Welcome to my first post for the April Blogging from A to Z Challenge. My theme is plants and gardening. You can see a list of some of the other participating blogs HERE. Their themes for the month are everything from music to history to fashion to genealogy to (of course) books. I guess you can still join by signing up HERE or just starting to blog on whatever it is that appeals to you - one blog a day, every day excepts Sundays.
Decades ago, when shopping malls were still a thing. My not quite married a year husband and I stopped by the local mall the day before Easter, hoping to pick up a flower for our moms from the pop up flower stall. As always, we were a bit late. So late that the tired flower seller had his box truck outside the mall door and was packing up the leftovers. He handed us each an empty box, "Fill it up for $10."
I hadn't been bitten by the gardening bug yet. Our yard was mostly mud with some sad looking grass. We had expected to spend $20 for just the two flowers. This was a deal too good to pass up. Tulips, hyacinths, daffodils all were piled into the boxes. And somehow we squeezed in two azalea bushes. The tulips, hyacinths and daffodils are long gone but those original azalea bushes still flank my front door - about four times larger than when I got them for a bargain basement price. It was the beginning of my love affair with azaleas.
Azaleas became a favorite of mine because nothing seemed to kill them. Each Easter, my
church would decorate with azalea bushes then, after the holiday, they would sit outside the church destined for garbage collection. Many times I returned home with a church azalea,
eventually they circled my butterfly garden in a ring of various shades of pink and purple. My mother brought over two neon pink azalea bushes that had been withering away in her garden. In my front bed they perked up, so much so that eventually my gardening helper had to chop them to the ground since they were blocking the front windows. Even that didn't discourage them! The next year, shoots grew from the leftover trunks and they bloomed. Much shorter but still brilliant bright pink.
Seems I'm not the only azalea fan. Last Spring I did something I've never done before. I convinced my husband to drive past a house known for their azalea collection, just so I could take a peek. I crept up to the house to take a peek and promptly got invited by the owner, who was out in the garden, to stroll through and take my photos. This breathtaking azalea collection is owned by Helen and Jerry Unruh of Odessa, Delaware. The couple has been caring for their 1700+ azaleas for over 40 years. Now that's a love affair with azaleas.
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