Let love bloom: Forget expensive cut flowers, give your Valentine trusty azalea

By Nigel Colborn

Published: | Updated:

A VALENTINE THAT LASTS

If you want to give flowers to your sweetheart on Friday, may I suggest an alternative?  Give a living plant – not a flash-in-the-pan windowsill job but something evergreen and long-lived, to show undying love.  And choose one that flowers in passionate colours.

If he or she has a garden – even a tiny one – consider a hardy evergreen azalea.  These come in a bewildering variety and will thrive either in pots or the ground.  They look magnificent in spring, but year round provide valuable evergreen structure.

This is an excellent time to buy and to plant azaleas, either in pots or the ground.  The earliest will be at the point of flowering but most bloom from late winter through spring.  When you choose your plants, select even-shaped, well-proportioned specimens and make sure they carry plenty of flower-buds for this spring.

Good garden centres stock them but there’s wider choice available online. Try crocus.co.uk or find specialist suppliers in the RHS Plantfinder at rhs.org.uk.  Azaleas are technically Rhododendron, so remember that when you search.

Azaleas are the perfect gift for your Valentine

Azaleas are the perfect gift for your Valentine

PASSIONATE COLOURS

For pots, it’s wise to choose compact varieties.  I’ve grown the pink-flowered Japanese azalea ‘Kirin’ outside my front door for 8 years and love the way it holds its neat rounded shape.  Rosy purple ‘Fumiko,’ soft-white ‘Gumpo’ or rich-hued ‘Hino-Crimson’ are also superb – but there are so many.  

If your Valentine hasn’t a garden, give an indoor Azalea.  More correctly named Rhododendron simsii – formerly Azalea indica – these dense little shrubs make long-lived houseplants.  Their dark green leaves contrast fetchingly with a winter-long display of flowers in pink, white or combinations of the two.

Hardy evergreen azaleas are dream plants for little gardens.  They flower in spring but create scaled-down structure with their rounded or domed shapes and durable foliage.  Most are trouble free and easy to grow but there’s one big proviso: they’re extremely fussy about soil. 

All are lime-haters and need to grow in acid conditions.  In lime-free regions such as Cornwall or Lancashire, this poses no problem.  But in chalky or limy soils, they won’t survive in the ground.  That doesn’t mean you can’t grow them – just that they’ll have to be containerised or grown in a raised bed.  And they must be planted in ericaceous compost.

ACID TEST

If you’re not sure whether your soil is suitable you can test it with a pH metering kit.  But there’s an easier way – glance over the fence.  If rhododendrons or camellias grow in any of your neighbourhood gardens, they’re likely to be happy in yours.

Containers made from frost-proof terracotta, timber or part-glazed ceramics are all suitable.  Avoid new concrete or limestone, however, since these are alkaline and could affect the growing medium.  Hard tap water also contains lime.  It’s safe to use but whenever rain water is available, choose that in preference, to help sustain acidity.

Transfer newly bought plants to larger, more permanent containers as soon as you can.  Try not to disturb the roots and if necessary, use a cane and soft string to support the shrub while its roots establish.  You won’t need to feed until your plants begin rapid growth in spring.

Pruning is unnecessary, other than snipping off any wayward or over-length shoots.  Do this immediately after flowering and if you’re hyper fussy, pinch off expired flower clusters.

You can treat indoor azaleas in exactly the same way.  As soon as frost risk is over, stand them in the garden until early autumn.

If there’s space, azaleas look fabulous close-planted in bold groups.  That way, you can enjoy riotous spring colour followed by a cool green hedge effect during the rest of the year.

Big, gaunt-stemmed rhododendrons can be unappealing in small gardens, especially in rain when those leathery leaves drip lugubriously.  But I wouldn’t be without their darling little cousins – and that’s praise indeed, from a self-confessed rhodo-phobe.
 

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