Rhododendrons

Rhododendron austrinum

Subgenus Pentanthera Section Pentanthera

Species deciduous azalea

Synonym: The Florida azalea

Epithet: Southern

H6

AGM 1993 withdrawn 2002

Small to medium shrub growing to 2m × 1.5m in 10 years. Occasionally a small tree to 5m in the wild

Flowers: Trusses of 6-15 tubular funnel-shaped, single flowers, usually opening before the leaves. Flowers are 32-34mm long × 25-40mm wide; yellow to orange, often with the tube tinged purple and sometimes with purple stripes; 5 stamens, more than twice as long as the corolla

May

Scented

Foliage: Leaves are elliptic, oblong-obovate, obovate or ovate, 30-100mm long × 6-40mm wide; both surfaces hairy, margin strigose. Deciduous 

Distribution: from northern Florida and the Georgia-Alabama coastal plain to SE Mississippi, up to 100m

Other information: First discovered by A W Chapman before 1865 and introduced to the UK in 1916 by Sargent

Free flowering and easy to grow given shelter from cold winds and enough summer heat to ripen growth. Commercially available