This week… Azaleas

AZALEAS are neat, long-lived, lime-hating, mostly cold-tolerant shrubs with brightly coloured spring flowers. They are among the most valuable garden shrubs as they rarely outgrow their space and reliably produce dazzling colour each spring. They can be evergreen, retaining leaves all the year round, or deciduous, in which case their leaves fall as winter approaches.

Their flared, funnel-shaped flowers are often brightly coloured and come in every shade, except blue, including vivid red, orange and yellow tones, as well as white and softer pastel pink and lilac shades. A few are bicolored, striped or flecked. Most azaleas have simple trumpet-shaped flowers 2-3in (5-7.5cm) across, although some flowers can be up to 5in (12.5cm) and some have extra petals creating double flowers. A delicious scent is a feature of some varieties.

The flowers are often carried singly at the leaf joints, but can also appear in clusters and show themselves off very effectively. Reblooming varieties are also now available.

In small gardens they are ideal as foundation