An extremely rare and hard to find selection from collector and breeder Earl Sommerville, the 'Verdie Sommerville' Azalea is an eye-catcher with her abundant clusters of multicolor flowers. In spring, deep red buds open to flowers in shades of yellow, red, orange and peach with the upper petal in golden-yellow. A cross between our native Rhododendron flammeum and R. 'Strawberry Ice', a beauty hailing from England, she's sure to be a big hit with gardeners that love deciduous azaleas and the rare and unusual.

Growing 6 to 8 feet in height and 5 to 6 feet wide, the Verdie Summerville Azalea is ideal for use as a specimen or grouping in woodland gardens and borders and shady flowering shrub borders. As she grows taller lower branches can be removed to form an attractive small focal point specimen tree in garden beds or pots, planters and other containers. A fine addition to Azalea and Rhododendron gardens, shade and woodland gardens and cottage gardens.

Verdie Sommerville Azalea is very easy to grow in a moist but well-drained humus rich soil and dappled shade or morning sun with afternoon shade. Native azaleas are very low-maintenance plants that require little if any pruning. When established, plant are quite drought tolerant, requiring supplemental water only during prolonged periods of dry summer weather.