Mat, 1907 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



221 



The BlacK Sea azalea (A. Poniica), characterized 

 by long tube, yellow flowers and protruding stamens. 

 A parent, with the Chinese azalea, of most of the 

 named varieties known as "mollis hybrids" 



ably little inducement to cultivate it east of 

 the Rockies. The flowers are white or 

 tinged rose, and differ from the others in 

 having the upper lobes marked with yellow. 

 An English enthusiast says it is worth grow- 

 ing for the fragrance alone, and that Waterer 

 has produced some good, fragrant, late- 

 blooming hybrids by crossing this with mollis. 



10. The tallest of all azaleas is the tree 

 azalea (A. arhorescens) which attains a height 

 of eight to twenty feet in the wild, but in 

 cultivation makes a spreading bush three to 

 six feet wide. It is the latest to flower, bloom- 

 ing in June or July. Its foliage is the best 

 of all azaleas, in Mr. Kelsey's opinion, as 

 the leaves retain their lustre all summer and 

 are bronzed beautifully in fall. The flowers 

 are white or tinged rose, two inches long and 

 much more fragrant than nudiflora or viscosa. 



n. The white azalea or "swamp honey- 

 suckle" (A. viscosa) blooms the same time 

 as the tree azalea, but grows only four to 

 eight feet high, and has sticky white flowers 



Orange Hybrid, one of the many products of cross- 

 ing the two species shown above 



about two inches long and broad. This 

 species and the one just preceding are the 

 only azaleas that bloom long after their 

 leaves have appeared. Their flowers are 

 fewer but have a better background. In 

 autumn the leaves often show striking shades 

 of red. The variety rosea, with bright pink 

 flowers,is so rare that small plants cost $4 each. 



12. We now come to the weird two-lipped 

 azaleas, one of which is shown on this page. 

 The flower at the bottom of the picture dis- 

 tinctly shows how the lower lip is split almost 

 to the base into two thin strips. This is the 

 rhodora of Emerson's immortal poem, which 

 was originally called by Linnaeus Rhodora 

 Canadensis, and Dr. N. L. Britton now pro- 

 poses that we return to that name. I shall 

 stick however, to Azalea Canadensis, the name 

 preferred by Bailey 's " Cyclopedia of America n 

 Horticulture." The rhodora is a strange 

 rosy-purple flower, about an inch and a half 

 across, and with narrow petals. Although a 

 native of bogs and wet hillsides, it has long 

 been cultivated in England under the same 

 conditions with other azaleas. 



13. The Japanese rhodora {Azalea rhom- 

 bica), is probably a more attractive plant, 

 since the color is said to be bright rose and 

 the flower half an inch broader. 



14. The only pink azalea I have ever seen 

 that is entirely free from any suggestion of 

 magenta is Azalea Vaseyi. The lovely 

 species grows wild only in North Carolina, 

 and was not discovered until long after the 

 Civil War. I wish it had been named 

 Kelseyi, to commemorate Mr. S. T. Kelsey, 

 who found it in 1878, and his son Harlan 

 P. Kelsey, who introduced it to cultivation. 

 The first large quantity of it was found at 

 Cashier's Valley, Jackson Co., at an altitude 

 of 3,500 to 5,000 feet, and like many other 

 glorious plants of the southern Appalachians, 

 it is hardy in New England. It blooms more 

 profusely than any other native species, the 

 whole bush being covered with flowers, and 

 it attains an extreme height of fifteen feet. 

 This extraordinary shrub begins to bloom 

 when only a foot high, and its leaves turn 

 deep crimson in the autumn. The flowers 

 I have seen were pure pink and not even 

 spotted, but usually the three upper lobes 

 have small spots of a deeper color, and the 

 species is said to range from deep rose nearly 

 to white. The flower is broadly bell-shaped, 

 has a very short tube, and is so slightly two- 

 lipped that for practical purposes it may be 

 considered a symmetrical flower. 



14. Similar in shape and spotting is Azalea 

 Albrechti, a rare purple-flowered species, 

 with ten stamens instead of seven. 



15. To the same group belongs the pale 

 rose Azalea Schlippenbachi, which comes 

 from Fuji near the snow line, and is said to 

 have flowers three times the size of A . Vaseyi. 

 Mr. C. W. Ward says the blossoms are a 

 bright rose pink, and 2^ to 3 inches across. 



HINTS ON AZALEA CULTURE 



The hardy evergreen azaleas (amoena and 

 rosmarinifolia) must have partial shade and 

 shelter from winter winds, like any other 

 broad-leaved evergreens. 



Although the deciduous azaleas will stand 



The Chinese azalea (A. Sinensis, but called by 

 everybody A. mollis). Of all the hardy species this 

 has the largest flowers and most colors. Scentless 

 and scarcely any tube 



more exposure to sun and wind than rho- 

 dodendrons it is best to shelter them from 

 high winds and midday sunshine, especially 

 as the flowers are likely to be caught by late 

 frosts. Since all but the June bloomers 

 (viscosa and arborescens) appear before or 

 with the leaves, it is important to give them 

 an evergreen background, and the natural 

 thing is rhododendrons, since they require 

 the same cultural conditions, and prolong 

 the blooming season of the same type of 

 beauty. Azaleas are so inordinately showy 

 in season and so commonplace when out of 

 bloom that they are often treated as bedding 

 plants, being replaced after blooming by 

 a succession of other flowers. Furthur hints 

 on azalea culture appear on page 238. 



" R.hodora" of Emerson s immortal voem(A. Canadensis) 





