Mountain Laurel
The laurel and ivy blooms haven’t been as spectacular as usual this year. I can’t think of a reason, other than they’re just not.
As I was pondering about the lackluster blooms in my mountain holler I wondered if the entry in the “Dictionary of Southern Appalachian English” was different than the one in the “Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English.”
Over the years I’ve wrote about the beautiful blooms that surround my mountain home more times than you can shake at stick at.
Other than their loveliness, I’ve written about how they give me a sense of home as well as the unique nomenclature mountaineers use to describe them. You can learn more about that here.
A quick check of the ivy entry showed nothing much had changed in the newer dictionary, but I got a nice surprise when I check the entry for laurel.
Just below laurel is the entry for laurel bed. The last documentation listed for laurel bed came from Blind Pig and The Acorn, more specifically readers Ed Ammons and George Pettie.
2017 Blind Pig (Jan 19) Anyone who doesn’t understand why it is call a laurel “hell” needs to get lost in one of them. You lose all sense of direction. At night it is even worse. You can’t see anything and the only sounds you hear is your own heartbeat and breathing. You have to crawl along on the ground half the time and the rest of the time you are off the ground in the tangle of trees. People have been known to disappear into one and never be found. I can imagine Satan’s abode itself being much the same. (Ed Ammons) The Laurel Hell is not an exaggeration. If you ever made the mistake of straying into a pure stand of mountain laurel up on a steep mountainside, you would quickly appreciate that it was indeed hellish, and do your utmost to backtrack out of there! (George Pettie)
Ed and George are describing what we call a laurel hell which is a group of laurels growing so closely together that you can barely get through them if you try.
If you have laurel and ivy near you are their blooms normal this year?
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There is a place up on the left fork of Wiggins Creek where nothing but laurels grow. The branch spreads out along a narrow little valley. There are steep mountain slopes on either side that flatten out into a flat rocky bottom that is only twenty to thirty feet wide and extends only a few hundred feet. Nothing lives there but moss covered rocks and huge laurel trees! The floor is covered with the buildup of many years of shed laurel leaves interrupted occasionally by laurel roots raised up as if looking for a patch of sunshine where it can send up new sprouts. But sunshine rarely, if ever, reaches the floor. The little branch weaves its way among the roots and rocks carrying a warmth in the winter and a coolness in the summer that maintains an inviting atmosphere in any season.
The outer perimeter of this hidden chamber is a twisted tangle of leaves and limbs that aggressively resists access but with determination entry can be gained. Once inside in, the perpetual twilight, an immense otherworldly room is revealed. A hushed earthy stillness reminiscent of a cave or root cellar meets the senses. The comfort of a Grandma’s bed with old quilts pulled up over your head. Such an inviting place, but not for the claustrophobic!
What you call laurel, we call Rhododendrons. Either way, they are beautiful. We have so many gorgeous colors, it is hard to have a favorite.
I have noticed different plants react differently each year. One year one will do good and another not so good and the next year its just the opposite. Plants also seem to grow, bloom, etc different in different places in the yard; I have had the same plant in two different places in the yard and they both grow differently. Seems plants don’t read the books on how they are supposed to grow 🙂 I also think there are environmental issues that affect growth habits.
There is at least one other place that has treacherous swampy thickets labeled a hell. It is Tate’s Hell, in north Florida. I’ve been in a laurel hell and once worked in an area of several counties that includes Tate’s Hell. According to a local legend, Cebe Tate entered the titi swamp with his dogs in 1875 to kill a marauding panther. He lost his way and emerged seven days later exhausted and near death. According to the story, his last words before expiring were to the effect that he had just been in hell–hence Tate’s Hell. You could look it up. I don’t think Cebe killed the cat.
They are beautiful…
I love Rhododendrons/mountain laurels. We have them growing along the Oregon coast and woodlands. When I was a child, our yard had Rhododendrons, azaleas, dogwoods and other flowering plants. People would stop and take pictures of it. We met people from all over the world, who had stopped to take pictures of our yard. It even ended up in a home and garden magazine. Sadly, the people who bought the house, cut everything down and now it’s just a bare unkept yard. You wouldn’t even know it is the same place.
I do believe that growing things have ‘off’ years or seasons. I know my garden does. Last year I got few tomatoes and peppers but this year I’m overloaded. Last year the salvia were blooming with tons of babies and blossoms almost all summer and this year (so far) they seem to have settled into the more traditional flushes of blooms several times a season. My figs had nothing as well as the plum tree last year (late frost didn’t help) and this year I got 2 plums and tons of baby figs grows. The plum tree must be getting too old but has sent out so many runners, I will never get rid of it again no matter how many I pull. Just like the weather, some springs are late, cold or dry and some summers are too wet, too hot or too cold. My lesson is to enjoy the successes (which there are every year no matter what) and learn from the failures. I moved onto this property with so many wild passion vines growing wild but now even after planting nursery plants or vines, they will not grow – no more wold ones and I have no clue what happened or why. I used to love getting may pops to eat but haven’t seen any in years – along with the monarch butterflies, they have disappeared. Some years mosquitoes are worse than other years, ticks are rampant some summers more than others. It would be interesting if people kept a journal of what grew better or worse each year and also note the weather conditions leading up to it. I bet there is an answer somewhere!
Nothing up here in WV has bloomed like last year. I am fighting 3 different types of aphids on my tomato plants already! I’ve even broke out the 7 spray but I need the dust. All my stuff about died of white powder mold due to days of endless rain and cold. I got lime and all I can say is wow that’s great stuff! I’ve washed tomatoes with a rag and soapy water til I almost fell out from the heat and bending several hours like a baseball catcher. It’s a dog fight for everything from gas and groceries to the garden pests. Thank God I won’t take no for an answer as I keep treading whatever this is we are living through.
Margie and everyone else out there: keep treading and don’t give up with all we are going through right now.
Same here – Not as plentiful as last year. This is our 2nd Spring here so I only have the two years to compare.
I can’t be much help I’m afraid. Mountain laurel (ivy) are few and scattered in the woods around here and are probably not too happy in the best of times. I saw flower buds on one but was not there to see it bloom. Rhododendron (laurel)) doesn’t grow around here at all insofar as I know.
I have two mountain laurel I planted. They have bloomed back last month and actually bloomed better than in the past. I think though that is just because of having grown more.
I have two purple rhododendron that died back two years ago and have been very slowly recovering but not enough to bloom again yet. I have a Piedmont rhododendron (Rhododendron minus) that usually blooms heavily in May. I couldn’t remember and had to go look. It has bloomed this year but not heavily and what bloom it had was tucked back.in amongst the leaves and was not very noticeable. It is, however, growing new limbs and leaves very well.
You are illustrating once again that nature is very changeable and never gets done surprising us. Just live in one place and pay attention and one can see.
I don’t recall anyone calling them laurel beds in my area. At our farm alongside the dirt road there is a patch of ivy growing close to a sarvis tree. In my part of e.ky. the mountain laurel grows in the deep hollers and gorges.
Our mountain laurel blooms seemed to be fewer than normal. But I do know about laurel thickets with emphasis on the THICK. I was making my way through one on the edge of our farm and started in but my husband stopped me: there was a black snake up on one of the branches about head height. I backed right out of there. It was probably just an old king snake hoping for a bird snack but I wasn’t taking chances because sometimes we have the occasional water moccasin roaming too.
It is amazing to me how every area has their unique plants. I do not remember laural in San Diego county, nor in Iowa. It might have been there, and I just didn’t know what I was looking at. But I honestly do not remember anything like the pictures you have shown during your walks in the woods. Is laural mostly where it is humid? San Diego really has no humidity, not like here in North Carolina, or the Midwest. And honestly, I think Iowa has more humidity than North Carolina. I remember being out at midnight while I lived in Iowa, and passing stores and houses with so much condensation on their windows you could not see in them, even with a light coming from inside. I do remember a smaller leaf ivy, though. Is that the same as laural? Not all ivy is called laural, right?
Donna. : )
Wow, Tipper, congratulations to you as well as Ed and George for being quoted in the two dictionaries. That’s pretty high praise to get that recognition! I’m quite pleased about that!
I have not noticed the Ivy and Laurel this year. I don’t have any growing around me, so I’ll have to find some and check it out.