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...