The annual riot of color known as rhododendron season in Meadville is upon us.

Some blossoms got an early start, but as soon as the weather hit 70 degrees, the show begins in earnest, James Vogan, superintendent of Greendale Cemetery, said Thursday.

Superintendent since 1981, he’s in a position to know. Greendale’s rhododendron collection, which got its formal start back in 1875, was named one of the Cultural Landscape Foundation’s “Heroes of Horticulture” in 2007.

“Once they get into full bloom, they can last up to two weeks — depending on the weather,” Vogan explained. Once the blooming starts, however, temperature is no longer a critical factor. In fact, rain hard enough to knock the blossoms off is pretty much the only thing that can shorten the display, he said.

Vogan isn’t the only one excited about the arrival of rhododendron season. As part of a personal crusade in memory of her late husband, George, to transform Meadville into Rhododendron

City that began in 2007, Lorraine Yuhasz of Blooming Valley Nurseries recently arranged for 200 rhododendrons to be donated to the city by the R. Budd Dwyer Foundation. The bushes were planted Thursday in a large rectangle on the west side of French Creek Parkway near the Baldwin Street Park Road intersection. Funding for the planting was provided by the Emmaline D. Barco Beautifi-cation Fund Trust Under Will of George J. Barco, said the city’s planning and development manager, Rick Williams, on Thursday.

For those who delight in quibbling over details, the genus Rhododendron includes all azaleas and rhododendrons. According to University of Missouri’s department of horticulture, “the name ‘azalea’ is commonly used for native deciduous species and some evergreen Oriental types. In general, ‘rhododendron’ is used for those species that have large, evergreen, leathery leaves.” The bottom line, according to the pros, is simple: “No sharp division can be made, and it is always correct to call any of them rhododendrons.”

Whatever you call them, there is no shortage of local opportunities to view genus Rhododendron.

Go Greendale!

Entered through an elaborate gate at the top of Randolph Street, for example, the nonprofit, public cemetery known as Greendale was created as — and remains to this day — both a public park and a burial ground.

The final resting place for more than 21,000 individuals, the park-like grounds that cover more than 200 acres in the City of Meadville and adjoining West Mead Township have been recognized by American Nurseryman and Garden Design magazines — in no small part because of the more than 1,000 flowering bushes now preparing to spring into bloom.

“When people come up here, they need to get of the main roads,” Vogan advises. “Back in the back, on the winding dirt roads, is where you’ll find the most beautiful bushes.”

Some of those bushes, he quickly added, are 25 to 30 feet in width and 25 to 30 feet tall.