CHANGEABLE WEATHER, HIGHBUSH CRANBERRY AND 'ORANGE LIGHTS' AZALEA

FOG BLANKETS DULUTH'S HARBOR

HIGHBUSH CRANBERRY FLOWER CLUSTER

AZALEA 'ORANGE LIGHTS'...

...FLOWER TRUSSES

Sunday, 8:45 AM.  66 degrees F, wind SW, with moderate gusts.  The sky is mostly cloudy and we received another .25" of rain last night.  The humidity is 92% and the barometer is trending down, now at 29.68", with rain predicted for Monday night.
   We went to Duluth to shop for a new TV yesterday afternoon, and it was rather warm, 83 degrees, approaching Superior, and by the time we were driving over the Duluth harbor bridge ten minutes later the temperature had dropped to 57 degrees, and the harbor was enveloped in fog.
   The native highbush cranberry bushes, Viburnum trilobum, are not a cranberry (heath family) at all but are in the honeysuckle family.  They have been in various stages of bloom for about ten days and are at or past their peak of bloom now.  The large shrubs are very floriferous and the red fruits, which are visible all winter, are astringent but edible and their fall color is a brilliant orange red.  They are excellent as border landscape plants as well as for woods edge naturalizing.  Highbush cranberry is native to most of southern Canada, New England and the upper Midwest.
   The hybrid azalea, Rhododendron X 'Orange Lights', introduced by the University of Minnesota Arboretum, is in full bloom in the front yard garden. It stands out like a lantern in the shade.  The 'Pink Lights' azaleas did not bloom this year; it was a tough winter from the standpoint of both temperature  and snow load, and I even lost a 'PJM' Rhododendron, which is tough as nails, in the front garden. The insulating snow and the abundant moisture have benefited most woody plants as well as perennials but we are seeing a few odd responses to the weather.