Frozen Roses

More experienced Georgia gardeners than I may take roses in bloom in December in stride; for me, they are a breathtaking marvel. This morning, they are covered in frost - and still beautiful!

Brrrrrr - it's cold!

An occasional frost has been with us since mid October, but last night was the first "hard freeze" and my poor Violas are showing its effect. Still, with the sun now popping over the horizon, they will soon perk up. It's 27F/-3C this morning, but expected to warm up to a "balmy" 48F/9C this afternoon. I have a few more Violas to plant . . .

Coleus - Indoors

Before the frost was going to get them all, I brought a few annuals inside the other week (Alternanthera and Plectranthus as well as Coleus), even though I had so very little space for them . . . This one will have to be ditched before long, but in the meantime it has started blooming, and how does one throw something like this out?

What's with these temps?

It's the middle of October, and it freezes at night?

I came home late Saturday afternoon from the Georgia Master Gardener conference and the first thing I did was turn the heat on. This is not normal! It should be seventy degrees today. Instead, this morning I woke up to white lawns and white roofs. I've been outside the past two days, to take Coleus, Plectranthus and Alternanthera cuttings and I've brought four of my five Walking Irises indoors (the "mother" I put in a gigantic pot a few weeks ago, because it had outgrown the pot it came in last summer, but it's too big for any place in my house [at least, any place that is not a bathroom without windows . . .], so I've got to go and buy another, somewhat smaller, pot for another transplantation and then find a place for it . . . . where? The dining room, most likely. The four "babies", meanwhile, have grown enormously and my friend Pat tells me to keep an eye on them, because they will bloom in January or thereabouts - for one day only.

None of this should be happening now; it should have been possible for us to have another two or three weeks of "normal" autumn weather.