Endless bloom in the shade? When faced with a semi-shady area to plant and you want colorful bloom, a first thought may be azalea. A tried-and-true staple, the azalea provides great color but usually only for a short time. To remedy this, Garden Debut set out to create an azalea that exhibits an extended bloom time, along with greater cold and sun tolerance. As the name suggests, this azalea offers a marathon of color, blooming first in spring and then again in late summer through frost (that’s like 12 weeks!). It displays some sun tolerance and has shown cold tolerance to zone 6, making it hardier than the Encore. In addition to the extended bloom time, Bloom-A-Thon has good disease resistance and saturated flower color on large blooms.