The Ultimate Rhododendron and Azalea Experience. Right Now is the Time

If beautiful flowers warm your heart, if you are the kind of person who can be mesmerized by flowers of vivid color, nascent, perfectly formed, and not just a lath house of them, but ACRES of them, I know a place in Sebastopol that is definitely your kind of place called Sonoma Horticultural Nursery.  And NOW is the time to go there because it is bloom time.  There are 8 acres of land that make up Sonoma Horticultural and part of it is lath houses and a retail rhododendron and azalea operation. 

The other part, what they refer to as their “eight acres of demonstration gardens”, has been intensely planted with rhodies, as rhododendron lovers often refer to them.  Not counting state parks, such as Kruse Rhododendron State Natural Reserve -- http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=448 -- only in Eugene, Oregon’s famous Hendricks Park have I seen acres of rhododendrons in bloom, similarly lining paths maintained for no commercial purpose, only to provide the public with a few weeks of rhododendron and azalea hypnosis.

In what we commonly think of as a nursery, we might see a few dozen rhododendrons and azaleas in bloom, in rows, organized by color and type, ready to take home and plant.  Sonoma Horticultural has this also, but in the 8 acres, along the lush, exotically planted trails and paths, some of which become part of the shores of the little lakes they have, there are virtual rhododendron TREES, with hundreds of blooms.  Fancy the sight of vivid purples, intense and deep hues of magenta, pink, white, red, yellow, orange, with hundreds of flowers per plant, some with the height of  pretty tall trees, and HUNDREDS of them, everywhere you go on the paths, you walk around a corner and think you have stepped into the middle of a silent fireworks display.

You end up punch drunk from vivid color and never forget the uplift. 

Sonoma Horticultural Nursery is one of Sebastopol’s true character components, part of what makes the whole Sebastopol area abuzz with creativity and a passion for quality.

You can read about how they came to be the amazing place they are and see stunning photographs of flowers at their web site:

http://www.sonomahort.com/index.htm

Please comment at this blog site, with your rhododendron experiences, recommendations and anything you would like to chime in with, and, if you go to visit Sonoma Horticultural, please let me know what you think.

Richard von Sternberg

Richard.vonsternberg@cbnorcal.com

Strolling through the lush vegetation along a path at Sonoma Horticultural