I just got home today and saw my plants for the first time in a month, and boy was I in for some big surprises. The first surprise, and not a really good one, is that my plants had been absolutely NAILED by the Santa Ana winds. It looks like a tornado came through it's so bad. Here are some pictures of the devastation:
Mysore:
Unknown (not too much damage on this one):
Ice Cream (probably not):
All three:
Good thing that only the leaves have taken damage, they should come back just fine next spring. And now, if you'll look at the plant on the right on the last photo, you'll see the other surprise. It was an even BIGGER surprise. My unknown plant which was sold to me as Ice Cream, that I had planted back in July of 2011, has just thrown a bud. A very BIG bud. And the p-stem is only 5 feet tall.
It hasn't even fully emerged yet, and it's already 21 inches out.
This completely caught me off guard. I thought that it wouldn't flower until next year. Although, when I was here a month ago, I did notice a smaller leaf emerging from that plant. Since the plant only had 5 feet of p-stem, I thought that it was just the result of some sort of nutrient deficiency, but it turns out that it's a flower. So far, the best guess for this plant is Dwarf Brazilian.
So now, for the questions. The extensive amount of damage done to my plants by just a month of winds has really been a wake up call. My dad told me that wind speeds reached up to 60 mph while I was gone! Thankfully, the plants are still small, so I probably won't need to worry about any toppling or snapping this year. But what about next year, when the plants are larger? Is there anything I can do to make sure that they don't topple or snap from these high winds? Also, do I need to do anything special to guarantee that the flower I got from my unknown plant survives to make fruit for me? Wind is much more of an issue than cold. This plant has already proven that it can survive winter conditions in my area. Some help would really be appreciated. Thanks!
