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AZALEA

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 79 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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AZALEA , a genus of popular See also:

hardy or greenhouse See also:plants, belonging to the See also:heath See also:order (See also:Ericaceae), and scarcely separable botanically from See also:Rhododendron. The beautiful varieties now in cultivation have been bred from a few originals, natives of the hilly regions of See also:China and See also:Japan, See also:Asia See also:Minor, and the See also:United States. They are perhaps unequalled as indoor decorative plants. They are usually increased by grafting the See also:half-ripened shoots on the stronger-growing kinds, the shoots of the stock and the grafts being in a similarly half-ripened See also:condition, and the plants being placed in a moist See also:heat of 65°. Large plants of inferior kinds, if healthy, may be grafted all over with the choicer sorts, so as to obtain a large specimen in a See also:short See also:time. They require a See also:rich and fibrous See also:peat See also:soil, with a mixture of See also:sand to prevent its getting See also:water-logged. The best time to pot azaleas is three or four See also:weeks after the blooming is over. The soil should be made quite solid to prevent its retaining too much water. To produce handsome plants, they must while See also:young be stopped as required. Specimens that have got leggy may be cut back just before growth commences. The lowest temperature for them during the See also:winter is about 350, and during their See also:season of growth from 550 to 65° at See also:night, and 750 by See also:day, the See also:atmosphere being at the same time well charged with moisture. They are liable to the attacks of thrips and red spider, which do See also:great See also:mischief if not promptly destroyed. rr The following are some well-known See also:species:—A. arborescens (See also:Pennsylvania), a See also:deciduous See also:shrub 10-20 ft. high; A. calendulacea (Carolina to Pennsylvania), a beautiful deciduous shrub 2-6 ft. high, with yellow, red, See also:orange and See also:copper-coloured See also:flowers; A. hispida, a See also:North See also:American shrub, 10-15 ft. high, flowers See also:white edged with red; A. indica (China), the so-called See also:Indian azalea, a shrub 3-6 ft. or more high, the See also:original of numerous single and See also:double varieties, many of the more vigorous of which are hardy in See also:southern See also:England and See also:Ireland; A. nudiflora, a North American shrub, 3-4 ft. high, which hybridizes freely with A. calendulacea, A. pontica and others, to produce single and double forms of a great variety of shades; A. pontica (See also:Levant, See also:Caucasus, &c.), 4-6 ft. high, with numerous varieties differing in the See also:colour of the flowers and the tint of the leaves; A. sinensis (China and Japan), a beautiful shrub, 3-4 ft. high, with orange-red or yellow See also:bell-shaped flowers, hardy in the southern half of England, large See also:numbers of varieties being in cultivation under the name of See also:Japanese azaleas.

End of Article: AZALEA

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