“50 Years of Blooms — A Golden Legacy”
Hendersonville, North Carolina • April 25-28, 2027
The Lodge at Flat Rock
Convention hotel price $109 to $159 plus taxes (reservations made by March 24th).
Convention Chair: Aaron Cook — Hendersonville, NC
Join the Azalea Society of America in Hendersonville, North Carolina, from Sunday, April 25, through Wednesday, April 28, 2027, to celebrate our 50 year anniversary while exploring exceptional gardens, discovering new plants and horticultural ideas, and connecting with fellow azalea enthusiasts.
Set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina, Hendersonville combines small-town hospitality with outdoor recreation, a lively arts scene, and celebrated apple orchards. Its pedestrian-friendly downtown features local restaurants and shops, while nearby wineries and breweries make up the popular Cheers! Trail.
The arts are celebrated at studios and galleries on three Blue Ridge Crafts Trails, and with Broadway-style shows at the renowned Flat Rock Playhouse.
Two former directors of the US National Arboretum and one renowned USDA plant researcher retired in Hendersonville — John Creech, Henry Skinner, and Augie Kehr.
Our host hotel is The Lodge at Flat Rock. The rate is $109 to $159 per night, depending on your room choice, plus taxes and lodging fees; the rate is valid for an extra day before and/or after the convention. Parking is free. Buffet breakfast is included. Make your reservations by calling the number below directly (mention the Azalea Society to get the reduced rate). The cutoff date for reservations at this rate is March 24th; the block of rooms is limited, so book early.
The Lodge at Flat Rock
42 McMurray Rd, Flat Rock, NC 28731
(828) 693-9910
Our hotel is 14 miles from Asheville airport on I-26, and 38 miles from Greenville-Spartanburg Airport.
Schedule
Saturday, April 24th
If you choose to arrive early to the convention, you can participate in Azaleas 101 at the Mt. Hort Crop Research Station, the annual spring plant sale at Bullington Gardens, or a self-guided tour of some local private gardens.
Sunday, April 25th
Check-in and registration will be open at the hotel from 1:00 pm until 5:00 pm. There will be an ASA board meeting at 3:00 pm. Join us for a Meet and Greet from 5:00 pm until 6:30 pm in the hotel ballroom. During this time, Irene Palmer from the NCSU Mountain Horticulture Crops Research Station will give a presentation on her azalea breeding project. Dinner will be on your own.
Monday, April 26th
Breakfast is included in your hotel reservation. Monday begins at Marilyn Grist’s “A tout le monde” garden; For a preview of Marilyn’s garden, check out Jim Putnam’s YouTube video below. From there, we will visit Bullington Gardens before returning to the hotel for a sandwich buffet lunch. The afternoon includes tours of the private gardens of Audrey Stelloh and Aaron and Lisa Cook. Additional descriptions of each garden appear below. Dinner will be on your own.
Tuesday, April 27th
Breakfast is included in your hotel reservation. The tours for Tuesday begin at the Biltmore Estate and conclude with lunch and tours at the NC Arboretum. Dinner and the ASA annual meeting will be held in the ballroom at the host hotel.
Wednesday, April 28th
Breakfast is included in your hotel reservation. Your registration package will contain information on nurseries, additional gardens, and many other interesting things to see in the Hendersonville and Asheville areas. Take some extra time after the official agenda and tour on your own.
Tours
Our garden tours have been planned and designed not only to give you the opportunity to see some delightful gardens, but also to fill your notebook and mind with outstanding gardening ideas and a checklist of plant materials that you want for your garden.
Western NC Horticulture Research Center
The NCSU Mountain Horticulture Crops Research Station brings together research and extension faculty and staff from six academic departments in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Natural Resources. Located in the Southern Appalachians within the French Broad River basin at a base elevation of 2,069 feet, the center’s varied topography and climate support laboratory, greenhouse, and field studies important to Western North Carolina’s agricultural economy. Its core research programs focus on tomatoes, apples, and ornamental landscape crops, with additional work involving vegetables, peaches, biofuel crops, corn, soybeans, and other specialty and alternative crops.
“A tout le monde”
This ten-acre treasure along the Saluda River in Travelers Rest will surprise you at every turn as paths and trails wind around the estate. Designed and built by Marilyn Grist, the property brings many gardens together in one setting, including an impressive Japanese garden with waterfalls and a pagoda, a Charleston garden, and a Victorian rose garden. Varieties of azaleas and rhododendrons are scattered throughout the property.
Bullington Gardens
Bullington Gardens, once the nursery of Bob Bullington, is a public botanical garden on 12 acres of rolling land providing hands-on education in horticulture and other sciences to students, youth, and adults. These gardens incorporate some of the many unusual mature trees that Mr. Bullington collected and introduced to the area. The gardens’ mission is to connect children and adults with the natural world through science-based horticultural education; to demonstrate the beauty and value of native and ornamental plants through themed public gardens; and to enhance life skills for children and adults with physical or mental challenges.
The Stelloh Garden
The Stelloh Garden is an engaging woodland garden on four heavily wooded acres on a mountainside. Its understory forms a maze of native mountain laurel, rhododendron, and native azaleas, enriched with numerous hybrid azaleas and rhododendrons. The garden floor features a wide range of native plants, including trillium, Solomon’s seal, ferns, lady’s slippers, gingers, trout lily, bloodroot, tiarella, and Virginia bluebells, along with many non-native plants. Bob and Denise Stelloh designed and built the garden in 1993 after moving to Hendersonville with 1,000 plants from their Maryland garden, including Satsuki azaleas, Glen Dales, other azaleas, rhododendrons, Japanese maples, conifers, and perennials. They continued expanding the collection, which now includes more than 20 types of ferns. The property also has more than a half mile of paths and a spring that forms a bog at its lowest point. Denise died in 2008, and in 2010 Bob married Audrey, an avid gardener.
Together, Bob and Audrey began building a retaining wall from newspapers. Each year, they collected papers and added another section until Bob’s death in 2014. Audrey continued building the wall with help from friends and relatives for the next six years. It became a striking art installation, though it is now decomposing. Audrey has also decorated the garden with handmade mosaic steppingstones, mosaic benches, pottery pieces, and totem poles. On September 27, 2024, Hurricane Helene toppled 12 trees into the garden, but none struck the house. Tons of branches crushed mountain laurels and native azaleas, and cleanup required months of hard work: cutting debris into pieces, hauling it uphill by hand along narrow paths, and loading it onto a dump truck. Seeing the native plants crushed was disheartening, but by spring 2025 they had begun to regrow. The storm also opened the canopy, bringing more sun to an area that had long been shady. Audrey is now planting sun-loving plants around the new “stumpery.”
The Cook Garden
Lisa and Aaron Cook’s garden is a labor of love, created after the couple moved to Hendersonville in fall 2019. They purchased the 1.2-acre property that September and spent the first two years removing wisteria, English ivy, bittersweet, and other invasive plants. In 2020, they established the first beds and began developing the trail system. Since then, they have added beds for the many plants they propagate from seeds and cuttings. Aaron hybridizes azaleas, rhododendrons, daylilies, hostas, and gladiolus. About 25 percent of the plants on the property serve as hybridization parents, while the remaining 75 percent are their offspring.
Biltmore Estate
See the separate article in the Fall 2026 issue of The Azalean.
NC Arboretum
See the separate article in the Winter 2026 issue of The Azalean. Click here for a discussion of the development of the Arboretum’s native azalea collection.
Speakers
Convention speakers will share expertise in azalea breeding, native azalea conservation, and historic garden management.
Irene Palmer
Irene serves as project manager for the azalea breeding program at the Research Center. Her work combines traditional breeding with ploidy manipulation and uses the tissue culture laboratory for ploidy and genome-size verification as well as ovule and embryo rescue.
Carson Ellis
Carson serves as the National Native Azalea Collection Curator at the NC Arboretum.
Stacey Weir
Stacey has been with the Biltmore Company for 20 years. She currently serves as the Historic Gardens Manager.
Plant Sale
One of the favorite attractions at our conventions is our plant sale where you can get special plants at great prices. Both native and evergreen azaleas and some surprises will be waiting for you. The plant sale at the host hotel will be open Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday evenings and Wednesday morning.
Registration Fee
The 2027 convention registration fee is $250 per person through March 24, 2027, and $300 per person from March 25 through April 18, 2027. Registration is open to anyone and is fully refundable through March 24th. The fee includes all tours, transportation, snacks, entrance fees, light refreshments at Sunday evening’s Meet and Greet, lunch on Monday and Tuesday, and dinner on Tuesday. Sunday and Monday dinners are on your own, and breakfast is included with your host hotel reservation. Enter any dietary or other special needs on the registration form; gluten-free and vegetarian meals will be available. You may register and pay online through the ASA website or print the registration form and mail it with a check. Register and reserve your hotel room early because the room block is limited.