Azaleas!

We visited Brighton Dam Azalea Garden yesterday morning. it was the perfect day to go: cool (not cold) and dry (the day before was rainy and the forecast for the day following was for more rain). We were early enough that it was not crowded. The garden is near the dam that creates the Triadelphia Reservoir between Howard and Montgomery Counties in Maryland. I read an article from back in March that said the lake was at 49% of capacity because of a drought over the past 6 months for our part of Maryland.  Looking past this grouping of azaleas, it’s obvious that the lake is low.

The azaleas are underneath large trees – with a few understory dogwoods. I experimented with the ‘fisheye’ setting on my camera for this shot.

The most prevalent colors of azaleas are pink, white and red/magenta…with a few light purple mixed in.

The pink ones seemed to draw my attention the most. Many of them had water droplets on them.

The magenta color almost gets too intense!

There are some newer plantings that are recent hybrids that are orange-yellow. The flowers are clumped and even the buds are worth a closer look.

But my favorite picture of the azaleas was of white flowers. What’s not to like about white flowers with water droplets and a black background!

Tomorrow I’ll share some images of oak seedlings that were coming up in the garden.