Hardy Azaleas at the Arboretum

It's snowing outside this February morning, and my thermostat reads 26 F. Despite the tease of warm weather we had recently, it's still a LONG way until Spring. So... I'll just dream of my walk through the azalea collection at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum last spring. They have quite a few of the "Northern Lights" series azaleas, extremely cold-hardy plants developed by the University of Minnesota's Woody Landscape Plant Breeding program. Here were some of my favorites:

Azalea 'Golden Lights'

The best of the bunch, in my opinion, is 'Golden Lights.' The color is a deep primal glow in the garden, the plant is astonishingly floriferous, and the overall habit is just so elegant (as opposed to many azaleas, which can be really awkward in flower). Its only sad fault is that it is not as fragrant as the others in the series. I have planted one of these in my own garden, but it is still a baby. Can't wait for it to look like this!

Azalea 'Golden Lights'

 Here you can see the entire plant, and its graceful demeanor. It's hard to tell the scale from this picture, but those shrubs are quite a bit taller than the average human - at least 6-7 feet. So nurseries which tell you this plant grows to be only 4 feet tall and wide are pulling your leg. The smaller 'Northern Hi-Lights' makes a wonderful companion to the left.

Azalea 'Lemon Lights'

 If I had just looked at the close-up pictures of flowers you see in nursery catalogs, I would have selected 'Lemon Lights' for my garden rather than 'Golden Lights'. The color is certainly a very pleasing soft primrose yellow. Good thing I went to the arboretum! I have seen many specimens of 'Lemon Lights' and it always looks something like the above - just does not have the grace and floriferousness of 'Golden Lights.' To its credit, this plant does have the strongest and most delicious scent of the Lights azaleas I've yet sniffed. It may be worth growing for that reason alone.

Azalea 'Northern Hi-Lights'

 'Northern Hi-Lights' is another one of my favorites. It's a bit smaller than 'Golden Lights', but just as graceful and floriferous. Up close you can see the center blotch looks very contrastive, but from a distance (below) it blends with the white to make a picture of soft undulating yellow.

Azalea 'Northern Hi-Lights'

Azalea 'Rosy Lights'

If you want a pink azalea up north 'Rosy Lights' is an outstanding choice. I've seen lots of specimens of this cultivar and all have made me smile inside. The one pictured above (which is actually at the Allen Centennial Gardens rather than the Arboretum) has been neatly pruned to make a shorter, rounder plant, but the natural shape is also quite pleasing. The color of the pink is intensely bright without being garish, and with no hint of the sickly violet-mauve that so many rhodos torment us with. I hope to add one of these to my garden, if I can find a spot where it will not be in the same visual field as my 'Golden Lights'.

Azalea 'White Lights'

 As you can see from the picture, 'White Lights' is actually pink, at least in my climate. It is floriferous and very fragrant, and has rather soft-textured flowers.

Azalea 'Tri-Lights'

The arboretum had two newer cultivars, 'Tri-Lights' and 'Candy Lights'. 'Tri-Lights' is medium pink with a yellow blotch, giving it a very tropical look. 'Candy Lights' is a light shade of clear pink with hardly any blotch. Both specimens that I saw were still young plants, so I couldn't get a good sense of habit. Might be worth considering if 'Rosy Lights' is too bright for you (although why would that be? :-)

Azalea 'Candy Lights'

 All of the cultivars in this series have nice fall color, and bloom from mid to late May here in southern Wisconsin. I'm going to imagine that fragrance as I watch the snow swirl!