine weevil Vine weevil at the roots
- Gray mold (botrytis) Petal blight on the open flowers
- Azalea gall on leaves and buds
Garden allies
Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. companion plant
- Assassin bug ReduviidaeHunts Lace bugs
A patient ambusher with a curved beak it drives into whatever it catches — caterpillars, beetles, bugs, and the occasional bee, so count it a generalist rather than a specialist. It will jab a careless finger too, so admire it and leave it be.
- Beneficial nematodes Steinernema & Heterorhabditis spp.Hunts Vine weevil
Microscopic worms watered onto damp soil that hunt down soil-dwelling grubs and release a bacterium that kills them within days. Timing is the whole thing: warm, damp soil and a small target grub, which means late summer for most of what they are used against.
- Frogs & toads AnuraHunts Vine weevil
A resident toad works the beds every night for slugs, cutworms, and weevils. Recruit them with water — even a sunken basin pond — plus damp shade and an upturned-pot toad house; skip the slug pellets that poison their prey.
- Green lacewing Chrysoperla carneaHunts Lace bugs
Its bristly larvae — "aphid lions" — impale aphids, mealybugs, thrips, and mite colonies, eating hundreds a week. Adults feed on nectar and pollen from small open flowers and overwinter in hollow stems left standing.
- Ground beetle CarabidaeHunts Vine weevil
Fast, glossy night hunters that patrol the soil surface for slugs, cutworms, and root-fly larvae. Give them daytime cover — thick perennial edges, stepping stones, a log — and skip the tillage that wrecks their burrows.
- Hedgehog Erinaceus europaeusHunts Vine weevil
A European animal, and worth saying so plainly: there are no hedgehogs in North America, and the ally that does the same night shift here is the toad, the opossum or the ground beetle. Where they do occur, cut a gap in the fence and skip the pellets.
- Minute pirate bug Orius spp.Hunts Lace bugs
A pinhead-sized true bug that is the best natural check on thrips, and happily spears aphids, mites, and insect eggs too. It needs pollen when prey is scarce, so keep something flowering nearby.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com