I'm waiting on that seed pod too! sheesh. Been pollinating yesterday and this morning, hope some of them make pods! All my pretty flowers are wrecked, booooo!

Gosh, where is everyone? Looks like a storm is headed straight at Florida. See--- http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/atc...

I'll get the edge of it tonight/tomorrow, Guess I don't need to water anything today!!

Been wrecking more flowers this morning, trying to pollinate the double purple from Mike with "Purple Thailand", a regular looking single Adenium except it's more of a magenta-purple than pink.

My camera has totally disappeared, so no new photos... Haven't seen the machine for more than a week. Maybe it was pinched out of my not-locked car down at the beach. poooh. Need a new one anyway!

When the weather guy says "Upper Lever Shear", this is what he's talking about, the cloud top is being dragged off in one direction.

Sit tight Melissa; I am not paying attention to any prognosis until later in the week; a lot can happen with a system that is still 5+ days out.

I've been in SO MANY eyes that storms are just boring.

The first one was the best, haha, Hugo totally destroyed St. Croix. It was a 'five', and the destruction was beyond belief. Even the soil was scoured away. BUT it was a 'five' well before it got here. No one really prepared, they just all left a few days later, and a whole new population moved in, construction workers, replacing the tourist industry people.

This won't be much of anything for us except a few inches of rain and blustery breezes
.

Love that pic of wind shear Melissa, really graphic. I tend to pay attention to weather underground at least once a day during this time of the year but I don't get too excited until it's a couple days away. Those storms laugh at the predictions. This one for instance, everyone shows it going across Cuba and hitting Florida, it could still come our way instead, I'll keep an eye on it. We were supposed to get lots of rain yesterday, all the papers and the forecasts said so. Around 3:30 the sunny skies turned darker and I noticed that we there were black clouds on 3 sides of us. I went off to the pharmacy and saw a huge lightning bolt on the only sunny side. We heard thunder but we never got any rain. I had to go out and water the garden today. Someone got rain, so I guess they were right in their predictions.

Since I was born and raised in Puerto Rico, I know a thing or two about hurricanes.

I remember David, Hugo and Georges... this last one was pretty destructive some of our family lost their houses, and where I worked was closed down for two weeks because the storm literally took part of the building with it.

It's been a while since then, and I've lived in a few places (please don't guess my age...HA!).

Having said that, if Isaac happens to pass through or close to Florida, this will be my first experience with a storm/hurricane in S. Florida. That scares me a little, since everything here seems to be built in some sort of cardboard.

Ive - you are wrong in that. Ever since Hurricane Andrew - twenty years ago this week - the building codes are much stricter and all houses built since then are designed to withstand hurricane force winds. Having said that - you may need to look into boarding up windows etc. if it should be coming your way. And for sure secure everything loose that is outside since a lawn chair can become a projectile in a storm... I remember during my first hurricane (Charley) we threw all the lawn furniture in the pool. Since we now have teak I don't think I'll be doing that....

Hettty is correct they have raised the hurricane structure code for certain houses depend where and when your house was built. Now if you build close to to cost there ta metal straps from the roof all the way threw the walls to the foundation to help retain the roof everything is nailed differently. now saying if you get a direct strike of a cat 5 you will have extensive damage but these codes are to lesson damage in cat 1,2,3 storms. Now i have an old house i don't have all those double nailing and support but i am in the center of the state during a very bad storm could loose the roof and other total losses but like Hetty said the BIGGEST thing is remove all de bree that weights less then 50 # and strap down others and the furniture in the pool is great. this is one of the biggest probes with damaged is your neighbors lawn furniture be in a projectile at your property!!!

dont tape your windows and think thats fine it is not old wise tale STORM shutters or wood and nail it on good !!!

HOPE FOR THE BEST we are still several days away and any thing can happen just start thinking what you need to do

mike

updated forecast model: as of 11 am this morning

OK this is NOT an Adenium but had to show off my new plant, it is Tropic Escape Hibiscus, purchased from Lows, and there are NONE on the internet.

pretty spectacular, Doris!

Thank you Hetty, two more buds opened this afternoon, sure is different, I wish Willifred could see it.

I plugged in my electric screw driver to charge it. I'll need it if I have to close the shutters this weekend. We have only had to close them once before. The house is dark and depressing with the shutters down. Aside from that, we are as prepared as can be, hoping for the best.

Take care, all.
Sylvain.

It does look like it will at the least brush by the west coast of Florida, of course the Keys will get high water and rain no matter what. Hopefully Cuba, Haiti and the DR will not get battered, they are so poor and the losses are always heavy. Mike was saying that taping windows is an old wives tale, until about 4 years ago we used to just open the sliding doors to the deck and a window in the back and let the wind blow through. We never lost a window! We'd close up one bedroom and put everything we wanted to stay dry in there. Of course, we also left before it hit We also throw the beach chairs in the pool and lay the AC compressors over on their side. Wilma took off the pretty red spanish tile roof so we replaced it with red colored concrete, those tiles were projectiles. We've yet to go through a direct hit with the new hurricane curtains, they did well in a sideswipe from Dean but we really don't know how it would be in a full cat 5.

That is a gorgeous hibiscus, I wish I had more sun for them they always fade and die. I think it is lack of sun plus the high alkalinity of the water.

Beautiful hibiscus Doris. I bought 2 hibiscus standards recently to put on my patio, but it's been so windy here becaus of the frequent storms, that they just keep blowing over. I placed them on the back stoop, but I can't really enjoy the blooms because it's a little out of the way. I don't want to put rocks in the bottom of the pots, because I have to bring them in the garage overwinter and they'd be too heavy. I just need to get around to sinking the pots in the ground. But right now they look a sorry sight because of yellowing leaves caused by too much rain. We've been getting storm after storm, sometimes 2 or 3 in a day. Doris, I truly wish that I could send some your way.

I've been keeping a close eye on my DRs and so far, they are okay. Just some yellowing leaves on the new ones that I recently repotted. We'll probably get some wind and rain from Issac, and I will probably bring them all in then. Unfortunately, I don't have a covered porch, so they'll be in the garage under lights.

I hope that Melissa is okay.

Just some blustery weather here, like I kept saying. And only about two inches of rain. People sure panicked, haha. The grocery stores had lines twenty people long.

Oh, I am beginning to know which Adeniums are my favorites, more than twenty followed me into the house! Some of the tall ones outside blew over, ho hum. I doubt if any trees were knocked down on the island.

It's been proven that rocks are BAD in the bottom of pots. They actually promote 'perched' water, water that should have drained away, but stays there and rots. Have you ever repotted anything and found no roots in the middle of the soilball, and all roots around the edges? Perched water causes that. The interior roots die.

Hi, Melissa. We're glad that you're okay. And thanks for the reminder about the rocks and perched water in pots. I have read about that, but forgot. Oh dear, I just looked out the window and it's raining again. I've laid some of my pots on their sides. My plumeria were getting too much water and the leaves are yellowing and falling off. Not good. The temps are fine, I just can't get outside to do any gardening. August is always a rainy month for us. It's the perfect time for transplanting. Oh well!

Well, I just ran outside to move my baby plummies and adeniums... too much water and now a bit too windy for my taste.

I brought them to the screened patio just in case. It's going to be a busy weekend, and won't have too much time for my plants.

Sigh... just when everything seemed to be taking off... Isaac, just go away!

YEA i am trying to figure out what i am going to do.

if it stays on the track of west coast im a little closer to west then central but i think i will lay all my plumeria down that are big and block them from rolling down the yard and adeniums in porch on floor so nothing comes crashing down just like all the kings horses and all the kings men i will not be able to put it all back together again

got to get more gas in-case power goes out my road has electrical lines above ground and that road goes around a BIG lake and there are oak trees like 100 yrs old all around these lines I think we might have a few hrs with out power!!

If it gets stronger i am going to be living in the jungle baby

Good luck everyone! Stay safe!


RobertB