{"id":203,"date":"2010-08-01T22:09:00","date_gmt":"2010-08-02T02:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2010\/08\/01\/plumleaf-azalea-this-gardeners-choice\/"},"modified":"2013-09-04T10:42:24","modified_gmt":"2013-09-04T14:42:24","slug":"plumleaf-azalea-this-gardeners-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2010\/08\/01\/plumleaf-azalea-this-gardeners-choice\/","title":{"rendered":"Plumleaf Azalea Is Showy Summer Blooming Shrub"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_ZzNIw3ADWQo\/TFRThajUlVI\/AAAAAAAAASI\/ERwykVJreQE\/s1600\/DSC_0293.JPG\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 214px; CURSOR: hand\" id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500112878454478162\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_ZzNIw3ADWQo\/TFRThajUlVI\/AAAAAAAAASI\/ERwykVJreQE\/s320\/DSC_0293.JPG\" \/><\/a>Plumleaf azalea (<em>Rhododendron prunifolium<\/em>) has been blooming in my garden for the past ten days. This species is a late July &#8211; early August bloomer in northeast TN. The bright orange-red flowers of this native azalea light up any garden spot whether in full sun or partial shade. Provide some additional shade in southern climes (zones 7-b and 8). A dark red flower selection is available.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It grows in any well-drained soil type- sand, silt or clay. My two established shrubs receive little nutritional care. Shrubs are irrigated during severe drought periods, such as we are in currently.<\/p>\n<p>Plumleaf azalea is an Alabama\/southwest Georgia native, but is winter hardy in the southern Appalachian region (USDA zones 6-7), and further north (zone 5). It seems almost soil pH insensitive, although likely prefers an acidic range between 5.4 to 6.4. No diseases and insects pests trouble it. <\/p>\n<p>Flowers are not fragrant, but do attract numerous butterfly and bee pollinators.<\/p>\n<p>Pruning has rarely been done on my 15+ year old plant purchased at Callaway Gardens. Plumleaf azalea grows 8-10 feet tall. I maintain it at 6 by 6 feet tall and wide for a short and wider spreading shrub. An errant branch is occasionally clipped back into the fold.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Plumleaf azalea (Rhododendron prunifolium) has been blooming in my garden for the past ten days. This species is a late July &#8211; early August bloomer in northeast TN. The bright orange-red flowers of this native azalea light up any garden spot whether in full sun or partial shade. Provide some additional shade in southern climes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[711,778,674,806,774,745,551,627,601,630,706,646,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5389,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203\/revisions\/5389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}