proudgm,

So sorry to hear about your plants. The annuals probably won't recover enough before winter hits, so it might be a good opportunity to start cleaning/culling the gardens in those areas. In regards to the perennials, if their stems were broken too, just cut them off at the break so there's not too much pressure on the root system.

We haven't seen Gustav yet and are expecting the remnants of Hanna at the end of the week. There's a possibility that both will collide where we live as one is headed east and the other north so BANG! Despite that, we had some mean thunderstorms and heavy rains fall yesterday with whipping winds and one of my big 10 feet tall Inula Goliaths fell. This is a perennial and I was out cutting the stalks in pouring rain as soon as I saw it. The fall hit a young variegated Forsythia, but it was the crown of the Inula which worried me since it is so large that you could see a split in the middle. I'm sure it will recover, but the issue is not to stress out the plant more, so cutting the stalks was the right thing to do.

Glad to hear you are OK and that's what is important, eh? As always, there's next year. I know it doesn't lessen the disappointment though...

How frustrating!

If you have the garden space and don't mind horizontal plants, you might want to just tuck the root ball in as best you can and keep it gently watered as it re-roots.

Some plants can handle that, and some that can't will still have enough will to live to send side shoots out of the lower part of their stem.

I've got a number of horizontal marigolds and calendula from a wicked June storm. Each one has several new big stems coming off the horizontal part and from a distance you wouldn't know the plants were laying on their sides. It's let me keep them going long enough to enjoy blooms and harvest a bunch of seed off of them.

The same storm leveled my neighbor up the hill's biggest sunflower and broke the stem off entirely. It sent up more growth an rebloomed.

This close to the end of the growing season an early clean-up may also be a nice way to spread out the fall work. But if you really want a bit more bloom or a few more seeds, I'd tuck in the root ball and let a favorite plant tough it out sideways if I couldn't easily prop it back up.

Lynda

I have transplanted both amaranthus and mex sunflower in terribly hot weather, with much wilting for a few days, but they soon perked up - Can't lose by trying... Good luck

Carrie

Good Luck! Those straight winds are toughies. Last year it blew a huge piece of tree off my neighbors and it landed right smack in the middle of a tomato bed. Killed off the Roma's and the sungolds. It wasnt just the tree, it was flooded there and they drownded.

coulda been worse.