Rhododendrons and azaleas are two of my favorite foundation plants, and I love the variety of colors I can grow here in south central Virginia. We planted two rhododendrons in full sun along a hot southern facing portion of the foundation of our home, which was not a great idea. It’s probably too hot for them there. They tend to like dappled sunlight. Think of a forest; rhododendrons are under story plants. They grow under the canopy of big deciduous trees. One time John and I were hiking in June in the western part of Pennsylvania. We hiked a trail through a thick forest and it suddenly opened up to a breathtaking sight – Mountain Laurel and rhododendrons in full bloom along the trail. I’ll never forget the golden sunlight filtering through the tall tulip trees, oaks and maples, and the hum of the bees on the flowers.
My article today for Mainline Gardening, an online gardening community, focuses on growing rhododendrons. There are two links at the end of the article with more information. They are kind of hidden in the text. One will take you to the American Rhododendron Society and the other two a short video on rhodies on the Penn State Cooperative Extension website.
The picture shown here is one I took yesterday. I saw this odd looking insect and started snapping away. He looks like a bee but has antennae like a moth, and wings like a moth. He obligingly posed for this photo. Anyone know what his real name is? We keep calling him the hummingbird moth.
Jeanne Grunert is a certified Virginia Master Gardener and the author of several gardening books. Her garden articles, photographs, and interviews have been featured in The Herb Companion, Virginia Gardener, and Cultivate, the magazine of the National Farm Bureau. She is the founder of The Christian Herbalists group and a popular local lecturer on culinary herbs and herbs for health, raised bed gardening, and horticulture therapy.
