FOTD – February 8 – RHODODENDRONS, GARDEN CELEBRITIES
The Rhododendron was growing in the garden when we moved here. For years, it didn’t seem to grow and never bloomed. One years, we chopped down our gangster rose hedges and suddenly, it bloomed. It started blooming in May and didn’t stop until late August. i hope it comes back next year. it was the star of our garden.
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Categories: #Flowers, #FOTD, #gallery, Cee's Photo Challenge, Flower of the day, Gardens, rhododendron
BLOOMING RHODODENDRONS 
FOTD: COLUMBINE IN PINK 
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Such beautiful rhodies for today. The white ones are always stunning 😀
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I was very surprised when they burst into such a frenzy of blooming. I’m pretty sure it was the rain — and cutting down everything else.
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So beautiful!
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They were amazing. I hope they come back next year with as much enthusiasm.
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I have only seen the red and pink ones, never white!
They look gorgeous.
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I have heard that from a lot of people. We had Rhododendrons growing all around the house in which I grew up and they were ALL white. I think the white ones are the original color.
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They do look pristine!! 🙂
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Lovely rhododendrons — looks like you may have more than one — one with pink center and the other with beige center. One of my favorite flowers!
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It may be. It — or they — were here before us,. i thought those pink buds would turn into pink flowers, but t hey didn’t. All the flowers were white even though the buds were dark pink. Mostly, I think after we cut everything back, they got a chance to grow in the sun,. Also, we finally got rain after almost 10 years of drought. it wasn’t as bad as your drought, but we we live on a well and we had entire months without a drop of rain — which can be very frightening. No well, no home. If the well dries up, you can’t “fix it.” you have to drill a new well — and if your aquifer is dry, no amount of drilling will bring water. We were really really happy when it started to rain. After two months of nonstop rain, we wouldn’t have minded a couple of sunny days, but heaven knows, we needed that water! Everything needed that water!
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And rhododendrons thrive on rain — I first saw them in Seattle, which is one of the rainiest places in the country!. Don’t even mention drought to me — we have no rain in the forecast for the rest of this month, which is usually our rainiest!
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We were very very lucky we have a strong aquifer because there were a couple of years where we had no rain all summer and no snow in the winter. Every time I flushed a toilet, I was sure that was going to be the end. So when this year, all of a sudden, it really started to rain and rain and rain … and everything grew like crazy. We have plants i’ve never seen before and how they got here, i have no idea. maybe bird droppings? That’s probably why the garden went berserk and turned into a jungle by the end of summer. There had been no rain for so long. Of course, the garden is a total mess now and I’m not sure we can ever make it look like a garden again, but please just keep raining. Oak trees were dying and their roots go very deep.
I can only imagine how frightening your droughr must be because it was bad here, but it’s worse there.
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Beautiful. Well captured and framed.
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I’m pretty sure cutting everything back gave it (them?) a chance to breathe and some sunshine. Also, it RAINED last year. We’d had a decade of dry, dryer, and even more dry. I was so happy when we finally got rain. Of course, then it didn’t stop raining for months.
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