Hmmmm.....I hadn't considered what to do by the time they are too big to tie, mad gallica. The problem is, not a whole lot of shrubs will fit those particular screening needs in small spaces. Have they stopped being recommended, I wonder? Brandon...we get lots of heavy snow most winters. This is my first winter with the Sky Pencil. I think I will be happier in the spring having it tied so it won't splay out. It was so easy too. Not having to tie it is one of the advantages of your zone and less snow, enjoy it. :-)

The exact name of the plant is Epiphyllum oxypetalum. It is extremely easy to grow, fairly drought tolerant, and grows prolifically once it gets started. We have to prune it so much that we end up throwing away half the plant because we have no more room. They are easy to root, and so I have rooted a lot of cuttings and given them away. The fragrance they produce is overwhelming, but the flowers only last one night, and are over by morning. Still, they put out quite a few flowers at a time and more buds will be opening tonight. I have a lot of other epiphyllum, but they do not get this large. Birds like to perch on top of this plant, and I can see the birds from my living room by looking through the window at the top of my door. The plant also requires a lot of staking. Lars

I thought about you all last night. And Helen, I was up about the same time you were. The TV weather picture was a sea of red and boy, was there water coming down! I had just shy of 3 inches in the rain gauge. My car trunk in the garage is covered with plants ready to go out, and I had even planted a darling little Supersweet 100 tomato a couple days ago. I knew better-- She got covered with some loose straw and a pot over her this evening. Surely our drought has been broken. I wondered this AM if I should be boiling water, as the last time we had that much water, it was after the tornado. But I thought maybe Folger's would take care of everything, and apparently there wasn't an order out after all. Not one tulip bloom was shattered, nor were any dogwood blooms knocked off, so all we had was rain. The thunder and lightning was terrible, though. "Our" storm pushed off east and made some big trouble today. So sorry. And I'm real sorry I didn't mow earlier! Sunny

I once had a hanging basket that had upwards of 30 or more blooms at once. This was in the days before digital cameras and I had no film in my old 35 mm. I had been watching the buds for days, and then one night about 10:30 I smelled the most delicious fragrance wafting in the bedroom window. It was blooming! Bob was asleep, the neighbor's lights were out so I had no one to share the magical event with. As Jim says all were gone by early morning. But I'll never forget it! People often thought it was a stag horn fern as it hung from low branches of a pecan tree by the pool. It was a huge and heavy thing and I'd lug it in the family room for the winter. One winter I didn't take it down in time to save it from freezing. :-( Oh well, beauty like fame is sometimes very fleeting, but I'm thankful for the memory.