Breathtaking, Christopher. Thanks for sharing.

Lovely pics!

Glorious!

Very nice!

We have them too. There's more where these came from. Pale yellow, deep purple, pink. They never disappoint.

What a sight to behold! Thanks for sharing them. I can’t grow Rhododendrons to save my soul, so it’s with a bit of envy and admiration I have for those who can.

How do they do under maples?

Our forest has a high percentage of maple, oak and Black Cherry. The canopy is also pretty high because of the trees maturity and natural spacing.

We are in MN. I haven’t seen anyone here naturalizing them in the woods. I feel like the East has the climate and elevation better suited for that, but it would be pretty. I may try to tuck in a couple of amelanchier under my trees too. We finally got rid of the scrubby box elder and the sugars are really filling in. We have to keep the buckthorn and wild cherry at bay. We have 90% sugar maple and the rest are elm and oak. Now, to decide on a color to try. 🤔

Rhododendron suggestions for MN:

https://www.rhododendron.org/performers11.htm

Rhododendron are native to the NC mountains. All these in the pictures are the garden hybrids planted by my parents. There are large stands of the native Rhododendron maximum on the land as well. They bloom much later at the end of June into July and are all white to pale pink.

Amelanchier arborea is also a pretty common tree in the forest.

Beautiful! The fuchsia is absolutely stunning.

https://rhodygarden.org/visit/
Just visited this stunning garden today. So many rhododendron varieties I lost track and they’re from all over the globe. Beautiful microclimates within the gardens and there is a lovely bonsai museum, also. If you’re ever in the PNW it’s worth your time!

@Jj J I just did the virtual tour of the Rhody BG. Would definitely be worth a visit in person. My mountains do have a lot of similarities to the PNW just a bit more on the extreme winter side of things with no ocean to moderate things.