Bougainvilleas & Hurricane Gustav

I brought all of my hanging baskets of Bougies inside before we evacuated. Unfortunately, they had to go without water for 4-5 days. Most of them dropped 80% of their leaves and left bare branches. I cut some back, but stopped because I didn't know if that was the right thing to do.

My staked Bougies I had to leave tied to the porch because we had to leave in a hurry seemed to fare pretty well. I guess they got water from the rain storms that came through.

Does anyone know if I should cut back the rest of the Bougies, or leave them as they are. Some of them have 3-4 ft. long bare limbs. We have about 3-4 months of warm weather left. What to do?

Thanks for any help.

Kaye C.

Hi Kaye C.

I suspect there will be a variety of answers to this question, all of which will probably end in success.
4 or 5 days for bougs is nothing..they are drought tolerant and if the branches are still firm, just leave them be and you'll have leaves in a week or 2.

Rj

Rj: Wow! Thanks. I had heard of their drought tolerance, but they look so pitiful and I love them so much! I have to go through this every storm season and I was hoping they'd come back so I could continue to grow them each year. The branches are firm, so I'll leave them as is. I appreciate your response.

Kaye C

Sure!
Tell me about it...I work at CO headquarters and we're talking about evacuations now and moving the command center to our emergency facilities. I'll probably be taking stuff down in the garden that's hanging...arrggh

rjudd: You don't realize how many you have hanging until you have to move them - especially inside. They take up a lot of room!

I see that Ike is headed toward Corpus, however, we just got notice that we here on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain outside New Orleans can expect tropical storm force winds and lake tides 4-6 ft. above normal because it has unexpectedly taken a small jog to the east. I had to move my car away because I live right on the lake and I will definitely get water.

I sure hope this storm doesn't hit y'all in Houston. Y'all had enough to handle with our evacuees during Katrina.

Good luck!

Kaye C

unfortuneatly I do realize how much is hanging ..this will be the second removal of the season and had the next door neighbors 100 year old pecan tree fall on my house during Rita.
It would seem that the entire Texas coast and some of Louisiana is going to feel something from this storm.
Right now there are already winds forecasted in our area of 70KT.
Fortuneately I've got the drill down now, and things are easily removed.
Rj

rjudd: I see Ike's headed your way! Good luck! Keep us posted as to your safety.

Kaye C

Thanks Kaye C.
Just got a couple things to take down after work, and then it'll be watch and wait.
Rj

rjudd: Believe it or not, I already have 2 ft. of water under my house from this storm. We expected the lake to rise, but not this fast this soon and it has now been forecast that it will get higher. I'm safe way up here in the air, but this hurricane sure has a wide effect with it - all the way over here. Will pray for you and your.

Be safe.

kaye c

Thanks..Yes I hear it's as far as Pensacola...
If it rains alot ..it's probably going to flood..it's been dry all month though, so that might help.

Well Kayce, the bougainvilla made it fine...alot of stuff is trashed, but most will live. A large part of the fence in the back garden blew down, and half of the leaves from the oak tree both of which provides shade to the australian tree fern - so the sun has been frying it's new fronds..I put an umbrella over it. Lost most of the fish in the pond as we still don't have electricity...but a DG member advised me to put Hydrogen peroxide in the pond which oxygenates it, and I'm happy to say it really worked well and the remaining fish are much less stressed. Some roof dammage, but nothing keeping us from home. I worked for Continental at our headquarters, so have been needed at work all week, and finally will get to start digging out tomorrow.
Astonishingly, no broken windows..I've never seen so many tree's down before..big huge tree's. They were in, on, over and through everything.

This is what the center of the garden looked like before

This is what it looked like after...
as much as it looks like tossed salad, things are really improving. I dug the banana out from the pile of stuff...The neighbors think a tornado came over..it looks like it..everything from the garden was tossed in the center in a big heap.

I'm off to go dig out...FINALLY!

Rj

RJ: So glad to hear you and yours did ok. We wound up with about 4-5 ft. of water under the house from Ike.

I lost 2 ancient oak trees during Katrina. One of them was so large its branches covered the top of my house! Now my back yard is all sun.

You might have had a small tornado. That happened to my neighbor during Katrina. It didn't hit my house, but hit his house 2 doors down then skipped into the lake.

I know from experience it is a huge chore to clean up after one of these storms! I lost every single plant in my yard in addition to my house. I had to start from scratch both with the yard and a new house in the same location. It's going to be hard work, but try to take your time and do a little at a time. I rushed into it and spent a fortune paying a company to come clean my yard, etc., because I'm not physically able to do that kind of stuff. Be careful of contractors and clean up crews! I got soaked by a clean up crew. Fortunately, my contractor was an honest one and my house was built without any problems.

If I have any plants that you can use, let me know, and I will try to get them to you. I have mostly bougainvillea and mandevilla and a few cultivars of sweet potato vines. The SPV grow from tubers that look like sweet potatoes, so they shouldn't be hard to send. Let me know.

Good luck! Keep me posted on how your yard is doing.

Kaye C.

That's good advice..I nearly killed myself trying to clean up on friday. A slower pace definately is in place now.
I definately have no complaints, compared to what you are having to do. I am noticing that I have double the sun exposure now in the back garden. My poor fern tree is frying despite the umbrellas. The older fronds can tolerate it, it's the new ones that get fried. I think I'll put another large umbrella up for now and hope for the best. It's having now problem throwing out new fronds though.

I am moving alot of stuff around. I finally broke down and took out my giant castor bean tree..It had a 10 inch round trunk. Never seen one bigger. I'm amazed it didn't come down as it was fairly easy to take out. I'm going to put the giant bird of paradise there. It's still laying down with the fence. Talk about heavy..It may take at least 3 people to move it.

Luckily I'm one of those over collector of plants and have scores of plants just standing by. Thanks for the offer though.

Rj: Great! At least I know you won't be "plantless." I've never seen a castor bean tree. I'm going to on the plant thingy on Davesgarden and look at one so I know. A 10 inch round tree is huge and will definitiely take several people to move it.

I had an Australian tree fern, but it grew fine in the sun - well, maybe it was dappled sun, so I guess I shouldn't say total sun. I lost it in one of the other hurricanes we've been through. I wonder if it stays in the sun if it will adapt.

Just keep plugging along SLOWLY and your yard and plants will revive. You'll feel very good when you see what you've done with a mess you were left with. It's good to hear you are an over-collector. I wish I had room for a greenhouse, but this winter I will close in between 4 pilings under the house and put everything in there with a light. There's plenty of room as there are 32 pilings holding this house up so high. That will be my pseudo-greenhouse. Good luck and let me know how the fern goes.

Kaye c

I'm wondering too if the fern will hardy up. It's a C Cooperi and quite large in the fern tree family. It's like having a palm tree at that annoying size, where the leaves span 6 feet on each side, and not quite tall enough to walk under. Normally they grow under the canopy of other trees. It had dapled sun before..but with the fence down it gets that morning sun, and then the afternoon sun. I'm going to dig my other umbrella out and put it up tomorrow. The new fronds are popping out very fast, but the little curls on it are fried. I sprayed the fronds with water to see if it makes any difference.

Rj: Maybe a little internet research on the tree fern will lead you in the right direction. As you and I both have learned, you sort of have to adapt each plant to your own particular environment, regardless of what the "experts" say. I do take the advice I'm given and gladly give it a try to see if it will work for me. I've done that with my bougies, and I finally found the happy medium. Maybe you can do it with the tree fern.

Remember with the yard - slow but sure.

Kaye C.

Rj: Meant to tell you my bougies are doing great since I pruned them! Forgot all about them in our various discussions.

Kaye C

aah..great to hear the bougies are doing well.

I hear about the adjusting to the individual enviornment despite the experts. It's very true. Have you ever read any of the books from Perelandra? One of my favorite quoates is.

"But anyone who practices organic gardening knows that it is made up of a huge volume of hints, tips, ideas and practices—some of which, when tried, work and some don't, despite the fact that the organic gardener just down the road did exactly the same thing and got incredible results. "
Perelandra Garden Workbook

How true it is! I like that quote and I'm going to copy it onto something and put it on my refrigerator so that I don't get discouraged when I try something and it doesn't work.

Take it easy - it'll all come together even prettier than before.

Kaye C