Sweet azalea

* Common name: Sweet azalea

* Botanical name: Rhododendron arborescens

* What it is: Most azaleas typically grown in Pennsylvania landscapes are rounded Asian species that bloom pink, red, or white in May and have evergreen leaves. Sweet azalea, however, is a deciduous azalea (drops leaves in winter) that’s native to the eastern U.S.

It has white to pinkish-white, mildly fragrant, funnel-shaped flowers that appear from May through June. The leaves turn crimson-orange in fall before dropping.

Sweet azalea was good enough to be one of three native plants to win 2022 Green Ribbon Native Plant awards from the Jenkins Arboretum and Gardens in Devon.

* Size: Grows about eight to 10 feet tall and wide.

* Where to use: Sweet azalea grows best in acidic, well drained but damp soil in morning sun and afternoon shade (or dappled all-day light).

It’s ideal for a native woodland garden or toward the back of any partly shaded mixed garden where you’re trying to lean native.

Avoid poorly drained or clay soil – or improve those sites with compost and sulfur before planting to create more acidic raised beds.

Deer like azaleas, so you’ll likely need to protect plants with repellents or spot-fencing if you’re gardening in deer country without a perimeter fence.

* Care: Keep plants consistently damp the first two years to help the roots establish, then soak well during dry spells.

Fertilizer is usually not needed, but a spring scattering of a granular, balanced fertilizer won’t hurt. Occasional top-dressings with sulfur also are helpful to encourage acidic soil.

Pruning is not needed so long as the size is OK. If size-control is needed, do it right after the plant finishes flowering in late spring.

* Great partner: Smooth hydrangeas and fothergillas are two other native shrubs that prefer similar locations. Creeping phlox ‘Blue Moon,’ Bowman’s root, foamflowers, Indian pinks, turtlehead, Pennsylvania sedge, and most any native fern are good native perennial partners.