The Azalea Flower: Its Meanings & Symbolism
Azaleas are now one of the most popular landscaping flowers in the U.S. and other countries, but the beautiful blooms also work well as centerpieces, bouquet additions, and preserved decorations. These rhododendron relatives lend a magical air to any event or occasion. Whether the Azalea is your favorite bloom or your birth flower, you can find out more about its usefulness as a symbol to broaden your appreciation of this flowering shrub.
What Does the Azalea Flower Mean?
The Azalea tends to represent good qualities of personalities, but it also symbolizes specific emotions or events. Many people feel this flower means:
- Remembering your home with fondness or wishing to return to it
- Taking care of yourself and your family
- Temperance – the Victorians often carried a bloom if they supported the prohibition of alcohol, but it also represents emotional evenness
- Passion that is still developing and fragile
- Elegance and wealth
- Femininity and feminine beauty
- Abundance, especially of beauty or intelligence
- A death threat – only when sent in a black vase
Despite being an overwhelmingly positive plant, Azaleas still have a dark side due to the association with death threats.
Etymological Meaning of the Azalea Flower
Azaleas are part of the Rhododendron family, which is split into two different groups. This flowering shrub falls into the deciduous side, so Azaleas are known as Rhododendron pentantheran varieties. While the first cultivated Azaleas grew in China and Japan, the common name has Greek roots. Azalea comes from azaleos, a Greek word that means dry. This is due to their preference for quick draining and light soil.
Symbolism of the Azalea Flower
The meanings of the Azalea come primarily from Victorian society, Eastern cultures, and the United States. British gardeners considered the plant a reserved and self-managed addition, so the Victorian flower language association became temperance. It was often sent as a gift when one person urged another to reconsider their feelings or hold back from making a public display of affection. Japanese and Chinese gardeners considered it a sweet reminder of the time spent at home instead. Since the blooms can fall off the shrub when brushed by a passing person or a strong breeze, there is a connection to fragile or developing love that could still fail to blossom. The dark meaning of the Azalea is drawn from its toxicity – even honey made from the flowers is life-threatening, so don’t send someone a bouquet in a black vase unless you want to scare them!
Azalea Flower Color Meaning
As one of the most widely bred flowering shrubs, there are now over 10,000 unique and recognized varieties of Azalea. This means there are dozens of different colors to choose from when it comes to the blooms. Most bushes come in shades of pink and red, but blue, purple, yellow, and white varieties are also common. The usual color associations apply for this flower:
- White adds a sense of purity, restraint, and civility to your message.
- Red and dark pink lean towards the romantic and passionate side of the scale.
- Purple and pink are more jovial and less intense or personal.
- Yellow is primarily focused on friendship and family relationships.
Meaningful Botanical Characteristics of the Azalea Flower
Since all parts of the rhododendron family create such poisonous leaves and flowers, the Azalea is strictly used for decoration. It’s so popular in the United States that over a dozen different cities host festivals when the shrubs are blooming. There’s a trail in Alabama devoted just to viewing Azalea flowers, and an entire mountain in China becomes so covered in pink blooms it looks like the peak is dressed in a traditional jacket.
Special Occasions for the Azalea Flowers
Give the gift of Azaleas for:
- Birthdays falling between May 20 and June 20
- Celebrations for the women in your life
- Urging temperance in someone who is going to excesses
- Telling your family you wish you could visit home
- Reminding someone to take care of themselves
The Azalea Flower’s Message Is…
Care for yourself and those around you. Never forget where you came from, and stay in control of your emotions and actions for success in life.
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