OK, so maybe it's a magical rhododendron.

Super photo, Mike!

I just posted the same sort of message in the California Living cubit a few days ago, saying it must be spring because my narcissus are in bloom along with some of my rhododendrons, most of my azaleas, and lots of non-reblooming irises.

I think that it's because it's been such a mild winter/fall. Heck, today is the 21st & it went up to the 50s here. I've actually been worried because i've actually seen one of my minis (Ring of Fire) actually putting out new growth!! Weird.

But I would assume that these spring-blooming plants need a period of cold, or at least of dormancy, before the signal to bloom would be triggered. Is it possible that the anomalous heat this fall knocked them out and put them in a false state of dormancy? I know very little about botany, so that probably sounds ridiculous.

Saturday evening (well, around 4pm, when it started to get dark), I was finishing putting lights up on the fence between my & my easterly neighbor. What I do is wrap the lights around the split rail fence and it looks pretty nice to me. And, as I was doing that, I was pretty close to the ground.. a lot closer than normal for me (ground's pretty far down for my tastes, especially when I fall on my butt). And, low & behold, I noticed a rose. Well, like that's a big surprise in my yard.. I have lots of roses. What *was* surprising was that I didn't plant this rose. It's a volunteer from someone. Closest rose is Oranges & Lemons, who's about 2 feet away, but is one of my oldest (meaning it's 3 years old, not 2). Maybe the original rootstock (it's a budded plant) sent out a sucker?

I'll have to wait til next year to find out. It's only about 4-5" tall, but very sturdy and growing nicely. It probably got hit badly with the frost last night, but I know it wasn't that old as the leaves were still very pliable & red-tinged.