Azalea 'Astronaut’ Holly Springs Variegated Satsuki Azalea

Azalea 'Astronaut' White Variegated Blooms Evergreen Azalea With White Variegated Blooms HOLLY SPRINGS HYBRID  Zones 6b-9   A new wave of Satsuki hybrids are hitting the market and this time, not from Japan. Colonel Pete Vines, a hybridizer in Virginia did a lot of breeding work that will benefit your garden. He worked hard to make azaleas that were cold tolerant, had large blooms, and were dwarf to mid-sized. ‘Astronaut’ is perhaps one of his best Holly Springs hybrids. This series gets its name from a small town where Pete had a bootlegger near the University of Mississippi where he went to college. ‘Astronaut’ is the result of crossing two different Satsuki azaleas. One parent ‘Amagasa’ is a nice coral pink, while the other parent,  ‘Sekai no hikari’ is a heavily striped variegated plant. The results are a June bloomer with large white 4-5 inch ruffled flowers with coral pink freckles and sprays, similar to what the Japanese would call a Fukiage shibori variegation style. Some peta