After weeks with temps dropping into the low 20 degree F. ranges, and now; days of very cold 9 degree temps with wind chill factors in the -10s, the young 'My Mary' deciduous azalea is holding on to a large percentage of its leaves.

With these coldest nights, the leaves finally have begun to look more yellow than green. Still, it is amazing to me to see that after receiving it from mail order in an almost bare root conditon and in less than a year of being planted in the ground this azalea is resilient enough to resist full dormancy even in such cold conditions.

This 'My Mary' azalea is planted on the northeast corner of my house, and gets some late morning shade from a tall slender young oak which grows almost due east of its bed. In the afternoon shade blankets it with some of the coldest microclimate conditions in my yard. Yet that azalea is such a little "trooper."

Certainly there will be a parting note of sadness when in a few weeks, I transplant this azalea in its intended spot at my daughter's house in Texas.