"And I have newfound hope for the garden." Sherry, that says it all. Your post perfectly expresses my own thoughts about gardening and sums up what it can teach us: that we must both struggle and adapt; that life is change; that while there is always loss there is always also renewal; that living organisms struggle mightily to survive, and succeed more often than we might have expected. You've been through hard and frightening times lately, and I wonder if your experiences in gardening turned out to have any meaning when you were so worried about your husband? Applying lessons in philosophy to life is terribly difficult. I don't know whether I would be able to do so, but I do know that, in the garden at least, I've learned to accept the idea of change. Plants grow, and crowd other plants; a tree blows over, and sun bakes a part of the garden it never reached before; I mulch and mulch, the grass grows for years, the earth becomes softer and earthworms arrive; cane girdler shows up and devastates the roses; a wet winter comes and provokes a major slide; I plan a romantic ravine on the site of said slide. And so on and on. Gardening is life, really. I hope I'll never reach the point where I don't want to grow things any more, because I fear it would mean I had spiritually died. About all the plants I talk about that you don't know. North and Central Florida have a soil and climate that don't have many equivalents in other parts of the world, at least, not ones well published in the annals of horticulture. Florida's too hot and humid for many temperate climate plants; too wet in summer for those adapted to Mediterranean conditions; too cold, with its occasional sharp freezes, for tropicals. So the plants belonging to the great gardening traditions of continental Europe, of Great Britain, and of the Mediterranean basin, of the various tropical zones of the world, much of the time don't work. There are nurserymen (and -women), horticulturalists, and gardeners who do a lot of research looking for plants adapted to Florida conditions, and find them, but the plants aren't handed to them on a plate. My sisters' coastal north Florida gardens, with their gingers, cycads, hardy citrus, huge agaves, Sabal palms and live oaks and hickories, contain hardly a plant I could grow here. But their gardens are beautiful. Congratulations on your getting back to your garden, and on finding out that it was still there! And on having a daughter-in-law who helps you. I live next door to dairy farmers. In my experience they rely on lots of big machines, government price supports and subsidies, a reasonable amount of technical expertise, and a great deal of steady, ongoing, hard physical labor. Lavender Lass, I wholeheartedly agree. I wish I could find words to express my delight in gardening in cooperation with Nature, my intelligence spreading its wings as I attempt to read and understand the conditions of my land. Gean, the Hugelkultur sounds interesting--I'd never heard of it--but my heart faints within me at the thought of digging out an entire bed to fill the bottom of it with rotting wood, even if we had much of that material. We don't have anything like enough decomposing organic matter available. We amend our propagating beds with bagged coarse sand and bagged compost, since we NEVER have enough organic matter from our own supplies. As the previous year's crop of plants matures we dig them out and plant them, and then we add the amendments to the beds, dig them in, and start the new cuttings. Last year I left the digging to my husband and suspect he didn't dig deep and thoroughly enough. The exceptionally wet winter may also have made a difference. This year's yield was terrible. I always amend my planting holes abundantly with old hay. Sometimes I have to dig and amend a hole two years running before it can support a rose. You're right that I have a garden: and thanks for saying so in the face of my sometime expressions of discouragement. However, I do wonder if you realize how dead my sunny garden looks in August, with no trees, hardly any large shrubs, after it hasn't rained nor been watered for two months, the sun blazing down the entire time, and nothing growing but the weeds. I don't know how many people dry garden in a dry summer climate as I do (though, unlike much of California, we do have good average annual rainfall). I believe the garden will look far more prosperous in summer once our many infant and young trees and shrubs start to get some size on them. Shade and leafage are precious allies. Jeannie, thanks for saying so. I care about my writing; and I love it when others respond. That's beautiful. Kitty, I want to answer your post but must put it off. My assistant is coming to help in the garden and I need to change. It's supposed to start raining this afternoon; I believe fall, as in gloom and chill, has finally come. The garden has greened up amazingly in the last month and has been a pleasure to see and work in. Melissa

I have seen these 'tubers" on this plant and a few others. I leave them on the plants when I transplant. The plant seemed to slow down growth when they are removed. Nothing grew for us from them when they were removed and planted, but I read somewhere that they will make new plants. -Gwenn

Thanks for the comments guys! Protempsfish, I figure that the serenoa is about as cold hardy as a livistonia chinensis which I overwintered in the ground last winter with no damage and protection. I'll give the serenoa the same protection and it will probably see temperatures between 25F and 70F between December to February. I dont want to risk losing them, but I think they will do much better in the ground with the extra room to grow. Greg, Im not sure what the suppplier was because it was actually not labeled. However I was impressed because the people at the nursery were telling me that if I protected them, they would survive our winters (which tells me that they know that there are palms that have a chance in NYC!). I dont think Saw palmettos would be a great choice for a hardy palm here, but after a while, windmill palms get a little boring so I guess its time to try something else out! Thanks Jacklord. Keep us updated on your saw palmettos. I hope both of ours make it through the winter well! -Alex

Thanks Randy! I used to have a pygmy palm, but it died last year. I never have good luck with them indoors. My fig tree is doing good, but I saw a fig tree a few blocks from be that was about 25 feet across, 20 feet tall, and probably had somewhere around 2000 figs on it (not 200, 2000). It was LOADED! I never saw so many figs per stem ever, everywhere a fig could grow on the stem, it was growing. I might knock on the door just to know what they are doing for it because mine had a lousy 5 figs this year (but in its defense, it was planted just this spring). Even though figs are suppose to be somewhat marginal here, I have to admit that I have never see a fig that wasnt full and loaded with fruit! Good luck Chadec! I hope it doesn't do doo much damage by you either! Looks like you should be far enough to escape the hurricane force winds, but some of those gusts can definitely knock a few plants over. Definitely take some pics! Thanks TJ. Im not sure the name of the fern, but I got it from Home Depot and I think its a Polystichum, but I dont know the species. If you can find out, tell me and I'll tell you if I do find the name! I was under a tropical storm warning a few years ago and I remember some minor damage to the banana plants, losing a large outdoor lamp, and having a few potted plants falling down. I think your plants should make it through though! Good luck! Good luck to everyone who is dealing, or will be dealing, with Irene. It isnt as threatening as before, but its still dangerous and can still do some plant damage. -Alex