Azaleas in Bloom- Nothing More Beautiful!

 

What a joy these days to pull into our driveway, greeted by gorgeous azaleas 🌺 in full glory! Pink, red, pinkish red, reddish pink, salmon, white- such a rainbow of colors. 

The view from our front porch is also a show stopper. Our azalea shrubs have been a harbinger of spring during the many years we have lived here. 

And it never gets old! 

In early March, some of the long-dormant shrubs came to life. I took this photo in our backyard on March 7. The first day of spring was still two weeks away. 

This was March 11 in the front yard. The buds are formed, soon to pop open like the flower on the right. 

Azalea Season is Better Than Ever!

For years, decades really, I have driven by this church in Summerville on the way to my church. 

In March and April, it has some of the best azaleas around. Keep reading for photos of azaleas at my house and at Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston. 

After my Mass ended nearby, I decided to park near this church and walk around the grounds. The service was still going on inside so I was careful to keep my distance and be quick and quiet with my photography. 

 

This is St. Paul’s Anglican Church. Built in 1857 to replace the church built nearby in 1830, it is one of Summerville’s oldest and most historic houses of worship. 

It has ties with the Colonial Dorchester State Historic Site in that the church formed there in 1717, St. George's Parish Church, evolved into St. Paul's. At the park off Dorchester Road can be seen what remains of the church and its bell tower. 

St. Paul's Anglican is Summerville’s oldest extant church with the second oldest congregation. Summerville Presbyterian has the oldest congregation. 

I think it is safe to say that St. Paul’s has the most beautiful and abundant azalea bushes of perhaps any church in the Charleston area. 

All Hail Azaleas!

It has been that time of the year! The beautiful azalea 🌺 plant has been in bloom bringing the South Carolina Lowcountry a late winter bounce. 

The azaleas in my yard started to sprout in late February. I took this photo on March 3. These buds were poised to pop!

I do love this time of year! It’s a harbinger of spring which began officially today, March 20. 

All the next pictures I took on or around our property. 

Azaleas- ‘Tis the Season!

 

They are dormant for maybe 46 weeks of the year. But come March the countdown begins for the lovely azaleas to put some real spring into the spring season. 

Ours have started to bloom in force over the past few days. And what a welcome sight they are! The glorious Azaleas are helping offset the awful dump of pollen and the accompanying pine tree pollen pods. 

Azaleas!

It should be an uplifting time of the year here in South Carolina’s Lowcountry with winter giving way to spring this week. But there’s a certain bleakness to life today as America shuts down in unprecedented ways so coronavirus won’t claim lives on an epic scale.

So the beauty in our yard right now provides a bright and colorful contrast to the daily drab and troubling news of this worldwide pandemic.

The only bad thing about azaleas is that their blooms do not last long. So we all must enjoy them while we can!

Southern Living magazine calls azaleas "the number one must-have plant in the South." Well, we've got a bunch of them in different colors so that makes me happy and proud.

Hello Cedar Waxwings!

I don’t often see the interesting masked Cedar Waxwing, but have twice the last two weeks, once in my backyard and then in my front yard. They like the berries on our holly shrubs- and the water in the birdbath. American Robins have been accompanying the Waxwings. The two birds seem to be partners in crime!

This first photo shows the Waxwing’s yellow-tipped tail and red-tipped wings.