Crotons & Hurricanes

[Moose]

Just curious. When the hurricanes hit the west coast about five years ago, what happened to the crotons? Did all the leaves get whipped off and just sticks remained. If so, how long was the recovery? Sunken Gardens must have done alright being they have very tall crotons.

 

[junglegal]

Sunken Gardens is like 15' below street level. Here in St. Pete, I had minimal damage. I lost a large plumeria tree that was taller than my roofline. Well, scratch that, I soon had about 200 large cuttings, nothing died.

 

[Jeff Searle]

Ron,

Let me remind you, Hurricane Wilma blew through, and directly over me practically six years ago as a strong cat. #1. I had plenty of damage. Croton speaking,in general they were either completely straight up after the storm to completely blown over and everything in between. If I remember, for the most part, leaves were still left on. Plants were then straighten up and staked. Among a millon other plants! For those of you that have never experienced a hurricane, the only way I can desribed it is, it sucks and is horrible!

 

[Crazy for Crotons]

Charley hit Punta Gorda and was a non event here. Jeanne and Frances brushed the area as tropical storms. No hurricanes have directly hit the Tampa Bay area since 1921. Only the Jacksonville area (last hit in the 1890's) has been more impervious to these storms thus far. We get the freezes, you guys get the hurricanes. When it comes to crotons, pick your poison.

 

[koki]

I have always been of the opinion that crotons do very well in a hurricaine. Charley's eye passed 6 miles from the house, we had all sorts of damage. I lost one croton, a nice Playboy, but probably could have saved it if I had gotten back there in time. Crotons do so well this time of year and they are comparably very flexible. The big exception is flooding, especially salt water. Then there is a very good chance the croton is a gonner.

 

[fawnridge]

Hurricane damage from Jeanne and Francis in 2004. No, I didn't plant them on this angle and did my best to straighten them after the storms.

 

[Jerry@TreeZoo]

I have always been of the opinion that crotons do very well in a hurricaine. Charley's eye passed 6 miles from the house, we had all sorts of damage. I lost one croton, a nice Playboy, but probably could have saved it if I had gotten back there in time. Crotons do so well this time of year and they are comparably very flexible. The big exception is flooding, especially salt water. Then there is a very good chance the croton is a gonner.

I have never had a salt water flood but I recall the Glocks had at least one at their place in the Keys. They said they lost about everything.