Look what I found: Rhododendron catawbiense (?)

I think this is Rhododendron catawbiense, or Catawba Rhododendron.  I looked at hundreds of pictures of rhododendrons and evaluated things like leaf size, plant habit, bud and bark.  I still kind of feel like I'm guessing.  I'm going to record the characteristics of our rhododendrons/azaleas in more detail and over the winter I will try to identify/classify them.

The Catawba rhododendron is a large rounded shrub native to the mountains of North Carolina and Virginia.  Its flowers range from white to pinkish purple and bloom towards the late midseason.  Its broad, leathery, hairless leaves grow up to five inches long.  After ten years, the Catawba rhododendron should reach a height of about five feet.

I enjoyed watching the flowers emerge from their buds.  The blooms are bright and the huge pom-poms of flowers are quite flashy.  However, since they're only scattered about on the shrub, they don't seem as garish to me as the azaleas did.  I also prefer the broad leaves of this rhododendron to our smaller azaelas.

We only have one "adult" Catawba rhododendron and it's in the backyard understory between the lawn and the woods.  However, immediately behind the Catawba Rhododendron, I found at least a dozen baby plants.  It looks like I need to start researching how to transplant rhododendrons!