LEISURE GARDENING


GO NATIVE


set your garden ablaze with american azaleas BY PJ GARTIN


148 CSD


When it comes to competitive gardening, there’s nothing sweeter than horticultural one-upmanship. (Admit it. You’d rather get poison ivy than see your neighbor’s lawn look better than yours.) So whether you’re renovating or repairing an exist- ing landscape, or simply want to add a mesmerizingly beautiful, as well as historically appropri- ate, specimen to your already perfect Lowcountry garden, here’s what you need: American azaleas.


Sometimes referred to as wild or native azaleas, 15 of these Rhododendron species hail from North America, seven of which are indigenous to South Carolina. Even if you can’t curb your addiction to Charleston’s ubiquitous springtime ever- green shrub, the dayglow purple ‘Formosa’ Southern Indica azalea, it’s time to turn over a new leaf and explore the possibility of welcoming one of our deciduous natives into your garden.


And before you turn your nose up at a woody ornamental that turns into a bundle of bare twigs in winter, consider this: Unlike its evergreen cousins, American azalea blossoms don’t fade into shaggy, brown remnants that take forever to


disappear. Instead, the shrub promptly sheds its spent flowers. As a result, the overall attractiveness of your spring- time garden is extended by a few more weeks. For gardeners who relish brilliant fluorescence, but have grown weary of Formosa- magenta hues, flame azalea (R. calendulaceum) displays extraordinary vibrancy. While


on a plant-hunting expedition through the Southeastern woodlands in 1791, naturalist William Bartram’s reaction to flame azalea was one of amaze- ment:


[T]he appearance of its flowers, which are in general of the color of the finest red, orange, and bright gold, as well as yellow and cream color … cover


the shrubs in such incredible profusion on the hill sides, that suddenly opening to view from dark shades, we are alarmed with the apprehension of the hill being set on fire.


Azalea enthusiast and execu-


tive director of Magnolia Plantation and Gardens Tom Johnson proudly points out that, “Native azaleas are what America


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