Autumn Kiss® Encore® Azalea

Autumn Kiss® Encore® Azalea typically matures around 3 to 4 feet tall and 3 to 4 feet wide. That compact size is one of its biggest advantages because it makes the shrub much easier to use in foundation beds, borders, and smaller landscape spaces.

Its rounded habit also makes it useful in decorative groupings and low flowering hedges. Homeowners get season-long azalea color in a shrub that stays much easier to place and maintain than larger varieties.

Yes, Autumn Kiss® Encore® Azalea is evergreen, so it keeps its foliage throughout the year in suitable climates. That evergreen habit helps it stay useful in the landscape even when it is between bloom cycles.

Because the plant holds its foliage and stays neatly rounded, it continues to contribute structure and color to borders and foundation beds in every season. That gives it more year-round value than a shrub grown only for a short spring show.

Yes, Autumn Kiss® Encore® Azalea is a reblooming Encore azalea. It flowers heavily in spring and then returns with additional waves of bloom through summer and fall when conditions are favorable.

That reblooming habit is one of the main reasons homeowners choose Encore azaleas. Instead of getting a single short bloom season, they get color returning again later in the year.

Autumn Kiss® Encore® Azalea produces two-tone pink semi-double flowers. The petals show deeper pink coloring toward the edges with softer pink tones toward the center, which gives the blooms a more layered and decorative look.

That unusual color pattern helps this variety stand out from more standard solid-pink azaleas. It gives the shrub a more romantic, eye-catching bloom effect in the landscape.

Yes, Autumn Kiss® Encore® Azalea is especially good for foundation plantings because of its compact size, evergreen habit, and repeat-blooming color. It brings long-lasting flower interest without becoming too large for most home landscapes.

It is also useful where homeowners want a softer, more colorful alternative to plain green foundation shrubs. The foliage keeps the bed looking full, and the reblooming flowers bring repeated seasonal impact.

Autumn Kiss® Encore® Azalea is commonly described as relatively deer resistant in nursery-style guidance for Encore azaleas, but it should not be considered completely deer proof. In areas with heavy browsing pressure, deer may still sample the plant.

That means it is best treated as a plant with moderate or relative deer resistance rather than a guaranteed deer-proof shrub. Homeowners in high-pressure deer areas may still want to add protection during establishment.

Nursery pot sizes are called gallon sizes. You’ll see one-gallon, two-gallon, etc. This can be misleading to gardeners as a one-gallon pot would lead you to believe that the pot would hold one gallon of milk. This is not the case. Gallon is just a term of reference leftover from the days of nurseries growing plants in metal containers.

• 1-gallon (#1) pot for example, can hold 3 quarts of soil yet they are still considered a 1-gallon pot.
• 2-gallon (#2) pot holds about 1.5 gallons of soil
• 3-gallon (#3) pot holds about 2.9 gallons of soil
• 5-gallon (#5) pot holds about 4.6 gallons of soil

What you actually should be concerned with is the dimensions of the pot rather than capacity because let’s face it the size of the hole you dig is dependent on the dimensions, not the capacity.

These are approximate measurements and dimensions vary from manufacturer to manufacturer but all dimensions fall in the following specifications.

• 1 Gallon Pot - 6.5 to 7.5 inches wide by 7 to 8 inches deep
• 2 Gallon Pot - 8.5 to 9.5 inches wide by 8 to 9 inches deep
• 3 Gallon Pot - 10.5 to 11.5 inches wide by 9.5 to 10.5 inches deep
• 5 Gallon Pot - 12 to 13 inches wide by 11 to 12.5 inches deep

These are approximate measurements and they do vary from supplier to supplier.