My fondness for mountain laurel springs from my days in the ashram in the Poconos. Those tiny white clusters like origami that open into tiny teacups are, I was told, the state flower of Pennsylvania, and protected by state law.
My fondness for rhododendron goes back even further, to backpacking a section of the Appalachian Trail as an 11-year-old Boy Scout and coming upon Roan High Knob in full bloom in North Carolina.
Joe Pye weed is something I’ve learned to appreciate here, after we bought our annuals at the Conservation District sale.
Add that, as it thrives, to our azaleas.
Jnana's Red Barn 
When I was a little girl in CT. There was Mountain Laurel everywhere.
We’re a little further to the north, just on the edge of its range. There is an amazing grove, though, in a state park in Newburyport, Massachusetts, overlooking the Merrimac River (as they spell it there),
Wonderful description of mountain laurel flowers: origami that opens into tiny teacups. That captures it so perfectly!