Searching for Emily Dickinson’s azaleas while enjoying ours

Emily Dickinson did have azalea (杜鵑花) in her garden, but she never wrote poem about it, nor did she ever mention azalea in her garden in her surviving letters.  However, not all of her poems survived.  The book, Letters of Emily Dickinson (see photo), contains only a fraction of her letters as it was customary that one burnt one’s letters upon one’s passing in her days.

Upon receiving a spray of azalea sent to her from a friend, she did write a thank you note, “Your azaleas are still vivid, though the frailer flowers are flitted away.”  Her brother, Austin, was well known for his love for azaleas in Amherst.