I did a little bit of research and it seems that rhododendrons are actually all over the world and not exclusive to New York. That’s both a good thing and a bad thing from where I sit. It’s a bad thing because it would have been nice to claim exclusivity. It’s a good thing because it means people all over the world get to enjoy these things.

The strangest thing for me is that I’d never seen this plant until 2001, the first summer I lived in my house. Actually, it’s possible I saw them before that, but I really don’t ever remember seeing them previously. I’ve always been fascinated by large flowers; some would say it’s not supposed to be a “guy” thing, but who gets to determine what anyone likes, right?

Off the top of my head I only know a few things about them. One, they grow on bushes, and those suckers can get extremely large, as you’ll see in some of these pictures.

Two, the flowering part only lasts a few weeks. The flowers in some of these pictures are already gone, and I only took them 2 weeks ago.

Three, they come in a multitude of colors, as I’ve seen pink, red, orange and white. I’m thinking blue would be a nice color; someone work on that.

And four, the deer seem to love them. I used to have this nice bush outside my office window, which is in the back of the house, but the first season the flowers bloomed there the deer found them, ate them, and they never grew again; oh well…

That’s all I have, but enjoy the rest of the images, which was, for me, a walk through the Elmcrest area here in Liverpool.