I noticed my azaleas weren’t blooming and kept thinking that I had done something wrong, as I’m quite new to them and only got them last year, and then saw a post on NextDoor by someone saying their azaleas and rhododendrons hadn’t bloomed. All of the responses were some variation of “nobody’s are blooming in New England”.

My other plants have bloomed but my big daylily, under which I have buried a little baby goose that I unsuccessfully rescued, is not as robust and leafy as it has been in years past. The leaves seem skinny and sparse.

We’ve had really weird weather here. Our winter was very mild with very little snow. Our summer has so far been much cooler than previous summers. We’ve had tons of rain and just grey dreary days, some of which I attribute to the wildfire smoke from Canada. Like I know the old saying about how New England weather can change on a dime, but yesterday it was 85 degrees and sunny all day. I ate dinner, then went back outside and it felt like it dropped 15 degrees, was grey, and windy. I almost put on a sweatshirt.

I read an article last year about how climate change seems to be taking hold in New England more starkly than anywhere else on the planet in terms of temperature variations.

What about you gardeners out there? How have your plants been? Have you been experiencing anything like this? Honestly I have a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I feel really uneasy…