REB end of season

It's not unusual for the first freeze to be in the low 20's or teens here.
It's quite a shock for some plants, but most are ready for it when it
comes.  Some years we get the teasers where it's right around 30 F and
there is a bit of frost but no frozen plant tissue.  We had a couple of
nights in the mid 30's a few weeks ago, and there was a bit of frost on
metal (cars and such), but doesn't count as a freeze from the perspective
of the plants.  It did get the trees turning color nicely.  Now we've got
everything from bare trees through fully colored to still bright green.
They never all turn together here, guess they respond differently or get
confused by the usually warm days but often cold nights.

Anyway, the night it froze here, it did get down to 19 F at my house, but
at 2:00AM it was still 40 F, so it didn't last long.  Was pretty cool for a
couple of days, but back up into the low 70's or high 60's (depending on
location) yesterday and today.  I found  it sort of ironic that much of the
southwest got it's first hard freeze the same morning the Bush was
reelected.  Think there was a connection?

Well, I suppose politics doesn't belong here.

Anyway, the freeze sort of made it go from summer-looking to winter-looking
almost instantly, but the Iris weren't bothered in the least (I did cover
the Lo Ho stalk though), a number of the Spurias are just putting up their
flush of fall foliage now (finally!), and there are little puckers in the
soil all over the place where the new leaves are about to break through.  A
number of old Bearded Iris that have looked dead since about August are
starting to show green now too.

There are still flowers on the Rosemary (just getting going good now - it's
a winter bloomer), and that makes the butterflies happy, since most of the
other flowers are gone now.

Things are a little weird here, but the plants seem to thrive regardless.

Dave
central NM

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