APPLACHIAN LAUREL BLOOM

From Maine to Georgia throughout the Applachian Mountains Mountain Larurel is a show time show maker. The second and third week of June is full bloom in the Northern third of Pennsylvania. Millions of acres of this bloom if not 'gazillions of acres put on one of nature's top shows in the country.

The picture in this post was taken at our hunting cabin this weekend. The one that follows is close by. To shoot the ten mile views one needs professional cameras of the best quality to capture miles of view in bloom.

Add your mountain beauty to this thread.

PENNSYLVANIA JUNE 22, 08

LAST LAUREL SHOT 08

Friends and a grand son too.

Oops!

Your secrets out Dwaine.
Very nice pictures and the boys are lookin good.

Beautiful!!!

Does it have a lovely scent?

Wow, you're weeks later with your blooms, Dwaine. No scent, Le Ann.

The scent is hardly noticed but the working bees bring a special once a year hum to our attention. It was during this bloom that the old time trappers would by observation locate Bee Trees to be harvested during the late fall and early winter.

This is a minor side show flower with lots of scent. One might see one of these growing in every ten mile in the mountain trip. It is a wild Purple Raspberry. We have seen Chip and Dale with raspberry colored heads stained while eating this fine fruit.

This message was edited Jun 22, 2008 7:00 PM

A shot from last year's bloom.

Beautiful, Dwaine.......the ML and the cabin, and the photo of you and the boys is very nice with all that gorgeous ML around you.

We are in the Franconia Range.....here's how ours looks right now......

Louise

Those are beautiful Dwaine. I haven't had any luck with mountain laurel. Go figure - it's a native and I can't get it to thrive. I've tried 5 different shrubs over the years and lost them all. Anyone have tips? I have a mostly shady yard with lots of pines, oaks - so I would assume I have acid soil.

Gosh, Songs, you're pretty close to me, and I would think they would grow for you there. Mine is very old and was transplanted from deep in the woods during the 60s before my DH's mother knew that was illegal in NH (from what I'm told). Maybe a little bit of sun is necessary for them to do well? I never fertilize mine, but I do prune it back about a third every few years. I'd keep trying....they are so worth it!

Gorgeous! I have kept trying for that reason - up till this year. DH keeps trying to get me to buy another one every time we visit a nursury, but I've held off because there is obviously something about my yard they don't like. I have no problem with Rhodies, azaleas, hydrangeas. I do have some sun - but with the exception of one very small section of yard, I don't get more than 3-4 hours in any one spot.

Mountain Laurel can hardly be taken from the mountains as snitched plantings unless you have property where you could air layer to get a good set of roots going on a relatively small new or at least last years growth. To try and lift them in sparce rocky soil or even good mountain edge soil is not usually a good idea. Where annual root pruning has caused a root ball to form near the plant in a professional nursery is a much better way to get them. In the wild you can not get enough roots because they may be all over the mountain side to form their food and anchor roots.

One of my life long dreams was to have a hunting cabin in the heart of the Northcentral Mountains. All of nature is in excess. This is our family cabin. Our nearest neighbor in the mountains is more than a mile and two ranges away. Some folks enjoy the shore. We say the cabin is our boat, in our ocean of mountains. We don't have the roaring of other stink pots and loud noises they barf out. We also have no electric and no in house water. This weekend we heard a hum of the working bees that was louder than any downtown transformer about to blow it's cool. That alone was utterly amazing. Then we saw the Luna Moth working at night.

Sounds wonderful, Dwaine. Heaven on earth!

Yes - sounds wonderful, Dwaine. I also prefer the mountains. Songs - drainage is very important with ML's.

Aa good innoculation with "ECTO" Mycorrhiza will almost assure sucess.