Hurricane Rita loved my flowers so much, She took most of them with her. She really cleaned me out. My cassia tree is laying over, my huge evergreen wisteria, broke off my singe confederate rose, demolished coleus, too much to list. She did however leave junk tallow trees, regular wisteria, sweet gum trees. I would post pictures but my card reader is not working.Very depressing. :o(
But the biggest blessing of all DS, DDIL, 2 DGDs, DH and I, and our 2 Doxies are all safe. And our 135 gal fish tank is still here and fish all alive. So Plants all minor to compared to the greatest gifts in life and that is WE ARE ALL FINE!! Thank you Jesus. :o)
Love to all of you,
Sandy
Hurricane Rita loves flowers so much, She took most of mine
Hi There,
You poor bugger. If you would like some gerbera seed and possibly some Australian natives seed I would be happy to send you a few. I will pay post you just need to let me know that you would like them. Send me a d-mail if you would like these and we can get underway with your address etc so I can post them over to you.
Cheers
Theresa - Windale Australia
I will get you a package of seeds in the morning mail. I am so sorry to hear of your loss!!!!
Sue
Sandy, so glad you are all safe and secure, thought your garden is damaged. Gardens grow back! ! I'm dividing perennials now and might have something to replace what you've lost. I also have seeds. We're in very different zones, so if you could give me an idea of what perennials you are looking to replace, I'll see what I have that would fit.
IHere's a short list:
Yarrow - moonshine, terra cotta, paprika, summer wine, cream colored
Sedum - Matrona and Brilliant, as well as many low growing varieties
Coleus - several kinds, I could send cuttings
I know I have lots of stuff so let me know if you'd like some.
I can send you some spider lilies :)
Let me know.
K
Sue, your DH sure is fuzzy. Thank you I would love some seeds.
Pixydish,
Some of what you listed sounds great, I would also love to try phlox.
You plant list is awesome with different things I have never heard of. I do love yarrow and sedum.
K That is very sweet, I would love some spider lilies.
I am in the address exchange.
Thanks to all,
Love and Blessings,
Sandy ^8^
Sandy-Ric is wintering over sedum cuttings that I sent him-check the plants for Hurricane Katrina list. I also will have plants next season-frost warnings tonight. Hugs to you, glad that your family is safe.
LOL...Yep warm and fuzzy!!!
Sandy,
I can replace your cassia tree (I have tons of seeds), evergreen wisteria (I'm cutting mine back and you can have cuttings to start), single confederate rose ( I have a rooted double we can dig up).
I live in Cypress (HWY 290 and HWY 6 area) if you want to come over. Or I can mail for postage. If you come over you will probably go home with alot more.
Daisy
Do you have time to plant some hibiscus? I can see if I have any young ones to send you. Do you want any white datura seeds? Are you interested in Jerusalem artichoke tubers? Mine are in bloom now, I will dig a clump up for you if you want them.
Kathy
Sandy I am so glad you are safe and sound. Replacing STUFF is easy. Replacing YOU is another story entirely!!! LMK if I can do anything for you and your family.
Prayers & Hugs
Tina
something is in the mail for you girlfriend. look for it. Marie
Sandy, we've been growing some plants this summer that are not winter-hardy here, but that might be winter-hardy where you are. Would you like to rescue any from our compost pile?
I can stuff a flat-rate box with a "Noah's Ark" assortment that would include:
Hedychium coronaria (originally from Moodene)
Heliotrope arborescens 'Marine'
Pentas 'Galaxy' - pink
Evolvulus - silvery, velvety leaves with small intensely blue flowers in morning - grows low and spreading
Begonias - angel wing - no name - bronze leaf, white blushed pale pink
Are any of these hardy where you live?
The smaller the start (cuttings/divisions), the more variety I can get into that box for you. Shirley1md was by last weekend and gave me a black-maroon calla lily with a fat seed pod just spilling its seeds - the plant is too tiny to divide, but would you like to have these nice fresh seeds?
Very sorry to hear about the loss of your flowers and especially glad to hear you and your family are all right.
Best, Karen
Flowerjunkie I may be coming to the dr in the woodlands up that way in the next 2 weeks. I will let you know.
Thanks Pixydish I will love them.
iamakylady53-I LOVE hibiscus.The weather is in the high 70s today. I really want to get out in the yard the next few days.
I am in need of a second back surgery and last night the pain was so bad I cried. I guess the weather change. But unless it stays that bad I will be outside.
I will appreciate anything you send. Are these adible?Jerusalem artichoke tubers? I love artichokes. Please send directions for care and planting.
Marie (imazadi) you are very kind.
bluespiral- I would love your noahs arc. I love all plants. Please let me know how to plant and care for them. those black-maroon calla lily seeds sound wonderful.
Thank you all for caring for us. I thank Jesus we are safe. That one night out in a parking lot I stayed awake and extremely scared. It was so hot I got dehydrated. I kept drinking but nowhere to use restroom by the time I did 27 hours after we left home it was dark brown orange. That is when I was told I was dehydrated.
I finally have a prescription of migraine pills at pharmacy 6-35 dollars co pay thank god for insurance but only 6?. I usually have them 3 days in a row even with meds. 17.50 a round of headaches.
This message was edited Oct 27, 2005 10:49 PM
Don't have a lot of plants but do have some seeds. Rounding you up a package and will be mailing to you on Tuesday morning. Glad to hear your pretty much ok. Hope the medicine helps you :)
Sandy, will send the 'Arc' to you on Monday.
I noticed in a catalog (Leonard's??) that sells landscaping supplies to commercial business that they had a section with hunting supplies, which included a telephone-booth sized port-a-potty made from collapsible fabric. Something to add to that backpack/blanket box we all should keep ready for emergencies - one for on foot and one for the car?
I know what you mean about back problems - being immobile for 15 hours can really aggravate the back. On my last long trip, I made a special effort to take a walk each day - no matter how slowly and inconvenient - and it seemed to help.
Will get back to you on caring for the plants - the PlantFiles should be able to tell you whether you can grow them outside where you live and other cultivation info.
Hope this has been a useful post.
It sure has been great. I look forward to the plants as my adjuster called yesterday and my fence or plants are not covered unless struck by lightning.
Thank you all for the plants. I am feeling better about how my yard will look. I will post pictures as soon as I can get a new memory card reader. It looks awful out there.
Love to all. By the way don't make a trip to the post office monday. It is Columbus day.
Again Thanks,
Sandy ^8^
Sandy, here’s what I dug for you today and am sending to you Tuesday in a flat-rate box (forgot about Columbus day, but think these will be alright). Have put a DG PlantFile link with each plant for cultural information.
Not winter-hardy for me, but possibly would be for you:
Red Stem Ginger - Your zone, 9a, falls within zones 7b - 11 as given in the plant files for Hedychium coronarium ( - http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/53654/index.html ). All I can say is that this plant came to me as Red Stem Ginger, the stem and leaves resemble a hedychium, so I think following general cultural information for H. coronarium might be a good bet.
Angel wing begonia - according to PlantFiles ( http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/59884/index.html ) . I only meant to send you plants hardy where you live, and this one is only hardy to zone 10a - my mistake. The cuttings I’ve put in water seem to be rooting, so I think you could do the same, and then plant out in spring after last frost. The whole plant - leaves, habit, very pale pink flowers is pretty the entire season - does well in shade but don’t let get too dry. This link is only an approximate match.
Pentas - tall, white - http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/239/index.html Another elegant plant in every way - major hummingbird attractant - nice with grey-green or silvery leaves of evolvulus cascading around its feet. Winter-hardy to your zone of 9a. Link is approximate match.
Evolvulus - http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/76546/index.html Well! Wut a surprise - PlantFiles says this one’s hardy to both our zones: 4a - 8b. There are few plants with which to make a “silver” garden in hot, humid summers. This one doesn’t get black mold like lavender and artemisia ‘Schmidtiana’ do in my garden. Some other humidity-tolerant plants better behaved than lavender I would recommend you might like to try for a silver garden in your part of the world are Plectranthus argentatus, Pelargonium tomentosum, Thymus lanuginosa, Artemisia ‘Powis Castle’ and the kinds of marrubium, teucrium, sage and santolina that have silvery leaves. http://www.sandymushherbs.com/ is an excellent source of these plants - with competitive prices, huge selection, good quality plants, and extremely nice people to work with. I have sent you cuttings of this one.
Heliotrope arborescens ‘Marine’- http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/31648/index.html - This one’s only hardy to zone 10a. I wonder if you could plant it inside a cold frame with a second layer of plastic draped over it during the winter? On warm days, the plastic and lid ought to be lifted for aeration. Wonderful fragrance, beautiful with silvery leaves. However, PlantFiles lists another cultivar that is hardier (to zone 9a) and may well be more fragrant: ‘Fragrant Delight”, so that one might be worth looking into.
Calla lily - http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/57625/index.html - hardy to zone 8a - Shirley1md just brought over a division with no flowers, but had two seed pods with seed spilling out. The pods were a black maroon color, so this link might be close regarding cultivation info. Have sent you one of those pods. Link is an approximate match.
The rest are winter-hardy here:
Hemerocallis ‘Victorian Star’ - http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/74468/index.html - What a great rebloomer! The picture doesn’t do this one justice - petal edges are more ruffled, texture is more creped than smooth plastic as in thumbnail, and color more a powdery rose than in thumbnail. Maybe it needs partial shade further south. Wonderful fragrance. This is a small fan - could not muscle whole rootball into water - floating roots in water makes them easier to extricate from each other, but could not lift the root ball.
Campanula porscharskyana - http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/366/index.html - grows low but very wide - nice carpet/edging out of which vigorous daylilies are pretty fountaining - small blue bells are miniature echos of larger trumpets of daylilies, and what daylily doesn’t like blue?
Geranium ‘Biokovo’ - this is not the same species as: http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/37090/index.html ; however, I think the cultural methods are very close. It has fragrant foliage like G. macrorrhizum, which might be in its parentage.
Clematis ‘Ernest Markham’ - http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/79114/index.html
Hope these do well for you, Sandy. I would be a very difficult person to be around if Rita had done to my garden what she did to yours.
bluespiral,
They are all beautiful. I am so bless, Thank you.
I am not hard to live with like growling, but when Fema came out
yesterday or when I talk and think about it I just sit and cry. So much work and beauty. Since I hurt my back and the surgery was the
worst pain I have ever felt, then to find out 18 months after it failed, and I have been waiting since I was scheduled for another surgery
to be somewhat whole. It is so hard to do much of anything. This year the heat stopped me. I did crawl around on my hands and knees which puts pressure on my low back and weed in the spring,
But it did not last they came back. And no one does the digging and planting but me. So this has been devastating.
I found out last night my insurance does not cover trees, plants or fences. Oh well I may cry and I may want to forget and give up my plants, but I won't. I am too addicted to quit. And too hard headed.
I will just work a few hours and rest a few days and work a few hours and rest a few days. If allstate will cover the roof and maybe enough
something to help cover the 1200 dollar deductible well I will really be blessed. After around costing 500 to evacuate ouch. I can only do what I can do.
Maybe a tarp big enough to cover the roof till we can get the money for deductible?? Sounds good to me. I will take some of the insurance money and paint the wood trim of the house the same blue color. Think my neighbors would mind? I will tell the the shade of blue is nunya. When they ask what that is I will tell them NUNYA Business! LOL :o0
Maybe it's too early in the morning for me to be using my brain, but here are a couple of silly ideas -
What would happen if you let some of those trees sit and rot? I'm thinking orchids all over those rotting behemoths - grind up a tree or two, mulch around one you leave to rot, and plant it with epiphytic beauties hardy to your zone - no digging! I just plugged the word "orchid" into the DG PlantFinder, and - woof - what a paradise you could have - here's one hardy in your area: http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/102840/index.html Imagine what you could make selling some on ebay...
Wouldn't it be nice if a bunch of you folks clobbered with trees could collectively rent a portable sawmill? There's your fence...
I realize there are problems engendered by these "solutions" -- maybe these ideas could lead to something practical???
Hope you get that tarp up on the roof and that a Creative Muse visits your neighbors.
How beautiful. Wish I knew someone with oaks down to get some wood. Maybe driving around looking. With fuel and electric prices we will need all the help we can get. Even though our winters are not like some they are still cold. The humidity makes it worse.
A sawmill and huge chipper shredders for small stuff. Fence and mulch.
My DH thinks I am crazy....Nunya blue. I think it is a great Idea. Maybe I should patent it. ;o) Nunya could come in all colors.
Seems to me that conventional house colors are kinda on the sedate side - a nearby planned community has codes dictating what colors you can and cannot use where and where not, etc. Personally, Sandy, if I could afford to resurface/paint our house, I'd use the most outlandish, wake-up, joy-to-the-world colors I could find. Not sure what they would be - maybe a different scheme of color harmonies on each side of the house facing the four points of the compass. And gardens to go with them - a winter garden on the north side, a sunrise garden of apricots, violet-blues, cream and black-purple leaves facing east, etc.
One thing about hurricanes or any disaster, for that matter, they do tend to force new beginnings on us all -- a very good time to dream and experiment and holler, "Nunya!"
Hi Sandy,
I'm glad you and your family are safe! I can send daylily seed as well as a tiny royal poinciana seedling and cuttings, huge ones, from my 'solar eclipse' coleus. Also, how about some yellow lantana? I'd be happy to pay your postage. Let me know what you'd like.
We serve the same Master. I'm thinking of you in His name.!
Leslie
hiya ILJ99,
Would you like some Salvias? I'm sending a few more to Calalily and would be happy to put a couple into the post for you. I can send your choice of any of the following:
Salvia madrensis
Salvia guaranitica 'Costa Rican Blue'
Salvia guaranitica 'Black and Blue'
Salvia guaranitica 'Argentine Skies'
Salvia sinaloensis
Salvia chiapensis
let me know via dmail and I'll send whatever you'd like to have.
best to you,
don
LaLalambchop,
I am happy to meet you. I will appreciate any and all I would love them all. Thank you so much!
drdon,
you have dmail. Thank you!
Blessings,
Sandy ^8^
drdon,
would you like to trade salvia for daylily seed? I've been looking for black and blue.
Leslie
hiya LaLambchop,
I'd be happy to send you a Black and Blue, no problem. Don't need any daylily seeds thanks. Just send a priority box and I'll be glad to ship one out to you asap.
best to you,
don
your surprise pack of seeds went out saterday but probably will start moving today as was a holiday.
i tried to put a variety of them in there. so hopefully they will grow for you.
desert willow
devils claw seeds
daylily seeds lemon and a mixed bag
liastris
just to name a few.
Sandy,
I know what you're going through with the lower back thing - diskectomy, spinal fusions, nerve blocks, procedure after procedure. Constantly living in pain, narcotics to try and help it.
Stay with it - your doctors will find something that helps. Your next surgery might just stop the pain, and if it doesn't, there are other options. I know how discouraging it all is, and I feel for you. Just know that there is hope. After years of constant pain, my doctors found a way to help, and I'm back to carrying 50 pound bags of soil without a problem. So hang in there - it won't always be this way.
Steve
Steve, I'm glad to hear you say that about your back. I just had thoracic back surgery six/seven weeks ago and the lumbar pain is every bit as bad as before if not worse. The doctor hoped the upper surgery would help the lumbar area too. I'm pretty sure we are looking at another surgery right away so that I can get back to my life. I had lumbar surgery eight years ago, and this area of damage is below that prior spot.
Hang in there, Sandy. We can be praying for each other through all of this. Are you facing surgery soon? Or do you know yet?
Diane
Pixydish,
Thank You so Much. I sure did get it. Oh my gosh. I am so thrilled with everything. It was like christmas. My DH was tring to watch TV and I kept saying. Look
at this, and look at this. Needless to say they are all weeds to him.
HE just don't get it?? But when things bloom, he notices. Makes it
all more worth it to him say wow it looks good out there, or what is that really big pink flower.
Before the hurricane, my neighbor said he had been listening to see
if tarzan was going to start his yell as he swung through. LOL :o)
Now it can look like that again. Come on back Tarzan. Maybe he went to get Jane and Chitta.
__________________________________________________
Bluespiral,
You and Pixydish know how to pack a box full. Thank you so much.
Again Christmas. Everything I have gotten has not duplicated anything I had or ever had. It was time for a change. And I am excited for it. There are some like daylily and Iris, the ones you can pretty much neglect here I am glad remained. But now that everything will be new and different, WOW. It was time. And thanks to all of you for making it happen. I love everything you sent. and can't wait to see it grow and thrive and bloom. Working really hard on learning what each one likes.
_______________________________________________
Steve--Thank you for the hope. I need it when it comes to my back.
I really want my life back. I play with my DGDs, but I want to wrestle
and roll around, and be the horsey. Now I can't do that, but we dance and they dress up. We do have a blast.
Everyone says no more surgeries, my DH and friends. But they don't live in this body. I do. I am the one trapped. I may look like there is nothing wrong, but the scar is cover by my shirt and with no walker or cane I appear ok. They just don't have a clue. I will decide and that is final.
Hang in there, Sandy. We can be praying for each other through all of this. Are you facing surgery soon? Or do you know yet?
1gargengram,
I have been told since 18 months after the first that it failed and I needed it fixed. But changed drs. and thyroid and heart. messed that up so more test before they will go in and look. if once in there
just looking and find it really needs fixed they won't even wake me back up. I see the dr. the 26th for the last test. to be scheduled or not??? This time they will go thru my stomach and back. Not sure I want to go there.
I truely believe in prayer. thank you and let me know how you are doing. and what they decide. I will pray for you.
Blessings,
Sandy ^8^
Sandy,
The surgery could help - it does for some people. You can't live like you are now - that kind of pain is no way to live. Have hope. As I've said, your doctors will find something that works for.you. It won't always be that way, I promise. And if the surgery doesn't work, there are other options.
Steve
Sandy,
I certainly will be praying for you to get some good news and a decision you can live with. My MRI is Tuesday morning and then I see the doctor again on the 27th to decide what to do. I've never been incapacitated like this and it's hard to get used to.
Diane
What encouragement. Thank you both. 1gardengram keep us posted. I know what you mean. I like incapacitated instead of disabled. Now I need to spell it. When I am out and about I can not
cut and paste. ;o)
I was telling my prayer warrior friend the other day that I know there are so many people so much worse off than I am. I just want to know what's going to be my life. I am a transcriptionist and I can't sit at this point, so I can't work. I don't mind changing my life, but I'd like to know in which direction to change it. I am 67 and was planning to cut back to half time at the end of this year, and maybe this is God's way of clearing that path for me. I don't want to completely retire, as I want to have a little spending for plants, gifts, travel, etc. We can all hold each other up through this next week of appointments and decisions and I am so thankful for you all.
Diane
What wonderful friends I meet here. You are all dearly loved.
Blessings,
Sandy ^8^
Diane,
You, too? Maybe we can start our own forum!!!
I've always maintained that man should have stayed on all fours. This upright thing just isn't working.
Steve
Surgery helped my DH's back and related orthopedic issues, too. We were hikers, and now can get out to walk among changing autumn leaves now and not be stopped by a hill. Recovery was slow, but we celebrated every bit of progress no matter how tiny, and after 2 years, DH and I were back to admiring scarlet tanagers in oaks again.
Steve is so right: "your doctors will find something that works for.you. It won't always be that way."
Diane and Sandy, hope you stick with treatment and that things improve for you.