Once classed as a distinct genus, the azalea is simply a compact rhododendron, usually with five stamens instead of the 10 of other rhododendrons.

Cultivated in Japan for centuries with an almost religious reverence, evergreen azaleas became very popular in the northern hemisphere as Christmas-flowering house plants. There are varieties that can be grown in Australian gardens from latitudes as far south as Tasmania, and northward into the Queensland subtropics.

There are many different categories and many hybrids of evergreen azalea, ranging from the delicate and hardy 'Kaempferi' hybrids to the popular, showy 'Indica' plants that most people know as azaleas.