Awesome Azaleas . . . Home Edition

JJ the organizational whiz's azaleas

I think I’ve made it pretty clear how much I love azaleas, right? When I was watching the Masters golf championship last weekend, I must admit I spent as much time admiring the gorgeous azaleas at the course in Augusta, Georgia, as I did the golfers’ shot-making. Every azalea close-up was thrilling!

But I don’t have to travel all the way to Augusta . . . or even to Nacogdoches . . . to see awesome azaleas. I can just walk out the front door! In our cul-de-sac, three of the houses boast beautiful azaleas in their front yards every year. That burst of color can be breathtaking! The azaleas pictured above are right next door.

Sylvia's multi-colored azaleas

At Sylvia’s house next door to JJ, there are pinkish/purple and white azaleas, a wonderful color combination.

Daisy and Tony's azaleas

Across the street dazzle Daisy and Tony’s azaleas. The flowers at all three houses make me love this time of year. Meanwhile, this is what our azaleas looked like at the same time:

Our pitiful azalea bush

One pathetic azalea bloom

We have encore azaleas. They not only bloom later than our neighbors’ traditional azaleas, but they also flower again during the summer and continue to look pretty good into the fall. All fine and dandy, but when the big show is going on elsewhere in the cul-de-sac, our pitiful one or two azalea blooms pale in comparison. The other yards are lush and fecund; ours looks like the desert.

But then three weeks go by, and the azalea blossoms are totally gone in the three other yards. It’s like they never existed at all! Eerie. And then there’s the little front yard that could, sprouting forth all the color it can finally muster. This week the azalea show hit town in our front yard. While the coral blooms don’t look as bright or as big as our neighbors’ did, we’re the only azalea action in the cul-de-sac right now. This is the best our front yard ever looks, and we’re glad that we at least have something growing, considering how gardening-impaired the Mister and I am. Fortunately, our azaleas don’t need any additional work or care; otherwise, they’d be dead like just about everything else in our “landscaping.” (Full disclosure: We had the front nicely landscaped, but a sprinkler malfunction and slow action by the homeowners [us, of course] killed almost everything several years ago. Yet another get ’er done for the future!)

Our encore azaleas today

Not only do we have the coral color, but we also have these pretty white flowers. I have no idea what in the world they are, but I think they should be called “here today, gone tomorrow,” because they literally bloom overnight and then close up within a week. Wish they’d stick around longer.

Even though the right side of the front yard looks nicer, what with the azaleas and the unidentified white flowers, the left side, unfortunately, still tells the woeful tale of our lack of gardening skills for all the world to see. Pretty embarrassing.