Azalea ‘Washington State Centennial’

This was the official plant of Washington state’s Centennial year, 1989. The multi-toned flowers are frilled. Buds are a lovely peach orange, and the flowers open with a yellow-orange dorsal blotch while the lower petals are palest pink. As the flower ages, the top becomes yellow and bottoms fade to near white. The shrub can have many different colored flowers on it at a time. The leaves are rugose, shiny, and mildew resistant.

This was hybridized by a local rhododendron breeder, Dr. Frank Mossman, based on our local deciduous and strongly scented Rhododendron occidentale. He and Britt Smith were passionate collectors and breeders of these fragrant, native, west coast, deciduous azaleas. A portion of their collection is currently in the Smith-Mossman Western Azalea Garden at the Lake Wilderness Arboretum in Maple Valley, Washington, well worth a trip when the shrubs are in bloom.