_Rhododendron nudiflorum_
_Flowers--_Crimson pink, purplish or rose pink, to nearly white, 1-1/2
to 2 in. across, faintly fragrant, clustered, opening before or with the
leaves, and developed from cone-like, scaly brown buds. Calyx minute,
5-parted; corolla funnel-shaped, the tube narrow, hairy, with 5 regular,
spreading lobes; 5 long red stamens; 1 pistil, declined, protruding.
_Stem:_ Shrubby, usually simple below, but branching above, 2 to 6 ft.
high. _Leaves:_ Usually clustered, deciduous, oblong, acute at both
ends, hairy on midrib.
_Preferred Habitat_--Moist, rocky woods, or dry woods and thickets.
_Flowering Season_--April-May.
_Distribution_--Maine to Illinois, and southward to the Gulf.
Woods and hillsides are glowing with fragrant, rosy masses of this
lovely azalea, the Pinxter-bloem or Whitsunday flower of the Dutch
colonists, long before the seventh Sunday after Easter. Among our
earliest exports, this hardy shrub, the Swamp Azalea, and the superb
flame-colored species of the Alleghanies, were sent early in the
eighteenth century to the old country, and there crossed with _A.
Pontica_ of southern Europe by the Belgian horticulturists, to whom we
owe the Ghent azaleas, the final triumphs of the hybridizer, that
glorify the shrubberies on our own lawns to-day. The azalea became the
national flower of Flanders. These hardy species lose their leaves in
winter, whereas the hothouse varieties of _A. Indica_, a native of China
and Japan, have thickish leaves, almost if not quite evergreen. A few of
the latter stand our northern winters, especially the pure white variety
now quite commonly planted in cemetery lots. In that delightfully
enthusiastic little book, “The Garden’s Story,” Mr. Ellwanger says of
the Ghent Azalea: “In it I find a charm presented by no other flower.
Its soft tints of buff, sulphur, and primrose; its dazzling shades of
apricot, salmon, orange, and vermilion are always a fresh revelation of
color. They have no parallel among flowers, and exist only in opals,
sunset skies, and the flush of autumn woods.” Certainly American
horticulturists were not clever in allowing the industry of raising
these plants from our native stock to thrive on foreign soil.
From Maine to Florida and westward to Texas, chiefly near the coast,
in low, wet places only need we look for the Swamp Pink or
Honeysuckle, White or Clammy Azalea (_Rhododendron viscosum_), a more
hairy species than the Pinxter-flower, with a very sticky, glandular
corolla tube, and deliciously fragrant blossoms, by no means
invariably white. John Burroughs is not the only one who has passed
“several patches of swamp honeysuckles, red with blossoms”
(“Wake-Robin”). But as this species does not bloom until June and
July, when the sun quickly bleaches the delicate flowers, it is true
we most frequently find them white, merely tinged with pink. The
leaves are well developed before the blossoms appear.