Red all Over

The brilliance of a red azalea graces our front yard.
(Bergeron Image.)

Long ago, when we moved to Bridgewater at a time when the main intersection in the center of Pluckemin had no traffic lights, and Washington Valley Road looking east was covered in a leafy canopy right up to the Bridgewater line, I gave Priscille a small azalea bush nested in a small pot.

We enjoyed it in our home for a couple of weeks, until the time came to give it a permanent home, should we want to keep it alive.

I suggested planting it in the southwest corner of our home as a foundation planting.  It was just a tiny speck of a plant, not much more than ten inches high and perhaps eight inches across.


To my surprise, that brilliantly red azalea shrub took to its environment with great zeal.  Today it’s over a yard high and at least four feet across. 

It’s quite amazing how well a plant will do when placed in fertile ground, permitted to have the sunshine bless it with life-giving rays, and encouraged with a little water and fertilizer now and then.

I must admit that I have not coddled that azalea.  Just checked on it intermittently and paid attention to what I thought its needs might be.

It’s a lot like human beings, don’t you think?  All most of them ask is to position themselves in the right place and to get a little help along their journey in life.

Sometimes, though, I think that some people want more help than nature intended.  Just like an azalea bush, no matter how much assistance and encouragement you might get, you still have to sink your own roots into the ground in order to blossom.

No one else can do that for you.

(Click on the image for an enhanced view.)