Roses Blooming in November?!

Novembers here in South Carolina's upstate can be a bit weird sometimes to say the least.

Some of us here in the Carolinas, especially in the Piedmont region, love to joke that climate here in October and November with its varying degrees of temperature and weather go like this: winter in the early morning, spring by about noon, summer in the afternoons, and finally fall by evening.

Some days autumn here can feel like fall, with cool evenings and cold nights in the lower 30s F and even upper 20s F. Other days the temperatures can rise to as high as the lower 70s F and even to about the lower 80s F during the day, almost spring-like -- brief spells of Indian summer.

Certainly the weather itself can be a major factor since November is the last official month of hurricane season in the North Atlantic, with warm tropical air off the ocean and cool Arctic air from the north mixing to form a strange mess for us down her in Dixie.

So it's no surprise that the recent Category 1 Hurricane Nicole brought some steady rain and warm temperatures to my corner of South Carolina last weekend.

This morning, before it became cloudy and cold outside, I went outside to capture a photo of a beautiful green Carolina Anole lizard on my bedroom window that was enjoying the sunshine. I'd seen him, or one like him, earlier this summer and they are year round durable little critters.

Hey neighbor, just hanging around.

My rosebush sits just beside that particular window and I was not really surprised to find that the poisonous blue berries of the Virginia Creeper plant mixed in with my rosebush were already out. That's not too uncommon this time of year and the red and brown Cardinals and other birds enjoy them. As you can also see, the leaves on the plants themselves are still very much green, despite the trees starting to lose their foliage for the coming winter.

What was a surprise is what that brief spell of warm temperatures did for my yard...it helped my soon-to-be-hibernating rose bush to blossom at least one beautiful red rose and one poor little bud that I fear will not survive the coming cold weather this week.

Here are the photos I took of them.

Virginia Creeper plant berries mixed in with my rosebush.
These are a bit more common for this time of year.

With the temperatures expected to fall back into "autumn norms" and cool down, these survivors probably won't be around by next week, but I plan to enjoy them for as long as they are around until their brothers and sisters bloom in earnest next springtime.