The Whistling Gardener

by Steve Smith

Steve Smith is owner of Sunnyside Nursery in Marysville, located at 3915 Sunnyside Blvd., and a respected local expert on all things horticultural. You can reach Steve at 425-334-2002 or by e-mail at [email protected].

First off, let me decree that there will be no more frosts until this fall. Therefore, the gardening season is now officially open. You can go forth and seed your phlox and plant most anything except basil, cucumbers and squashes. Even warm season items like tomatoes, peppers and marigolds can go in the ground now (with a little protection), but I would hold off on impatiens and begonias.

And one thing I would definitely not miss planting now is deciduous azaleas. This is the perfect time to go check them out at the garden center.

In the cacophony of spring when there are so many plants coming into bloom, it is often easy to overlook these gems. Very few deciduous plants can equal deciduous azaleas for showiness and color range, not to mention fragrance. Yet they are a tough sell in the nursery. Although evergreen azaleas keep their leaves all year, they can't match their deciduous brethren for blooms in the yellow, orange, coral, red and bicolor contrasts. The foliage often turns brilliant orange red to maroon in the fall, and they will grow in full sun to part shade, needing pretty much the same things that rhodies require--only they are much less demanding.

In a one- to five-gallon pot in the nursery, these wonderful shrubs don't have a whole lot to offer (except their fabulous blooms of course). They can look leggy and misshapen when they are young and their blooms can be sparse. But give them a chance to get established in your garden and you will wonder why you didn't plant some years ago.

When we purchased our house 17 years ago there were some of these azaleas planted next to our driveway. At the time I wasn't familiar with them, and since it was late August, they weren't much to look at anyway. But in the fall they turned a vibrant bronzy-red color and the following spring they burst into bloom with the most sweetly scented fragrance of any plant I have ever known.

The main variety in my yard (it is still there by the way) is one known as Irene Koster, which boasts pale yellow/blushed pink flowers that are highly fragrant. Did I mention that they are fragrant? Forget lilacs and Daphne. The fragrance of Irene is unparalleled in my book. Her flower color is soft and pleasing, but many deciduous azaleas are brassy with hot yellows, oranges, corals and reds. These flavors are not for the faint of heart. They will warm up your garden in no time flat and because they bloom before their leaves emerge, the entire bush will be enveloped in color from head to toe. Irene can be hard to find, but the straight Mollis variety is a close second.

Most deciduous azaleas grow to six or eight feet tall and are well suited for the back of the bed. Unlike the evergreen types, deciduous ones adapt well to full sun or partial shade and are not particular about soil or fertilizer. Every few years you can even chop them to the ground if you wish. The best time to prune them is just after they finish blooming, but I have nibbled on Irene whenever the mood strikes and she doesn't seem to mind. Give them a little rhodie food in the spring and a light dressing of mulch and they are set for the season. Supplemental water in the heat of the summer is a nice thing to do as well but not essential. You will get better bud set if you apply some summer water.

Now is the time to buy these plants, when they are in full bloom and you can check out their true flower colors instead of trying to rely on a picture tag that might be faded. Just remember that despite the fact that they may look homely in a nursery pot, they will develop into one of your favorite shrubs in a few short years.

You may find these under the names of Knap Hill, Exbury or Mollis, but they are essentially all the same, deciduous shrubs with azalea-like flowers that are bone hardy and sometimes fragrant, easy to grow in full sun or partial shade and attractive in the fall as well as the spring. They pretty much will thrive on neglect if necessary. No yard should be without at least a couple of flavors.

Steve Smith is owner of Sunnyside Nursery in Marysville and can be reached at 425-334-2002 or email at [email protected].