You can go to Roslyn Nursery on the web and get a list of deciduous azaleas that are fragrant. Go to http://www.roslynnursery.com
and click the link that says "Catalog Index";
then click on Azaleas Deciduous.

Another suggestion is to check the list of Azaleas in Singing Tree Gardens Website:
http://www.singtree.com

Good luck hunting,
Luis

I have read every article on 'most fragrant rhododendrons'. The one that is always mentioned as enveloping the entire garden is 'Dexter's Honeydew'. The problem is - I cannot find a breeder who can import it to CA. Rare Find cannot ship to CA. The rhododendron breeders in CA, WA and OR seem to never have heard of it. Can anyone tell me where to find this on the mail order circuit. I am only going to plant something that is scenting the garden. If you have another variety that is as scentsational - please let me know.

'Dexter's Honeydew'is quite fragrant, but "enveloping the entire garden" is more than a little exaggerated in my experience. It would also be of marginal hardiness in a Z5 climate.

Two broadleaf evergreen rhododendrons with good, if not overwhelming fragrance, and Z5 hardiness are 'Caroline' and 'Cadis'. No doubt there are more.

There are even more possibilities within the deciduous azaleas. The most fragrant one in my experience is 'Viscosepalum'.

Have you ever heard of the problems associated with Black Walnut trees? They produce an allelopathic (toxic to other plant species) substance in their roots, leaves, branches, and hulls. This substance is called Juglone. Black Walnut belongs to the Juglandaceae family. Many other trees within that same family produce lesser amounts of this allelopathic substance, mostly in their nut hulls and shell and leaves. Rain water run-off from the canopy can even affect plants struggling under some of these trees. Hickories belong to this family of nut trees. AND...the end of my little story is: azaleas are very sensitive to juglone.

Just a warning....something to think about that most people aren't aware of.

This thread is like something out of the twilight zone.

It's the OP who's in zn 5, not joa456.

Joa456, there should be several varieties that you can grow in California that are even more fragrant than "Dexter's Honeydew". This plant is mainly notable for being a Dexter hybrid, a group tough enough to survive East Coast conditions. So, it's the "most fragrant rhododendron that can be grown over a reasonably large swath of the USA", not the "most fragrant of all". You might want to ask Singing Tree nursery, since they are in California. Certainly, if you're in zn 9 or 10 in coastal Northern California, you should be able to grow one of the Maddenia series, some of which are considered the ultimate in Rhododendron fragrance. Such as the variety named "Heaven Scent".

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.singtree.com/Rhododendron.cfm?type=fragrant

There is a reason why fragrant rhododendrons are not welcome in California. They are bee killers. We lived in an Oregon House in Yuba County, California. The previous owner of the house was in love with rhododendrons. He lived there for 25 years, and all these years he planted rhododendrons on his lands. In the end, he grew about fifty large bushes. The rhododendron garden looked impressive when all these hybrid modern rhododendron bushes with evergreen leaves bloomed one after another. However, hundreds of bees ended their lives on each such bush. Dead bees were piled up around the bush. Dying bees were sitting on the flowers. Apparently, when rhododendrons are the main source of nectar and there are not many other flowering plants around them, they simply destroy entire bee families. You can imagine how many bees have died on this site in 25 years. We lived in this house for a couple of years. Probably, if I had thought more about the situation, I would have dug up and destroyed all these bushes to save the bees. But there I got very ill with Lyme, so I couldn't focus on the problem of bees. By the way: only a few varieties there were fragrant. However, they attracted bees to all the other flowering rhododendrons around them.

davidrt28, Yes, I am sure that previous owner, who built the house, never used any chemicals on his site. He asked me to do the same. It was important for him that people who love nature buy a house from him. He gave this site many years of his life. It was both a huge effort and a huge cost to plant and grow, practically, in the desert, plants that love water. Almost every bush had a net protecting it from deer. Water was carried out throughout the 5-acre property. Watering was automatic. The property in terms of rare and beautiful ornamental plants that grow on it was the most luxurious in that town. In addition, David has worked all his life in the local government, where he was responsible for ecology and the environment. Also, I can assess the impact of herbicides and pesticides on the environment. I have a master's degree in biochemistry and a PhD in biology. I am sure that chemicals have never been used on this property.