Perils of Hurricane Irma

For the first time in my life, I hate living in Florida.

As I sat outside our motel room this morning, enjoying a gorgeous blue sky Florida morning, I couldn't help but think back to a week ago today when The Captain went back home after Hurricane Irma passed to make sure all was well to go back home.  Initially, I was not worried because Tampa was spared with a Category 1 instead of Category 5 hurricane.

It is something that I can't face at this time . . . I have not seen it, nor do I want to even see a photo.  A huge limb on a chunk of our house, pierced through the roof and even some of the ceiling, affecting several rooms.  The Captain tells me parts of the ceiling and insulation is scattered all over the place. 

What once was my favorite part of the house, the back room whose walls were made of glass, were smashed, exposing the house to future storms, exposure to the bare elements of nature and further deterioration of the roof and ceiling.  I can imagine the puddles of water and sand making a muddy mess on the floor.

I am feeling lost, like a gypsy wandering in the wilderness of FEMA motels, not knowing if the temporary housing will continue and for how long.  

So far FEMA has been awesome.  We will see when we hear what the inspector has to say and what they are prepared to do for us.

In the meantime, we can't touch the damage and there is  another hurricane threatening to hit Florida.  It is almost unbearable to think about . . . time is just making a bad situation worse.  The heavy limb sinks a little bit further with time and every rain that decides to come around.  Thank God our rainy season is winding down, although it is peak hurricane season.  Until the inspector sees the damage, we can't even put a tarp on the roof to prevent more water from gushing in.

I'm thankful that The Captain and I had the good sense to evacuate to a local motel when we were faced with a Category 5 hurricane colliding with our world.  We did not have to experience the ravages of the storm ripping through the house not knowing if we would live or die.  God does not give us more than we can handle and after 34 years of living in that house, that little voice in my head told me to get out this time around.

Hurricane Irma hit Florida as a Category 5 hurricane . . . I'm so grateful that we got the west side of the hurricane after it was downgraded to Category 1.  There could have been so  much more damage.

Pray for the victims of this season's hurricanes which have come at us with a vengeance we have not seen since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.  Our damage is minor compared to others . . .

Calissia fragrans . . . thriving in my Paradise

They are multiplying and blooming for the first time . . .
they must love acid since I have been feeding them coffee.

Calissia fragrans is an unusual and tropical semi-epiphyte (grows mainly in trees, but will root in soil). Individual leaf rosettes may be 8" wide at the center stalk. Snaking out from the stalk are runners that trail as much as several feet to find a new place to root. Fragrant white globular flowers on upright spikes bloom in summer, then fade and lose their fragrance, then perk up and become fragrant again on and on.

Flowering or not, it is a spectacular plant that would look awesome hanging from a tree in a shady spot in the greenhouse or in a hanging basket as a houseplant. I plan on lining my carport jungle with hand painted hanging containers loaded with these gorgeous plants.




This is where the plants in the carport jungle began . . . I cleared out a few of these plants that were growing in the pathway and placed them in this container that I use to start plants or experiment with my propagation projects.

At the moment, I am experimenting with the calissia fragrans in my carport jungle, planting the runners into individual containers. I've been doing this for several months and those babies are already putting out their own runners. I left the runners intact in this container and they are growing another rosette. How cool is that? You can see some of the runners in the above photo.

I have a few spots in the yard where I planted a few here and there and now have my "farm" of mass plantings. Hopefully, they will be one of the plants to start my mail order plant business.

It all started about 7 years ago when I had a gardening group on MSN and made some local gardening friends that I swapped plants with. These came from Sally in St. Petersburg . . . she is very much into native plants and I have some other plants I got from her that are still thriving through neglect. There is something to be said about native plants!

All my container plants in the carport jungle have been getting a regular dose of watered down coffee and water that I boiled vegetables in (without salt) . . . the calissia fragrans are especially responding successfully and I have never seen them looking so healthy and big. Keep in mind that I have not used commercial fertilizer on them at all.

These are my new perfect plant . . . as you can see from the following photos taken from previous seasons, I have them growing in my "trash to treasure" book rack lined with moss. They went through one winter night freeze, neglect, no watering, no fertilizer with minimal damage. The ones in the carport jungle look much better since they are being pampered and I will soon transfer some of them to renourish the rack. I'll take some recent photos soon.

I'm getting the gardening bug again . . .
it makes me smile!