A Parade of Pink

Steven’s eye is doing very well and we have resumed our rambling on the Blue Ridge Parkway and surrounding area.

This is our second spring of living in the mountains of western North Carolina, and we have been enjoying seeing spring color as it makes its way up the mountains, the exact reverse of how autumn color makes it way down in the fall.

Last spring, we noticed that one of the first bursts of color came from the wild azaleas.  While they do have a variety that is quite eye catching in shades of bright orange, I really love the sweet pink variety that grow in pockets of sunlight on the roadside and in cracks on the stone wall faces.  

The second pink explosion comes from mountain laurel.  While the little pink blooms are charming, what I find the most fascinating is the gnarly, twisty shape of the branches and trunks.

The next pop of color are Steven’s favorite, the Catawba Rhododendron.  We call them the show girls.  They are big, bright, and very fuchsia. Before we moved here, we would try to time our trips to the mountains to catch these in bloom. They have begun blooming here, along with the mountain laurel and, depending on altitude, will be blooming in various areas for a few weeks.

Finally, yet to bloom, are one of my favorites, the Rosebay Rhododendron. This was a plant I was not very familiar with before last year.  They grow in large bushes on the sides of roads and peek out of the forest.  The ones in the woods around our house are baby pink in color.

This parade of pink will carry us through spring and into the next season of summer color.

The picture above is of Catawba Rhododendrons at East Fork overlook.