Among the highlands within the town of Busti on a road with minimal traffic and neighbors they see only occasionally, Gale and his wife, Patti, recently sat safely enclosed behind walls of beautiful azalea flowers. Some pink, red and yellow, others are white, orange and even one bush that is somewhat creme in color.

With a grouping of the multi-shaded azaleas on almost ever side of the house, the Stranigans were embedded in the aroma of flowers and their aesthetically pleasing colors on a recent afternoon for an interview with The Post-Journal.

The majority of flowers stand about 5 feet tall. Others are taller, closer to 8 feet tall, and even one that stemmed to the height of about 11 feet. And at the peak of the azaleas bloom, Gale said he counts 300 flowers in total.

It was a mostly quiet, sunny afternoon when Gale reflected on his gardening career.

A few of the azaleas pictured near the home of Gale and Patti Stranigan. Last November, Gale retired from his dentistry practice of 57 years. P-J photo by Jordan W. Patterson

“It’s peaceful up here,” Gale said often, looking out at the patch of azaleas positioned in the front yard. “Nobody bothers you.”

Forty years ago, Gale had an idea to start a flower business. In his fantasy, he would seed the flowers himself and then sell them when they bloomed. However, things didn’t go quite as planned, though he has always seeded the flowers himself.

After a failed first attempt of planting flowers, he decided selling his new creation that bloomed far better might not be the greatest idea.

He did, however, make one sale to his sister for $5, after Gale claimed she insisted on paying for them.

“I should’ve just given them to her,” he joked in retrospect.

But without that $5 sale many years ago, the flower business wouldn’t have any sales on record. Yet for Gale, it was never about the money.

To stock up on seeds at a low price, Gale would find cheap bulk deals through the mail from different states or simply repurpose seedlings he found around the area. To his surprise, the loose seedlings he found worked just fine.

“They’re beautiful, aren’t they?” he asked during the interview.

The work of 40 years didn’t need any additional validation for Gale, the proof of his business’ success was right in front of him. The actual flowers. The smell of pollen being pushed down the hill by the wind. The chaotically, yet pleasingly, patterned colors of the azalea petals. And the sheer amount of flowers he successfully planted were enough for him.

Azaleas along with rhododendrons are part of the Rhododendron genus. A noticeable physical difference is that the azalea typically has five stamens as opposed to the 10 stamens the rhododendron possesses.

“That’s fascinating,” said Jeff Tome, senior naturalist at the Audubon Community Nature Center.

Tome, while admitting to not being an expert on azaleas, said the flower typically came from Japan, Taiwan and China. He said that for someone to seed the amount of azaleas Gale has is “truly amazing.”

“You don’t really see that many azaleas in one place,” he said. “Three-hundred azaleas would be a stunning sight when they’re in bloom.”

The south and east sides of the house has the fullest patches of azaleas in bloom. The north and west sides of the house also has groupings of azaleas, but not all in bloom yet. The east side patch does, however, have the tallest of the azaleas that appear to be at least 11 feet tall.

After a long, strenuous winter, the 86-year old Celoron native and his wife, a Florida native, are ready to put their house on the market and move back down to the sunshine state.

“It was too long,” Gale said of the winter. “When you’re pushing 90 (years old) this cold weather just gets right to you.”

“It gets to your bones,” Patti added.

The two have owned the Busti property since 1972 around the time Gale began planting the azaleas. The Stranigans previously lived in Florida over the course of the 40-year ownership of the property, but this time the two seemed sure it was their last move.

Gale is an Army veteran and a survivor of four bouts with cancer. From the many treatments of radiation and surgery — one that lasted 10 hours at Sloan Kettering Institute in New York City — Gale has developed a “bad leg,” as he puts it. It’s a limitation that will restrain him from being able to keep up with gardening.

Last November, Gale retired from his dentistry practice of 57 years due to the same reason he’ll be giving up gardening. The practice operated in Lakewood across from Davidson’s Family Restaurant, and for some time in Florida, too.

“He’ll miss it,” Patti said of Gale’s maintenance on the flowers.

The maintenance includes seeding new flowers, pulling weeds — a lot of weeds — and watering them, which, at first, is a complicated process by itself.

In the beginning, the property didn’t have its own water well to irrigate the plants. But near the bottom of the almost 23-acre property was a pond they had built some time ago. In the old days, Gale would fill up a 100-gallon tank on the back of his truck with the water from the pond and haul it back up the hill to water the azaleas.

They eventually built a well that would prove to be more convenient and efficient.

While the couple’s three children aren’t into gardening, Gale’s father and his sister (the one who bought Gale’s azaleas for $5) were both into the craft. Gale and Patti’s interest in flowers, and specifically azaleas, didn’t start and end in Busti. The couple have visited England twice. On one of their visits they visited either the famous Kew Gardens or Exbury Gardens. They both have varying accounts of which garden exhibit they went to see.

“I think it was Kew Gardens,” Patti said later on.

But now, 40 years later, Gale is prepared to say goodbye to the azaleas that have given him peace and comfort for so long.

“That’s how life goes,” he said of leaving his work behind. “Life goes on. It was a big part, but now we’re going back to Florida.”

Without proper maintenance, the azaleas won’t last. Gale hopes whoever buys the property continues gardening. He said he’s well aware it’s up to the next owner to decide.

“He’s going to miss them,” Patti said one last time.