Name:   Weston’s Lemon Drop Azalea aka Rhododendron ‘Weston’s Lemon Drop’

Type of Plant:  A July-flowering, deciduous azalea with fragrant yellow flowers. Hardy in zones 4 to 8.  A cultivar of our native swamp azalea.

Why I Love/Hate this plant:  First of all, it’s great to have a shrub that has yellow flowers in July! Secondly, the scent from this plant is wonderful…it will perfume your firepit area, patio or deck in the evening and the morning.

A Word to the Wise:  Prune the new growth on this shrub by cutting the fresh, new shoots back by half. These are often on the plant just before or during flowering. If you routinely shear or snip those new shoots, it keeps the shrub thicker and fuller.

Plant Lemon Drop in well-amended beds and mulch or top-dress with compost for organic feeding from the top down on an on-going basis.

The buds are tipped in a peachy-pink and the flowers are yellow…in JULY! And it’s fragrant as well. #azalealove 

It’s not easy to find an azalea that flowers in July – and here’s one that’s fragrant!

The red lines on this photo show where I am pruning this shrub right now. Even as the flowers bloom, the spiky new growth should get cut or sheared in half.