Flame Creeper may make you revise everything you know about Azaleas! It offers a totally different look, yet has all the merits you expect of these low-maintenance shrubs. It surprises (and delights!) with a groundcover habit, evergreen foliage, and bright orange blooms that put on a big show in spring, then repeat all summer and into autumn!
Flame Creeper is a Satsuki hybrid, a Japanese evergreen type of Azalea much prized for its bright color patterns. Here we have rich orange-scarlet, a hard-to-find shade in the garden that stands out from way down the street. The single blooms just erupt into color in late spring, transforming the partly shaded border, woodland, foundation, driveway edging, or any other garden spot with magnificent color that lasts for weeks. Then, after a rest, you'll see intermittent blooms all summer, with another big flush in late summer to early fall. Can't beat that with a stick!
When we call Flame Creeper a groundcover, here are the dimensions you can expect: it will be just 6 to 12 inches or so high (even in bloom), but will spread 24 to 36 inches wide within just a few seasons. If you plant it near the edge of a terrace or wall, you can get it to spill over! (It won't hang straight down for 3 feet like a spreading Petunia or anything -- it's more anchored in the soil than that.) You can also get it to creep up a wall or fence for a foot or so. Very adaptable!
Flame Creeper has small, neat evergreen foliage, extensive branching, and masses and masses of flowers. Its breeding includes natural hybrids of Rhododendron indicum and Rhododendron tamurae, so it is quite sun-tolerant, thriving best in morning sun and afternoon shade. Steady dappled shade, such as that from a north-facing exposure or overstory plantings, is good too. And like all Azaleas, it is shallow-rooted, so find a home for it and then leave the soil around it undisturbed, if possible.
We predict that you will fall in love with Flame Creeper Azalea. There's no better carpet for the shade border, the woodland garden, or the north side of the house! Very low maintenance and long-lived, it's a floriferous treasure from spring into fall, and an evergreen presence right through winter! Zones 6-9.
