Azalea

• 1. Introduction

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  A bouquet of azalea flowers, delivered in a black vase, once carried a message that needed no words. It was a death threat, and everyone understood it. The azalea is a flowering shrub in the genus Rhododendron, prized across continents for spring blooms that often last several weeks. Yet the same plant that draws thousands of visitors to public gardens also hides andromedotoxins in its leaves and nectar. How did a shade-loving ornamental become both a beloved festival flower and a known poison? Why do bees in parts of Turkey feed on its nectar on purpose? And how did a Charleston rice planter, a Chinese poet, and fifty women in antebellum dresses all come to share the same shrub? These questions trail the azalea from southern Asia to São Paulo, Brazil.

• 2. A Garden Centuries In The Making

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  Plant enthusiasts have selectively bred azaleas for hundreds of years, and that patient work produced thousands of different cultivars. Growers propagate them by cuttings, though azalea seeds can also be collected and germinated. Slow-growing by nature, azaleas do best in well-drained acidic soil between 4.5 and 6.0 pH. Their fertilizer needs are low, and only some species require regular pruning. Shade tolerant, they prefer living near or under trees, which suits their native ranges across Asia, Europe and North America. As ornamentals they are planted abundantly in the southeastern US, southern Asia, and parts of southwest Europe. Bloom time follows the hemisphere: April and May in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, and October and November in the Southern Hemisphere. The plant belongs to the family Ericaceae, and within Rhododendron to the former subgenera Tsutsusi and Pentanthera, the evergreen and deciduous groups.

• 3. The Charleston Plantation

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  According to azalea historian Fred Galle, the Southern indica group of Azalea indica first reached the outdoor American landscape in the 1830s. The setting was Magnolia-on-the-Ashley, a rice plantation in Charleston, South Carolina. Its owner, John Grimke Drayton, imported the plants from Philadelphia, where they had been grown only in greenhouses, and set them into his estate garden. Charles Sprague Sargent of Harvard's Arnold Arboretum encouraged Drayton, and in 1871, following the American Civil War, Magnolia Plantation and Gardens opened to the public. Magnolia ranks among the oldest public gardens in America. Since the late 19th century, in late March and early April, thousands have come to watch the azaleas bloom in full glory.

• 4. Beauty And Poison

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  Andromedotoxins live in both the leaves and the nectar of the azalea, even in honey made from that nectar. In some parts of Turkey, beekeepers deliberately feed bees on azalea and rhododendron nectar. The result is "mad honey," a substance described as mind-altering, potentially medicinal, and occasionally lethal. For pets, the danger is sharper. Consuming the plant's tissue can trigger central nervous system depression, which in turn can lead to multi-organ failure. Symptoms may include vomiting, diarrhea, seizures, laryngeal edema and heart rhythm disturbances. In the worst cases these progress to complete cardiac arrest and death. This is the toxicity that once made a black vase of azaleas a recognized threat.

• 5. Pests And Plant Diseases

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  Azalea leafy gall can be particularly destructive to azalea leaves in early spring, and the recommended control is hand picking the infected leaves. In moist, hot conditions the shrubs are also vulnerable to Phytophthora root rot. They share the economically important disease Phytophthora cinnamomi with more than 3000 other plants. The azalea lace bug, Stephanitis pyrioides, troubles azaleas alongside many other heath species. Shrewsbury and Raupp, in 2000, found that azaleas can be protected from the lace bug by companion planting with an overstory above them. That reliance on shelter echoes the plant's preference for life beneath the trees.

• 6. A Flower With Meaning

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  In Chinese culture the azalea is known as the "thinking of home bush," or sixiang shu, and it appears in the poetry of Du Fu. Far from China, the azalea stands as one of the symbols of São Paulo, Brazil. These cultural roles place the shrub in language and civic identity, not just in the garden bed. The same plant carries tenderness in a poem and pride in a city emblem. Its meanings travel as widely as its native range across three continents.

• 7. Festivals Across Asia

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  Motoyama, in Kōchi, holds a flower festival celebrating the blooming of Tsutsuji. Tatebayashi in Gunma is famous for its Azalea Hill Park, Tsutsuji-ga-oka, and the Nezu Shrine in Bunkyo, Tokyo, holds a Tsutsuji Matsuri from early April until early May. Higashi Village has hosted an azalea festival every year since 1976, where 50,000 azalea plants draw an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 visitors annually. In Korea, Sobaeksan stands as one of the 12 well-known Sobaek Mountains, lying on the border between Chungbuk Province and Gyeongbuk. It holds a royal azalea festival in May, when Rhododendron schlippenbachii colors the slopes around Biro mountaintop, Gukmang and Yonwha. As the royal azaleas turn pink at the end of May, the mountain is said to wear a pink Jeogori, a Korean traditional jacket. In Hong Kong, the Ma On Shan Azalea Festival has run since 2004 in an area home to six native species, including Rhododendron championae and Rhododendron simsii. Its program features exhibitions, photo contests and carnivals.

• 8. The American Azalea Cities

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  Spring brings azalea festivals to cities across the United States, from Summerville, South Carolina, to Brookings, Oregon, and Nixa, Missouri. Wilmington, North Carolina hosts the North Carolina Azalea Festival, while Palatka, Florida holds the Florida Azalea Festival. In Mobile, Alabama, the Azalea Trail winds through private gardens planted with the shrubs, and the Azalea Trail Run takes place there each year in late March. Mobile is also home to the Azalea Trail Maids, fifty women chosen as ambassadors of the city. They wear antebellum dresses and once appeared at a three-day festival, but now serve throughout the year. The Azalea Society of America named Houston, Texas an "azalea city," and the River Oaks Garden Club has run the Houston Azalea Trail every spring since 1935. Valdosta, Georgia is itself called the Azalea City, where the plant grows in such profusion that the city stages an annual Azalea Festival in March.