24 Carrot Rabbitry

Winter here is basically a series of cold snaps.  In between the snaps, it can warm up quite a bit — we will occasionally have 80s for Christmas.  Nobody likes that, unless it’s supposed to be hot at Christmas, like in Australia.

Not here… I live in the Northern Hemisphere, so it’s supposed to be cold right now.  But when your climate is subtropical, well, you get days like today.  It’s in the 70s.  At least it’s not the 80s.  Don’t get me wrong… 70s are very, very nice, but I hate to think what my kids might be willing to do for a day of snow!  The last time they saw snow, Bunny-Wan Kenobi was two (he’s ten now), and we were in Maryland for a funeral.

So anyway, because of our winters, the plants get somewhat confused sometimes.  We’ll get a good cold snap, it’ll be cold for a few days, and then it warms up.  Another cold snap, then another warm-up.  We’ll have freezing temps sometimes, the occasional hard freeze that prompts us to leave the faucets dripping, and days in the 40s and 50s.  Then, back to the upper 60s, 70s, and sometimes 80s.

When we have a somewhat extended warmer period, some of the plants decide, “Oh, it’s spring!  Time to bloom and put out leaves!”

Poor, confused double red ruffle azalea! It's in for a surprise next week!

The Japanese magnolias are blooming (my mom calls them tulip trees).  They shouldn’t come out until late February or maybe March.

One winter, when I was a kid, the azalea hedge in the front yard of our house bloomed seven times.  SEVEN TIMES!!!  It would bloom, and then all the blooms would get killed off by a freeze.  Then it would bloom… over and over.  When spring finally did arrive, they didn’t bloom.  They were worn out!  Either that, or they had decided they weren’t going to be fooled any more.