Although, just for perspective and to point out the slight difference in climate...there are wild Kalmias growing on the Elk Neck Peninsula in almost full sun in some cases, lining the road down to Turkey Point. And 'Forever Red' is growing fine in almost full sun in my garden. The whole Peninsula was once cleared for agriculture but has reforested over the past 150 years. The Kalmias are something of a ecological mystery to me...obviously seems implausible that there was a "Johnny Kalmia seed" who introduced them, but it's curious they came to grow with such density. More than anywhere else I've seen like various drives through mountain roads in PA. In late May it is one of the most outstanding natural floral displays I've seen in the US...rivaling the Arbutus menziesii in the hills of interior Mendocino County!

Alas, compared to when I moved here 15 years ago, they are now being overrun by invasives like Celastrus. 😞 When I was in perky little Australia for almost 3 weeks - a country with roughly the population of the NYC metro and a GDP that is 6% of the US GDP - I saw not one but two invasive plant control operations on-going. Granted one was just contracted landscaper of the Sands Golf Resort in Torquay spraying the grounds for some kind of invasive Compositae, but still. I asked him what it was but forget the exact name, IIRC some kind of groundsel. Point was he was spraying it because it was invasive, not just a weed.

OTOH on the east coast of the US, I've never seen a targeted removal of invasives, other than by myself in my own yard! My hayseed neighbors are apparently fine with their trees all being strangled by Celastrus!