This beautiful flower I've been telling you about still goes unidentified. My good friend Karl at Tropical Plants Library gave it the good old college try. I thought he was on to something when he told me it could possibly be a Florida wildflower - Cutleaf Evening Primrose - Oenothera laciniata. But when I researched it it didn't match. The flower is not the same in the center nor are the leaves alike. It's a quandry but I'm sure there's someone out there who can help. I've spoken about Tropical Plants Library before, a site owned by Master Gardener Landscaping of Fort Lauderdale, landscape designers who also have a mail order plant business, and have them on my links page. Karl, thanks again for trying and I invite everyone to visit his site. In the meantime, I hope someone will be able to identify this gorgeous plant. Happy Florida Gardening.

We have a friend who, when faced with problems, immediately shakes his head and says "Aye-yi-yi-yi-yi" - sort of the same sound I make when my cat nibbles on my leg to tell me I need to feed him. I am reminded of that because we are yet again at another aye-yi-yi-yi-yi crossroads. Hurricane Jeanne has decided to visit Florida after all. Why? Who knows. I guess it's not enough that her siblings - Charley, Frances and Ivan have all come by for their summer vacation. Now she has to follow suit. Jeanne was supposed to stay out in the Atlantic and make her own way in life. She was supposed to be independent and make her own decisions, but no. She had to follow the crowd and is now threatening the east coast of Florida. I have many friends and co-workers who will be closely affected by her path if in fact she makes landfall as expected. The poor folks in central Florida will again have high winds and rain on top of all the other devastation they have had to experience over the last two months. Here in Pinellas County we will have winds and rain, but thankfully will be spared yet again from high amounts of damage.

My sister told me the other day that she has heard numerous tales about Indians who first settled in Pinellas. The story goes that an Indian chief recited an incantation that would protect this county from hurricanes forever. She went on to tell me that there is metal buried throughout the county that reinforces the protection. Aye-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi. I don't know. I've searched on the internet for references to this and come across many stories about Tocobagan Indians as well as Seminole and a few others who were in Pinellas or "Point of Pines" many, many, many years ago, But no word of what my sister refers to.

I'm definitely not dismissing the story. First of all, it gives me some level of comfort to know we may have a higher power looking over us and keeping our residents from the worst of the storms. I also am intrigued and want to keep searching until I can uncover all the details. I purchased a book about the history of Florida before we moved here (yes, I'm that anal) but have never really read through it so that may be my first information source. I'll keep at it and let you know what I find out. In the meantime, I'm going to appeal to the Indian power and ask that they continue to keep us protected during this horrendous year of storms. I'm also going to ask that they protect as best they can our neighbors to the east and keep Jeanne in the Atlantic. In the meantime, if you have knowledge of what Carol tells me let me know. I'd love to know more. Happy Florida Gardening.

Without a doubt we have the most gorgeous flower growing in our backyard that I have ever seen. It is a beautiful warm yellow with a star-shaped center that reminds me of gossamer. The plant is currently about 5 feet tall with a woody stem. The single flowers are four lobed opening in the morning and closed by evening. Leaves are arrow-shaped with smooth edges. The unnamed plant is growing by the edge of the yard where it gets full sun and occasionally is flooded by the pond behind our yard. What is it? That's the question. I've searched every reference book I have and have also looked on various sites on the internet. The trouble is that since I've literally never seen anything like it I don't even have a suggested starting point for the search to begin. I've tried yellow flowers, shrubs, daily bloomers but still have come up dry. So here's the challenge for my gardening friends in the Florida region. Take a close look at the picture and see if you can identify this sunny plant. If you can I will praise you to the point of embarrassment and link your site for all of our readers to see. Happy Florida Gardening.

First it was Charley, then Frances, and now Ivan. We must have really done something to tic God off. We don't know what it was, but we're really really sorry. Can you please move this thing away from our devastated state? Isn't it enough that people have lost homes and lives or been flooded and lost power? Isn't it enough that people are scared and miserable just waiting for the other shoe to drop? Whatever it takes believe me we are willing to do to get just a little relief, we promise.

Frances smothered the entire state with her wrath. Every single person in this state was affected by her in one way or another. Closer to home, my sister and her husband had to evacuate because they live in a mobile home. My elderly parents lost power for two days but luckily had plenty of food and batteries on hand to get through. My other sister and her husband, visiting from Maryland, lost power for the entire time they were here and had to come stay with us. We lost some tree limbs and had a leak in our kitchen from the rain driving in, but overall were extremely lucky.

So now comes Ivan. Everyone I know is trying to prepare. In fact, most people haven't unpacked/unloaded/unbuttoned since last weekend. People are clamoring for gas, taking every last bottle of water and loaf of bread from the stores, and hitting the banks like crazy. Some folks are so weary of it that they've boarded up their homes and put a for sale sign in the front yard. I've never been in a war situation, but I can only imagine this must be just a little of what many folks feel like.

My mother offered each of us in the family rosary beads and told us to say our prayers as often as we can. And we are. We're watching the weather channel and, in between, keeping an eye on other channels hoping and praying Ivan will turn. We all would really appreciate it if this thing would move west just a little. If you're listening, God, please?

Here comes Hurricane Frances bearing down on us with about 60 mph winds. We listen to the weather reports and constant updates and alerts and find, as everyone else does, that it becomes a bit nerve-wrenching. The storm is moving so slowly and is so huge, it's not at all doing what they predict. The same was true of Hurricane Charley, although he was a much smaller version of Fran (I feel like I can call her Fran since she's been threatening now for a few days). He was coming straight at us and then suddenly turned and went onto shore about 100 miles south of us. Of course he was not as large and a much faster mover, so the only comparison is that no one really knows when it comes down to it what these storms will do.

Anyway, we spent yesterday picking up all outdoor stuff in the gardens and putting away all patio furniture just to limit the projectiles in Fran's path. We had planned a hurricane party for today since my sister and her husband came to visit from Maryland. What we hadn't planned on is Fran deciding she wanted to party too! So the party is cancelled until tomorrow as we hunker down and wait this thing out.

The good news is that we just had all of our trees and palms trimmed about a month and a half ago so our gardens won't be contributing to flying debris. Also, we've kept the grass a bit longer at the water's edge. That should be helpful for the moorhens and ducks as they try to find a safe place for their babies to ride this out. And they have babies...the moorhens have three little ones and the ducks have about five right now. We're now hearing that the projected rains of up to 20 inches will not happen as Fran wears out so there shouldn't be any flooding in our yard. The lesson here is that as we finish our landscaping in that area we'll be sure to pick native plants and those that are not affected by salt water. All in all we're hearing we'll be pretty lucky again with Fran. Of course Ivan is now forming and they are saying he'll follow the same path. There's another four or five days before they'll be able to have a good grip on what he will do. In the meantime, we'll wait this one out and keep our fingers crossed. I usually sign off with Happy Florida Gardening but since Florida is pretty much engulfed by Fran I'll just sign off with good luck to all. We're thinking of you.