Kevin Provance

The locals call Summerville, South Carolina (where I live, if you haven’t figured that out by now) “Flowertown in the Pines.” Besides the overabundance of pine trees, the town sees nature’s bounty awash every spring in color, from hot pink azaleas to purple wisteria, to delicate white dogwoods. One cannot drive down a single road in town and not see these massive blooms in every direction. It truly is a sight to see. The town bases an entire three-day festival around this event called, aptly enough, the Flowertown Festival.

Mother Nature surprised us with an early bloom. Usually, this explosion of color occurs in the last weeks of March into April. Not this year, though. Unfortunately, these beauties will only remain for a few weeks and will likely be gone by the first weekend in April, the date of the festival. This completely negated my plans to do a film that would’ve combined the bloom with the festival. Oh, well. Terrible situation.

Instead, I present this ad hoc montage of the 2023 azalea bloom. Honestly, though, these images don’t do the actual experience justice. Not be a long shot.

Enjoy the show!