The mountain laurel

Regular readers may know that I'm quite fond of visiting Richmond Deer Park and since becoming pregnant we've gone even more regularly. It's not smoky, focused on drinking and the long walks are healthful and relaxing. And recently, walking is the only thing that reduces the increasingly uncomfortable swelling in my feet and legs.

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In the Spring, the most beautiful part of the park is the Isabella Plantation - a fenced in area (to keep the deer out) known for its magnolias, azaleas and rhododendrons. There are great drifts of azaleas to rival to the most ambitious dogwood-trailer in Knoxville (but of course, there are no dogwoods).

On Sunday, we went a way I hadn't gone before and I noticed an enormous mountain laurel. It must have been very old, because laurel as extremely slow growing. It wasn't yet in full bloom.




I pointed it out to the Vol-in-Law. I was pretty excited, because it's a native of the Eastern US - and a formerly favorite plant of mine (since I worked at a garden center I had a lot of favorite plants) and I've always liked the unusual crinkled flower buds. Its latin name is Kalmia latifolia. Apparently, it was once very fashionable among the plant collectors of Europe (probably because it is so slow growing and a little picky about conditions). I don't know if the variety pictured above is anything special, but you can now buy cultivars which are quite showy and useful in a partly shaded, acidic garden.

Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy, himself named this plant after a friend. I told all this to the ViL - and how I'd also read recently that Linnaeus named nasty plants - like stinkweed - after his critics and detractors.

The unsolicted comment

In England, unlike America, the unsolicited comment is frowned upon. You can't just - as a passer by - say "Nice suit" or "That dog sure is frisky." (In some circumstances you may make an unsolicited comment about the weather.) I have to admit - I like being free from the unsolicited comment - at least on the receiving side. But like many Americans, I do like to make unsolicited comments. I do my best to refrain.

But as we were still admiring the Kalmia, a couple came upon the shrub and were discussing amongst themselves what it might be. They determined that it was more like a rhododendron than a rose. That's the right approach to plant ID. What's it like? What might it be related to? But comparing it to a rose is just ridiculous. I interjected. "It's a laurel, a Mountain Laurel." (It did have a tag, but it was pretty well hidden and read only Kalmia latifolia).

They were surprised. They thanked me. I refrained from adding anything else (like it's native range, growth habit or use in the garden) But as we moved on I asked the ViL if I had been totally out of line. He said no, that he thought they were crying out for information.