Designing With Azaleas

Plant your azaleas strategically across your landscape as with other plants; create a winding path between their vibrant colors that compels you to explore your garden further.

For a pink palette, 13 varieties of Encore(r) azaleas range from pastel to hot pinks – such as the double-ruffled Autumn Rouge(tm). Or try creating your own red and orange palette using six Encore(r) varieties that range from blue-reds like Autumn Fire(tm) to orange-reds such as Double Shot(tm). Their evergreen foliage provides year-round interest!

Spring

Azaleas add showy, fragrant accents to gardens of all sizes. Use them en masse for maximum impact or combine them with larger shrubs such as rhododendrons and hydrangeas in borders for an eye-catching display, or use as specimen plants in borders containing deciduous shrubs such as holly, viburnum and laurel for deciduous shrub borders. Native flame azaleas (Rhododendron calendulaceum) bloom in May-early June adding vibrant hues that serve as an ideal background against low deciduous species such as ajuga and periwinkle.

All azaleas thrive in acidic soil that drains well, and your County Extension Service offers free pH tests of your garden soil. Before planting, amend it with organic material such as leaves, pine straw or compost for improved drainage; adding organic mulch such as leaves, pine straw or compost may further condition it before sodding. Azaleas do best in partial shade or partial sun conditions – full sunlight causes leggy growth with reduced flowering potential.

Pruning after your azaleas finish blooming in late spring will not only keep them looking their best, but will redirect energy toward setting more leaves and flower buds. For mature azaleas that require shaping, light pruning should be performed no more than once annually.

Deer are attracted to azalea flowers due to their fragrant blooms, so protect them with a deer-resistant fence or barrier in order to avoid damage and then water the area sparingly but regularly, particularly during the heat of summer; overhead sprinklers should only be used early morning for maximum effectiveness in combatting fungal disease outbreak.

Azaleas add a year-round splash of interest to any landscape with their long, strappy foliage, making for an eye-catching display year after year. When its foliage begins to fade, cut back in stages until you achieve a more mounded form; leggy plants should have some branches removed to open up their center and open up space. Shearing into geometric shapes or round balls would not work best as these plants thrive best when left in their natural mounded forms; for an eye-catching display try the Autumn Twist Encore Azalea with its tie dye-esque blooms and fire engine red hue; perfect addition for cottage, traditional, or naturalistic garden style alike!

Summer

Summer garden landscaping can benefit greatly from adding flowering shrubs. Their wide range of plant types and flower color choices offers something suitable for every landscape design scheme. While hydrangeas may come to mind first, azaleas also add summer color in shade gardens if planted using layering techniques; particularly deciduous varieties. When layering, cut a branch from an already healthy deciduous azalea that hasn’t bloomed yet and place it close to the soil covered by mulch; gradually, this branch will start rooting and eventually can be removed and planted elsewhere in your garden!

Evergreen azaleas make great landscape shrubs, as their versatile design options allow for them to be combined with other plants to achieve various designs. You could combine evergreen azaleas in foundation plantings alongside ground covering plants such as Euphorbia hollyhocks (Euphorbia) or hostas (Hosta). Grouping them by color creates striking landscape designs while evergreen azaleas also blend beautifully with herbaceous perennials such as Heucherellas, Day Lilies and Daisies which come in an array of hues.

Integrate azaleas into a shade garden by placing them among other trees and shrubs with deep foliage, to add color and highlight other plants in the space. They make for great additions with their showy flowers, leaf texture, and year-round weed suppression capabilities – not to mention showy blooms that add beauty.

Azaleas flourish in well-drained, organically rich soil with slightly acidic to neutral pH levels. If soil becomes too alkaline, amendments such as sulfur, aluminum sulfate or coffee grounds may help bring its pH levels back into balance. In areas with clay or rocky soils, raised beds may be necessary for planting purposes.

Bring the beauty of nature into your natural garden by using azaleas as the focal point among native and indigenous plants, such as early spring ephemerals, dogwoods (Cornus florida) or redbuds (Cercis canadensis). By strategically scattering these specimens amongst your azaleas along a winding path, your visitors will enjoy a colorful journey!

Fall

Garden designs that incorporate azaleas offer an abundance of colors from spring through fall, many being evergreens. By using them as foundation plantings they help anchor and balance out landscape designs while serving double duty as accent plants in the middle or rear portions of gardens or shrub beds.

Azaleas prefer areas with shade from trees or shrubs, receiving indirect sunlight through filtered sunlight from these sources. They should be planted in fertile, well-drained soil with slightly acidic to neutral pH (5.0-5.5). A poorly draining site should be avoided to avoid root rot while planting in alkaline or limy soil can quickly result in decreased bloom production and yellowed leaves – so conducting a soil test to assess your garden pH range for azaleas would be ideal to ensure success!

When selecting azaleas for your landscape, keep the color scheme of your yard in mind when making your selections. Azaleas bloom at their best in spring; however, nurseries and garden centers carry them year-round. When planting multiple varieties at once, take into account each variety’s bloom time frame and color as you consider which looks best together.

The Autumn Bonfire Azalea is an excellent example of a repeat-blooming variety, blooming throughout spring, summer and fall for extended periods of time – giving your home all of the curb appeal of a flowering shrub with less maintenance!

Integration of azaleas into your garden is straightforward. They work well alongside shade-loving perennials such as hosta and heuchera, providing additional color from spring through fall when not blooming themselves. Blueberries and cranberries add yet another source of colour when the blooms aren’t in full bloom.

Be sure to mulch your azaleas after they stop blooming – this will help keep their roots warm during the winter and shield against frost damage, while protecting from frost damage itself. Be wary about piling up too much mulch near their crown as this could promote rot.

Winter

Evergreen azalea foliage provides visual interest throughout winter. Plant these shrubs as mass plantings or borders in perennial beds to provide dense cover for flowers and other plants, or frame an entranceway or block an unsightly view. Azaleas also work well to fill areas sheltered from sunlight that remain dormant; their color remains true even at lower temperatures!

Combine spring-blooming azaleas with other perennials and early ephemerals to create an explosion of color this spring. A striking combination is to plant yellow daffodils (Narcissus) with white peonies (Pieris pentafolia), or combine with blue-flowered Heucherellas for an impressive entranceway display.

To make the most of a mass of azaleas, stagger their colors and arrange them so they appear sequentially. This draws the eye into your garden and makes the space seem larger; I have witnessed this technique being successfully employed in gardens where pathways weaved their way between blooms of various plants to give an illusion that makes landscape seem bigger than it actually is.

Azaleas offer an expansive palette, from pastel pink to vibrant orange and deep purple. Pick a combination that works for you by selecting from pastel pinks like Autumn Lily or Autumn Twist; vibrant orange such as Gibraltar; dark burgundy or rich maroon for contrast in smaller gardens; pastel pinks such as Autumn Twist/Lemon Lights/Autumn Royalty/Princess work equally well in subdued settings.

Place azaleas in partial shade from trees or shrubs, as too much sunlight bleaches leaves and reduces blooming; too little light results in unruly shrubs with low blooming potential. For optimal growth of azaleas, create beds 15 to 18 inches deep and amend their soil with finely milled bark and coarse sphagnum peat moss; these soils should also drain well to avoid any fungus issues that inhibit growth or reduce flowering.

Garden Design Planting Reblooming Encore Azaleas in a Raised Bed