In 2004 and 2005 our plants went through five hurricanes without respite in between to recover. Plants burned by wind and salt had just started re-budding only to be burned again and again. The storms combined with wind desiccation, a condition where a plant loses more moisture through the leaves than the roots can provide and excessive salt spray. This caused burns so severe that some plants never recovered. Washing the affected areas with fresh water helped to wash away excess salt and drenching the soil helped dilute salts accumulated there.
That brings us to roots. Our plants were blown from west to east with Charlie. And then east to west with Francis. Ivan’s winds stayed off-shore much to our delight. And then Jeanne once again pushed our plants west to east as her winds moved offshore into the gulf. All of these storms were followed in 2006 with Wilma the worst hurricane to hit us since Donna.
Hopefully we won’t experience a hurricane season like that again. But some of our summer storms can be severe enough with winds that can uproot and move your plants around…