Pinxterbloom Azalea

Size, growth and what to expect

Pinxterbloom azalea flowers in April and May just before the leaves, each funnel about 1½ inches across with five long curved stamens, soft pink to white or lavender. It is slow, 6 inches to a foot a year on an average site in our growth estimator's model, slowing as it nears full size. It grows 3 to 6 feet tall, less often to 10, and spreads 4 to 7 feet as a dense, suckering shrub.

The seed follows in slender capsules that ripen in September and October. Hummingbirds, swallowtails and bees take the nectar, and it has special value to bumble bees. Its old botanical name, nudiflorum, means naked-flowered, for blooms that open on bare twigs.

It grows wild from New Hampshire to Ohio and Kentucky and south to Georgia and Tennessee, in moist to dry woods, swamp margins and bogs.

How to grow Pinxterbloom Azalea

Pinxterbloom azalea does best in dappled or high shade with at least half a day of sun, in acid soil below pH 6, rich in leaf mold, moist but well drained. It tolerates dryish sandy or rocky ground, but in a Mid-Atlantic yard afternoon sun scorches the leaves. Allow 5 feet between plants and 4 from a wall.

Saplings ship potted. Plant dormant plants in early spring or fall, in a hole three times as wide as the roots and no deeper, the root mass a touch above grade, native soil back in. Heavy clay needs a raised mound or a different spot; poor drainage means root rot. Mulch with pine needles or oak leaves, kept off the stems. The seed is dust-fine and needs light. Collect the capsules in September as they turn brown, before they split. Sow in January on the surface of damp milled sphagnum, uncovered, under a plastic tent or mist at about 70 to 75 degrees. It needs no pretreatment and germinates in one to three weeks.

Water weekly through the first two summers; the roots are shallow and dry out fast. Deer browse pinxterbloom hard, so cage it for three years where deer are common; rabbits mostly leave it alone. Keep mulch to two inches so voles do not nest in it, and never dig over the roots. Prune, if at all, right after bloom.

Growth is slow. Each flower carries both male and female parts and bees pollinate it. Sources disagree on whether a native azalea sets seed with its own pollen, so plant two seedlings from different parents for seed. Root rot in wet ground is the usual killer; lace bugs, aphids and leaf spot mark the leaves of a plant on the wrong site. Every part of the plant is poisonous if eaten.