This is the front of my house today, a sunny and warm day. See those flowers? That's one rhodie bush, a variety called "Sappho." It's white with an eye that's so purple it's nearly black. It came with the house, and once it finishes blooming we're going to clip it back pretty hard. And by "we" I mean John. 
Portland is known as the Rose City but really, we are the rhodie city. Rhododendrons do so well here, you can't kill them with a stick.
See the bee in there? Bees love this bush. When I first bought this house 20 years ago there were a couple of rhodie bushes that were a color I really hated (a violent fuschia) and were planted against the foundation, which I also really hate. They were big bushes, but my ex-husband and I dug them up, wrapped the roots and gave them away. Both of them lived--thrived, in fact. I can still see one of them just a couple of doors down.
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