Hurricanes and new gardens

Hi,
I can't believe I'm already worried about hurricanes this year. We just bought a new house and I'm starting a perennial bed and a rose bed in the backyard. Most will be bareroot plants so they will still be fairly small when hurricane season gets here. Since it's suppose to be a fairly active season again I'm worried about losing these plants. What's everyone's experience with how tender plants hold up in hurricanes? We live in Central Florida (about 50 miles from east coast) but we've been hit pretty hard a few times.

I've been through plenty of hurricanes, but my yard has always had well-established plants -- not young, new ones. Something to be concerned about?

well garden...i have been through several hurricanes these past two years..here on the east coast...about 60 miles east of you...i have a great many trees etc in my little jungle (50 x 75) including mobile home...and i haven't had a lot of damage....i think you should go ahead and plant what you want to plant and not worry about hurricanes...if they come, they come...but don't let them rule your life.

I agree with Junglebob about not letting hurricanes run our lives. We just plan our plants better now if we can. You can't kill Louis Phillipe roses. Daylillies are sturdy. Lots of sturdy stuff available.

We lost several maple trees whose limbs snapped and hit power lines. We also lost lots of plants that wouldn't tolerate standing water. What all this taught us is that our Oak trees were sturdier. Plant oak trees. We also plant water tolerant plants now in low lying areas. Tibouchinas hate standing water, as does the butterfly bush, Clerodendrum.

In those low-lying areas, we found blocks and built up the areas. In Palm Bay, there are second concrete blocks available from a manufacturer.

However, our maple trees that still stand look wonderful now, two years after they were snapped. You would never know how bad they looked two years ago.

As a matter of fact, it was a blooming flower about a week after the fourth hurricane two years ago, that restored in me the continuity of life.

~~~~~~~~~~

There were pine needles everywhere, snapped limbs, shredded roofs, etc. about the third time in six weeks when I was driving all over the state of Florida to avoid the hurricanes as a graduate student, living away from home. I so remember that shell-shocked feeling, trying to maintain even a minimal standard of living, thinking that we were all at Maslow's lowest levels, trying to find food, fresh water, and clean clothes.

I walked outside, and there was a blooming flower. That flower restored me, as I realized life will go on.

Besides, the gardeners on this forum will help you restock and check on you. I recently found a forum where they were trying to see if all of us in Florida were okay.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I guess this long philosophical answer is plant away, plan as well as you can, and "consider the lillies, how they toil not."

Nina



This message was edited Mar 11, 2006 10:05 PM

This message was edited Mar 11, 2006 10:06 PM

I absolutely agree with Nina and Bob.....life has to go on. Look at all the DGers that really got wiped out (house and everything) and I so admire them for going forward and creating a new home complete with a new garden! My heart broke for everyone. Also, if we had to wait to plant to allow plants time to toughen up before hurricanes, we might be waiting a long time.......if you know what I mean. I'm 3 miles from the gulf and bought a new house last summer and I have really worked on the garden. Sunk alot of money into it too. But what do you do? Besides, the gardening is so theraputic for all of us that I think we have to be doing it hurricanes or not. Go for it!

Garden4,

Bob, Nina and BDunn, have certainly made some excellent points on not letting hurricanes run your life. Those threats have always been there and we are now more aware as they become more frequent. You hope for the best and expect the worse, but don't let these things control your life. You maintain the control as much as possible and you will have a positive attitude.

Now, that being said, as a gardener, living in Florida is a wonderful place to be. Put your plants in now, water well for the next 10 days to 2 weeks. If they were meant to live where you plant them, they will grab hold of the earth and settle in.

I was in Ft Lauderdale during the numerous hurricanes of 04 and 05. Only one plant was uprooted by the winds of Wilma and she was the scariest for me. That plant had not been in the ground for a week.

Okay, so I am not in Ft Lauderdale anymore.......it wasn't the hurricanes that ran me off.

Molly
:^)))

Can a South Carolinian chime in here? Although I have been blessed and my area has not had a bad hurricane in a long time, we do get the leftover winds from the storms that hit north and south us. Things fly all over the garden.
I have slowly been eliminating most, but not all, container plants; everything possible is going in the ground. Also being thinned is garden art; it had better be really special or it gets donated to some charity.
If a storm does head this way I will have fewer pieces to move into the house.

There is a wonderful book written by Pamela Crawford, "STORMSCAPING Landscaping to Minimize Wind Damage in Florida". I use it in my business, to help design gardens. She has written many Florida gardening books, and this one is fantastic. John.

I too have started to worry about the Season coming up soon, but hey, can't do a thing about it. We got plasted by Wilma so a lot of problems have been blown away....like our large screened in area, 2 palms, 1 tree, our 10' wide satellite dish, etc. Won't have to think about them, hehehe.

I try not to think about it anymore and just try to plant with wind that could hit my gardens again.

I certainly am not going to stop gardening....or praying for that matter..

Hap

Hey Garden,

I work in Condo building right on the Gulf of Mexico here in Destin, Fl...We have had damage from 04 and 05 hurricane season and a lot of our landscaping has survived. We have been very lucky. Unless you have salt water creating a river through your yard, I think you are going to be just fine. Don't let hurricane season slow you down!! I have created 2 new beds in my home in Navarre, with some bare root plants also. I not worried about them at all. I am more worried about tall pine trees in the back yard LOL LOL and my fence being blown down again!! LOL LOL ;-)

Ash

I quit worrying about them a couple years ago. If my gardens get wiped out, it's a good chance to try something new. Put your time and effort into being well supplied if you stay and get out in plenty of time if you decide to leave.
Jan...

Hey Arufo,
You're right down the road. Are you goiong to the roundup on April 22 in Florala? Going to be a good one. Yes, it looks like you all took a harder hit than we did last season. Except our gulf front really took away the sand with many houses condemed. With the gulf temp higher than normal we're all talking about what may be ahead. But you're right....you just keep going forward.
Barbara

This message was edited Mar 19, 2006 8:57 PM

Barbara,

This may sound like a silly question, but what is the round up on April 22? LOL LOL

Ya, here in the office there is a lot of talk about the gulf being warmer and the problems we may have coming up in a few months. Can you belive that, it is only 2 month away? We are having problems here on Holiday Isle with the beach. The condo next door to me, Jetty East, one of the courners of the building is in the water. You can't walk down the jetty's anymore because of it. We are needing a beach restoration, but it will be a few more years before that happens. ..........Oh well, such is life living in paradise ;-)

????

Hi,

Are you saying the water is rising too?


Hap

Hap,

No the water isn't raising, like raising flood water. We just have no beach left. Put it to you this way, last year before we got hit by Hurricane Dennis. Our board walk was 160ft. When we rebuild the board walk after hurricane season last year, the new board was is only 40ft. and then in times of high tide the water is under the board walk. Just a very short beach. ;-)

Ash

WOW....get out the ark.

LOL LOL We have been saying that for a while now. ;-)

I got the Ark....



girlsaylor

LOL @ girlsaylor!!!
Pati

Good, GS, my DH and I make 2......your fist pair....lol

Hap

There you go again, Hap....first in line AGAIN! LOl
Pati