Azaleas are some of the most wonderful spring blooming plants available, and if you have suitable soil they are not hard to grow. They used to be just for spring, but with the arrival of reblooming varieties you can now have blooms for most of the season – an ideal way to keep your garden colorful for months. But for gardeners in zone 6, and those with a lot of shade, reblooming was still just a dream – until now. The Red Magnificence™ ReBLOOM™ Azalea is a newer variety that was created with cooler zones and shadier gardens in mind, and it really is a magnificent way to have months of color, even in those shady parts of your garden.

The Red Magnificence ReBLOOM Azalea is fast-growing, and in a few years it will have developed into a broad, spreading evergreen shrub over 2 feet tall and up to 4 feet across. Many branches grow from the base, making a dense, bushy plant that is neat and dome-shaped, and that broad width means you need fewer plants to fill in larger areas of your beds. The oval leaves are almost 2 inches long, and they are rich green, with a surface covered in tiny soft hairs that is pleasant to touch. Even when the temperature drops to minus 10 F. the leaves still don’t, so all through winter you have a rich green bush filling your beds, waiting for spring to return. 

The wonderful bright red blooms of the Red Magnificence ReBLOOM Azalea first appear in April or May, and they come in succession, with each bloom lasting a week, so your plant is smothered in blooms for several weeks at this time. The flamboyant blossoms are carried in clusters of 4 or 5, at the ends of every main branch, and on the side branches too. Flowering is so dense the foliage can be almost completely obscured. The blooms are just over 3 inches across, with a full, semi-double appearance. The outer whorl of 5 ruffled petals is filled with an inner whorl of 2 to 5 petals, so the bloom is dense and richly textured. Once the spring display is finished the plant takes a short rest, but by late July it is coming back into bloom, with scattered blossoms opening. They increase in number, until by late summer, and all through fall, there is another full display of bloom. This lasts until the first frost, meaning that your bush is in blooms for months, almost matching annual flowers for endurance and color display.

Grow the Red Magnificence ReBLOOM Azalea as part of the planting around your home. It brings color for months. Plant it in beds out in the main garden or use it to line a walkway with a red carpet that welcomes everyone. For mass planting, space the bushes 2½ to 3 feet apart in each direction – just a few will cover a large area. It grows well in woodland areas too, or beneath large shade trees out on the lawn. If you don’t have suitable garden soil it is a reliable plant for containers and pots, living happily that way for years, and bringing color wherever you want it in your garden.

The Red Magnificence ReBLOOM Azalea is completely hardy in zone 6, meaning that at last millions of gardeners in that zone can have reblooming flowers. Other reblooming azaleas are restricted to zone 7 or warmer, but not this one. It will grow in full sun in zone 6, but in warmer zones some afternoon shade is valuable, to prevent scorching. In all zones it will thrive in partial shade and in light full shade, such as beneath deciduous trees, or near the base of a north-facing wall. The soil should be moist, well-drained, and rich in organic material, so prepare the area before planting by digging it deeply, adding plenty of lime-free compost or peat moss. Mulch over the roots each spring, to conserve moisture. If your soil has a pH below 6.0, you will have no problems growing this plant in your garden, as it needs acidic soil. 

If you have more alkaline soil, the best way to grow the Red Magnificence ReBLOOM Azalea is in a pot. Trying to lower the pH of garden soil is difficult, and it usually only works for a year or two. Instead, use a broad, shallow pot with drainage holes, and plant your bush in potting soil blended for acid-loving plants. Use fertilizer for those kinds of plants regularly, and water thoroughly whenever the top ½ inch of soil becomes dry. In a pot you can move your plant around for the ideal light conditions through the year and place it in a prominent spot during the months of blooming.

The Red Magnificence ReBLOOM Azalea is the result of a major breeding effort, and it took 15 years for Robert Head, of Seneca, North Carolina, to create this new series of ReBLOOM azaleas. He began in the 90s making many crosses between different azaleas. In the end he had 80,000 seedlings to choose from, and after first reducing them to 200 he finally selected just nine plants – the crème de la crème of his work. One of them is ‘RLH1-10P1’, which he patented in 2014. It is made available to us by the licensed distributor, the Greenleaf Nursery Company, as part of their Garden Debut® collection, with the appropriate trademark name of Red Magnificence™. These exciting new plants are incredibly popular, and our stock will not last long. Order now – don’t miss out – and enjoy months, not weeks, of brilliant red azaleas in your garden.