Eb, I think you have uncovered the real meaning of the word "blog" — weblog my left foot, it stands for BACKLOG. I’m here doing mine now, instead of being outdoors on this fine gardening day!
The sad truth is that we will probably live to see the day when the Azaleas finally become reclassified, every last one of them, and that is the day we turn off the phones and go hoist a few at 9:00 in the morning. Until then, we have to soldier on with:
All Azaleas are Rhododendrons, etc.
Linnaeus improperly classified them separately. However, he was in good company; before his day, a Rhododendron was what we now call an Oleander! (The name means Red Tree, so one can see how it came about.)
Azaleas and Rhododendrons have been interbred since the first plants were scooped out of the dirt, and for a while these "crossbreeds" were even referred to by some ghastly name — Azaleodendrons or the like.
The old rule of thumb used to be that azaleas are deciduous and rhododendrons evergreen, but if that was ever true, it isn’t anymore.
There are horticultural differences to be noted, but for the home gardener they aren’t significant. They include differences in flower shape and stamen count, but for every 5 cultivars you find that follow the rules, one is lurking in the background to break them, so I don’t know how useful they are for any of us.
There is the idea that azaleas are easier to care for than rhodies, but I’ve never thought this was really true. Now, a native species will certainly be less trouble in nearly every case, but any sort of hybrid brings with it countless generations of crosses and all sorts of mysterious relations.
Does this help? No, probably not. Sorry!
Cheers,
Tamsin