Azalea japonica Blue Danube

The 'Blue Danube' Japanese Azalea is a real eye-catcher in spring. This dense, low, spreading bush, is striking because of its remarkable blooms consisting of clusters of delightful mauve-violet flowers, speckled with purple-pink and shimmering with beautiful blue highlights, and delicate long pink stamens. They bloom in spring on an elegant, relatively light green foliage, which partially lasts into winter. Highly resistant to the cold, this vigorous variety can be grown in an ericaceous bed in a small Japanese-style garden, or in a carefully chosen pot on the terrace.

The Hybrid Rhododendron 'Blue Danube' Azalea, is a plant from the large Ericaceae family, like the heathers. It is a small, very hardy shrub that thrives in partial shade and lime-free soil that stays moist throughout the year. This Belgian variety dating from 1965 is the result of cross between the Rhododendron 'Malvaticum' and R. kaempferi, a Japanese species. With an award from the Royal Horticultural Society in England, this Azalea is still highly valued for its excellent hardiness (-20°C (-4 °F)), ease of cultivation, and its unusually coloured flowers.

Vigorous but low growing, 'Blue Danube' forms a well-branched dome around 80 cm (31.5 in) high and 1.2 m (3 ft 11 in) in spread at maturity. It generally flowers for 2 to 3 weeks at the end of May. Clusters of 4 to 5 funnel-shaped flowers bloom at the end of the branches, each one measuring 4 to 4.5 cm (1.6 to 1.8 in) wide. Their colour is somewhere between mauve and pink, with beautiful blue highlights and purple speckles at the centre. The foliage of this variety is semi-evergreen with quite wide, elongated, oval-shaped, light green leaves in spring. Those produced in late summer are smaller and a deeper bronze in colour. Slow-growing, this small ericaceous shrub thrives in moist, humus-rich, well-drained, acid soils.

Azaleas grace ericaceous beds all year round with their more or less evergreen foliage, and liven up gardens in spring with their charming and unusual blooms. Plant them in a shady rockery, at the edge of a bed, or in a container alongside Pieris, Kalmia, Heather, Chinese Azaleas, Rhododendrons, dwarf bamboos, Japanese grass Hakonechloa macra, and Japanese Maples. Japanese Azaleas are sometimes grown in pots, but they can also be trained into Bonsai by specialists, becoming beautiful specimens to showcase in a Zen or Japanese-inspired setting.