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...