Thank you, Paul B:
I recently took a vacation, traveling on “Washington’s Ultimate Road Trip,” the Cascade Loop. The trip is being covered in a series of On the Road posts, but I reached out to Anne Laurie to ask her if I could supply some garden pictures from one of the stops on the tour, Meerkerk Gardens on Whidbey Island.
It really is a gorgeous place, with a truly amazing variety of colors and styles of rhododendrons. My visit to Meerkerk was a couple of weeks after the peak blooming of these flowers, and it was still stunning. Even after supplying the pictures for the On the Road posts, I had over a dozen pictures that I really wanted to share.
You can see full-size versions of these photos (plus half a dozen more) here.
I don’t really have anything else to add, other than to say that if you should happen to be in the Pacific Northwest during rhododendron blooming season, I can wholeheartedly recommend a trip to Meerkerk.
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I need more photos, gardeners / garden watchers — the queue is getting very short!
What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?
Jeffg166
Glorious photos of the rhododendrons.
In the last week we had about 5 inches of rain. The humidity has been through the roof. Yesterday was the first day it didn’t rain. Starting to dry out.
The poppy and foxgloves seeds I put on the ground under the pear tree have started to germinate. Next spring’s flowers are on their way.
The volunteer butternut squash vine loved all the rain. It’s going to swallow the backyard. Now if the squirrels would only leave the baby fruit alone. I go out to find each new developing squash chewed up.
Due to all the humidity my kitchen ceiling decided to fall down. The people who lived here before me redid the kitchen. They put up a dropped ceiling using fiberboard tiles. The ceiling is 30 years old or older. The humidity over those years finally did them in.
sab
@Jeffg166: Yikes and oh dear.
Years ago my elderly dad’s bedroom ceiling decided to fall. Fortunately it was afternoon and we were out for a drive.
1921 house. The ceiling material was half inch concrete coated with plaster. Had he been home in bed it would have squashed him like a bug.
Back to topic: I love rhododendrons.
eclare
@Jeffg166:
Oh no! How is the original ceiling?
Beautiful photos!
sab
6 am here and the robins are CHIRPING!
rikyrah
@Jeffg166:
😲😲😲😲 so sorry.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
WereBear
Rhodies pour out the blooms in shade. That’s a great quality.
sab
We just moved. Our cats are unhappy.
Some of our five cats are very unhappy. (Some of our cats are quite happy.)
Day before yesterday a cat peed on each of the human beds. Yesterday a cat pooped on our bed. This morning a cat peed in the bathtub. ( Husband angry. I think so what?) Also too three other incidents of inappropriate peeing outside the box.
They will work it out and settle down, but yikes meanwhile
ETA I love rhododendrons. We have none in the new yard. Should I plant some?
sab
Our new yard is much much drier than the old yard. Ohio standards of dry so not very.
Rhododendron or not
Front yard is east exposure. Shady all aftrenoon.
kalakal
Good morning all!
Beautiful pictures, Rhododendrons in bloom en masse are such a wonderful sight. Finally dried out from Debby, waiting to see what the patch of storms that’ll become Ernesto will do next week. Hopefully it’ll be a fish storm
WereBear
@sab: Often, this is about feeling unheard and confused.
Extra fuss will always help, of course.
Dear Pammy, Is it true about Cats and Shoes?
Rhodies range from zone 4-9:
delphinium
Simply stunning Paul B-thanks so much for sharing these! Have also been enjoying your On the Road posts.
We’ve finally been having some cooler temps here that last few days so hope to get some gardening done. The weeds are definitely out of control.
Anne Laurie
They need *really* acid soil to do well. If your soil isn’t heavy clay (of course you can test for acidity), you’ll need to buy Holly-Tone or the equivalent fertilizer to keep your new rhodies from wilting like Victorian maidens.
OzarkHillbilly
Just so you know, that is incorrect. A plaster wall/ceiling is constructed of lathe (a metal mesh or thin wooden slats) with a scratch coat of plaster (much lighter than concrete, with grains of sand/gypsum and if old, hair) upon which is applied the finish coat. Plaster typically gives warning signs ahead of falling off (especially with ceilings) by showing a large bubble (1 foot or more across it’s surface) basically not flat anymore, probably with cracks across it, unless there is wallpaper applied to it.
Still weighty, and definitely capable of harming a person if it should fall on them. Happily, your father was elsewhere when it came down.
SkyBluePink
Lovely pictures! Some very unusual colors. There is a huge pink one on the way to work that puts on a show every year. A joy to see.
OzarkHillbilly
Beautiful pics of a wide variety, thanx Paul B.
PaulB
Thank you for the kind words, everyone. The timing of this post is perfect, as the rest of the Meerkerk Gardens pictures will be posted next week, concluding this series of OTR posts.
Thank you to Anne for agreeing to run these in the Sunday Morning Garden posts when I couldn’t fit them into the OTR posts. The variety of colors of these rhododendrons is just stunning. It was an amazing place to visit.
JPL
@PaulB: Perfect pictures for a Sunday morning and thank you for sharing them. Beautiful!
Jeffg166
@eclare: The original ceiling is not in great shape. I am hoping something can be put up on the existing wood beams used to hold the tiles up. Even more fiberboard tiles would work for me. What was up, was up there for 30 years. It isn’t worth my time or cost to get involved in any major redo in this house.
My neighbor does construction. I want him to give me an estimate. I will call my insurance company tomorrow to see if they will cover this.
eclare
@Jeffg166:
Glad you have a neighbor who can do the work, finding someone is often the hardest part of getting something fixed.
sab
@OzarkHillbilly: I don’t stand corrected. I saw what fell on Dad’s bed. Not up to current building standards but that is what fell.
Lyrebird
@Jeffg166: Here’s hoping!
PattyP
Thanks for the great photos! I visited Meerkerk when I was on Whidby Island last May and it was beautiful! I have never seen so many different colors of Rhododendron.