Hurricane Irma damage to palms at Leu Gardens

[Eric in Orlando]

Its just over a week since Hurricane Irma hit Florida. We got hit really hard here at Leu Gardens in Orlando. The damage isn't as bad as from the 3 hurricanes that hit in 2004 but it is bad. There are dozens of big trees that are down or will have to be taken down. The palms mostly came through fine but some that are lost. 

2 20ft. Gaussia maya blew over

2 50ft Caryota maxima (Himalayan) that are flowering have blown over but supported by tree canopy

Another leaning Caryota maxima

Caryota urens with a snapped trunk

Roystonea borinquena defoliated

 

[DoomsDave]

ouch

 

[Eric in Orlando]

a beat up Arenga engleri

Archontophoenix cunninghamiana and Caryota obtusa

a big clump of Caryota mitis had stems blown over

Satakentia liukiuensis just missed being crushed by a falling tree

Beccariophoenix fenestralis leaning

[Eric in Orlando]

These are wild collected Florida Roystonea regia (R. elata) grown from seed that was wild collected in the Fakahatchee Strand swamp in SW Florida. They are planted at our lakeshore where they grow in wet muck. Currently there is about 3 feet of water there now from all the rain.

 

 

[Eric in Orlando]

a couple of Beccariophoenix alfredii leaning

the big Bismarckia nobilis has some beat up leaves

There are a couple dozen, ancient Livistona chinensis, they all survived, some are a bit tattered

Livistona decora

Acrocomia aculeata

 

 

[Eric in Orlando]

An ancient, native Pignut Hickory (Carya glabra) blew over in the Tropical Stream Garden. It was around 70 feet tall and probably over 150 years old. It fell across the stream and is blocking the entrance into Leu Gardens. It took down a Peltophormum africanum at the entrance and has buried quite a bit including a huge clump of Arenga engleri. It also broke a bunch of fronds on a nice Sabal yapa.

 

 

 

 

[Eric in Orlando]

Another big tree that blew over is a 40ft Carrotwood Tree (Cupaniopsis anacardioides). 

 

 

 

[Eric in Orlando]

A few trees that are fine;

Our 300 year old Southern Live Oak (Quercus virginiana)

2 Banyan Trees (Ficus benghalensis)

Moreton Bay Fig (Ficus macrophylla)

 

 

[Eric in Orlando]

Bunya Bunya (Araucaria bidwillii) shed some branches and has windburn

Agathis robusta, Araucaria cunninghamiana and Araucaria hunsteinii

Eucalyptus deglupta

Bambusa vulgaris with broken /leaning culms and windburn

[Eric in Orlando]

The historic Mizell-Leu House, built in 1888, suffered damage when a branch off a Laurel Oak (Quercus laurifolia) landed on the roof

An old Southern Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) toppled over

Old Sabal palmetto that resisted the storm

 

 

[Eric in Orlando]

Livistona decora, Livistona nitida, Pandanus furcatus and Beccariophoenix alfredii. The B. alfredii is leaning

Nageia nagi (Podocarpus), Nagi Tree, probably the most wind resistant tree growing here, leaves weren't even blown off, same after the 2 hurricanes in 2004

Ceiba speciosa, Floss Silk Tree blown over

Sabal palmetto 'Lisa' and Phoenix roebelenii x rupicola

 

 

[Eric in Orlando]

Amazing that among the destruction there are pockets where everything is normal, banana leaves not even shredded.

 

 

[Eric in Orlando]

This is just about the most incredible downed tree at Leu Gardens. This is a native Pignut Hickory (Carya glabra). It took a massive gust of wind to twist and take down this tree.

 

[Kim]

Wow.

Yes, what a mess! But bravo to the palms, they mostly look either very good or at least survivable.  And that oak! What a stunner. The twisted and torn Pignut Hickory is a shocking image. You have your work cut out for you.

Thanks for the images, sad as they are.

[IHB1979]

Thanks for posting the aftermath offices, Eric!

I was worried about the monster Eucalyptus Deglupta, looks like it's standing tall!

[donalt]

so sad to see the damage...driving by there yesterday i saw downed fencing along the road at the back of the gardens. how long will the gardens be closed? i can't remember how long after 2004 hurricanes that it reopened....even today, mead gardens doesn't resemble what it used to look like before hurricane charlie .

 

[Jason in Orlando]

I remember all the open spaces in the canopy after Charlie, et al.  Sad to see all of this, but so glad it wasn't worse.

 

[Eric in Orlando]

27 minutes ago, IHB1979 said:

Thanks for posting the aftermath offices, Eric!

I was worried about the monster Eucalyptus Deglupta, looks like it's standing tall!

 

Smaller branches broke off but the main frame of the tree is intact.

It survived the 3 storms in 2004 too.

[Eric in Orlando]

19 minutes ago, donalt said:

so sad to see the damage...driving by there yesterday i saw downed fencing along the road at the back of the gardens. how long will the gardens be closed? i can't remember how long after 2004 hurricanes that it reopened....even today, mead gardens doesn't resemble what it used to look like before hurricane charlie .

 

 

Not sure yet how long it will be closed. We are working to get some areas cleaned up where there aren't any dangerous or downed trees. But even then there will be quite a few areas closed off for safety for many months until treework is completed.

[annafl]

Thanks for your post, Eric.  Our Sarasota garden fared about the same, but in a much smaller scale (1 acre).  Interestingly, the trees that toppled/uprooted seemed different.  Just goes to show, there are so many variables that go into it.  Our large Beccariophoenix fenestralis and medium alfredii were completely unfazed, as were all our caryotas, including an obtusa.  Our large Ceiba speciosa lost a few branches, but otherwise,not even a lean!  I was worried about that one.  A small Ceiba bombax split in two and uprooted.  Our old live oaks, although much thinner now, are all intact, including one that's been estimated to be 200 years old.  Overall, as a group, the palms and cycads did better than anything in the garden.  The generous canopy we have seemed to protect the underlings significantly, as many, especially things like crotons, were almost unfazed.  Things that didn't do well:  Cryosophila stauracanthas.  We only have two, but the six foot one's crown snapped off.  The ten foot one is very tattered.  The zombia antillarum is tattered and lost quite a few fronds.  Variegated coral tree had a massive number of branches that snapped off, but it already looks like it's re-foliating!  A 30 ft. Filicium decipiens uprooted, and another one, our roundest and prettiest, was almost cut in half.  A 20 ft. Clusea rosea uprooted and an ancient, very full and pretty ligustrum uprooted.  It seems the really full-foliaged trees really caught the wind and were more likely to uproot or lose many branches.  Also, a large Bauhinia galpinii uprooted.

Thanks for posting your experience at Leu and the photos.  Disheartening, but very important and useful.

[RedRabbit]

Sorry to see all the damage. I rode out the storm in Orlando less than a mile from Leu Gardens and it was pretty bad there. There were a lot of strong wind gusts, the highest I'd estimate around 80mph. 

[DoomsDave]

9 hours ago, Eric in Orlando said:

This is just about the most incredible downed tree at Leu Gardens. This is a native Pignut Hickory (Carya glabra). It took a massive gust of wind to twist and take down this tree.

 

OUCH

[Matthew92]

Wow. How did the Corymbia citriodora do?

[Dave-Vero]

Thanks for all the photos.  They're worse than I expected, but with recovery projects locally, I haven't paid full attention to Orlando.  That pignut hickory is shocking.  

Good to see that so many of the palms did well.  

Down in Ft. Pierce, the little Heathcote Botanical Garden had no serious damage to its Palm Walk.  One curiosity was a whole bunch of leaning lady palms (Rhapis excelsa).  If that becomes a nuisance, stems can be cut and new shoots will show up promptly.  Because some heavy wind happened without rain, I suspect that some of the local leaf browning is due to salt spray.  

 

[richnorm]

Is that a Needle palm at the base of the twisted Pignut?  Seems to be completely undamaged!

[Missi]

16 hours ago, Eric in Orlando said:

Ceiba speciosa, Floss Silk Tree blown over

WHYYY are they so prone to blowing over? I lost my 2 largest. I saw several others lost theirs as well. Is it the heavy canopy branches?

Edited September 21, 2017 by Missi

[Eric in Orlando]

13 hours ago, RedRabbit said:

Sorry to see all the damage. I rode out the storm in Orlando less than a mile from Leu Gardens and it was pretty bad there. There were a lot of strong wind gusts, the highest I'd estimate around 80mph. 

Its amazing, I just checked the records for the NWS station at the nearby Orlando Executive Airport. Highest sustained winds measured were only around 57 mph and highest gusts were 78 mph, also almost 8" of rain. During Hurricane Charley in 2004 we had a tornado come through a section of the garden. None this time but we sure must have had some microbursts. But the duration of the winds was much longer than during the 2004 storms.

[Eric in Orlando]

7 hours ago, Dave-Vero said:

Thanks for all the photos.  They're worse than I expected, but with recovery projects locally, I haven't paid full attention to Orlando.  That pignut hickory is shocking.  

Good to see that so many of the palms did well.  

Down in Ft. Pierce, the little Heathcote Botanical Garden had no serious damage to its Palm Walk.  One curiosity was a whole bunch of leaning lady palms (Rhapis excelsa).  If that becomes a nuisance, stems can be cut and new shoots will show up promptly.  Because some heavy wind happened without rain, I suspect that some of the local leaf browning is due to salt spray.  

 

 

It was rather shocking to see that Pignut Hickory twisted like that. It is a younger specimen, maybe 30 years old and about 35 ft tall.

[Eric in Orlando]

2 hours ago, Missi said:

WHYYY are they so prone to blowing over? I lost my 2 largest. I saw several others lost theirs as well. Is it the heavy canopy branches?

 

I think this is one of those trees very dependent on a strong, well developed root system in our sandy soils. We have over a dozen growing and had 2 blow over and one with limb breakage. I think this tree is better to plant as a younger, smaller specimen that hasn't been containerized too long so it can grow a full, healthy root system in the ground and can "spread out". Same with Eucalyptus.

The one in the photo is actually a historic specimen. Mr. Leu planted it many decades ago. It was killed to the ground in the Dec. 1989 freeze and regrew as a triple trunked specimen. After the 3 hurricanes in 2004, one trunk split from the base and fell. A second trunk was splitting and the third one was beat up bad and broken. So we cut it all back to the stump and trained a single stem back. Now it blew over.

[Eric in Orlando]

3 hours ago, richnorm said:

Is that a Needle palm at the base of the twisted Pignut?  Seems to be completely undamaged!

 

Yes, it is a Needle Palm and is totally undamaged. This was the only tree in the immediate area with that kind of damage.

[Eric in Orlando]

9 hours ago, Opal92 said:

Wow. How did the Corymbia citriodora do?

They all did well. They did lose some branches but nothing major. There is a big one down the street at a local garden center nursery and it fared well too.

Here is the 2 specimens growing near the old house and another angle of the big Eucalyptus deglupta;

 

 

[Eric in Orlando]

There are also several Corymbia citriodora growing in the Idea Garden, here they are;

 

 

[Palm Tree Jim]

Thanks for sharing these sad pictures.

The great news is that most of your garden will recover.

Hang in there! 

[MattyB]

Wow!  That's sucky.  Thanks for sharing Eric.  Hope the clean up goes well.

[Matthew92]

21 hours ago, Eric in Orlando said:

They all did well. They did lose some branches but nothing major. There is a big one down the street at a local garden center nursery and it fared well too.

Here is the 2 specimens growing near the old house and another angle of the big Eucalyptus deglupta;

Nice- Thanks for taking those. I know farther south, many Eucalypts were hit or miss with some coming down altogether.

[Missi]

Both of my Corymbia citriodora blew over. They've been in ground for 2-3 years, but they were extremely pot-bound when I purchased them. We cut them off at the base. Hoping they'll shoot up new trunks! 

[edric]

Hi Eric, that's a shame about the Pignut tree, but all told, it could have been worse, Ed 

[Eric in Orlando]

Yes it could have been. Glad it weakened and didn't hit Florida with the 185 mph winds or even 160 mph like earlier tracks were predicting.