By: Maarten Van Der Giessen, President, Van Der Giessen Nursery, Semmes |www.MobileCountyMasterGardeners.org
We see them every spring, cast across the urban landscape like signal flares. Red, golden, yellow, bright pink: our native azaleas. To some they speak of rich soil and riverbanks, shaded creeks and woods. To others they’re a mystery, a beautiful firework that comes from seemingly nowhere and explodes in the neighbor’s yard each spring. To me they are a beacon, a signal that leads me to new worlds, the real world outside of our created environments of Japanese hollies, boxwoods, and crape myrtles.
Deciduous azaleas are largely North American. Other than one European and one Asian outlier, the remaining species are found in the US. Alabama is richly blessed with native azaleas, perhaps more so than any other state. This is largely because Alabama has the richest flora east of the Mississippi, and fourth most diverse in the United States. There are seven distinct soil areas here, each with its own unique habitats. Each offers a distinct azalea.
Deep in the Coastal Plain on the Escatawpa River, we find the Rhododendron austrinum, the Florida Flame azalea. Austrinum is one of the largest of the native azaleas and most prized by gardeners. It’s a tough survivor that puts on a stunning display of large, fragrant yellow to gold flowers. Recently, pure pink populations have been discovered.
The Tensaw Delta is rich in bright to soft pink R. canescens, the Piedmont azalea. Throughout the margins of our longleaf pine forests, you find them reaching for the sun.
Our summer blooming R. viscosum, the Swamp azalea, has small white flowers packing an outsized spicy punch, found throughout the state in wetlands.
Higher up in the Blackland Prairies around Selma, the Alabama azalea, R. alabamense, with its lemon fragrance and bright yellow blotch, can be found in the hills surrounding the Alabama River.
In the lower areas of the Black Belt, Alabama’s newest species, R. colemanii, swarms in yellow, pink, and white. For decades it was confused with the Alabama azalea. Recent studies have shown that it is in fact the ancestor of the Flame azalea so common in the mountains of North Carolina.
To the east we find the bright red Plumleaf azalea, R. prunifolium on the Georgia border. Prunifolium is native to just a few counties, but native plant lovers make the trek every summer to see their magnificent show.
In the Ridge and Valley around Gadsden, we see the soft orange to deep red Cumberland azaleas, R cumberlandense.
And finally, in the Appalachian Plateau around Little River in Mentone, we find the Sweet azalea, R arborescens, along the streambanks and boggy areas. The Sweet azalea will tell you where it is long before you see it. Walking the trails beside the Little River Canyon in late May, the woods become transformed with their heady perfume.
Alabama is blessed as well with two of the greatest azalea hybridizers in the United States: Mr. Tom Dodd, Jr. of Semmes, Alabama, and Dr. Eugene Aromi of Mobile. They took the natives of Alabama and mixed in the elements of the West Coast azalea and large flowering Asian species to create a race of heat tolerant deciduous azaleas that rival azalea breeding anywhere in the world.
Fortunately, many of the hybrids and species are available for your garden. Don and Kim Whiddon’s wonderful little Kim’s Nursery, in Wilmer, propagate and sell a wide assortment of deciduous azaleas. Several of Mobile’s best Garden Centers are happy to order natives for you from local growers.
Mobile Botanical Gardens plant sales have supplied natives to us for years. At their Oct 24-26, 2024 plant sale (see listing), MBG will have Alabama natives R. arborescens, R. austrinum and R. canescens, and outstanding examples of the breeding work of Tom Dodd, Jr. - 'Colonel Mosby' and 'Stonewall Jackson'.
Next spring, when you see the clouds of red and gold in your neighbors’ yards, maybe you should consider following them back to their homes. It’s an opportunity to see not only something unique and beautiful, but also to open the doors to the rich, natural gifts that Alabama has been given.
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