The Rhododendron

I've been an admirer of Rhododendrons since I first discovered them when living in Victoria. These spectacular trees/shrubs are very showy with their clusters of blooms that burst into spring like no other.



I nurtured a small shrub "back east" when we moved into sis's house and I was determined to bring a little west coast to our garden. The rhodo seemed like the obvious choice. It grew like a bonsai, not really getting beyond a couple of feet tall, but was very showy every spring against the drab background.

I was thrilled to see that our new home had several rhodos in the front yard and one in the back as well. The photos here are two of the front rhodos. I do love the white one.


I had to take another shot so you could get an idea of where the rhodo is situated in relation to the house. D. is bringing his bike down the stairs for our Sunday run/bike session.

While I do enjoy rhododendrons, I've actually become a little bored of them in the last couple of weeks as they seem to be blooming everywhere. Every house on our street has at least one on the front yard if not more and I can almost safely say that the surrounding streets around us are probably the same.

When they are part of a garden they are lovely, but I think their popularity has caused them to turn up on every lot from someone's front yard to the front of the local casino where they seem plunked into the soil that frames the parking lot. It's not very appealing. I've seen straggly looking lots in front of a business, but someone at some point thought that a rhodo should go in there and so it did. There's more to a garden than having plants stuck in the earth.

While I still appreciate a rhodo in a gardenscape, I do also look away when I see one sitting on a patch of grass with nothing else around it. It's difficult to appreciate a plant when it is so misused.

After all of that I've heard that there's a rhodo show this weekend (and general plant sale) not far from here. I'm running a half marathon in Van city on Sunday that starts at a very early time, so I should be finished before anything opens which means we should have lots of time to visit the rhodo/garden show after that.