Unexpected encore

Among the plants I've put in over the last couple of years are some so-called "rebloomers", that are supposed to bloom in spring or early summer and then again in late summer or fall. But with the hellish heat this past summer, even daily watering didn't seem to be enough, and my Endless Summer hydrangea and Encore azalea wilted repeatedly. It looked like there would be no encores this year; I wasn't even sure they would survive.

Then, in late October -- only a week before Halloween -- some splashes of color caught my eye in the front yard. And lo, the azalea and one of the three hydrangeas had, after all, bloomed again. Not a lot of blooms, but the shrubs are still pretty small, and I was quite frankly amazed to get anything so late in the year.

With a little luck, fertilizer, and water, just maybe I can prod them into a growth spurt in 2007 and a more normal "endless" or "encore" blooming cycle.