May 2003 continued

May is also when we see our larger Rhododendrons in bloom. This red one is on the south side of our driveway and presents a wonderful cascade of flowers. It's unfortunate that this digital picture doesn't do the reds justice. When you stand in front of this shrub the flowers almost phosphoresce.

On the other side of the driveway, in the frontyard flower bed, we have this purple variety.

Much to my surprise last year, I discovered what for all my life looked like Rhododendron seedlings growing underneath this rhodie in the leaf litter.

Sure enough, this spring these seedlings sprouted new growth. They'll get transplanted soon to a brighter area and I can't wait until they get big enough to start producing flowers to discover what we have: clones of the plant that appears to have been the seed source, or a hybrid of it and it's neighbour across the driveway.

In the strip between the 2 driveways we have a deciduous Azalea that was originally planted by our first neighbour, John. It's a marvellous salmon coloured one, but even though it has been in it's present location for almost 30 years, it's either a very slow grower or it really doesn't like where it is planted. It just looks sparse and stunted, so this year we're going to attempt to root some cuttings from it and see if we can get these cuttings to a little better size than the parent plant.