The ivy has been blooming for a couple of weeks around our mountain holler, but the ivy blooms aren’t near as pretty as they usually are. I’m sure it’s because of the dry weather we’ve had this spring.
I’ve been raised up among the ivy and laurel and have never yet tired of their beautiful blooms.
Matt fusses about them because of their nature to form an impenetrable wall in the woods. I agree they do cause a tanglement, but my they feed my soul.
ivy noun
(also ivy bush, ivy tree) The mountain laurel tree (Kalmia latifolia). Same as calico bush, mountain ivy.
1883 Zeigler and Grosscup Heart of Alleghanies 196 The arborescent kalmia and rhododendron, which grow along almost every mountain stream, have a practical use. The ivy and laurel, as they are locally called attain, in some of the fertile coves, a diameter of three inches, and the roots are even larger. 1928 Galyon Plant Naturalist 7 Mountain laurel, known to the mountaineer as “ivy,” reaches its maximum development in the Smokies. It is not unusual to find arborescent laurels one foot or more in diameter and many feet high. 1982 Stupka Wildflowers 80 Usually the attractive pink or white-saucered flowers are so abundant that the mountain laurel in full bloom is one of our most spectacular plants. It flowers in May and June, the later blossoms ordinarily occurring on plants growing in the higher altitudes. “Ivy” and “calico-bush” are among its other names. 1997-2001 Montgomery Coll. ivy bush (Cardwell); ivy tree (Brown).
~Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English
2026 Pressley Blind Pig the ivy blooms aren’t near as pretty as they usually are (Brasstown)
Several days of rain are in our forecast. I hope the weather folks are right. It’s likely too late for this year’s ivy blooms, but the moisture will help our gardens and all the other growing things too.
Tipper
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Hi Tipper and Acorns. My goodness I can’t imagine the Ivy being more beautiful. All we have is Mountain Laurel and plenty of it. It is hot again today at 88 degrees, but the dew point has fallen so it feels cooler than yesterday. It is supposed to rain Thursday -Saturday . I hope everyone gets the much-needed rain.
Well, I put a heart for the comment because I think they are absolutely beautiful. When I posted the heart it did not post. So it has no comment the whole area that surround your house is absolutely beautiful.
When I was growing up we would go to Bear paw fishing. but Dad would not take us when Ivy was blooming said fish would not bite. Matt needs to test it to see if it’s true.
Well, it came up a gully washer here in Oklahoma this morning. Lots of thunder, boom!
No flowering Ivy, no Laurel that I can see.
I prayed for sweet Granny; Now I will pray for Papa Tony! He has a very friendly smile. People beat cancer every day and we serve an awesome God!
I’ll be getting up at 3 tomorrow morning to take my cousin, Johnny, for a preventive heart procedure in the morning. He lives about 45 minutes east of me and needs to be at the clinic by 5. I’m touched he asked me to take him. We’ve had a lot of loss in our family in the last few years and I know he’s anxious. Please send prayers his way for a smooth recovery♡ Thank you in advance!
Mountain Ivy in bloom is one of my favorite things in spring. Our neighbors used to have a cabin near Robbinsville. We were often up there on Memorial Day and always enjoyed the Ivy blooming all around. Wish I was up there now.
Tipper, you are so blessed to walk among all of the beauty that surrounds you.
Praying for Papaw Tony.
Food for the soul indeed !
Tipper–Interesting that your blooms aren’t up to par this year. I was in the mountains this past week and around Bryson City it seemed to me that mountain laurel was putting on the splendid show it always does. Of course, having found myself fashioning a career the flatlands where ivy doesn’t grow, maybe it’s just sheer nostalgia that tittilated my vision. Whatever the case, as John Keats wrote, “A thing of beauty is a joy forever,” and ivy sure fits those words.
I love your comment about “up to par”. My mama says that all the time when I ask how she’s feeling each day. Many days she says she’s not up to par. She’s the only person I know who says that.
It is a very pretty bloom. The Laurel/Rhododendron is popular here and in our ‘neck of the woods’ folk usually call it Rhododendron and it is one of the first plants to bloom, even when still a bit of frost going on and is grown in yards, parks and other public places.
Good morning Tipper! Your ivy or rhododendron is beautiful, sadly winters are too cold to survive here. Maybe you can find a cold tolerant variety at the nursery but I haven’t seen one. However, we do have the Alberta rose, which is everywhere and oh so pretty. It was my husband’s birthday yesterday, I made him your easy cinnamon cake and oatmeal dinner rolls, they were both a hit and will definitely be making them again. Thank you for all the wonderful and delicious recipes I’ve made from your cookbook and on your utube and Blind Pig channel and blog. Have a great day!
Wonderful! I hope he had a great birthday 🙂
Ivy is what you call Mountain Laurel. Laurel is what you call Rhododendron. We have a plant we call Rhododendron too, but it comes from a nursery and is considered a yard shrub. Ivy and Laurel only grow where they want to grow, not where you want them.
I’ve often wondered what mountain laurel looked like. Thankyou for the picture. It’s quite lovely.
We have had 4.6 inch’s of rain in the last 2 days…..it’s headed ur way I think….
We are mostly straight west of you…..Kathy and Larry Coale SW Missouri
I hope it makes it to us 🙂
Kathy, I live in Upstate SC farther east of Tipper. I don’t mind sharing some of the rain with Tipper just as long as she does not get greedy and keep all of it for herself! We are bone dry again. I have been seeing on the news where they think a super El Niño is setting up to start after Memorial Day. I really don’t know what that means for us.
Hi. Back at it again this year. still trying to pickle half runner beans.
When will be the sign to do pickled beans? I have not had good luck with them yet, this will be my 3rd year trying. I wish now that I had learned this process before my grandmother and mother had pass.
Pam the signs will be back in in the head June 9 and 10 🙂
Ivy doesn’t grow in eastern KY as far as I know; however, I’ve heard folks say rhododendron grows right across the mountain in the Breaks Interstate Park. My cousin has made several trips to NC, hoping to time the ivy blooming at its peak. She has missed them every year, but she said the trip along the Blue Ridge Parkway was so beautiful that it made up for the lack of blooming ivy.
My favorite native plant is Mount Laurel, which I know around here is called Ivy. The one in my yard has just grown huge since we moved here. Love it!
The blooms you have in your photo are beautiful. The colors make me think of peppermint candies. When we take the back road to town, we see mountain laurels all the way growing along the bank. It is a beautiful sight. I will keep you, Matt and Papaw Tony in my prayers.
Such pretty flowers. Next time I visit my sister in NC I will keep my eye out for them and enjoy their beauty! Praying for Papaw Tony. I pray you get the rain that is forecasted!
Ivy, laurel and rhododendron are all beautiful when in bloom! My hydrangeas are looking good so far. I’ve cheated this spring by using some faux flowers in pots. With this hot weather we’re having I’m glad I did! Hopefully the rain that has been forecast will give the gardens a boost! Stay hydrated today if you’re outside working!
The same tanglement that prevents you running freely through the woods also prevents a pursuer. Like a rabbit in a brush pile, is it hidden or has it escaped out the other side.
We were up at Black Mountain this weekend. The ivy was beautiful. Here in eastern NC we’re still dry. We had a high temp yesterday of 93 and forecasted the same today.
I wish we had Laurel here instead of the invasive ugly privet that takes over
I have two “mountain ivy” bushes I planted. One did not bloom this year and they other had only one flower cluster. They both are, however, growing new green shoots. About Galyon’s 1928 entry saying “it is not unusual” to find “arborescent laurels” a foot or more in diameter; I have to believe his “laurels” included rhododendron. Either that, or his “diameter” should have been “circumference”. Guess that is another illustration of the confusion caused by the mountain use of “ivy” and “laurel”.
I’ve probably posted this before but in Colonial American history the mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) was at various tines and places called “sheepkill”. I have a dim memory of having read somewhere sometime of the sheep of folks moving west through Cumberland Gap being poisoned by feeding on it too heavily. But that happening seems to have been episodic and not chronic which is somewhat puzzling since sheep and mountain laurel were commonly in association.
CORRECTION:I went looking and “Northern Sheepkill aka Wicky” is “Kalmia angustifolia” and pictures of it resemble mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) but the bloom is solid pinkish, sort of rose color. The leaves appear to me to be narrower and their color a paler green. Could not get clear on its native range. I had never seen it or if I have did not recognize it wen not blooming as not being mountain laurel. Sorry if I have caused confusion. I do wonder why it is not a landscape plant.
Tipper when our say about the weather it is Airsh what do you mean and how is it spelled
Joan, it means cool and often breezy weather and you spelled it right 🙂
The ivy blooming along the downhill edges of the open area of my property is spectacular this year, seems more so than ever. What a treat to look out the windows and see all that beauty! Watching your and the girls videos are a daily treat, but I haven’t figured out how to sign onto youtube to comment, sigh. Thank you for continuing your daily blog. I don’t comment much because I am usually late to the party, but always look forward to reading your morning hello!
Oh the blooms you shared all dappled in pink and just breathtaking to me too! You can show me a big fine house or car or sparkly thing and it won’t ever never mean or do for my soul what flowers and blooms can do for it! In a world filled with fugly and I mean fugly ( you can fill in the blanks) beauty becomes more rare and meaningful! Artwork now is just hideous and fugly mostly and all the pretty things have been taken away so we must seek beauty like seeking wisdom. It ain’t easy to find. I’ve got an acre of treeless yard and the heat beating my garden plants is dreadful. The price of shade cloth is dreadful so we improvised using tarp, rope, bungee and imagination. Don’t think I won’t lug and move planters all day long to beat the heat of the sun for I surely will! I’m just plumb mad now about it all. We took a ride to a greenhouse yesterday and really enjoyed the ride and experience. We would’ve had lunch but eating in the heat makes me sick. So I got a few tomatoes and cucumbers at the greenhouse and made sandwiches at home. No more planting while the moon is waning either… God bless you, Tipper, as you bring out the best of the beautiful things for all of us to ponder. I’d say you’re A#1!!!!!!Youre the best!
I was always confused as a child. We were taught in school that the small white/pinkish blooms were mountain laurel but my parents called it “ivy.” I am not sure what they called the bigger brighter purplish blooms but I think I heard them call that laurel. So, anyone else have this confusion? Rhododendron was a ‘furrin'” word to them.
Here’s a video that talks about just that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Jhuqr96Ras&t=2s 🙂
I’ve tried, unsuccessfully, over the past 49 years, to grow rhododendroms and it blows my mind to see how they flourish around you. I hope your receive some much needed rain very soon, Tipper. Our drought of the past 7 years has been broken by the amount of rain we’ve received this spring. I wish the one storm that brought 3″ in a few hours time had missed us because it washed out my driveway and had to be repaired. Looking out my window at the lush green of my yard, trees, pasture and surrounding corn fields pretty much makes up for that.
The Mountain Laurel and Rhododendron grows in profusion here on the Cumberland Plateau, especially along the many creeks in the hollers. The blooms are magnificent on both. Anyone who hasn’t experienced this display along a cold rushing mountain stream hasn’t fully appreciated our Appalachian mountains.
that is some of that down there on the bank by stream, for a little while there was some bigger pink flowers, they done gone, and they were some orange ones, they sure was pretty to see,God bless Tony with deliverance from sickness and disease Lord,Heal his body and make him well in Jesus name
We call the ones that grow in the mountains, mountain laurel, the ones that are sold in the nurseries, rhododendrum. Last year about this time we took a train ride up your way and the laurels were blooming beautifully along with the honey suckle and other flowering plants. The train windows were open and the smell was glorious with beautiful views. We have a rhododendrum but it looks like the cold winter we has killed it. I’ll have to buy another one.
They sure are pretty!
You have such beautiful native plants growing & blooming all around you in the holler. What a joy it must be to walk around & discover the natural beauty all around you.
What pretty flowers. I never knew that ivy bloomed. What variegation is it? Thank you for sharing.
What we call ivy most folks call Mountain Laurel. The dictionary entry offers more information 🙂