Late blooms trembling soft
After winter’s sudden wrath
Two survivors wake

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A hard 9-dezree freeze on March 15 zapped all flowering trees in our area. That prolonged freeze (which had followed unseasonably record high temperatures) resulted in instant kill off of any flowering trees buds that were open. Unfortunately, the premature heat wave - before the freeze - had caused most flowering trees to set buds early and become vulnerable. This all led to the death of even the closed buds on everyone one of our numerous crab apple trees. That happened with one exception. Despite the extreme March freeze having killed off everything else, the above two lone flowers were late to emerge and thus somehow managed to eventually open. They aren't strong, but they are flowers. They are 2026 survivors.

Here was the same tree's bloom in 2025, just one year before: https://pbase.com/britestar/image/175351471