Z is for aZalea

This is the last day for the A to Z blog posts and as I approached this day I decided I would use azalea. I thought about using zinnias, but I’ve not had a lot of success with zinnias here in spite of the fact they started out as plants from Mexico. You would think this would be the perfect climate, but no. I could have used Azaleas for Day A if I hadn’t had something else in mind for April Fools Day. And I like the idea of ending the last post with an ‘AZ’ beginning word. And my blog…my rules.

Azaleas are definitely a ‘southern’ thing. They don’t grow (outside of the grocery store offerings) in northern Illinois. Those hothouse offerings often don’t last very well as they either get over-watered, or underwatered and dry up. Trust me…I’ve been there and killed my share during the Easter season.

So living somewhere that has the possibility of having them in the yard is so exciting! We have them in four places in the yard. I planted two of those places. The ones by the front walk were put in by the woman who lived here before us and although they are in a very sunny place she credits their survival and thriving to mounds of coffee grounds that she mixed into the ground around them. I think she is probably right. The other three spots are shaded most if not all of the day and in Oklahoma heat a little shade is very desirable.

So azaleas and A to Z is complete. Or is it?