Thursday, September 15, 2011

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day September 2011-Flood Edition

The 15th of the month has arrived again and what a month it has been for those in the Northeast.  My heart goes out to all those affected in upstate NY, Vermont, and other areas.  And, for those affected by the Texas (and other) wild fires.

If anyone is wondering where your rain has gone, I can tell you where it is.

Last week, devastating floods hit my area of upstate New York in the United States.  We had already received a lot of rain from the remnants of Hurricane Irene, and that was followed by over 10 inches of rain from Tropical Storm Lee.  It was more rain than our area could cope with. Flash flooding started last Wednesday, followed by river flooding.  Thousands of people were evacuated and some still have not been able to return to their homes.

My house was in one of the evacuated areas.  Thankfully, our damage is a lot less than many of our neighbors.  And, we were out of town at the time so we watched in horror from somewhere an eight hour drive away. 


We returned to our house on September 11.  The flood waters did not enter our yard (although our basement took on two feet of water)- we were on a small island of an otherwise flooded neighborhoood.  Some of our flowers did not survive.  I took pictures that day of what was blooming when we arrived  They are all still in bloom today.  (What is it doing today?  Raining.)

This is the post I made of my pictures.    So this may not be completely within the rules, but these are not good times for the Binghamton/Johnson City/Vestal/Owego, NY area.  So...presenting the Garden Bloggers Bloom Day for September.

Dahlias....and a pot of mounding basil.  The second picture also shows some sedum starting to "pink up".

 Next, garlic chives.
The tag has gone missing and I honestly don't remember what these are!  But I will definitely buy them again next year.


One thing we did discover is that our petunias do not like water.  RIP.

But poinsettias (a plant kept from last Christmas) and avocado (we have an avocado mini-tree in a pot, started years ago from a pit) love tropical storms.  I've never seen them happier. (neither of these can be overwintered outdoors in our zone 5 climate.)  And in our back yard, yellow flowering bleeding hearts are still going strong, but the main plant that gave us September flowers is also RIP.  (this yellow bleeding heart photo is also an earlier photo.)



Rain, rain, go away.  Please come back eventually, but not right now.  So many people need it more than we do.

9 comments:

  1. Hi there, thanks for stopping by my blog today! I will be taking your advice and making cuttings..I would love to grow more geraniums w/out paying for them :)
    I hope your flower gardens rebound next year. Your area has been in my thoughts as I've watched the news. Glad your family is safe and that your home was not damaged. I hope you can grab up that basil and make pesto :) And cook up a storm with your chives.

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  2. Sorry to hear about all the flooding but glad you made out OK. We had it bad here in NJ also. You're right, we should be able to share this rain with others so everyone will be happy. Happy to have found your blog and look forward to following along.

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  3. Thank you for stopping by my blog today. The post was the only way I knew I could help spread the word. I'm so glad you are safe and only had minimal damage, by comparison. Stay safe ;) love your blog btw ;) Find me on twitter too -I'm @ednascafe

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  4. I can relate only because much of my family lives in the Sugarbush Valley area of Vermont... hard times indeed... Larry

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  5. Thanks for stopping by my blog. I grew up in Buffalo and had relatives in Binghamton and Vestal. My sister lives in So. Vt. and had to evacuate her house so I know what you are going through. Love your list of interests as I am a Civil War buff, too.

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  6. Hi,

    It looks like you still have plenty of interest going on in your garden. I need to work on my use of grasses and such to provide a longer season of interest! I've recently bought a few grasses and hope next year to have a better show.

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  7. Great that you could put up a Bloom Day post this month, despite the floods! I live in NE Pennsylvania now, but grew up a bit west of you in Chenango County, so I am well aware of the perils of the Susquehanna! Glad you sustained only minor damage and losses. I can't even imagine the job of cleaning up after such devastation.

    I believe your unidentified purple daisy-like flower is an osteospermum, by the way.

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  8. Oops, I am directionally dyslexic! Chenango County would be to the east of you!

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  9. cosmosandcleome, I am directionally challenged too. And thank you everyone for your thoughts. Small world, isn't it! I hope people realize (speaking of Vermont) that Vermont is still on the map and is ready to welcome tourists for the fall foliage season. (Although I hope some of them stop in upstate NY on their way to Vermont!)

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