Hopefully Matt will be north of you by then.

I didn't hear any strong winds last night and this morning it is cloudy and breezy but no rain and no damage. I see the east coast is getting pounded.

Jim

Good to hear about your location, Jim!!

, my son and his family wound up evacuating to Sebring and it seems they did OK also. Hope your trip goes well today Jim.

We had an incredibly quiet night, and almost no rain either. It's brightening up outside now and looking like we dodged the bullet entirely this time.

Glad to see the wind and damage has *so far* not been as bad as they predicted. Our weather guy says it's because the stronger side of the storm is still out to sea. Let's hope it wobbles away and stays that way. Worst wind gust at Cape Canaveral was 107mph which is less than expected. Surge has been less than 2ft and I think high tide is coming up soon now - but high tide in Jax is around noon, just as the storm approaches.

I just don't see the storm surge being too bad, considering the strength of this hurricane. The prediction seems to be a 9-11' maximum. Considering what the storm surges of other Cat 4 were in the Gulf, such as Camille and Katrina (how about 30'!), that shouldn't cause a lot of problems.

I hope the storm continues to stay offshore just enough so that the eyewall is never on shore.

I think you're forgetting how low and flat the land is along that coast. A lot of homes on the beach islands are less than 6ft. above mean high tide.

Thankfully there hasn't been nearly as much surge as they were thinking.

Our Mississippi Gulf Coast is exactly the same, Elaine. Heck, New Orleans is negative elevation.

At the airport and all is good. No delays which is amazing as we're flying United.

Jim

You got Lucky, Jim!

Have a great trip Jim!
I started the job of moving the orchids back out to the bench this afternoon and handyman Steve showed up with carpenter Jim to talk about my pergola project. Jim insisted that some tree branches come down first so Steve got on it



You can see where the branches were right on the roof and shading a good portion of my growing area.


Steve even helped me drag the massive pile of branches across the street and into the woods! He still has to cut some more but ran out of time for today.
Meanwhile everyone is back outside and it will be interesting to see how much more sun i am going to get.




Also waiting at the front door was a box of 2 plants that I had done a trade for.. I traded a tibicinis cutting and a massive oncidium with many tiny flowers for a very pretty Lctna. Renate 'S&W' and Rlc. Lois Smith 'Ohana'.. neither one of them particularly well grown.. they will be in isolation for a while!

Sounds promising!

Hope you can coddle those nice new babies into shape, Lindsey. You're going to love Renate, it's a real champion, good grower and blooms 3 times a year for me.

I had seen photos of it on the Florida Orchid Growers FB page..and fell in love with it..like I had with Apple Blossom..and just HAD to have one! I found out that it's no longer a Lctna...but something that I can't spell or pronounce...The Lois Smith was very badly infested with scale and mealy bugs and was sadly lacking in the viable roots category..I assume that the Renate is crawling with bugs as well, but at least looks to have a solid root system..so soaking in various systemic chemicals and repotting will be on the agenda for tomorrow.

Yep, break out yer haz-mat suit.

I seem to have lost the link I had bookmarked..where you can type in your orchid name and (maybe) see if the name has changed...otherwise I have to ask Jim if my Lctna. Renate 'S & W' is still called that!

Lindsey, here it is, changed to Guaricattonia
http://apps.rhs.org.uk/horticu...

Than heaven for the internet! The reference books will never be able to keep up.

Ursula is correct. It is now Guaricattonia Renate [Gct.] (Cattleya Frenchy's Cheek-La x Guaritonia Why Not).

Jim