Old rhododendron

that is brilliant

Love the colour and shape Klahanie :)

Thank you Cariad18, Bathgate and Sheila. This rhodie is by our guest house . It is in very good shape this year.
I speculate (from what I know about the property) that it was planted in late 60's. Surprisingly, it is very dry there and rhododendrons like moist soil.The little log structure in the picture used to be a doghouse (my guess).

That's true. I must keep my rhodies well watered or they'll quickly dry out. There must be a nearby body of water - a lake, stream or underground spring.

:-) You have a vivid imagination Cariad18. I like that.

fabulous !

Thank you Amy.

Ah,fantastic. Like its been there a hundred years.

Maybe not 100, Stan but still a long time.

Truly spectacular! Beautiful flowers!

I am glad you like it Delonix1.

They never look that good here. The soil here is too high in salts. It's also so dry.

They are very finicky plants. They like it moist because of shallow root system but too much water will kill them and they cannot take dry. Most of the time we do not have downpour rains just that what I call "chipi-chipi" and they thrive in that.

Yes, they are finicky shrubs, especially here. I know the ones in San Diego are loving the weather we've been having for most of May. The "May Gray" this year has been really horrible! Typically, where I live we don't get much of it...or it's just at night and very early morning then sunny all day. We've had several days of completely cloudy and pretty cool days. Even some days where we've had showers and yesterday cloudy and drizzle in the morning to about 10:00 a.m. I'm enjoying it because most of winter was so hot and dry!