I was gonna say "Blame the Canadians" but being here myself we've only had one night of below freezing (31F).
I could be our central or eastern fellow countrymen. They're known for those Alberta clippers.

Cheers, Barrie (Vancouver Island)

Well. One of my nawthern neighbors let his weather escape. My crinums turned to mush. Not to mention the persian shield. Whoever it was. I hope he'll come down and bring it home. It's messing up my garden. ;)

Barrie,

My nephew's father in law is from up around your way. Also a gardener. Several years ago we got into an argument. Seems I was discussing a problem I had with my mature azelias. That I hated to lose them because the were about 8 feet tall. And beautiful when they bloomed in spring. I was informed azelias don't get that big. I suspect we have different varities down here. Because some do get that large and larger. Even our native azelia (sometimes called pink honey suckle bush) gets to about 4 feet.

Have a nice Christmas up in that way.

Oh, whoever let their weather run wild. If you want to let it out for exercise. Please feel free to let it out about July or August or September.

Danbo: If you ever come to Savannah, I can show your PNW relative lots of azaleas that are 12 to 15 feet tall. And I am afraid we have yet to see the worst as far as this winter is concerned.

If your lil ol' suthun weathuh is so weak and wimpy that it's going to let a little whisper of cold northern air push it around, well, that's not our fault. ;o)

Yep. Yep. Our lil ole whimpy wetha. Can't handle dat bad cole. Fer show we can't. Kinda like when a lil old tropical depression goes up dat way. And them brave newscasters report from on the scene. (It's raining.) And they're using choppers to rescue folks from that raging knee deep water. Johnnie I liked that. With that good SA you'd fit in, down here. Actually Washington is still pretty much southern.

Wilmington. I know. I used to live in Savannah. Though I've spent most of my life in or around New Orleans. The plants, and trees in the Savannah are so much like down here. The live oaks, the azelias. Only there it speaks with a southern accent. And here it has a cajun flavor. New England may have fall. But we have spring.

Yep. Yep. Unfortunately, we're in for more and colder. But we only had 2 nighs into the 30's this fall. Then 25. And ma wimpy ole bananas and gingers went down. And they were looking so nice. And it was a bit early for such a freeze. .

Have a nice day guys.

Take care danbo...and watch out for the Christmas freeze predicted for the central US! The "polar express" is visiting us all this year.