BUE-TI-FULLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!

Where are you located and is there anything you are feeding to it?

Yes, tell us where you are located and what the variety is. You look like a proud Papa! Gorgeous.

I'm near Portland OR. I moved into this house 8 years ago and it was there then. It's probably been there 40 years maybe? I don't do anything to it. Just mulch once in a while. I don't know what variety it is. Probably what was popular 40 years ago. We had a very mild winter this year so that has helped with the blooms.

Maybe a 'Cynthia'? Supposedly one of the most common tree-like rhododendrons in the PNW.

That would be my guess also, it looks like one as far as can be seen from this distance.

She's a beauty!

I would also say it's Cynthia. Looks just like mine.

Mike

Oh interesting. So if a 15' rhodie is 40 years old, my 25' ones must be ancient. I've been trying to figure out how old they are but there's not much info out there. Nice bloom!

Some years ago Sunset magazine had a feature on all the 'Cynthia' and 'Pink Pearl' dating back to the late 19th century on west coast properties. Used pictures of the tall bank of 'Cynthia' in the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden in Portland and a true 'Pink Pearl' tree with a thick single trunk and elevated crown of foliage growing in the front yard of a bungalow (also somewhere in Portland) as examples.

I have seen a big, tall dome of one like 'Roseum Elegans' in front of a house on an exposed site along an arterial somewhere out in the middle of the open fields of the Whatcom County farm country. It was probably the biggest rhododendron (or grouping of rhododendrons) I have come across in this area, surely if it had been hollow I could have parked inside it and disappeared.

Now blooming in Virginia, USA. ID please?

Looks like 'Roseum Elegans', probably the most common cultivar throughout the US.
Where in VA is this? Ones that size are a dime a dozen in SE PA, but relatively uncommon in the NoVA/DC suburbs. Something about the design of this house makes me wonder...somewhere in the foothills or low mountains? Maybe outside Charlottesville, or the Shenandoah Valley?

I have a few large ones also, but not real large by our standards here.
This one is called Lems Cameo.
That's a friend's dog, named Meg. I call her Nutmeg.

Mike

Southwestern part of Virginia davidrt28. And yes by the mountains. It is common over here also as I see them being grown and beautifully blooming in the area. I'd like to get other varieties to grow in my garden. Any recommendations? I'm in zone 6/7.

Mike, the shrub at the front might be one of the 'Walloper' clones but I see no 'Lem's Cameo' in your picture. The latter produces strikingly peachy or apricot shaded flowers with a dark blotch or flare on a plant with a sparse habit.

You are absolutely right, Ron. My mistrake. :-0 It should be Lem's Monarch.
I must not have had my afternoon nap that day and was running on automatic.
I know better.
Thanks for pointing it out. :-)
Here's Lem's Cameo, one of my favorites.
Mike

Just took a trip to Wildwood NJ, and on the way, on Route 47..there is a 5 mile stretch where literally EVERYONE has huge Rhododendrons that look to be this exact variety. It's crazy..like every house has at least 1 or two, and many of them are over 20' tall. Must have been the thing to plant in that area 40 years ago!