"Hurricane" Earl? That wimpy storm was all wet. The only excitement here was watching how fast some potted plants grow. No really: I laid many of the larger and taller container plants on their side the day of the storm, and righted the last of them this morning, 48 hours later.

Some of them didn't take that lying down. Storm or not, whatever their position was that day, their mission remained, unchanged and uninterrupted: to grow up toward the sun as fast and far as possible.

Here's the very tippy-top of my brilliantaisia, a monster salvia that I've videoed on August 15.
Even then the plant was too tall to fit easily into the video window.

I knew it was a fast grower, but only after I had laid the plant on its side to weather the storm was that growth really on display.

In less than 48 hours, every branch had flexed 90 degrees upward, to face the sun once again.
And not just the very tips, either: The entire two feet of branch right in back of the tips too.

Ornamental grasses aren't nearly as interested in turning on a dime: Look at the variegated reed in back. Its canes were horizontal the day of the storm, and here they are, still just as horizontal two days later.

And when I uprighted the plants, their different habits couldn't be more on display.
The brilliantasia tips has made a right-hand turn in only hours, and the stems in back of them were (amazingly) still spry and alert enough to follow right along.

Whereas the grass had kept to its upward motion all along; you'd never know it had been looking at the sun sideways for a day.
Its world-view is, literally, unidirectional.

I expect that the brilliantaisia will "upright" itself, tips and branches alike, in just another day or two. Stay tuned for the report.