OMG Matthew
- Thread starter Kingdavid
- Start date
annafl
Esteemed Member
I'm so glad you left, David. Thankfully, messes can be picked up. The best thing that happened is that your crotons fell over. I bet they are mostly intact and will look beautiful once righted. I don't know about your structure. You will have it perfect again in no time, I'm sure! Even here, we had 30 mph sustained winds from the NNW for the whole of the day, which came in unshielded from the intracoastal. With all our trees, we have a mess too. A couple of days ago, puddles again. The ground was so saturated from rain we had wet feet again and I'm sure it will result in leaf drop again, and now, a battering from the wind. A few very mature aroids were uprooted and we had to go out and re-plant them! Such are the painful times of gardening! It will be fine though, since we are all fine.
Kingdavid
Esteemed Member
I only wish they just fell over ...3 miles away they had gusts up to 112 mph at Coast Guard Station .. 4 truck loads of limbs all twisted in with mess 40 hours lalater im scratching my head . Well i get a hell of a lot more light the giant oaks have been wiped clean.FPL put our poles back up ...Thanks FPL
Native son
Esteemed Member
Bad luck David, Mother Nature can be ruthless. Glad you were safe the rest will work it self out.
VeroKarl
Well-Known Member
Before
After (two trees went down here that were providing shade to the back gardens, a cecropia and magnolia champaca both standing in the first picture)
I know the feeling David. About half of my crotons (all planted) were blown over and 10 trees went down. Still waiting for a tree company to come over and try to rescue some of them. I probably still have 20 or more plants that I need to stake back up. Sorry I have not been on the forum in ages. I have been so busy with work that I have not had much opportunity to do anything else. I will try to get some updated croton pictures on, although they don't look their best after Matthew. Will have to see if I can sneak away to go to the next auction. I was actually in Sarasota during Matthew because Vero was forecast to be even worse than it ended up being, so my mom and I headed to safety. Thanks, Karl
donroberth
Well-Known Member
WOW!!! David… so sorry to see the destruction caused by MATTHEW, especially to your Croton plants. Hope all goes well with the clean-up phase and putting all your cultivars back in shape. Hang in there! 
VeroKarl
Well-Known Member
David, I was hoping I might catch you at the Bok Tower plant sale (now Rootstock). I think that was the first time I started to get plants from you. I always find a few new crotons to add from the plant sales. Maybe I will just save up for the auction. Have some new spaces after the hurricane.
Kingdavid
Esteemed Member
THE Worst part was the plants whipping around the roots along the top were all ripped apart.. Home depot for 25 bags of Bamboo stkes and some landscape twine and the fun starts . Hope yours turns out ok ... took 7 days but all are uprite again .time will heal .Give me a buzz so you can stop by ..If you need a hand ill help .... keep in touch
kurt decker
Well-Known Member
That sucks bigtime. It could have been worse. Mathew was a category 4 storm, and all of us on the east coast were way too close for comfort. I screenshotted the eyewall on the radar on my phone, way too close. What's a cat 4 like? Watch hurricane charley destroy a gas station in Punta Gorda in less than 5 minutes. 3:10 and 3:55 are ptobably cat 5 microbursts. Wow.
VeroKarl
Well-Known Member
Glad you got everything upright. I am getting close, bought about 50 rebar stakes and have most of the smaller plants staked. I have some trees I am hoping to rescue, but the tree company did not show up yet to get that set up. I also have several very large piles of debris that need to get picked up and that will help to get that out of the way. Most of the plants should be fine after having some time to recover. Will you be heading out to the auction? I should have things ready to add some plants at that point.