Hurricane Irma : One Year Later
Hurricane Season is officially here and one question we get asked all the time is
"What do you do when a hurricane comes?"
Well...
There is really not too much we can do but
prepare for the worst and hope for the best.
Its been a year since Hurricane Irma,
noted as one of the strongest storms ever seen out of the Atlantic,
has impacted us here in Florida and we are still recovering from the damages.
According to CNN
"Hurricane Irma is the first storm on record to maintain winds
as strong as 185 mph for 37 hours.
Oak trees that were planted more than 20 years ago were uprooted
and even large Royal Poinciana trees were
unable to withstand Hurricane Irma's devastating winds.
"What did we do with all of our plants?"
With over 1,000 plants at our nursery there was really nothing we could do but be mentally prepared to have a lot of work ahead of us.
When me and my mom arrived to nursery on September 11th to see the damages.
we were definitely overwhelmed with the amount of clean up we would have to do
As you can imagine with winds over 150 mph, every single plant was on the floor.
There was still a lot of water that would take a couple of days to drain and we didn't want the plants to get even more damaged from soaking in water, so we started cleaning that same day.
The only items we were able to secure were our pots, planters, statues, and fountain
We took apart the large fountains and laid all of the pots and statues on the floor
Our wall of talavera filled with fishes and butterflies looked completely bare as we stocked every single talavera animal, from donkeys to swans, into our office.
After Hurricane Irma, we removed all the old burlap we had and put up a fresh new layer. It was actually the perfect opportunity since we never get the chance to take everything down at once.
Here is a short clip of some of the damages we sustained
to our fence and roof.
Fast forward to this year
and most of our plants are finally back to normal and thriving!
Here is a gallery of some before and after pics,
one year after hurricane irma.
This lovely Carolina cypress was one of the first plants we planted here at the nursery, so we were really happy that despite being tipped over, we were still able to save it.
If there is one tree that Hurricane Irma was no match for, it's the Screw Pine.
Also known as Pandanus Utilis, this palm like tree has roots like no other and was able to withstand Irma's 180 mph winds with no problem.
We currently have two planted at the nursery and they both did very well.
One of the many challenges we faced after Hurricane Irma
was getting our plants to stand up straight again.
These large crotons in 25 gal containers definitely took a beating from all the wind and unfortunately only one survived.
the one pictured on the left did survive and is now looking better than ever only after one year.
The best part about our euphorbia Drupifera tree falling during Hurricane Irma is that we were able to make cuttings of it!
In the past when people asked us if it was available for purchase we would decline,
no matter how much someone offered.
. Now we have a few little babies available to sell and are no longer reluctant to make cuttings since it's recovering so well.
After the hurricane we thought that everyone in south florida would be somewhat discouraged to start working on their garden, but instead we had an overflow of support from our day one customers and new customers ready to rebuild their garden again!
