Garden Lot After Hurricane Irma

[PalmatierMeg]

When Hurricane Irma struck in September we suffered massive damage to our 3-lot landscaped garden. What little good news out of that is that almost none of the damage involved palms. We lost only a few so far, although their losses were painful and significant: Beccariophoenix alfredii, Pseudophoenix ekmanii and Cocos nucifera Dwarf Red Spicata were the worst. The bad news is that nearly all of my husband's large flowering tropical trees were uprooted or outright destroyed. So, it is true that many palm species are better able to survive hurricane winds than dicot trees. Our house suffered no damage, even from royal fronds that bounced off the roof. We never lost electricity. I binge watched episodes of Lost on Netflix in the bedroom with our two cats while Irma's winds howled through the night. I truly believe that the 100s of palms we have planted all around the property protected the house and each other during the long hours of hurricane winds.

In his post of Hurricane Irma's aftermath, Pastor Randy (Palmaceae) measured winds of 109 mph. I Iive about 5-6 miles SW of his house so I must have experienced like winds. No doubt Irma was a bad one but in 2004 Hurricane Charley, a bonafide cat 4, hit with 30 minutes notice (rather than nuke Tampa) and took this area apart from Ft. Myers Beach to Port Charlotte inland to Arcadia (it cruised right up the huge Peace River so stayed a 4). It was a little atomic bomb rather than a bloated behemoth so its smaller scope is more easily overlooked. We waited 11 months  for our replacement metal roof (time out for commercial: If you possibly can, go with metal. Costs more, lasts nearly a lifetime, doesn't sweat hurricanes. Never tile - tile is worse than shingles). So, for me Irma was no Charley.

Anyway, nearly 3 months and $3,600 later this is my Garden Lot. Many of the huge trees are gone and palms (yay!) and smaller trees are taking their place. Irma's damage still lingers. Palms that survived are still recovering after suffering major frond damage and continue to grow out. A few may yet succumb from long term damage. Our shady oasis is a lot less shady and a lot more tattered. On with the photos.

From the SE corner looking north; view looks fairly normal but palm crowns still have broken and dying fronds we can't reach to cut

From SE corner looking south - Large coconut on corner of berm was blown at 45 degree angle. It was too large for tree people - Cuban entrepreneurs who stopped by with their business cards a couple days after the storm; we hired them on the spot - to move upright. We let the workers take all the ripe coconuts (they said the water was delicious).  As it is still over our property we decided to leave it. It is already starting to curve upright.

From the front of our garden shed looking north. Most of this area was once shaded by tropical trees. Almost all are gone, the rest severely trimmed so the area is now open to sky and sun. Day the photos were taken winter's first cold front was moving in so skies were cloudy

This last seedling of my late Dwarf Red Spicata coconut mother palm replaces one of the fallen tropical trees. The mother palm leaned over like the previous palm but she ended up hanging above an undeveloped adjacent lot. She was too large to upright so we made the difficult decision to take her out. But we have several of her offspring planted around the yard.

[Matthew92]

That is sad about your Red Spicata coconut! It was so beautiful!

[PalmatierMeg]

Cont'd

We planted this bay rum tree in place of one of our Beccariophoenix alfredii that was blown over by Irma. We hoped it could be saved but the tree cutters discovered the stem had been ripped totally off the growing plate so it was a loss. We had lost our last bay rum to drought last year and wanted to replace it closer to irrigation. It smells wonderful and stays small.

King palms notorously hate wind but ours seem to be coming back though some still have dangling fronds.

My husband managed to dig most of the tree stumps but a few large ones still remain. We are still deciding whether to dig or pay for stump grinding

Sabal palmetto Mocksville replaces a dead tropical tree

Copernicia baileyana from 2014 Cuban seed replaces a medium crape myrtle I removed

A canal-rescue sprouted coconut replaces another deceased tropical tree

 

[PalmatierMeg]

Cont'd

View of garden shed from north looking south. The shed used to be almost invisible from the street because of all the large tropical trees blocking visibility.

All 3 of our silk floss trees were blown over or uprooted. The tree cutters were able to stand this one up but cut up the other two. Then one of the stumps started to put out new growth and my husband decided to salvage it.

Copernica sp (baileyana or gigas) - from 2014 Cuban-collected seeds. Replaces a short-lived blue potato tree I decided to take out.

Japanese Fern Tree lost 3/4 of its canopy but seems to be coming back.

Lemon Bay Rum - Small, fragrant tree replaces rainbow eucalyptus. We lost all 3 of our eucalyptus (2 rainbow, 1 not) in a spectacular way: Irma's winds ripped them out of the earth and slammed them onto the ground and/or street. Fortunately, none were near buildings. My husband insisted on replacing one of the rainbows because he loves to show the trunk off to visitors for "ooos" and "aaahs". Even though the nursery staff told us they were sure to fail during major hurricanes. Fair warning: if you gotta have one and live in a hurricane zone make sure to plant it out in the back 40.

Huge remaining stump of our largest silk floss tree. Another tree guaranteed to fail. Don't plant near anything you care about. When/if we figure how to remove this behemoth, I get to plant another palm. I'm mulling it all over.

Royal poinciana we decided to keep. It suffered significant damage but its massive trunk held firm. It required massive pruning but is coming back. I'd like the other tropical trees to remain small to medium and let more storm resistant palms take over shade duties.

[Tracy S]

Great post. Sorry to see all of the damage you had but glad yhou are putting it all back together. It's a good opportunity to put in more palms. Can't wait to see how it evolves.

 

[Reeverse]

It has been a rough year for sure. Glad to see everything is recovering. Over here we had a rough time with Matthew. Acres and Acres of ancient oaks dead from storm surge. Poincianas recover very well. I always wondered why the ones in the tropics looked like bonsai's. 

[DoomsDave]

MA'AM

Keep it coming

Recovery is what the universe is about?

Yes?

YES

[John hovancsek]

Things are starting to look good. If you need help with anything just let me know

[PalmatierMeg]

12 minutes ago, John hovancsek said:

Things are starting to look good. If you need help with anything just let me know

Thanks. That's sweet of you. We just kind of bumble around with it. Amuses the neighbors.

[Dave-Vero]

Things are looking good.  Poincianas grow fast, so yours should look fine in a couple of years.  

For trees, southern Florida natives (live oaks and tropicals) are reasonable bets, but even they get torn up or uprooted in bad winds.  I remember Castellow Hammock in the Homestead area after Andrew.  You'd think a tornado had hit it.  Nothing left standing.  Today, there's a forest again.  

Palms vary in wind resistance.  Montgomery Botanical Center participated in some research done by John Dowe, from Queensland, where they have cyclones.  Livistonas and Sabal look good.  Syagrus bad.  

[Missi]

My 20' tall rainbow eucalyptus stayed up-right, but the top half snapped off (however, it has since popped out super lush branches on nearly the entire length of remaining trunk, and survived the 2 frosts we just had ) from the hurricane. Being east of the eye wall I received a little bit of 140 mph winds, but mostly 120 mph. It has been in the ground since it was 12" tall. Same story with my Bombax ceiba. I really think it's the root-bound trees that we plant in the ground that end up completely falling over or being ripped out of the ground. As you can see in the pic of your Ceiba, the majority of roots in the middle are going round and round, rather than spreading out to take hold of the ground. That is what I saw with my trees that had fallen or torn out of the ground (those I had allowed to become pot bound before planting *facepalm*). Other friends have observed this theory with their trees as well.

My two Ceiba are also sprouting back from their trunks. I'm leaving them for now because they're just wonderful shade trees, even when they drop their leaves in fall their plentiful thick branches provide plenty of shade,

[PalmatierMeg]

7 hours ago, Missi said:

My 20' tall rainbow eucalyptus stayed up-right, but the top half snapped off (however, it has since popped out super lush branches on nearly the entire length of remaining trunk, and survived the 2 frosts we just had ) from the hurricane. Being east of the eye wall I received a little bit of 140 mph winds, but mostly 120 mph. It has been in the ground since it was 12" tall. Same story with my Bombax ceiba. I really think it's the root-bound trees that we plant in the ground that end up completely falling over or being ripped out of the ground. As you can see in the pic of your Ceiba, the majority of roots in the middle are going round and round, rather than spreading out to take hold of the ground. That is what I saw with my trees that had fallen or torn out of the ground (those I had allowed to become pot bound before planting *facepalm*). Other friends have observed this theory with their trees as well.

My two Ceiba are also sprouting back from their trunks. I'm leaving them for now because they're just wonderful shade trees, even when they drop their leaves in fall their plentiful thick branches provide plenty of shade,

Glad your experience wasn't as bad as mine. A 20' rainbow euc is still a baby. My soil had been battered by 22' of rain just before Irma. But it doesn't matter to me whether major hurricane winds rip a 50' rainbow euc out of the earth and slam it to the ground or snap it in two and slam it to the ground - the end result is the same.  Anything below is crushed (a couple of my Coccothrinax can attest to that). I don't care if have the Mona Lisa printed on their trunks.

[Missi]

23 hours ago, PalmatierMeg said:

Glad your experience wasn't as bad as mine. A 20' rainbow euc is still a baby. My soil had been battered by 22' of rain just before Irma. But it doesn't matter to me whether major hurricane winds rip a 50' rainbow euc out of the earth and slam it to the ground or snap it in two and slam it to the ground - the end result is the same.  Anything below is crushed (a couple of my Coccothrinax can attest to that). I don't care if have the Mona Lisa printed on their trunks.

Yea, I don't plan on planting anything special under my deglupta. Don't want to take away from her beauty 

[Palmaceae]

Looking good Meg,

I know you and Tim did a lot of work to get everything cleaned up and looking good.