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New England Gardening

Hino Crimson Azalea color

allison_gardener

14 years ago

I wanted ask those of you who have Hino crimson azaela about the color. Are they truly red or more of a hot pink? I live in eastern MA with acidic soil.

Thanks.

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Comments (8)

ginny12
14 years ago
They are neither true red nor true pink but closer to red. Not very attractive, I'd say, but very common in our area mostly because they survive.
claireplymouth z6b coastal MA
14 years ago
I'm in southeastern MA with acidic soil and I have two Hino Crimson azaleas which I bought out of bloom. I was trying to match some azaleas I inherited which I thought were probably Hino Crimson, and which I used to think were very bright colored.

The new Hino Crimson azaleas bloomed this spring and are MUCH brighter than my old azaleas. This color looks true on my monitor. Ginny's description is good; closer to red but not quite. A very strong color, not for the faint hearted.

My old azaleas (below) look almost washed out after looking at the Hino Crimsons. If anyone has an idea what these are, I'd appreciate knowing it.

Claire
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tree_oracle
14 years ago
The problem with a lot of photos of this particular azalea is that the color red is notoriously hard to photograph accurately especially when it's such a bright, vivid red. This azalea is red without question. Red like all colors comes in a variety of shades. You can get into these subjective arguments about how much pink or orange "contaminates" the red but the bottom line is that it's still red. For those who disagree, I challenge you to hold a bloom from this azalea next to a bloom from anything that you consider to be pink or orange and you will agree that it's red. It's the same phenomenon as shopping for paint where you're convinced that what you are looking at is blue for instance until you hold it next to a deeper blue which now makes the first one look green.

Hino-Crimson is one of the Kurume hybrids of azaleas. Many people including myself consider this class to be the most attractive because the branching and flowering is extremely dense. The flowers of the class tend to be intensely vivid which for me is most welcome after seeing mostly grey and white all winter. I have several Hino-Crimson azaleas and here are a couple of photos of mine. The first picture shows the denseness of the flowers and the second picture gives you an idea of the color. The color in these photos is extremely accurate. To give you some perspective on the red issue, I've included some other reds around my place. The third picture is a Knockout Rose which is also has a very loud color but has much more pink in it than the azalea. The fourth, fifth, and sixth pictures show a pink rose, a red rose which most would call a true red, and the red from my Fireglow japanese maple.

Hino-Crimson azalea

Knockout Rose

Blushing Knockout Rose

Love's Promise rose

Fireglow Japanese Maple
ego45
14 years ago
To my eyes Hino Crimson is indeed a true red in a bud stage and red with just a slight hint of pink in a bloom stage. The only similarly intense red I know of is the color of Girard's 'Hot Shot' and maybe Girard's Crimson (with somewhat purple tinge in it).

Note of caution, there are plenty of modern clones sold on a market under the name of 'Hino Crimson' while not all of them are true to the name eventhough they are of the same or similar color. I suspect that many of the plants sold as a HinoC are in reality are HotS. True HinoC has a somewhat rounded and very small leaves with a size of the fingernails (tree_oracles picture could serve you as a perfect guideline). However both of Clair's pictures show the types of leaves that true HinoC shouldn't have.
claireplymouth z6b coastal MA
14 years ago
Ah, George, that makes sense! I bought the "so-called Hino Crimsons" based on photos that tree oracle posted a year or so ago. Those photos, and the ones he posted above, look more like my old azaleas, so I expected them to be closer in color. I had been delighted to be able to identify my old azaleas thanks to tree oracle.

However, I was very surprised when my new "so-called Hino Crimsons" bloomed in that shade. I don't mind the color; as tree oracle says it's a pleasure in the spring, but I would have preferred them to have the same tint as the originals since I'm trying to bring some visual order to the yard.

Claire
claireplymouth z6b coastal MA
14 years ago
I will accept tree oracle's statement that "Red like all colors comes in a variety of shades." Great photos, as usual, by the way.

What I don't accept is the near universal custom of calling deep purple flowers "blue". Particularly calling them "sky blue" - I've never seen a deep purple sky and probably would head for the nearest emergency shelter if I did!

Claire (ranting a bit)
tree_oracle
14 years ago
I'll join in the rant on the color blue. This has to be the most Photoshop'ed color in the plant world. Lavender is a shade of purple not blue and yet a lot of plants with lavender flowers have "Blue" in the name. Roses are some of the worst offenders. Here are pictures of three "blue roses" that I used to have: Blue Nile, Blue Girl, and Outta the Blue

I bought a Blue Satin rose of sharon this year that has flowers that are close to blue but the bottom line is that they are still purple. Maybe a Royal Blue at best.

If the color is blue but contaminated with a small amount of purple then I can live with the blue designation. An example would be the Christmas Pearl grape hyacinth that I have. This picture is a great example of what I was referring to the other day. If you looked only at the grape hyacinth picture, you would probably see a lot of purple. But once you compare it to the Outta the Blue rose photo above it, it's amazing how much more blue the grape hyacinth look.

{{gwi:2613}}
Carly Philips
3 years ago
Red

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