Homegrown Habitat: March 2025 — Pinxterbloom
In New England, pinxterbloom often displays its fragrant blossoms before the leaves emerge. By Sgerbic – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=104889199
Funny Name, Fabulous Plant
The rhododendron genus is large, its best-known plants the broad-leaf evergreens such as Rosebay (R. maximum) and countless non-native hybrids and cultivars. But there is a group of delightful native, deciduous azaleas that are also rhododendrons. Pinxterbloom azalea (Rhododendron periclymenoides) is a member of this club and is well worth getting to know.
The Dutch word pinxter means Pentecost, referring to the seventh Sunday after Easter and the approximate time when pinxterbloom flowers. Depending on location, it may flower in March, April, or early May. In New England it often displays its fragrant blossoms before the leaves, a surprising flash of pink amongst the surrounding woods still in winter grays and browns. The funnel-shaped flowers are in clusters and range from pale to dark pink, with long, curved stamens (which one author likens to eyelashes) adding to their ornamentality.
This member of the heath family (Ericaceae) is found in moist or dry woods, streambanks, and open areas from New Hampshire south to Georgia and west to Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi.
Pinxterbloom grows to about six feet tall with horizontal, picturesque branching. In ideal conditions, it spreads slowly into patches. Pinxterbloom requires well draining soils that are not over fertilized (it is highly sensitive to fertilizer salts) and can tolerate sandy or rocky conditions. In the garden it can take full sun or part shade, but in full sun its leaves may scorch on hot summer afternoons. The foliage is bright green and turns dull yellow in fall.
Pinxterbloom flowers attract hummingbirds, swallowtail butterflies, specialist bees, and other pollinators. It is also a larval host plant to 52 species of lepidoptera, which in turn nourish songbird nestlings. Early-spring bloomers like pinxterbloom are highly sought after by emerging queen bumblebees and other early pollinators. Numerous songbirds use pinxterbloom for either nesting or foraging, including cardinals, chickadees, jays, mockingbirds, nuthatches, thrushes, vireos, and waxwings.
Cedar Waxwings are among the many bird species that use pinxterbloom. – Photo by Brian Bennett
Like all rhododendrons, Pinxterbloom contains neurotoxins that can affect people and pets when ingested. Honey made from the nectar of rhododendrons is called mad honey in the United States but is evidently considered medicinal in China.
In the wild, pinxterbloom typically occurs in mixed deciduous forests. Some trees commonly growing with pinxterbloom include oaks, maples, birches, tupelo, red maple, sassafras, eastern hemlock, and pines. Understory tree and shrub companions include ironwood, witch hazel, rosebay rhododendron, flowering dogwood, mountain laurel, highbush blueberry, and mapleleaf viburnum.
All of the above plants would also make good companions for pinxterbloom in the garden, depending on how much space you have. But you can also use pinxterbloom along an existing wooded edge or create a grouping that includes a tree or two. Pinxterbloom is an excellent addition to the pollinator garden.
Just a few of the numerous good shrub companions include those listed above as well as witch hazel, huckleberry, New Jersey tea, and mountain laurel. Choose a few companion shrubs and a tree or two, sprinkle in some ferns, spring beauty, violets, snakeroot, meadow rue, and wood asters, and your pinxterbloom plant community will be a powerhouse of sensory delight and value to wildlife.
Connecticut Audubon’s Trail Wood in Hampston and Bafflin Sanctuary at the Center at Pomfret have pinxterbloom, and you can look for them at other Connecticut Audubon sanctuaries and in woodlands throughout the state.
Do you have experience with pinxterbloom azalea? Drop us a line. Photos are welcomed! homegrown@ctaudubon.org
Resources
Books
Edith A. Roberts and Elsa Rehmann, American Plants for American Gardens, The Macmillan Company, 1929 and the University of Georgia Press, 1996
Mark Richards and Dan Jaffe, Native Plants for New England Gardens, Globe Pequot, 2018
Websites
Rhododendron periclymenoides – Plant Finder
https://naturehabitats.org/knowledge-base/pinxterbloom-azalea-rhododendron-periclymenoides/
Species: Rhododendron periclymenoides
Pinxterbloom Azalea – Mt. Cuba Center
Rhododendron periclymenoides (Wild or Pinxterbloom Azalea)
https://nativeplantfinder.nwf.org/Plants/2847
https://www.audubon.org/native-plants/species/pink-azalea?zipcode=06470
