The garden after Katrina

It appears we lost only three plants: a potted miniature rose, a small container of ornamental grass, and a potted azalea. Meanwhile, many of the roses, which I had pruned in August in anticipation of the October flush, are covered with buds or are blooming. Antique roses are very tough. When we returned from our evacuation, a floribunda rose we had placed up against the wall, out of the sun, was blooming.

The most unusual thing I saw was the appearance of buds on the night-blooming cerius. It bloomed fairly well in June and then stopped abruptly. Now, for some bizarre reason, it's making buds in October. We had a lovely burst of bloom from the oxblood ("hurricane") lilies and the rain lilies, and then we had one more surprise. Some time during the summer, we dug up our pink torenia after it was ravaged by a rabbit. We placed it in a tub, and when we evacuated, we moved the tub to a spot in the backyard, in front of the pump house. A few days ago, we found it blooming profusely.