My Mother has a mixed up azalea bush. She lives about an hour south of me, and it is our usual family tradition to all meet at her house on the holidays. My parents bought that house back in the 1970’s, when I was still in high school. When they bought the house, there were two azaleas in the front yard; one on either side of the front porch. At that time, they were pretty big and bushy, and definitely not well groomed. Over the years, they have gotten smaller and larger depending on who was doing the yard care, and how much trimming they got (my Father always hated cutting anything back). But the thing I will always love about them is that every spring they get covered in large, beautiful, pink blossoms. They bloom like crazy for several weeks, and they rest of the year they are still pretty, green shrubs.

When I first moved here, I was thrilled to have a lighter pink, and a white azalea bush growing wild under some scrub oaks in the back yard. I did always worry a bit about the goats eating them, since they can be toxic, and especially to goats. But my goats never seemed to show them any interest. Probably because there was always plenty of other stuff available to eat (like my roses…thorns and all!). Like my Mother’s azaleas, they always bloom for several weeks in the early spring, and they are gorgeous.

As is our family tradition, I went down to my Mother’s place for Thanksgiving. She is a good gardener, and she always seems to have something pretty to photograph, so I brought my camera and lenses along. I wasn’t disappointed. She had some awesome caladiums and some beautiful pentas, but the crazy thing was that the azalea to the left of the porch had several flowers and several buds on it. The other one had the usual green leaves, but no hint of flowers. I have never seen flowers on either of those azaleas or on my own azaleas at this time of the year, so I have to say I was surprised and intrigued. I took plenty of pictures, and later, when I got home I did a bit of research. On the IFAS website, I read a very good article about azaleas, and I did discover that some bushes occasionally bloom in the fall as well as the spring. I still have no idea why that bush decided to flower this fall, especially since it never has before, but it was an interesting experience to see it. The flowers were all gone again by Christmas. I have no idea if this small fall bloom will effect how that bush blooms come spring. I guess time will tell. Have any of you ever had an azalea with flowers in the fall?