Tuesday, January 13, 2026

Stone Mountain, January

 We had a stretch of spring in midwinter, with highs reaching the 70s. Then the hard freezes returned, with lows in the 20s.

On the warm days you expect to see dandelion blooming and maybe some hardy violets. The surprise was an Indian azalea, deep in the woods. It put out a single magenta bloom.

The variation in temperature is hard on plants. You can see the stress clearly in the garden, where the camelia bush put out a million buds, a couple of which bloomed during the warm snap. After the freeze, there were a half million buds on the ground.

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