Yes, I admit it, that is a 'Knockout' rose at the front of this bed and this picture wasn't taken today. Mea culpa!

Hey this is an old picture (December 2007) because I am not there to take a new picture, but I will be Saturday next . I fly out of BWI, I mean Thurgood Marshall, next Saturday at some ungodly early hour that will put me in Tampa before 9:00. I will see my plants!!!!!!!!!!!!

Karen drove down with a friend today and I got a preliminary report this evening. Apparently just about everything is alive. I had learned previously, that only plants able to withstand a prolonged drought have any chance here without regular irrigation. What just sunk in to me is that you don't plant in April, you plant in June or July. How counterintuitive is that!? Well, it makes sense. The rain comes in the summer. Still a lot of things lived; the Petrea, the Dychoriste, all of the SW and Australian plants, and even the Bismarckia, though it now has one large leaf instead of 5 small ones. But it's alive! I made Karen walk around in the dark in the rain and answer questions. I felt like Stefan. It's going to be like Christmas morning. One plant I am excited about is a Globba that was planted last August and hasn't been seen since. (picture to right). I hear it has 15 stems all flowering. I knew it was a ginger that could go drought dormant but Wow! I am psyched!

Parenthetically, I don't really post old pictures. Very rarely. I carry my camera all day every day, the world is full of wonders, and technology has gone so far beyond what I could ever have foreseen....I will be excited to see the Florida garden.