[LINK] "Warm December weather confuses even the flowers"

[rfmcdonald]

Kay Lazar and Astead W. Herndon's Boston Globe article looking at how ridiculously warm weather has caused plants to flower early, with possible long-term negative consequences, was worrying. What happens when a cold snap hits?

Fairy-pink roses unfold in summer-like splendor — right next to light poles wrapped in Christmas greens on Beacon Hill.

Cherry trees, bees humming around, bloom in the Public Garden — on the first days of winter.

And geraniums, sweet alyssum, and all sorts of summer flowers thrive in planters around Boston and beyond.

The unseasonably warm weather — the high on Christmas Eve is forecast to be 65 to 70 degrees — has many living things confused.

“The leaves are starting to appear on my viburnum” bush, said Marilyn Donati, who is worrying about the flowering shrub that typically blooms in the spring in her Hamilton yard. “My daylilies, the greens are starting to grow.”