Photo: Judy Gallagher, CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Pinxterbloom Azalea
Rhododendron periclymenoides
Also called pinxter flower, pink azalea, wild azalea, election pink, rhododendron nudiflorum.
Fragrant pink trumpets open on bare branches in April for bumble bees, hummingbirds and swallowtails; the deciduous wild azalea of Mid-Atlantic woods.
Showy flowersWildlife valueTolerates shade
- Type
- Shrub
- Mature height
- 3–6 ft
- USDA zones
- 4–9
- Growth rate
- Slow
- Sun
- Part · Full
- Soil moisture
- Average · Dry
210
Pinxterbloom azalea is the wild azalea of the Mid-Atlantic, a loose, suckering deciduous shrub of moist and dry woods, stream bottoms, swamp margins and ravines from Massachusetts and New Hampshire to Ohio and Kentucky and south through the Appalachians to Georgia and Tennessee. In April and May, before or just as the leaves open, clusters of five to sixteen funnel-shaped flowers, pale pink to white with five long curved stamens, cover the bare branches, many of them lightly fragrant. Bumble bees work them; hummingbirds and swallowtails come for the nectar; the rare mining bee Andrena cornelli collects pollen from rhododendrons and nothing else. The leaves turn dull yellow in fall, and the thickets give cover to birds and small mammals. Ideal for the edge of a woodlot, the shaded side of a house or the bank above a wooded stream.
It is, in the words of the University of Connecticut's plant database, not commonly available for sale, yet the Missouri Botanical Garden rates this native better able to resist the insects and diseases that trouble many hybrid azaleas in commerce. Pinxter is Dutch for Pentecost, the seventh Sunday after Easter, when it is in bloom. It spreads slowly by suckers and by branches that root where they touch the ground, and old plants form thickets. Deer browse it hard all the same.
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. Hardy in zones 4 through 9, it grows 3 to 6 feet tall and 4 to 7 feet wide and suckers slowly outward, so allow 5 feet between plants and 4 from a wall.
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, and 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. The flowers are bisexual and bee pollinated, with no separate sexes to pair. 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.
Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.
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