Rhododendron!!!

 I enjoy gardening. Watching plants germinate and grow. Going to a garden centre and wandering up and down the aisles looking at what plants to buy or ones you would like to buy. After work wander through the back yard to see how everything is progressing. What has bloomed, what is about to bloom and what you'll plan to do next. Perennial are my favourite. They come back every year and they can spread. Looking from the back window you see reds, blues, purples, yellows, whites, pinks, oranges and of course greens....as long as things are living and doing well, Sigh.

 Almost four years ago Megan and I bought our first house; and on how much we like it hopefully our last. The spring of our first year we decided to go get some plants. Some Hostas, a couple of Delphiniums, and a Rhododendrons. They were $39.99. Fair price I guess for an evergreen shrub that has vibrant blooms in the spring, something that sets you garden on fire. The one I got were pink, I guess if i ever saw it. I planted it at the very back underneath spruce trees. It was probably a week away from blooming, nice big buds on it. later on in the week I went out to inspect it and found the buds gone! What?! Standing with fist clenched my mind raced on what could have done this. Punk squirrels who would think  it was hilarious to destroy a plant. One just chittered at me, mocking me. Where's your pink flower now, flesh bag? No, it probably wasn't a squirrel let alone a gang of squirrel who had formed bandanas out of oak leaves. Chipmunk? Those little striped pricks that seem to have A.D.D. and can never just walk. It's always dart dart dart and run up a tree.Maybe.

 So, within a week we went out to purchase another Rhododendron, another pink one. This one was going to come out within a couple of days. Rushing home to plant it i envisioned how beautiful it will look in the garden, an explosion of pink setting off all the greens in the back. The buds cracked like a green gem with a pink light infused  in the centre. The next morning looking out my bedroom window I saw that it would tomorrow when it would be out. The next morning I went outside, but something was amiss. Gone again! All the buds were destroyed again! What was it? Rhododendron blooms lay cast across the ground like something hated or ate them. Chipmunk? Or that rabbit I saw out in the garden over the winter and throughout the spring. Ohhh,  look at the cute bunny hopping and sniffing everything. I think it was that (explicative deleted) rabbit. So, I ran out and got some pesticide to keep cats, dogs rabbits and other critters away. I will be prepared for next year. I will get my beautiful spring flowers back! Apparently not. Seems you have to water Rhododendrons constantly for two years to get them established or water them at all. $80 lesson learned

 Spin two years, and a dog into the future which is right now...so it's the present...? Whatever. I am not Doctor Who so i am not going to dwell on that too much. In the spring I purchased another Rhodo $26.99 and with my critter ridder and dog(Angus) I was able to see my flowering shrub. Deep purple. Brilliant. A month after it had finished I went and bought two more. These were on sale for $13.99 each. I don't know what colours these will be, pink maybe. These three are still alive, but what an ordeal with keeping them alive. These pricks keep losing their leaves even though i pour about two gallons of water on them every two or three days! And after they lose their leaves I prune the branch back. If I prune eight branches more on each of them there will be just a stick planted in the ground! 
 Ahhh. Gardening is so relaxing.