572 Cold Hardiness of Summer and Fall Flowering Evergreen Azalea Hybrids

Abstract

To date, few summer and fall flowering azaleas exist. Recently, Rhododendron oldhamii, a summer-flowering species, was hybridized with several commercial hybrids. These crosses produced various sizes and colors of flowers that bloom throughout the summer until frost, and again in the spring. However, the cold hardiness level of these azaleas is unknown. Therefore, we evaluated their cold hardiness during several months of the fall and winter. Laboratory cold hardiness tests revealed that there was a range of cold hardiness levels among the new hybrids. `Fashion' and hybrids 02003 and 4003 tended to acclimate earlier than the others, maintain a good level of midwinter cold hardiness, and retain their hardiness into the early spring. Hybrid 15001 acclimated early and had good midwinter cold hardiness, but lost its cold hardiness in the late winter, while 04003 and 09004 acclimated late in the fall and did not attain a high level of cold hardiness in the winter. `Lee's Select' and hybrid 08002 seemed to fall between the groups previously mentioned showing intermediate cold hardiness throughout the winter season. The laboratory cold hardiness results were similar with field observations.