Thursday, May 6, 2010

Today's Photo - Mountain Laurel!

To the casual observer, Mountain Laurel leaves look very similar to Rhododendrons.  In fact, when they are not in bloom, I still have trouble telling them apart.  However, the Mountain Laurel blooms look completely different than the Rhododendrons. 

The Mountain Laurel is one of my favorite flowers.


I see a lot of Mountain Laurel while out hiking in the mountains, but here in Spartanburg, SC I have never seen any.  I thought that maybe it's called "Mountain" Laurel for a reason as Spartanburg is not a mountainous area.

However, it does grow naturally around my in-laws place in Rutherfordton, NC.

Last year we decided to dig up a small Mountain Laurel bush from Amy's parents place and attempted to transplant it in our yard here in Spartanburg. I never really thought it would make it!  Thankfully it turns out that I was wrong.

A year later, here is today's photo right in my own backyard!

Mountain Laurel Blooms

1 comment:

James Robert Smith said...

Beautiful! I love all of the heath shrubs: azaleas, mountain laurel, rhododendron, etc. When I was a kid growing up on our place in the mountains of north Georgia we had the prettiest wild flame azaleas I've seen anywhere. It's one of the things that I do miss about that place.

Meet Zoey

 Meet Zoey! Amy and I just adopted this beautiful girl!