It’s cold here in the Deep South. This morning it was 30 degrees Fahrenheit (-1 Celsius), and it didn’t get out of the 30s all day. There is ice in the bird bath, and we had snow flurries last night. But my azaleas are blooming.

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The azaleas always bloom in the Spring, and for the past three years they also have bloomed in the Autumn. This is the first time they have bloomed in the freezing cold.

Although there is a type of hybrid azalea called an Encore Azalea that blooms in the Spring and again in the Autumn, ours are not Encores.  Nonetheless, two of the azalea plants in our woodland garden are blooming now in December.  What a surprise!

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“Where flowers bloom so does hope.”

(Lady Bird Johnson)