It's interesting that you are posting this question. After seeing spectacular gardens in Conn. last weekend, I came home and looked around, and tried to remember if I had seen any early summer blooming/fragrant azaelas there. The fragrance of mine made me wonder if I'd missed some, or there weren't any.

I have one of "lights" series which smelled vanilla and daphne, and a wonderful apricot one which is just in bloom now. I don't think that has a lot of fragrance.

I have found their habit to be a little gangly, and the leaves are already out when the flowers emerge on ".... Lights" which lessens the effect. Nevertheless, I think they are indispensible. I'll look up the ones you bought. Thanks for bringing this up!

My friends from the garden tour: were there any of these summer blooming azaelas in your gardens, or did I miss them?

Idabean/Marie

Hi Tricia,
I have a few summer blooming fragrant deciduous azaleas that have not started blooming yet (that's why you didn't see them Marie :-). Pink 'Pennsylvania', pink 'Parade' and yellow 'Weston's Lemon Drop'. I got a few of them at Carol's Collectibles in Northeast CT. See the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Summer Azaleas at Carol's Collectibles

Tricia,
I don't have any fragrant deciduous azaleas, but have two mid-June blooming evergreen Satsuki hybrids, Getsutoku and Shugetsu (Autumn Moon), which would be perfect for your climate since they are z7 plants. They bloom in a first two (sometimes three) weeks of June.
Another evergreen and late blooming azalea in my garden is Rh.macrantha, which blooms from end of June till early July. It's in a full bloom now.
Sorry Marie, you came when first two just past the bloom and the last one didn't started yet. :-(

Thanks for the link Monique!

I think these azaleas are seriously underused in New England. Most are hardy to Zone 4 and, being deciduous, they arent't bothered by the winter winds.

The summer hybrids are certainly not the profuse bloomers of early spring like PJM. But, I grow them for the fragrance and you only need a few blooms to fill the garden with their wonderful aroma! As some of you know, we are planting new gardens here & I've been anxiously awaiting reaching the point where we were ready to add these wonderful plants. At our NH home, I think we had every Weston fragrant azalea & I'd be hard-pressed to pick a favorite...well, maybe, 'Golden Showers'? It's tough though because 'Pennsylvania', 'Parade', 'Sparkler', 'Weston's White Innocense', & 'Lemon Drop' are also delightful!

It must be tough to get a license from Weston's to sell their hybrids. I can't think of another reason why they are so difficult to find. Demer's in Manchester used to sell one or two each summer but that was it. Darn shame...they're great plants.

Idabean, yes...they are inclined to be more open in structure than evergreen azaleas. I rather like that about them. They give a loose, unstructured look in the garden (very woodsy, IMO) that's a nice contrast to the tight & full look of the evergreens. I've found that these Weston azaleas can handle considerable shade under tree canopies & still bloom very well. Of the three we purchased yesterday, two are in mostly sun locations but the third, 'Parade' is planted where it will only receive 2 hours of direct sun/day. After my experience with this plant in NH, I anticipate it doing very well. This particular one has been trained (by Weston's) into a short standard. We planted it nestled into a curve in a hedge of Japanese Hakone grasses that line our rear BBQ area. It's in bloom now & the fragrance is going to compete mightily with hubby's BBQ chicken wings! lol

Tricia

I could kiss ya Tricia! I've long lost the tags of these wonderful Azaleas I bought and planted before we permanently moved back to MA. (Yes....I plant before I unpack.....is that weird?? Oh well.) In any case, after several months back in Denver selling our 2 homes there, we finally made it back here and what do I come back too in July??? Azaleas in bloom....huh??? (I didn't know there were summer blooming azaleas.....no exp with them) They bloomed all of July that year. Thanks for helping me identify them...they're Parades. I've since had to move them since I lost ALL sun from that original spot.

Glad you brought up the subject!

George,

Thanks for the recommendations. Do your summer blooming evergreen azaleas have fragrance? I'm on a mission to bring fragrance into the garden to fill a void before the lilies take over. That's why we made the trek to Weston's on July 4th weekend (parking lot was practically empty, BTW). Since we were in central MA, we also buzzed by Mahoney's & I got the perrrfect unglazed clay pot to snuggle in my hydrangea hedge. It's about 4' tall, very narrow bottom growing larger in diameter as it gets taller, & has a simple scroll around the top. It looks magnificient if I do say so myself! Fun excursion.

/T

I have Rh. viscosum 'Pink 'n Sweet' that has a heavenly fragrance. Its in quite a bit of shade too and it still blooms nicely. Late June. I also have 'Millenium'. I think it has good fragrance. don't remember for sure. Its just getting ready to open now.

Tricia, none of them are fragrant.

Wendy, yours are also Weston's & beautiful plants with even more beautiful fragrance. Did you purchase them in Hopkinton or at another garden center?

There must be close to a dozen available & I wish we had room for one of each!

/T

My native summer-blooming azaleas are very fragrant. I have 2, both with cream-colored flowers - one is just finished now and the other hasn't bloomed yet (I hope it's going to, it's gotten more shaded than ever). I do like the open structure and the more subdued, natural look of these compared to "regular" azaleas. These originally had tags listing their varieties, but apparently these plants hybridize so easily that there's no telling what the real names, if any, ever would have been.

I have several azalea bushes I bought from a wal mart sell out 2 years ago. I paid $.50 apiece for them. They started blooming mid march and are still now in July in full bloom. No fragrance that I can detect like others have described. What can they be? The flower is med/dark pink.

Tricia, I didn't know mine were "Weston's". I bought both of them at two different local garden centers.
-Wendy

cherylharlow, you certainly have some mysterious azaleas. Never heard of one that bloomed from March to July; it's almost unbelievable. If you post a photo, we might be able to help you.