Rhododendron calendulaceum (Flame Azalea)
Sometimes the best quality a wildlife gardener can possess is that of patience, which I am sometimes lacking, but I’m working on it. A great habitat for wildlife is not created overnight. We have to learn to wait while our plants grow to maturity.
But this sense of anticipation sends me eagerly to my garden. Will my flame azalea finally bloom this year?
Yes! Finally.
I planted a tiny little specimen of Rhododendron calendulaceum (Flame Azalea) five years ago. It has grown bigger every year, spreading it’s branches and roots but it had yet to bloom.
I was so happy to go out this morning and see it in all it’s glory. Now I was expecting the blooms to be the flame orange color for which this shrub is named, and I was a little surprised to see the pink blooms, but I learned that the bloom color can vary, from red, to orange, to yellow.
And I’m so excited that it has bloomed that I find I don’t really care what color it is!
[Update: Charlie at Botany Buddy has informed me that I was correct to be surprised at the pink blooms of this shrub because it is actually Rhododendron perclymenoides (Pinxter Azalea). I'll have to have a discussion with my local native plant nursery who mislabeled this plant, and also to purchase a Flame Azalea because now that I've spent 5 years anticipating its bloom, I really want to see the flame orange flowers!] Also thanks to Charlie for sending along a photo of a real Flame Azalea.
Also taking the spotlight today, Trilliums! I love trilliums. And I’ve got two different species in bloom today.
Trillium grandiflorum (White Trillium)
First the White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum)
WhiteTrillium (Trillium grandiflorum )
And also the Yellow Trillium, or Yellow Wake-Robin(Trillium luteum)
Trillium luteum (Yellow Wake Robin)
Finally, my native geraniums (Geranium maculatum) have decided to show their pretty little faces for me today.
Geranium maculatum
I’d love to hear what native plants are blooming in your garden today. Please tell us in the comments below.
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About Carole Sevilla Brown
We really want a pinxterbloom azalea!
Natives blooming today:
Asarum canadense — totally weird-looking flowers!
Geranium
Phlox divaricata
Tiarella
Phlox stolonifera has slowly opening buds
Iris cristata — gorgeous!
Phlox subulata
Heuchera is starting to bloom
Solomon’s seal
We’ve got a columbine starting but it’s totally a cultivar with Western genes. Is gonna be gorgeous, but I want to find a place for some Aquilegia canadensis.
The trout lily has gone by, and the twinleaf is forming those awesome seed pods. The one Virginia bluebell that bloomed is hanging in there. There are probably Mayapple buds. Oh yeah, the jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema) is doing it’s weird thing.