Southern History Month 2019: The Origins of the Azalea

Are our beautiful blooming azaleas “traditionally Southern” or not?

“Azalea gardens are a spectacular feature of the Southern landscape. The large-flowered, evergreen Southern Indian hybrid azaleas were first introduced from Europe to the United States as Belgian-Indian hybrids. The hybrids were developed in England and Belgium as greenhouse plants from several species native to Japan and China. Like camellias, they were used as tub plants in greenhouses and conservatories in the northeastern states before figuring as landscape plants in the South. In the 1840s they were introduced to Magnolia Gardens and proved to be hardy to the Deep South; they were soon popular throughout the Gulf Coast area. The hardier Belgian Indian hybrids in the South became known as the Southern Indian hybrids. The famous Fruitland Nursery in Augusta, Ga, played an important role in introducing azaleas, camellias, and many other ornamental plants to the South. A catalog of 1883 listed more than 50 varieties of azaleas, unfortunately, many of these old varieties are no longer available.

Southern cities such as Mobile, Savannah, and Charleston are famous for their azalea trails, roadside plantings, and special gardens lined with huge, colorful masses of such Southern Indian azaleas as the purplish-red Formosa, the Fielder’s White, and the pink Pride of Mobile.”

Fred C. Galle on “Gardens and Gardening” in Martin Melosi (ed.), The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture (University of North Carolina Press, 2007), pp.79-80

The sugarcane, rice and cotton we harvested in our “traditional” highly globalized 19th century economy in the context of the British-dominated South Atlantic System is native to South Asia. The tobacco that was harvested in Virginia for export to Europe was actually native to the Americas, but the African workforce and the system of chattel slavery and white supremacy was of Caribbean origins.