Small wooden bridge surrounded by a grey winding pathway, grey rocks, tall bare trees, and bushes bearing small, burgundy and golden leaves.

Azalea Garden

Section Navigation

Maureen K. Chilton Azalea Garden
May

The Mother’s Day crescendo of white, coral, pink, and purple azalea blossoms is one of the Garden’s most striking seasonal spectacles. Set amongst the dramatic rock outcrops, steep slopes and dappled shade of centuries-old native trees, this garden is beautiful throughout the seasons with plants in bloom nearly every day of the year. Alongside the azaleas and rhododendron, you’ll find a diverse assortment of flowering trees and shrubs, woodland perennials, bulbs, ferns and grasses. Collections in this garden include dogwood, mountain laurel, hydrangea, spice-bush, witch-hazel, epimedium, hosta, hellebore, snow-drop, and ferns.

Azalea Tracker

Dig Deeper

The Collection

We’re not shy of azaleas here at NYBG! You’ll find 6,706 individual azalea and rhododendron plants, which represent 456 different species, hybrids, and cultivated varieties.

The Locations

Most of our azaleas and rhododendrons can be found in the Maureen K. Chilton Azalea Garden, but you’ll also discover them blooming in the Rock Garden and Native Plant Garden.

The Facts

  • Beginning in the late 1890s, a variety of species and cultivars were planted in the Fruticetum (part of the north section of the Garden that was lost in the ’30s when they built the Cross Bronx Parkway) and in decorative plantings at the Garden’s gates.
  • In 1910, a planting of 800 Rhododendron maximum, R. minus, and R. catawbiense from the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina was installed on the slopes above Twin Lakes. This area was known as the Rhododendron Glade.
  • The Garden significantly expanded its collection of rhododendrons and azaleas in the 1940s. In 1940, 435 seedlings of unnamed hybrids of Rhododendron fortunei, all of which were raised by Charles O. Dexter of Sandwich, Massachusetts, were planted along the northern edge of the Thain Forest.
  • From 1943–1946, thousands of azaleas and rhododendrons representing hundreds of species and cultivars were planted in an “Azalea Garden” in the high shade of native trees along the Bronx River, in the southwestern portion of the grounds.

The Archives

Our Steere Herbarium is home to millions of plant specimens that tell the story of our planet’s botanical biodiversity across centuries of time, which informs our efforts to save the plants of our world for future generations.

Peruse the herbarium specimens and stories that live here at NYBG.

View Azalea Specimens

Learn About Azaleas on The Hand Lens

Season Galleries

  • Small white flowers growing next to a pathway while three guests walk in the distance below bare tree branches.
  • Guest walking on pathway next to bare trees and soil below blue skies.
  • Snow covered tree branches amongst a tall, brown tree trunk and ice covered brown and green bushes.
  • Snow covered fallen tree trunks, bare tree branches with golden and burgundy witch hazel blooming from the slim, brown tree branches.
  • Small white flowers blooming next to fallen tree trunk, soil and brown leaves.
  • Long pathway next to snow covered bushes, grass, and bare trees with a wooden bench in the distance.
  • Small pink, white and purple azaleas sprouting from small green bushes amongst green bushes, green trees and large, grey rocks,
  • Magenta, orange-red, light pink, and white azaleas blooming amongst small green bushes and tall trees.
  • Closeup of pink azaleas with bare trees and one guest out of focus in the distance.
  • Bright green, small bushes with white, red, pink and purple azaleas blooming in the distance, and a tall brown tree trunk in view.
  • Closeup of light pink, green and burgundy flowers growing amongst bright green leaves.
  • Small white flowers blooming on a tree in the distance, pink, white and purple flowers blooming amongst green bushes, and tall green trees.
  • A wooden bench amongst a pathway, small green bushes, small red flowers sprouting in the distance.
  • A short foot bridge in the distance adjacent to small bushes of pink and purple flowers, and tall green trees.
  • A wooden bench sitting on a pathway surrounded by grown bushes, trees and grass below blue skies.
  • Small white flowers with orange centers growing amongst small green bushes, grey rocks, and a tall tree in the distance.
  • Portion of long pathway next to small green bushes blooming small purple azaleas amongst tall green trees.
  • Long pathway surrounded by green grass, and trees with leaves turning orange, red and yellow.
  • Tall tree with nearly bare branches shedding golden and orange leaves, green and yellow bushes, a large black rock, and sunshine peeking through in the distance.
  • Pathway surrounded by tall, bare trees and yellow and green bushes.
  • Tall bare trees shedding the last of its brown and yellow leaves amongst small burgundy and yellow bushes.
  • Golden and orange leaves on tall trees overlooking a leaf covered pathway, next to small dark green bushes with one guest walking in the distance.
  • Tall brown trees sprouting burgundy and yellow leaves.

Take a Class

Choose from 100s of classes in gardening, art, design and the environment.

Do It Yourself

Browse gardening tips, chores, and FAQs in our LibGuide collection.

Contact Plant Experts

Get assistance with in-depth, unusual, odd, curious, extraordinary or atypical questions.

Subscribe to our newsletter and be the first to know about all things NYBG

Subscribe Now