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Western Azaleas of Stagecoach Hill

Frank Mossman

The Western azalea is native in California, southwestern Oregon, and Mexico. This deciduous shrub adorns many streamsides and sends its marvelous perfume aloft on warm springtime afternoons to attract the pollen-carrying insects and birds, and to inform interested human visitors of its proximity.

Along the coast of northern California in Humboldt County, two miles north of Patrick's Point, east of the freshwater lake-like Big Lagoon and US Highway 101, immediately south of Dry Lagoon Beach State Park, is an extensive area of native plants created mostly by nature, but with unin­tended assistance from man. Here is a two-mile-long hillside supporting thousands of plants of Western azalea. A group of azalea lovers has dubbed this marvelous area "Stagecoach Hill" because of an old road along its ridge reputed to have been used by stagecoaches until the early part of this century.

Let us take a hike in late May or early June along Stagecoach Hill when the flowers are best. The afternoon is warm. We are walking among thousands of hip- to head-high shrubs. The fog rolls in from the blue lagoon, isolating us from others in this populous state. But for our thorough acquaintance with the slope, pathways, and streams, we would be lost. Soon, the mist clears enough to show the way more easily, but, by this time, our boots and clothing are wet from pushing through fog-moistened shrubbery. The discomfort goes unnoticed because our thoughts are with the beauty of flowers and the intermittent view of the lagoon. Beyond is the Pacific Ocean surf into which Patrick's Point juts. At a distance, a casual visitor may think that all the azaleas here are the same.

Closer examination soon changes this notion. No two plants are alike. Here is a medium high plant with pink and white flowers, a real stunner that suggests old-fashioned peppermint stick candy. The upper petal has a little yellow, which gives pleasing contrast. The leaves are plum-colored and have an interesting, slightly twisted form. The plant consists of many stems arising from a ground area eight feet in diameter. A little farther on is an azalea with pale pink flowers. The petals are thicker than usual and so broad that the total effect resembles a large pansy, but with an addi­tional fascinating feature: the petal margins are frilled, like the ruffle on a little girl's dress of two generations ago!

On the fog-shrouded knoll over there is an especially deep pink-flowered azalea. En route to this beauty, we must be careful not to overlook any other treasures. Ah, nearly did. Here, between two bigger azaleas, is a sixteen-inch dwarf with white flowers whose margins are rose lavender in color. The leaves are miniature, recurved, and of an unusual speckled plum color on a jade green background.

These are but a few of the amazing finds. Finally, cold, wet skin and fatigue make themselves known. It is time to quit for the day. But wait. What is that next gem fifty yards away in a tangle of salal, bramble, and ceanothus? So it goes on every visit. Here is an unmatched natural garden with countless azaleas in great variety.

Distribution and History

To understand the significance of the plants here, we should first review the azalea, its distribution, and perhaps a little history.

The genus Rhododendron is sub-divided into more than thirty series, one of which is the Azalea Series. In the eastern continental United States, there are many native species of Rhododendron with small white, pink, red, yellow, or orange flowers. One of these, R. calendulaceum, the marigold azalea, has larger flowers than the others in the East. Several species of azaleas are native to Japan, some to China, and one to Asia Minor. The Western azalea is the only mem­ber of the series found on the Pacific Coast. Botanically, it is known as Rhododendron occidentale.

Rhododendron occidentale prefers soil rich in organic material, acid, and with ample water. It likes moist air, too, and usually grows along stream banks or in low wet places. In deep forest, plants will grow but flower sparsely or not at all, while some plants are killed by deep shade. High elevations produce a short growing and blooming season. Great heat is tolerated if the water supply is adequate. Some plants tolerate alkaline soil. Ideal grow­ing conditions are found along the coast of Northern California. South of Fort Bragg, California, a few scattered specimens of Western azalea remain, despite clearing for farming and housing. One monarch, twenty-five feet high, with large, deep pink flowers, may be seen flowering in June on the Chester Craig ranch. What other marvels were here before the area was cleared for pasture?

The discovery of the Western azalea is said to date from the expedition of Captain Beechey in 1827.1 Not until 1849 was seed collected for introduction to English horti­culture by William Lobb of the famous Veitch Nursery. Lobb's main effort was directed to new conifers and his incidental collection of azalea seed is thought to have been from the mountains near San Diego, where the flowers of Western azalea are small and white. Thus, Western azalea received little atten­tion in England, except as a parent in the development of the world-famous Knaphill strain of hybrid azaleas. In more recent years, awareness of the special clones of Rhododen­dron occidentale on Stagecoach Hill has developed in Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Japan, through the efforts of this author and others. The Ameri­can Rhododendron Species Foundation has sent material from some of these fine forms abroad, and some English gardeners are eager to raise plants from it.

Botanical Features

Rhododendron occidentale is the only azalea with seventy-eight chromosomes (hexaploid). All other American azaleas have twenty-six (diploid) except R. calendulaceum, which has fifty-four (quadriploid). The large number of chromosomes of R-occidentale contributes to the tremendous variation in flower, growth, and foliage seen on Stagecoach Hill and elsewhere. Dr August Kehr2 and Mr HH Davidian3 both feel that R. occidentale was derived from two (and possibly three) other species that com­bined long ago to give this unusual chromo­some count.

Rhododendron occidentale is a woody, upright-growing shrub. It has terminal trusses of six to twelve, white or pale pink, star-shaped fragrant flowers, with five petals and five stamens, on wood produced the previous year. The upper petal has a yellow-to-orange splash or flare. The flowers are one to two-and-one-half inches across. The leaves are paper thin, green, elliptic in shape, two to four inches long and one-half to one inch wide. The buds are green or red in winter. The shrub grows to ten or twelve feet high. Briefly, that is the generally accepted description of this azalea, but it is inadequate when one considers the following variations.

Variations Found on Stagecoach Hill

• Flower size: up to four inches across the face.
• Petal shape: very narrow or very broad and imbricate (over-lapping). Frill­ed margins. Petal posture varies. Surface may be smooth or crinkled.

• Petal number: usually five but varies from six to twelve without change in the stamens.

• Stamens: normally five, but number varies from five to nine. May be converted partially or totally to petals with anthers present or absent.

• Flower color: white, cream, pink, deep pink, or red. The colors may be com­bined in various ways with stripes and spots of one color or another; upper petal color yel­low or orange, may be spotty, or splashed, or entire, and may extend to adjacent petals, or, rarely, to all petals. White or pink flowers may have red mar­gins (picotee).

• Petal texture: usually thin, but may be fleshy and thick.
• Flowers per truss: fifteen to twenty-five are common, up to thirty-six not rare, up to fifty-four on one plant.
• Leaf size: varies from small (less than an inch long) to large.
• Leaf shape: ovate, obovate, or nearly round.
• Leaf texture: thick, almost leathery.

• Leaf surface: almost bullate (puckered).

• Leaf margins: wavy or twisted; recurved, or the opposite.
• Color in summer: usually green, plum-colored or spotted; sometimes bronzy or even variegated.
• Color in autumn: yellow, orange, scarlet, red or maroon.
• Winter buds: green, yellow, red, maroon, or black red.
• Plant habit: usually upright, may be spread­ing so that width is greater than height. Some true dwarfs are known.

These many variations are found in almost infinite combinations.

In Humboldt County along the coast, the growing season is 328 days. The annual average rain­fall is only thirty-seven and one-half inches, but the humidity is high because of per­sistent fog in summer near the ocean. January's average temperature of 47°F is only a little below July's average 56°F. On Stage­coach Hill, where the quiet waters of Big Lagoon stabilize the local climate even more, all these factors combine to produce the variations listed above. The azaleas grow closely across the entire hill, which abounds with streamlets much of the year.

A few outstanding azaleas have been propagated by rooting slips so that these are preserved in nurseries and public and private gardens, but the author's ten years of observ­ing the area are insufficient to detect all the fine plants, and new ones are germinating every year. Many remain hidden.

This lovely, verdant, fog-swept Stagecoach Hill is tilted toward a scene of breathtaking beauty: Big Lagoon, with its quiet waters often dotted with sailboats and water skiers. It is a fishing and swimming playground now for many people. Beyond, the Pacific surf is visible, but barely audible. Stagecoach Hill [was] privately owned. The bulldozers [were] at work with roads, and surveyors [were] subdividing. This superb, seemingly isolated concentration of thousands of azalea shrubs, no longer found in such numbers elsewhere, [was] in danger.

Saved: The Azaleas of Stagecoach Hill

The California State Parks Foundation, a non-profit charitable foundation, worked closely with the California section of the American Rhododendron Society to raise the funds necessary to purchase Stagecoach Hill. This treasure ground for Western azaleas has now been pro­tected forever as the Stagecoach Hill Azalea Reserve, a unit of the California State Parks.

Footnotes

1Some authorities credit David Douglas with the dis­covery. This controversy is discussed by Dr Elizabeth McClintock in the Journal of the California Horticultural Society Vol 22, No 2, April 1961.

2[Former} president of the American Rhododendron Society and retired from the United States Department of Agriculture.

3World-famed rhododendron taxonomist from the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh, Scotland, who visited Stagecoach Hill in 1975.