The Power of a Hurricane

[SunnyFl]

(ZoneTenNut @ Jan. 29 2007,18:48)

QUOTE

(Dave-Vero @ Jan. 29 2007,16:47)

QUOTE

It really does pay to design landscaping to be survivable, both for hurricanes and freezes.

Dave,

Couldn't agree more with this statement.

After Wilma, I bought a great book on Stormscaping - Landscaping to Minimize Wind Damage in Florida by Pamela Crawford. Features things like Best Plants for hurricanes, Worst plants for hurricanes, trees that are dangerous, "Survivor" gardens, and the strongest plants in Florida to beautify and protect your home and garden. Has some great ideas like planting in groupings in your landscape, as these have more wind resistance than singles. Also alot of useful hurricane history, statistics, and data. Many photos throughout. I really recommend to anyone interested.

Yes, that book is a terrific guide to what species fare well - and which don't.  Crawford really did some serious research - she cites the FL Native Plant Society's ratings, county extension agents' observations, even Max Mayfield.  And there are photos to back up her description of the damage.  I think it's a valuable addition to any gardener's or landscaper's library.

Re: sand live oak - the suckers would be a major pain.  On the other hand, the trees don't get as tall as live oaks.  But live oaks, esp. properly trimmed, are very good protection for homes and they're much more longer-lived than the laurels.  It's definitely true that a house protected by sturdy trees will stand a better chance against wind than a house in the open.

Suckers are a good reason to rethink selecting a tree.  Personally, I love seagrape, but I hear it does the same thing.  If it didn't, I'd have at least a couple.

[SunnyFl]

(ZoneTenNut @ Jan. 28 2007,07:15)

QUOTE

Sunny,

There are a few things I noticed after these hurricanes and I began making changes accordingly.

Firstly, I used fertilizer designed to encourage large and fast growth, at the expense of stronger root development.    My fertilizing now leans very heavily on beefing up the root systems.

Some palms and trees just held up far better than others and provided some real protection to the surrounding plantings and even my house. Palms like the native Sabal palmetto (you could hardly tell these had been through a hurricane) and Royal, and others like Foxtail, Solitaire, and the Veitchias. Trees like Live Oak did really well also and bamboos got shredded, but went a long way acting as a wind barrier and came back quickly. So I've been planting more of these strategically around my property to sort of anchor various areas and help breakup any future wind events.

Pruning. The trees, especially fruit trees, where I had recently pruned, came through without a hitch, other than losing most of their leaves. The ones I hadn't ,with large canopies, lost many large branches and/or toppled over. So now I prune continuously to make the basic structure much more resilient, yet not so much to prevent fruiting and flowering.

Hopefully my landscape will not have to be tested again, but if it does, maybe it will be better able to withstand.

Thanks for posting this.  The ideas on fertilizers is very interesting - I'm going to keep that in mind for spring, since, when I use ferts, I do the same thing.  Never really considered how it was at the expense of better root growth.

Yes, some palms have much better wind resistance than others.  Most notable is the phoenix roebelenii with its slender stems, but it's a toughie.  I hear that royal is a good one, and as you mentioned, the sabal.  I've heard that the native thrinaxes (radiata & morrissii) are quite resilient as well.

(BobbyinNY @ Jan. 29 2007,10:36)

QUOTE

I think it does, Roger... and all I know is that IF anything hits us like the 1938 Long Island Express, it would virtually wipe out everything here. Back then a Cat 4 hit Long Island and carved out what is now Gardiner's bay...  but at that time there were not many people living here. Now there are almost 8 million people living on the island with no way to get off besides a few Bridges, tunnels, and whoever has a boat

 It's scary what could happen if a cane hit Long Island or NY City.  And surely there could be a repeat of the Long Island Express.  Hm, I thought that was a 3 - anyway, it devastated Rhode Island as well, and wasn't that the cane that washed out Hog Island?