Ericaceae is a prominent family here. Rhododendrons, azaleas and pieris inhabit several of the landscapes. Manzanitas, madrones and, within some situations, huckleberries, are common within the surrounding forests. Even two of my associates, although unrelated to Ericaceae, are named for two members of the family that are popular for landscaping. Half of my Six for this Saturday are azaleas. Just one other is another ericaceous species. Later, I can get better pictures of azaleas as well as rhododendrons. Several impressively large rhododendrons bloom spectacularly in season. Heather would be nice, but is quite rare. I know where abandoned fields of it grew wild, but I have never seen it available in nurseries.

1. Heath is a masculine name. It is of the Erica genus, though; and Erica is the feminine form of Eric. Heather is a similar but feminine name, but is of a different Calluna genus.

2. ‘Coral Bells’ Azalea, like all azaleas, is of the Rhododendron genus, so like heather and heath, is in the Ericaceae family. All of them are also related to madrone and manzanita.

3. Azaleas generally bloom for early spring. These that bloom somewhat too early during the rainy season can get a bit thrashed. They would be prettier if they could delay bloom.

4. Florist azaleas are delightful as fully blooming potted specimens, but generally do not adapt well to landscapes. This specimen is floppy, but otherwise performs impressively.

5. Heather is named for Calluna, which, actually, I have not seen in many years. It grew as a cut flower crop in Montara more than half a century ago. It was abandoned by 1980.

6. Rhody is short, and his name is short for Rhododendron. But of course, he is a terrier, so ignores me regardless of what I call him. He can actually ignore me in four languages!

This is the link for Six on Saturday, for anyone else who would like to participate: https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/six-on-saturday-a-participant-guide/

19 thoughts on “Six on Saturday: Eric”

    1. Neither cooperate for pictures. Heathers are so rare here now that no one seems to notice that we refer to heaths, which are not exactly common either, as heathers. I would like to grow heather because I remember it from Childhood. It was a cut flower crop in Montara a very long time ago. I remember the fields that had been abandoned for decades.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. That’s like the woman I knew (in her late 80s at the time) who would sit on her front porch looking at the grade school across the street, and the Home Depot beyond it, and think about the days when cattle grazed there, and she’d pick dewberries along those ditches.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Montara did not change as much or as abruptly as other parts of the San Francisco Bay Area. Otherwise, the abandoned heather fields would have been redeveloped years or decades earlier.

        Liked by 1 person

  3. Nice pictures! I loved seeing azaleas and rhododendrons in redwood forests up north. Both were very popular as landscape plants in Seattle. Seattle typically has great flower weather. The blooms last forever in the cool moist air. There was a fire station that had mass plantings of bright yellow daffodils in front. I swear they were in bloom for a month. Mine go two weeks at best.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. There are not many places in California where Rhododendrons perform well. However, rhododendrons perform exceptionally well within the few regions here that they can do so in. They are more popular and even common on the coast to the north of here, but redwoods naturally do not extend much farther than the border with Oregon. Only a few live in Washington, and they were installed.

      Like

      Reply

    1. Heather decided to live here more than a year ago, and had been living in the forest nearby longer than that. I thought that she was feral. She has done well here at eliminating a serious rodent infestation. Seriously, the rodents left within days of her deciding to live here. She seems happy to be here, and is very fond of Rhody. It took a while to find out where she came from, but when we did, we found that her former family had been trying to find a new home for her before relocating to Hilo, but because she disappeared before they did so, they thought that she had been eaten by coyotes. They were pleased to find that she is happy here now. I do not know much about felines, but she seems to be satisfied with very little, and does not need any special accommodation. She has a comfortable penthouse in the other barn, with a warming pad under her bunk while the weather is cool.

      Like

      Reply

    1. ‘Coral Bells’ is supposed to be early, and the unidentified red azalea is a florist cultivar that blooms whenever it wants to, but I can not explain why the unidentified white cultivar blooms so early. It tries to bloom again later, but does not have much left to offer. It is an odd one.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. Heather has been with us for a bit more than a year, but had lived in the surrounding forest for quite a while prior to that. She lives more outside than inside, and has only been confined accidentally (when someone closed a door of one of the shop spaces with her inside). Her penthouse is in the automotive shop, above the key grinding shop, and has a kitty door that does not close. This is not her first outing. She somehow seems to know to avoid the road, and will not get near it. She also stays inside and in her penthouse at night while the raccoons are out and about.

      Like

      Reply

Leave a comment