"And at last, prefaced by azaleas, the rhododendrons themselves, with a profusion increasing through the last week of May......The bushes were evergreen. With their zigzag branches and long oval leaves fingering in every direction they seemed to belong to a different climate, to a different land, whose gravity pulled softer than this one.....But when the hemispheres of blossom appear in crowds they remind him of nothing so much as the hats worn by cheap girls to church on Easter."
From: rabbit, run by John Updike
My aged rhodies (I have two newbies without blooms) are the most magnificent they have ever been. I think it is because of trees that have lost branches or been cut down, exposing more sun to the rhodies. Although I must say that the grower who sold me the two newbies spoke with confidence when affirming that will bloom in shade. The profusion of blooms on these two is bittersweet as they are both going to be removed with my approval that is tinged with regret. The pink one is next to a section of fence that needs serious repair and the white one with purple freckles just is not part of the design for my front yard rejuvenation. Change is good I keep telling myself. My dh is reading the rabbit series by John Updike and when he came to the floral descriptions in rabbit, run he just had to share them with me, and I am glad he did! I am in total agreement with Updike. Both the rhodies and earlier blooming magnolias have the same impact on this Midwesterner. The blooms are not so much pretty as they are gaudy and eye catching.
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