Rhodies

I fell in love with Rhododendrons at Humboldt State University where they tower over walk ways and shield the buildings and walls. This shot is from Golden Gate Park on Mother's Day. Note the pink ground from fallen blossoms.

Just to give you some scale, that's me walking amongst the giants.

So obviously we planted one in our garden, a Douglas Stephens for my two favorite guys. This was by far his best year. It's been in the ground 9 years, and frankly I almost yanked it 2 years ago because it just never grew. Admittedly it is not a large plant (topping to about 5 feet), but I fretted; bad light? not enough water? I knew soil wasn't the problem.

I finally complained to one of the gardeners at the Hort about lack of performance and he said it takes 10 years for them to establish. The roofers and painters certainly didn't help (we ended up building a box around it to keep off debris and boots after a major branch was broken). And sure enough, it's almost up to the window sill! Finally.

You have to be careful; each of the rhodies in front of this house are beautiful, but together the vibrant neon colors become a bit of an eye strain.

We recently took a 10 day road trip to Whidbey Island just off the coast of Seattle (and we're still married!). Having never gotten above Trinidad, I was completely humbled by the forest and dense undergrowth of rhodedendrons. Now I know what rhodies really look like. We/I forgot to charge the friggin' camera so no pix :(