This week in our new world

First, the stats... as of yesterday at 5:45 p.m., there were 3784 cases of coronavirus in Nebraska. That's over a thousand cases more than Sunday, when I last posted numbers! That's a pretty big increase for 4 days. The number of deaths is up to 68, which is 15 over Sunday. The national website has pushed our peak date back again, now until the 13th. I don't understand how we can open up businesses next Monday, 9 days before peak date.

Ken Zeeb forwarded an email to me from Enterprise that basically said that they don't know when they will need us back, doesn't seem to be in the foreseeable future, and it almost sounds like they plan to reduce their need for drivers when they do start calling people back. So they suggest companies that are considered partners that might have positions available. So I went ahead and applied for unemployment on Monday... What a hassle! Check out this screen that I got when I decided to try to use the chat option to ask a question...

The reason I didn't finish up my post on Sunday was because Kathy called me and said she was going to run to Des Moines to look at Denny plants... Danny is a member at the Des Moines club that passed away in October. He was a staple in the club and had a lot of plants. His daughters are to the point of being ready to distribute the them to good homes, asking for no money. Anyway, Kathy wanted to know if I wanted to go along and I said hell yes! Great to get out of the house, and I would love to have a couple of Denny's plants in remembrance of him. So we left around 11 a.m., got back around 5:30. I got to rhipsalis and a weird little vining caudex plant. I couldn't get a good photo of the caudex plant... I put it in a community pot with some herbs with a small trellis next to it in hopes that it will put on some new growth this year. It's a plant that is notoriously slow growing, but sometimes if you put a plant in a large pot with other plants, or in the ground even, they will grow by Leaps and Bounds. We'll see...

But here's a photo of the first Rhipsalis, which Denny had mis-identified. But I was able to find a correct ID for it. First photo is of the whole plant after I repotted it into what I call my tip pot. This is a pot that I bought several years ago at Hobby Lobby, drilled a hole on one side of it and grew a Hoya shepherdii in it for many years. I finally lost that Hoya and have been waiting to find the perfect plant to put into it again. Since this one seems to grow all out of one side of the pot, it is a perfect look for this pot...

... and here is a close up of the individual stems with fruit on them...

And here is the other Rhipsalis, a close up of its stems. I've been wanting this species for a long long time!

And while I'm posting photos, here's a picture out of my Cyphostemma juttae. When I was watering a few weeks ago and taking photos, it wasn't looking very good at the time. It's now putting on new leaves, is flowering and looks pretty good in general! This is the cultivar they call Fat Bastard!

I sent out three more cuttings to Whitney this morning. She decided she wanted another rubra, as she got the first one for someone else and decided she had to have one for herself; she also got a 'Majic' and a pallida, which I think she'll be very happy with. I was very generous with all the cuttings as she has been a really good customer so far.

Then I came home and started doing some outside work. Mark was up by then, so I had him help me dig some holes. I planted some clumps of garlic that Kathy gave me on Sunday. She gave me quite a bit, so I'm going to put two of them out back this afternoon. I planted a lupine... Got that at Lowe's a couple days ago.

I also planted the two coleus but I got at Merry's last week...

And lastly, I got a cute little Daisy that has lavender flowers that I planted in a pot out front next to the coleus...

And that's about it for today...

Wednesday- Sunday

WEDNESDAY 

The Nebraska coronavirus site was down yesterday morning when I checked it, so I just decided to wait until today to post. As of yesterday at 5:45 p.m., there were 1722 cases of Coronavirus and we are up to 38 deaths. That's 10 more deaths over the last time I posted... Pretty significant!

The national site finally updated their stats yesterday. Now they're saying May 9th is our peak date! Wow that's a big difference from the 1st! And they moved the deaths up to six on the peak date date, 3 up from last time. This may be due to the big jump in deaths. However, the actual number of deaths as of August 4th is now predicted to be 245. That's nearly twice what they were predicting the last time they updated these numbers, but still almost half of what it was a couple weeks ago. 

I took down Hoya amoena this morning and saw at least two new vines. I also took two single leaf cuttings off of the plant to start. It's such a pretty plant... and it seems to be very happy where it is in the west window in my bedroom.

I also took down Michelle and found that it has a new vine close to soil line, and I also saw a growth nubbin on the opposite side from that tiny vine. So it looks like it will have two new vines which will make it look like a much fuller plant! I'll also note here that the one that I started last year in the seashell, because I was afraid the mother plant was dying off, also has a new vine with new leaves. I think this is going to be a good year for Michelle!

I took one of my Aloes outside that has a whole bunch of Drimia bulbs growing at the base of the plant. I had to take a picture of them because they've been sitting in the south window and have such beautiful spots. What's likely going to happen is those beautiful leaves will burn in the sun, so I wanted to get a picture of them before that happens. What I usually do is whack all the new growth off of them and let them restart in the sun. But I think I'll wait and see what happens before I do that.

I took a photo a week or so ago of my Pachypodium --- with a single flower. Today, it's covered with flowers!

FRIDAY 

As of yesterday at 5:45 p.m., there were 2124 cases of coronavirus. The deaths are up to 47, and it's my understanding that we had 9 deaths yesterday alone! The numbers are really starting to jump, thiugh it's still nothing like the more populated cities and states. Cass County right now remains at 4 cases of Coronavirus. Hall County is up to 647, and our county, Douglas, is 327. Still not that bad when you think of Omaha as having between 500,00 and 600,000 people.

Yesterday, I went down to Plattsmouth. Wednesday was Mom's birthday, so we got together, picked up some lunch and went out to Merry's business, Mr. Landscape, and sat at a picnic table and had lunch and visited for a couple hours. Rick joined us periodically when he could. It was nice to see everyone... Seems like so long! And when I dropped Mom off, I gave her a big hug, right out there in public, then high-tailed it out of town! Figured someone might call the cops! Haha!

A lot has happened in the last few days. After I signed the contract for the new roof, I decided I had better get going on the new deck. That is, before I lose my nerve! It's a lot of money to spend, but it has to be done! The thing has rotted through in so many places, I'm afraid I might fall through one day! So I contacted Jeff, my yard guy, who said he knows someone who does decks. Well, apparently that guy isn't taking on any work now, but he gave me the name of (no less) a roofer who lives next door to him who also does decks. I told the guy that I was looking at a deck that's about half the size of the one I have now, maybe 8 x 8, but I couldn't afford a ton of money. He told me that he just got done with the deck that was 10 x 10 that was $4,400! I told him whoa Nelly, that's out of my price range so I guess I'm going to have to have more or less a little porch out of my back door as it was when we bought the house 33 years ago. Well, later that day he came over and took a look at it with his brother, the one who actually does the work, and they determined that the structure underneath, footings, framework, etc., was still in good condition and that they could do more or less a "facelift". Meaning, they can replace the floor and the rails and the stairs but not have to do any of the underneath work, and it would remain the same size of 8 x 16. They came up with the number of $2200, which I decided I can live with. The plan was for them to start in a week, but suddenly something changed in their schedule and they started yesterday! He's supposed to be done today, assuming it doesn't start raining. It's looking awesome! Can't wait to post a photo when it's done. Our last deck was put on in 1995, so I figured this should be the last time I have to do it!

SUNDAY

As of yesterday at 5:45 p.m., there were 2732 cases of coronavirus in Nebraska and 53 deaths. The most updated information for Iowa, which looks like it's from two days ago, shows that they have 5092 cases of coronavirus and 112 deaths. Interestingly, Pottawattamie County only has 20 cases... That includes Council Bluffs, which is literally right across the river from Omaha and their population is often included when people talk about metro area population. It's much like Kansas City Kansas and Kansas City Missouri. Technically they're two cities, but the only thing that separates them is the river. The majority of the cases in Iowa seem to be in Polk County which is Des Moines' county. The other two big numbers in Iowa are the counties that includes Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. Seems like Iowa has a lot more cases per capita, but when I run the numbers they're at 1.6% of their population and we're at 1.4% of our population, so really not a big difference.

Nebraska has decided to open up restaurants and salons as of 4th of May, which is a week from tomorrow. I cannot wait to get a pedicure! A couple days ago, I conned Mark into taking my old toe polish off as the looked like total shit! I cannot wear flip-flops with them looking like that! Boy do I owe him something for that! He must have spent a half an hour working on them. And they desperately need to be trimmed... I hacked at them myself a little bit, but they really need to be properly trimmed and shaped. I'll see if I can't get an appointment ASAP.

As for restaurants opening back up, my understanding is that they have been instructed that they can only serve half their capacity... in other words they need to spread everyone out. That's probably not a bad idea for a while. I imagine it will be a challenge to get into a lot of restaurants. I don't know how they're going to deal with people standing around waiting for tables... That's not going to be acceptable! I would think a viable solution would be to take phone numbers so that people could sit in their cars and call them when a table is available. I really can't think of much more of a solution than that.  Oh, and no one can come in and simply order drinks - you must be dining in order to drink...

Well, it took all of Saturday for him to finish the deck, so it was a bigger project than they anticipated apparently. But they stuck to their bid! We added the lattice work below the deck for an extra $150 which seemed reasonable. They did such an awesome job, and even did the lattice under the steps which wasn't there before, so I added a $50 tip for the guy that actually did the work.  He went the extra mile for us. I will be calling them back for all kinds of other projects. They did a really really amazing job!  Pics to follow...

The new stairs, that have better support underneath them...

So here it is Thursday and I haven't posted anything all week and I did not get this published. I will go into why that is when I start my next post, so for now I'll get this one published and get onto a new one...

Sunday, Monday

 SUNDAY

As of 5:45 p.m. yesterday, there are 1287 cases of coronavirus in Nebraska. That's an increase of 149 cases over the previous day. That's a pretty big leap, over 10% increase. But the shocking part is that only seven of those cases are here in Douglas County, with the largest populous, and 102 of them were in Hall County! That seems very disproportionate to me! We have an additional four deaths in Nebraska making the total 28.

I heard on the news today that both Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz are in trouble with the public for comments they have made about coronavirus. Dr. Phil  was pointing out how many people die of so many other things, kind of like my point in yesterday's blog. People seem to think he was minimizing Coronavirus. And apparently Dr.Oz said that getting kids back to school will only cost 2 to 3% in mortality. Well, how he said it was rather insensitive I will agree. But in reality, the flu is much more dangerous to children then the Coronavirus. I'm sure there has been children that have probably died from it, but I have not heard about one personally. It's always older people, usually much older people, and older people with serious health issues. So actually children are the safest people with this going around. So I understand what he was trying to say. I think they're both right, and I think people are hypersensitive right now. We do need to get back to the world of living our lives. What we should do is take some very important lessons from this experience. First of all, I think companies should be learning that a lot of work CAN be done from workers' homes. This would help with the pollution problem, and it would also make workers salaries go further. I remember when I had an office job how much money I had to sink into my wardrobe to look professional. And how much it cost me to get back and forth to work between gas, car maintenance, and time.  It would be like getting a raise if you could work from home most of the time!

I'm hoping it will also usher in a new age the standard greeting... meaning perhaps we don't have to shake hands to be "professional". I've often thought that the Japanese have it right with the respectful bow as opposed to a handshake. And hugging... I'm okay with hugging people that I'm close to, but there are some serious huggers out there that, once you know them a little bit, they want to hug you every time they see you. We live in a time when people need to more be more discriminant about who they hug, who they touch in general. I think about weddings and funerals, where everybody's hugging everybody, they are a breeding ground for all kinds of things none of us want! I say this with the utmost respect to people who are huggers... My mom is a very serious hugger who will hug anybody! Well, at her age she needs to be careful.  I guess if her perspective is that it's worth her life to hug, I will respect that! I will always hug my mom, unless I'm not feeling well... last time we were together, which was when all of this started coming down, we elbow bumped when I left her. She still talks about how weird that was! LOL!

Well I talked about that subject way too long this time! And now on to more important matters... Another beautiful day today, though not as warm as yesterday. But I am going to start putting plants out today. Yes, we're going to have some cold nights, but I don't think we'll have any below freezing. And I'll watch it closely, and if they do predict a dip below freezing, I will just cover things. Of course, I won't put anything sensitive out until later in May. But if I can just get a lot of the succulents off my shelves in the greenhouse, I can do some more propagating. I figure if I propagate a whole bunch of stuff now, I'll have a lot to sell late summer when people are jonesing to get something before going into winter. I can make a real killing!

MONDAY

As of 5:45 p.m. yesterday, there were 1474 cases of coronavirus in Nebraska, and 28 deaths is where we still stand. Hall County seems to be where the numbers are going up significantly. They are now standing at 457, nearly a third of the cases in Nebraska! Douglas is that 280 with Sarpy at 53. Cass County is all the way up to 5... Still pretty insignificant.

I got 40 of my smaller succulents out yesterday, and a few more today. I'm going to try to get the rest of the hardy succulents out in the next couple of days, and the rest will wait until after May 1st.

I have to start thinking about the newsletter already. I imagine we'll be canceling the May meeting as well. I suppose it's possible that the Des Moines Club will still have their meeting. I did get an email from Dick Schreiber, the club's president, yesterday but he made no mention of the May meeting. He'll have to make a decision on it pretty soon to get it into the newsletter. He may decide to plan for it with the option of canceling... That's probably what I would do since by then, third Sunday in May, things could be "looser" let's call it.

That's about it for now. More tomorrow.  (Forgot to hit "publish" again...so doing so this morning, Tues., before I start today's blog...)

Thursday, Friday & Saturday

THURSDAY

As of yesterday at 5:40 p.m., there were 952 cases of coronavirus in Nebraska and 21 deaths so far. Over 12,000 people have been tested, so that means one out of 12 roughly is testing positive. Of course they don't test unless you have symptoms or have been in contact with someone who does have it, so even that speaks for itself. The national statistics has not been updated since day before yesterday. I'll give those updated stats when they appear...

It's gloomy it today...it's supposed to snow. Right now it's just a little bit above freezing, but the temperature is supposed to drop and we're supposed to start getting snow, one to three inches total. Of course they said that about last Sunday and we barely got a skiff. They're saying Plattsmouth and Lincoln will be along a line that will get 4 to 6 inches! We'll see how it pans out...

Trying to get some cleaning, etc. done today. Last week, I took down the curtains in the sunroom... Boy were they dusty! I can't remember the last time I washed them, but I know it was well before I had my hip replaced because it's so hard get them down with all the plants in the way. Anyway, I got them washed and today I'm putting them back up. I just got done with the big one, so taking a break, but in the process, I had to take down 'Joy"' and Minibelle to get them out of the way. On 'Joy', I found two new vines! And on Minibille, I found one and four others starting! So exciting! I'll be anxious to see what I find as I put up the other two sets of curtains.

P.M... The snow started about 1:30 and it's going strong an hour and a half later!

Yesterday was like Christmas in April! I got a box of cuttings from Marco, and a box of cuttings from Etsy.com.  From Marco, I had a nice long cutting of ilagiorum, one I have admired from afar for a long time. I have to admit that it's even prettier in person than in photographs. I can't wait for it to bloom, if I'm lucky, because photos of blooms are amazing!

From Etsy.com, I got Hoya retusa, a species I grew for a few years. I lost it last year to mealybugs... I rarely lose anything to mealybugs, but for some reason, I was unable to salvage this one. They sent a rather generous cutting and a few other smaller cuttings, so if it takes root, I should have a nice little potful started for this spring...

I also got peperomia prostata, a tiny delicate vining plant that I've tried a few times before, growing it in with other plants. I've always lost it in the past, probably because it is so delicate and needs more water. But it's so adorable... I think they call it something like the turtle back pepperomia. The leaves are less than 1/4" in diameter!

And this last one is the variegated form of Dischidia ruscifolia, one I've seen photos of in the last year or so. Then a couple months ago, a member of the Des Moines Club brought one he recently bought to a meeting. It was so adorable, I just couldn't wait to get one! I hope it grows as well as the green form...

FRIDAY

As of yesterday at 5:40 p.m., there were 1066 cases of coronavirus in Nebraska, and we're now up to 24 deaths. Something they have been talking about in the news that's kind of interesting is that Hall County, which includes Grand Island, now has more cases of coronavirus then Douglas County. Douglas County, which includes Omaha, is the most populous County in Nebraska with around 550,000 people. The population of the whole County of Hall, which is a lot larger in physical size then Douglas, it's 61,000 people. We have 259 cases in Douglas County and they have 268 in Hall County! They think that the reason for this is that they have a lot of meat processing plants in Grand Island and it seems to be spreading through those plants. It's a little disconcerting to think that people handling our meat are getting sick from the virus. However, I don't think it's something to be really concerned about since we cook meat and I'm sure that destroys the virus. At least it won't stop me from eating meet!

The president is pushing to get businesses back open, which I think he should. I may be completely wrong, but I think we've had a gross overreaction to this virus and stressed our economy unnecessarily. I don't think that I have heard of one death, not locally anyway, that wasn't someone who had serious health issues and/or was elderly, and almost always both. We may hear stories once this is all over that convince me otherwise... Perhaps stories of perfectly healthy people who had a really hard time with this virus. But from what I've seen so far, the biggest benefit that has come out of this is to show us that we need to be considering the risk of living in tight quarters. Here in the Midwest where we have natural social distancing because we live a more spread out lifestyle, this has not been a big deal. It's only in the very concentrated populations that it's been more devastating. And I think "devastating" is an overstatement when you consider the annual deaths by so many other things are so much higher!  Here's what I mean (copied & pasted from the CDC's website)...

Number of deaths for leading causes of death:

• Heart disease: 647,457
• Cancer: 599,108
• Accidents (unintentional injuries): 169,936
• Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 160,201
• Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 146,383
• Alzheimer’s disease: 121,404
• Diabetes: 83,564
• Influenza and Pneumonia: 55,672
• Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis: 50,633
• Intentional self-harm (suicide): 47,173

Deaths from cornavirus so far: 34,784.  Food for thought...

Just one Hoya to talk about today... Hoya carnosa 'Krimson Queen', which I got from Marco two or three years ago. Mine is trying very hard to turn all white. I like it so much, and I know it's best to cut all the pure white off, but I can't bring myself to do it. Maybe when it gets to the point where it won't grow at all I'll do that.

SATURDAY 

As of 5:42 p.m. yesterday, there were 1138 cases of coronavirus in Nebraska, and 24 deaths so far. Hall County continues to be the county with the most cases at 293, Douglas is 266. They updated the national site that now says that May 1st will be our peak date, so that's moved forward a couple of days. They're also estimating the number of deaths on our peak date at 3. That's really huge from what they predicted originally which was 15, and at one point they had it as high as 18. So that tells me that Nebraska is not going to have it nearly as bad as they originally predicted. Amazingly, they're now estimating the total deaths by August 4th at 127. Only 10 days ago, they were estimating 459 deaths in Nebraska by August 4th! That's a huge difference!

Today, I took down my favorite Hoya pottsii, 'Thailand' IML 1336. I originally got it as  being from Cambodia, but IML 1336 matches up to Thailand. I like it because it has smaller, smooth, very succulent leaves. It's also touted as blooming easily, which I guess it does.

I also took down micrantha. This is one I got from Tom in the Cactus Club, from the UNO greenhouse. When I got it, I thought it was a Dischidia, but I later found out it was a Hoya. It gets little red blooms that are just adorable. It's got lots of new growth on it this year!

 

I want to interject here my little experiment... I read some time back that you could cut off the bottom of a celery bunch and set it in some water and you would grow a new celery stalk. Well, it works! I have baby celery! I'm so excited... Check it out...

When it gets to be tall enough to be top-heavy, which I'm sure it will eventually, I'll get one of those glass cylinders to put it in to keep it upright. I can get one at Hobby Lobby or Michaels when things open up again.

 

I meant to get this "published" last night and spaced it off...  Doing so now to start my next one this morning...

Wednesday

 Had to revise this after the fact and re-publish as I had misidentified a Hoya...

As of last evening at 9:20 p.m., we have 478 cases of Coronavirus and 12 deaths. That's pretty significant... 66 more cases in 12 hours, three more deaths, up 33% over yesterday morning! This is the time to stay home because that tells me that the explosion is starting to happen! They're showing a total of around 7,400 people tested in Nebraska, and nearly 7,000 of those tested negative.

They're now calling April 11th the national peak date. Today is the peak day for hospitals in New York, and tomorrow is a peak day for deaths, estimated at 780.

On a very positive note, they said that the city in China where this all started, things are starting to open back up and they've only had three new cases of coronavirus in the last 21 days. I guess that Sylvia Browne was right in her prediction...

I'm only going to talk about a few plantss that I snapped pictures of yesterday and this morning. Mainly because I have spent the last two or three hours working on my macgillivrayii... I unwrapped the huge mother plant and I was amazed at how much there was there! It's in dire need of being whacked back... Here's what it looked like after I got it all unwound...

I whacked it up, and it took two sinkfuls of cuttings. Washed up them up and they made 18 pots of cuttings! I can sell them like hotcakes for $15 apiece. In fact, I just sold a cutting off of it for $15, so if I wait till towards the end of summer when they're actually growing, I can probably easily get $20 or $25 a pot on Facebook. It's going to be a real money maker. And I may just keep a couple of those cuttings and add them to the rooted cutting that hangs in my bedroom and sell off the mother pot as well. That would give me a good restart. I like it when they look fresh! And I sure would like to get it to bloom!

Hoya buotii is another one I got from Jessica in 2012 as a very small cutting. As you can see, it's growing like weed. It's so similar to 'Iris Marie' that I decided a long time ago to get rid of that one and keep this one. Apparently it's about as hard to bloom because it hasn't for me in spite of its size!

Hoya rotundiflora, or what they used to call Square Leaf, is such a sweet little thing! I've always loved the very unusual leaves.  Squared off at the tips, the succulent very textured leaves are so different from any other Hoya. I had one for quite a long time but lost it, or most of it, and then got one from Marco. It seems to be doing good and even has a new vine on it.

Rhipsalis compose portoana hangs in the east window in my sunroom. It was in the south window until about 2 weeks ago. Since the sun has moved north, I decided to put it in the east window so it gets some direct sun. It seems to be a happy camper so far, but it is an exotic angel plant so who knows how long that will last! I try to let it get very dry between waterings because of the kind of soil it's in. Seems to be working...

I have two orchids that are also in my sunroom. I got both of these as little offsets at least a dozen years ago at Walmart. They were really cheap, which is why I got two. Neither has ever bloomed from me, but they've grown substantially. For some reason, one of them has gotten wrinkly, so now I keep a plastic bag around the pot to try to keep it hydrated. I don't think it's really anything to worry about, however, because it continues to put on new growth as well as new roots.

Hoya dasyantha is a cutting I got in 2010 in a trade. It's a cultivar of carnosa, with nice large leaves and it blooms a lot easier than carnosa. It grows across a wooden shelf in my sunroom and makes a beautiful backdrop for other plants growing on the shelf.

A week or so ago, I showed a photo of a flower umbel from lucardensiana, and now here is a pic of the whole plant.  I got it as a cutting in a trade in 2013. I love the shiny round leaves. It's one of my favorites of the smaller species.

And last is Dischidia acuminata fasciata. "Fasciation" means mutation, as this one mutates at the stems making it very interesting. First photo is of one I'm growing in hydroton in the sunroom that's turning into a real beauty. Second is my giant one... This one used to grow in the greenhouse and would get so long with foliage that it would reach the floor! So it's been whacked back lots of times. Nowadays it's in my dining room. Third photo is a close-up of some of the most recent mutated growth.

And just a quick update... as of 11:45 this morning, there are 519 cases of coronavirus, another 41 in 17 hours.

Tuesday, Wednesday

TUESDAY

Last update on coronavirus was yesterday evening at 6:03 p.m., 871 cases of coronavirus and 18 deaths in Nebraska. That's 57 more cases in 12 hours. That doesn't seem terribly significant unless you consider that it's a 68% increase over Friday's number. That does seem significant! They extended the peak date again until May 3rd. That's a little frustrating because I'm sure that nothing's going to open here in Nebraska until after our peak date. And when it keeps getting extended and extended, that's kind of disconcerting. But on an up-note, from their estimated number of total deaths by August 4th, they have greatly reduced the estimated number of total cases down to around 14,000.

Today I checked out what they're predicting for Florida. They're saying that Florida has the same peak date as we do, which surprises me. They're estimating a total of around 4700 deaths in Florida by August 4th, so extrapolated out using 2%, that would be around 235,000 people with the virus. That's less than 2% of the population of Florida getting the virus. And that percentage is about 2.5 times what they're estimating for Nebraska. I'm sure that has something to do with the more concentrated population, and probably an older population as well. Older people are probably more susceptible to getting the virus. Or at least getting it to the point of knowing that they have it. I have a feeling that far more people haven't been and will never be put in the numbers... Yesterday, I was starting to be convinced that I might have it! After hearing about George Stephanopoulos on the news and that he didn't have any symptoms except maybe a little achiness one day, it got me thinking about how freaking sore I've been in the last week or 10 days. I just chalked it up to the fact that I'm sitting on my ass so much, but maybe it's more than that...

I decided to take individual pictures of my Sansevierias today.  I think this is going to be a good year for them. First is the one that I got from Marco, that he uprooted from outside down in Florida last year... At least I think it was last year! Anyway, it's looking fabulous and even has a baby poking out on the side, whic you can't see here...

'Frosty Spears' is one I got a few years ago at the Cactus Club show and sale in Kansas City when Kathy and I judged the show. That longest spear is nearly two feet tall!

This variegated one might be the cultivar they call 'Twisted Sister'. It seems to grow kind of funky, but I'm not sure it grows funky enough to fall into that category.

Singularis is a really variable species. Both of these in the photograph are singularis, but they honestly don't look that much alike to me. If I hadn't grown them from the same plant, I wouldn't believe it myself. I separated them because they look so different.

Masoniana variegata is one I got at one of the meetings, I think at a tri-club meeting one year. I lost I'll put one piece of it, and it's finally starting to make a comeback. I'm excited to see but it looks like as it grows because it had two plants in their originally, each of which looked very different. One was very variegated, and the other one was only slightly variegated. The one on the lower right is the original, and notice how I've gotten one like it, and one that's very variegated!

WEDNESDAY

I didn't quite finished with this yesterday, so I'm going to blog briefly today and then get some things done around here. But I have to start off by saying that I wish the media would do what I do each day. Come on to the news, give the numbers updates and move the fuck on to something else! I am so sick of hours and hours and hours and hours of nothing but Coronavirus. They have come at it from every single freaking angle! This morning, they talked about how we're possibly going to see things different at restaurants in the future. Quotation: servers may be using gloves, menus maybe disposable, restaurants may check your temperature before you're allowed in. I mean, come on... Are you running out of things to report finally? If so, just shut the fuck up on the subject! It's bad enough that we're all going batshit crazy in our houses but let's just stop beating the subject to death.

And with that rant closed, I'll give my quick numbers update... as of yesterday at 5:45 p.m., there were 901 cases of coronavirus in Nebraska. There have been 20 deaths so far. That's a 2.2% mortality rate. Florida's death rate is 2.7% right now, and New York's is a whopping 5.4%! Wow! The national average is 3.8%, and if you take New York out of that, it brings it down to 3%. Still, to put it into perspective, .5% of Nebraska's population is confirmed infected with Coronavirus. 1.03% of New York state has been confirmed with the coronavirus, and 1.3% of New York City itself has been confirmed with it. Those are all still very low percentages! To put it into perspective, 3 to 11% of the population of the U.S. gets the flu each year. Which is why I'm not going to be as concerned about it as I have been and as the media wants to lead me to be!

Yesterday, I went down to Plattsmouth, just to get out of the house more or less. I had hoped to see my mom for a bit, but she never did answer the phone. I tried it before I left, on my way down, and once I got there. I could have run by her apartment to see if her car was there, but I just took the fact that I couldn't reach her as a sign from the universe that I probably shouldn't hang out with her. Maybe I do have the virus, and I certainly wouldn't want to infect her! She's going to be 79 years old in a few days after all! Anyway, I ran by Mr. Landscape, my sister's nursery (she wasn't there), and picked up some farm eggs. Then I went to the grocery store down there. I figure with only three cases of the virus in Cass County, it was safer. It was so awesome to get out of the house! I literally had not been more than to my front porch in 10 days before that! Today, I'm going to go get my nails done. Yes, I'm brave! Woohoo! I need this! I will, however, wear a mask.

And just a couple more photographs that I took yesterday before I'm done. The last Sansevieria I'm going to show it's called 'Bantel's Sensation'. This popular variegated form gets very tall. I got it from one of the club members last year, in the club raffle. It was a side shoot, apparently he thinned out his mother plant. So it was just a single leaf, the tallest one. Now it has two side shoots growing! I'm very excited to see this one fill the pot. The longest Leaf is between 2 and 3 ft tall!

Just three more photos... Yesterday, when I was at Hy-Vee in Plattsmouth, I found a gorgeous Christmas cactus. A true Christmas cactus, which are kind of rare these days! The flowers were so pretty I just couldn't resist!

I also found a whole bunch of hens and chicks! I picked two to put into my garden once it warms up. They are winter hardy, but I'll wait for the ground to warm just a bit since they're young...

And lastly, as I was doing some watering yesterday, I pulled out my Ledebouria ovatifolia. When I was watering that shelf a couple of weeks ago and commenting on everything, it was doing nothing so I don't think I even mentioned it. Yesterday though, I found two new little bulbets popping out of the sides. No signs of foliage from the main bulb itself, I'm not sure why. I may have to do some research to see if the main bulb will just quit growing with these new bulbs on the side. If it doesn't start growing in the next two or three weeks, I'll check into that.  NOTE: the grassy foliage is from more of those Schizobasis bulbs that seed into EVERYthing which I'll remove this spring...

Friday, Sunday, Monday early...

FRIDAY

I was blogging along and LOST yesterday's (Friday's) content! Granted, I didn't post much other than stats as I had a lazy day yesterday. I remember that the updated numbers for yesterday were 519 cases of Coronavirus here in Nebraska, and that they have moved then peak date to the 26th, back another day. But the significant stat was that we will have an estimated 10 deaths on the 25th instead of 18! That tells me that this social distancing is doing its job.

Interestingly enough,  Mark came home yesterday and told me that they had closed all the parks. I did hear that on this morning's news, but he apparently went to a little park and they actually had it cordoned off with tape so that he couldn't get in. That sounds stupid, but this morning on the news they said that people are gathering and not obeying the social distancing rule. I know it's hard, and especially for social oriented people, but it's also important. Or at least I keep hoping that this isn't some giant hoax!

First thing's first... Last evening, I found that Hoya EPC-392 buds  opened...

I took down my rigida and watered it.  I got it from Awanda as a cutting in 2008. Decided to take a couple of cuttings off of it. It should definitely be one that brings a few bucks.

SUNDAY

I forgot to post yesterday's stats on Coronavirus and am unable to find those numbers now. But I did find that buy 8 p.m. Friday night, there were 648 cases. Today, it says there were 791 cases as of 11:40 a.m. this morning. And there have been 17 deaths. There has been 10700 people tested so far. Your paragraph on the national website it's showing that yesterday was the peak date 4 the whole United States. They moved Nebraska speech date to May 1st oh, and they're now estimating 8 deaths on May 2nd. I have to assume that the number of death it's falling because they're figuring out how to treat it? It seems like a logical conclusion to me. Earlier use of this website showed that they were estimating 478 deaths in Nebraska, and now they're estimating 273. I think this is definitely something to be celebrated! It's not going to be as bad as they had originally predicted.

I got up this Easter morning and found that dasyantha's budding umble had opened...

Hoya polyneura is one that I grew for a few years. My original one what is an exotic angel plant and true to form, it started to decline after a couple of years and I lost it. I did salvage some cuttings, but I eventually lost those as well. A year or so ago, Karen from the Cactus Club gave me a couple of cuttings. I managed to take cuttings from that eventually and Route them back in. It's grown quite a bit, and I just took three more cuttings and put them back in the pot. As you can see from the first photo, I stuck three skewers in there and clipped the cuttings to the skewer to secure them. I did that also in the hopes that once they're rooted in and I take the skewers away if this stems will fall in a way that the leaves will be upright. I took a second photo have a close-up have a few of the particularly pretty leaves.

MONDAY

I meant to publish this last night but didn't get to it. So I'm going to give this morning's statistics and probably start a new host with the statistics that are updated later today.  As of last night at 6:20 p.m., there were 814 coronavirus cases and we were still sitting at 17 deaths. 

This morning on GMA, they announced that George Stephanopoulos has been tested and is positive for Coronavirus. He has had no symptoms whatsoever. His wife was diagnosed early on and has had some illness and symptoms with it, but she has recovered from it. He was shocked to find out that he had tested positive because he's had no symptoms at all. I guess this just goes to show that a lot of this could be carrying it around or have or had it and not know it. In fact, apparently the CDC has estimated up to 50% of us may have had it with no symptoms! I'm kind of hoping that I'm one of those so that I have an immunity to it in the future.