“RHODY” is a spiritual project.

As I was growing up in Western North Carolina, the Eastern Hemlock was the most visible and prolific native plant of the mountain landscape. Tall, majestic, airy, evergreen - the hemlock was my spiritual connection to the Earth. It provided natural shade to the mountain native trout streams that I fished with my dad.

These trees are almost all gone now – having their life literally sucked out of them by the parasitic hemlock woolly adelgid.

My soul has had an enlarging missing piece as these arboreal specimens met their demise. I have been on a silent journey to discover a replacement and I have identified the new hero as the native Rhododendrons. These are rugged, evergreen, tortured, and grounded with wide spreading roots. Saucer size blooms grace their branches during late spring and early summer.

The rhody is the first plant that I see when I open my eyes each morning. They with their branches only inches from the wooden exterior of our home seem to say, “Let me in!” I respond, “I already have.”