Where are you in Ms.? I just saw some at a local nursery in Picayune.

I am in Oktibbeha Co. up near MSU. Not very close to Picayune. My hometown is Baton Rouge though, so maybe I can swing by a nursery this spring while traveling down to Louisiana. Thanks for the heads up.

Any other info from LA\MS gardeners would be much appreciated, too.

I think your best bet would be to contact your counties extenision service or MSU itself. Both should have recommendations on where to obtain native species. MSU proably has seasonal plants sales itself. Hope this helps.

I just bought a yellow one at Cleggs Nursery. They also had pink.

Did you ever find what you were looking for? I found an online source that has reasonable prices. Shadygardensnursery.com

Thanks to all who have posted. I did find 2 online sources in the SE US. Perhaps Cleggs will still have some when I visit BRLA next. Would love to find some seed sources for native azaleas, but haven't had luck with that yet. The Azalea Society mostly has non-natives or hybrids....

Dodd & Dodd developed the Confederate Series of native azaleas years ago. The nursery where I worked carried them. Gorgeous. Contact them to see where they are carried these days. http://www.doddnatives.com/dndnursery.htm

Hilltop Arboretum often carries native azaleas at their plant sales, too. http://appl015.lsu.edu/hilltop/hilltop.nsf/$Content/Programs?OpenDocument

Great information, guys! Now that we're back from Oregon, this is just what I needed, to get started. I like the colors of our natives much better than those of the Indicas.

By the way... Is it really wise to mass Azaleas? I want to add masses of them against the inner perimeter fence, but don't want to create some sort of dangerous monocrop disease-risk situation.

Are our natives more prone to disease?

Don't know if you want to make the drive, but there are a TON of very large commercial and retail nurseries in the Forest Hill area, south of Alexandria, Louisiana on Hwy. 165. I know a number of them stock a variety of azaleas in various sizes. Don't know about availability of seeds.

See the gardenguides page for an extensive list and links to the web site for many of them.

Here is a link that might be useful: Forest Hill, Louisiana Nurseries & Garden Centers

Azalea seed? I've always wondered about that - with all those flowers, where are the seeds? But my mom just propagated them by laying a branch, still connected to the bush, in loose dirt and putting a rock on top of it. Once it grows good roots, cut it off, and there you go - a free azalea. And I see them planted in huge clusters everywhere down here in southern MS; never noticed signs of disease on the natives. Some of them are ten feet tall, at least, in an enormous mass. I'd think you'd be safe planting them that way as long as you give them lots of room. Of course, this late, you've already got them planted, I'm guessing. :)

Rarefind nursery in New Jersey has mostly Rhod and Azaleas. Check out online, Rarefind nurseries.

Sorry, you said local.