In love with a rhododendron

Occasionally I pass this newly designed and realized garden, stunning purple rhododendrons prominently shouting at me: look how beautiful we are! Every time I pass I think: ‘hmmm, interesting, what would the name be?’ Searching internet left me with a large list of purple rhodo’s and plenty of discussions, but somehow none of the pictures shown matched what my eyes at had seen on passing by.Pictures shown on labels can also be so confusing. Of course I could have dropped a note through the letter box of the owner, but somehow I was reluctant to do so. If you have just spent a fortune on a new garden you do not want anyone to copy it straight away (I would imagine). A visit to a nursery would have been one of the possibilities also to broaden my view on names and colors of rhododendrons.

The other day I had 45 minutes between meetings and decided to visit a garden center. No plan in particular and just wondering around. It is so soothing for the mind to just walk about in a garden center. There is no hurry in a garden center, every plant says to you: ‘take me home with you’, the wind gently rushes through your hair, the sun kisses your face. I do not go to garden centers when it rains.
My eyes caught a huge purple rhododendron. It seemed a miracle that this unusual color was actually there and then, and for sale.

I grew up in an environment where rhododendrons abundantly colored impressive lanes with names like the King’s Lane, Princess Lane and the Regents’ Lane. In massive high plants in reds, pinks, lilac colors. Our own garden filled with deep reds and pinks. This deep purple one is new to me. Even when I drive about I seem to see all the ‘standard’ colors, whereas when you search on internet there are so many varieties. Our gardener keeps telling me the soil in this polder land is not suitable for rhododendrons, so I have always been reluctant to buy and plant them. I am afraid I just fell in love with this one.

For three consecutive days I went back to see it. Every time there was the same garden assistant and she just smiled: ‘People have just loved this rhododendron, but everyone considers it as too big, you do not have to worry it will be gone if you do not buy it today’. The price tag was not visible and the lady warned me the price was sky high. We exchanged names and she promised me to call me before noon the next day to tell me the name and the price. She called me at 9 and said: ‘Is it not too early?!!’, ‘No, no, I am sweeping my terrace’. 40% off the price, how tempting, yet phenomenal. I still had to think it over and told her this. But you know what it is like when you have fallen in love ...

At noon I walked into the garden center once more, pottering around and then determinant to go and get it. It was funny, I turned my cart and there it was at the distance: my rhododendron ‘Monsieur Marcel Ménard’. My heart made a little jump and I went straight at it.
I looked around, plenty of assistants, but no sign of the lady I had spoken to all the time. But there she was, smiling again as if she understood my passion for this rhododendron. I said: ‘I must confess I have absolutely fallen in love with it and I am going to buy it, but how do I get it home?!?!’ More assistants, discussions, my car driven to the back side of the center, plenty of plastic as if we were wrapping up a large Christmas tree, taking the hood down of my French car. There it went with strong arms, at the back seat of my car, filling the complete car as if I was joining a flower show on wheels. I had a few worries: the zillions of bumble bees in the flowers (would they creep in my ear?) and would I come across the police, maybe finding my journey too dangerous? I could see left and partly right, and in the side mirrors, but even my head was covered in blooms. What a sight on the scenic route, people laughed, and what a relief to arrive home though! Getting such a huge rhododendron in your car is not the same as getting it out of it. My husband had dubious thoughts on this plant anyway, ‘why is it 40% off?!’, he was not too eager to give me a hand and thought I was just mad in buying such a huge plant anyhow. Well, we managed, but my husband left me to my plant the moment it ended on what we call in Holland ‘a doggy’, a wooden thing on wheels to move furniture. Nothing could discourage me; I looked for a car tow rope and started my journey. In the mean time I talked to the thrush looking at me with sharp eyes from her nest in our firewood storage, telling her I was only passing by and only delivering a wonderful new plant to the garden. My husband laughed at the sight of my ingenious way of transport when I appeared around the corner of the yew trees. He does agree it is a wonderful plant, very suitable for the position I have chosen. At the moment it is still standing in the pot on the terrace. We enjoy the bumble bees and the butterflies it attracts. I shall wait until the flowers have gone and then plant it. Or get a gardener to plant it, because I read on internet the hole you have to dig has to be three times the size of the pot and just as deep ….. Sigh ….. The things you do for love (or have to do) …

Now, what is it again when you fall in love? Love makes blind. I picked one of the blooms to put on a vase and see the flower buds opening. One of the leaves showed lice and I thought: ha ha, now I have got it! It is not the mid season, it is not because this plant was uneasy to sell, it was the lice that made it go for 40% less. Maybe my husband was more practical than I was. I just saw what I wanted to see: the purple blooms.

Never mind, I just love it, and as I promised the lady in the garden center: I am going to look after it very well. She had grown attached to it, because of the color and the bumble bees.

Internet tells me the following on this rhododendron: Compact upright plant with convex dark green leaves. Large dark purple flowers in upright trusses, with a golden flare in the throat. Stunning with creams and yellows.

Would you not fall in love with it?