Azalea mollis Klondyke

The multi-award-winning Azalea Mollis 'Klondyke' is a vigorous, hardy, floriferous and fragrant Chinese Azalea that really sets the garden on fire with its dazzling orangey-yellow, coppery spring blooms, followed by its gleaming foliage in autumn. Unlike Japanese Azaleas, this excellent cultivar of a Chinese shrub, also known as Rhododendron molle, is deciduous and very hardy. Too little known and too little used, deciduous Azaleas are infinitely graceful plants that thrive in lime-free soil and are less demanding than their Japanese cousins. Plant them in the garden or in a large pot on the terrace as soon as possible!

The Rhododendron molle is a shrub from the heather or Ericaceae family, native to central and eastern China,which has given rise to most of the deciduous azalea varieties grown in gardens through hybridisation. 'Klondyke' is a British hybrid cultivar developed in the late 1940s (1947) by Lionel de Rothschild, and belongs to the Exbury Azalea group, developed in the town of the same name in Hampshire. It is the holder of the Award of Garden Merit, the highest accolade given by the Royal Horticultural Society of England to outstanding plants. He was also honoured by the American Rhododendron Society in 2010.

It is a vigorous, upright shrub, both slender and bushy, reaching a height of approximately 1.25m (4 ft 1 in) and a spread of 1.10m (3 ft 7 in) after about 10 years. Its flowers abundantly over a long period from the end of April to May, at the same time as the young leaves appear in a reddish-copper colour. The large  flowers, in shades of yellow and vivid orange with copper reflections and reddish undersides, are a very ruffled, funnel-shape. They are gathered in terminal clusters of 8 to 15 and are heavily scented with a fragrance reminiscent of honesuckle. The deciduous foliage is composed of simple, oval-lanceolate leaves with smooth edges, arranged alternately on the branches. They vary from 5 to 10 cm (2 to 3.9 inches) in length, and their dark green summer colour turns to orange and then a rather dark red in October. Azaleas and Rhododendrons have a shallow root system that always needs to be kept moist, but they also dislike waterlogged soil which would suffocate the roots.

Chinese Azaleas thrive in cool climates with distinct winters, planted in humus-rich, fertile, lime-free soil. They are beautiful shrubs for borders, with an attractive, informal habit, blooming twice a year. They are the perfect accompaniment to Japanese maples, which also change colour with the seasons, as well as Japanese camellias, or their graceful, often fragrant, autumn-flowering cousins, the Camellia sasanqua hybrids. They can also be grown in a large, carefully chosen pot, in suitable soil, and watered with lime-free water. The extraordinary beauty of deciduous Azaleas merits the changes needed to create the conditions they prefer.