The hot-pink, Flaming Torch Bromeliads are in bloom this week.
Enjoy them while you can. They don't last long. Of all the bromeliads in the Florida garden this one is perhaps the most dramatic and also the shortest-lived lasting as little as a week before shriveling up and dying for another six months or so.
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Also known as "Foolproofplant" and by their Latin name (Billbergia pyramidalis) this Florida favorite is not native but has become naturalized as far north as the Ocala National Forest. It goes unnoticed most of the year until the blooms show up in late March and late September/early October.
Above: In the foreground is a dying bloom from last week with a cousin just reaching peak color behind.
I stop when I see these bromeliads thrown in trash piles and add them to my garden. They truly are fool proof. They require virtually zero attention or care and provide these spectacular blooms a couple times a year.
Even this summer, when we had virtually no rain since June, these plants thrived and are doing just as well as if it had rained every day. The plants are imports from Central America that have adapted to the sometimes harsh climate of Florida.
We Correctly Predicted the potential October Surprise
of Major Hurricane Matthew
We've Read:
FOOTBALL IN AMERICA
Anger and Elation, Fear and fascination, hatred and love, all coexisting. Statistical figures that suggest one thing, boots-on-the-ground reporting that shows another. Sound familiar, America? In 2016 the sport of football, like this country, finds itself somewhere between a crossroads and an existential crisis. Sports Illustrated spent an entire month traveling the U.S., interviewing hundreds of people touched by the many tentacles the game stretches through society. The result: A portrait of today's sport that answer the question, How do we feel about football right now?
Trump Just Replaced the White House Climate Website With. . . This
As Donald Trump was sworn in Friday, the White House website got a major makeover. One of the casualties in the reset: any mention of the need to fight climate change.
The original White House page dedicated to the problem of climate change and former President Barack Obama's policies to address it is now a broken link: "The requested page '/energy/climate-change' could not be found."
Instead, the White House website features Trump's energy talking points from the campaign. The page—titled, "An America First Energy Plan"—makes no mention of climate change, other than to say, "President Trump is committed to eliminating harmful and unnecessary policies such as the Climate Action Plan and the Waters of the US rule. Lifting these restrictions will greatly help American workers, increasing wages by more than $30 billion over the next 7 years."
The page contains only the briefest of mentions of the environment: "Protecting clean air and clean water, conserving our natural habitats, and preserving our natural reserves and resources will remain a high priority. President Trump will refocus the EPA on its essential mission of protecting our air and water."
For reference, Obama's climate page looked like this:
Reps. Curbelo and Ros-Lentinen have joined bipartisan caucus to deal with global warming. Miami is among the world's most vulnerable cities. Meanwhile Marco Rubio and Donald Trump both voice skepticism about climate change.
Coffins unearthed by early summer 2016 floods in Denhan Springs, Louisiana.
Photo © 2016 William Widmer for The New York Times
Catastrophe is the mother of invention, a lesson few other states have had to learn quite as harshly as Louisiana (take note Floridians). With an ever-sinking coast and a front-line position for the fiercer hurricanes and other weather threats related to climate change, the state has begun to advertise itself as a disaster laboratory, a place to figure out how to combat storm surge or how to resettle imperiled communities—or how to keep track of the dead.
Its Not too Early to Start Thinking about how to Save Medicare
It would help by voting Democrat in 2018
