Cantina Collage o' the Week: Rhodies

I never much liked rhododendrons much, growing up.  All the ones I'd seen were just plants with big boring green leaves.  I didn't know what all the fuss was about.

Then I moved up here, and the place seemed covered in plants with big boring green leaves.  But in mid-spring, the things exploded with blooms.  I'd never seen anything quite like them.  All of the northwest bursts with blossoms in huge, colorful clusters.  Some of the rhodies are the size of shrubs, and some of them are trees.  Trees, covered in ginormous flowers. 

The street that leads up to my complex becomes a corridor of color every spring, between the rhodies, the bulbs, and the fruit trees.  It's one of the reasons I haven't moved.  I love that street.

These are some of the rhodies that rioted there this spring:

And a bee for scale:

I'm okay with the big boring green leaves now.  I know what they'll get up to for several weeks next spring.  In fact, I fully intend to hie me down to the Rhododendron Species Garden again so that my Sony Cyber-Shot can do it justice.  Did I mention ginormous trees with huge flowers on?