Southern Indica Azalea ‘Formosa’

Formosa is the big lavender Southern Indica azalea — an old Southern standard that covers itself in large magenta-lavender trumpets for a few loud weeks in mid spring. It grows fast and full, easily reaching 6 feet or more, so one plant reads as a wall of color.

Give it filtered shade or morning sun, acid soil, and room to become a shrub, not a meatball. It sets next spring's buds in summer, so any pruning happens right after bloom.