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Major Hail Damage

10 years ago

Can anyone give me advice on extreme hail damage. Will these plants survive. Most have numerous large holes blown through the leaves. The less substantial ones are kinda mush. Don't have the heart to take pictures yet. Can barely look at them. Thanks. Gail

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Comments (16)

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
10 years ago
leave them alone for a month ...

they will reflush.. they are not dead ...

it will be much easier to remove the yucky part when it dries ... even a damage leaf can photosynthesize ...

come about july.. with the new leaf flush ... you might be surprised how removal of just a couple.. will improve the look substantially ...

sorry and good luck ...

think of it this way.. better than a tornado ...

ken
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MadPlanter1 zone 5
10 years ago
That is heartbreaking, you have my sympathy. As Ken says, leave everything alone until it is crispy dead, anything is better than nothing when it comes to plant recovery. They'll come back, but they'll be smaller. Mine got a few big holes but at least didn't get pounded to mush.
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I think that would be the best approach. In the future you can look at the structure of the branches and see if there are some that would make good candidates for rooting. Do you know what variety it is? This is my DSP and further back is a Devine the next morning. Many tips crushed and seed pods stripped. You can actually see the fiberglass planter is chipped as well. My Greenhouse is now well vented and headed for the waste transfer station. Hopefully someone can repurpose the undamaged polycarbonate panels. I had about 30 rooting in there at the time and with a couple exceptions they seem to be ok. Perhaps because they were smaller and would just fall over instead of taking the full hit.
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I'm sorry you had so much destruction but glad you made so much progress on replacement. Not just more hail seems likely, but very large to possibly GIANT hail according to the Day 2 Convection Outlook from the SPC. As of this morning's update, the big hail seems more likely at the southern end of the risk area, possibly in central and northern TX, and you know that many of us here in the Red River area often get our worst weather events coming our way from TX after they develop there and move here. Luckily for your garden and mine, (I think, and I mean 'luckily' in the oddest of ways), they've already been hit by hail several times this spring, so you'd think the law of averages might mean we won't get hit this week, but sometimes the law of averages just don't work out for gardeners. I'll be watching KXII tonight to see what Steve LaNore says about the prospect of hail. I'll also try not to work through lunch so I can make it inside for the noon news to see what Tom Miller says. I also keep an eye not only on the NWS-Norman webpage but on the NWS-Fort Worth webpage, since our worst weather at this time of year often starts SW of our county somewhere in TX and then moves NE towards us, giving us a chance to sit and watch the radar as it shows storms heading our way. I also keep an eye on WFAA's radar almost nonstop on stormy days using the one for North Texas because it shows southern OK so well. Yesterday afternoon my son was pulling up models on the Pivotal Weather website and showing me what they were showing for various parts of the day, evening and night on Tuesday. Cape Values, in particular, look horribly high for some areas tomorrow. I just dread the weather that's cominh tomorrow knowing some folks in the TX/OK/KS/NE area (and likely beyond that area) seem likely to get hit hard. Since at least the mid-1980s, it seems like North Texas runs in big hail cycles. They'll go several years without exteme hail, and then they'll have repeated cycles (sometimes for 2 or 3 years in a row) of big hail hitting over and over again, and often it keeps hitting the same communities again (this year, it seems like Wylie, Frisco and Plano are under the gun). Once in the late 1980s or maybe the very earliest 1990s, friends of ours in Arlington got hit 3 times in what I believe was three consecutive springs by baseball to softball sized hail. Every time they got the roof, windows, skylights and interior of the house repaired and replaced and finally got the landscaping fixed again and everything was finally back to normal, the giant hail struck again. Unfortunately, this seems like a year for N TX to have that sort of repeated cycles of big hail and you and I live too close to N TX to let our guard down. I've been through baseball-to-softball sized hail twice in my life, both in N TX, and it is a horrifying experience I hope never to repeat again. Sadly, even much smaller hail will destroy a garden. Baseball to softball sized hail around 1979 or 1980 just destroyed my parents' house, putting large holes not just through the entire roof and all the windows on the north side of the house, but even through the exterior siding, and interior walls and ceilings. To fix the house, much of it had to be stripped down to the studs. Damage to every living plant outdoors was almost as bad, and some trees lost so much foliage they never recovered. That is the sort of storm I dread having. While losing a large part of the veggie and flower garders is devastating in its own way, we've never had anything bigger than about half-dollar sized hail hit our house since moving here, and my garden rebounded pretty well from that. Our Fort Worth house took a huge amount of hail damage one year in the 1990s from hail that was almost tennis ball sized, but my garden tolerated the hail damage that year really well, which surprised me. That was likely in April or earliest May of that year. The garden likely survived as well as it did because of the direction from which the hail came, which meant the hail had to fall through the canopy of our next door neighbor's tall trees (which shaded the garden more than I liked, but which in this case helped), which meant it had slowed down significantly by the time it hit my garden plants....and they had the added "shelter" of many small limbs knocked down on top of my garden by the hail. And, honestly, there was so much damage to our roof, window screens, and ornamental plantings that year (oh, and to our large above-ground swimming pool and to our cars) from the hail that I had a lot more than my garden to worry about. It likely was the least of my worries as it was more quickly fixable than everything else. It is hard to get a roofer to fix your house when every single house in the neighborhood also needs a new roof at the same time. I don't even want to think about having hail this week, but I think this region is likely to see some big, big hail. Since hail is usually so hit-and-miss, I'm hoping we all escape it, but good luck only carries us so far in the spring before it runs out.
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Oh Roselee, too sad and ironic that you would have this to post in your thread titled "Major Damage". Oh, shoot. I'm so sad for you and your plant. Maybe it will come back stronger and better. I would cut off the two broken branches and leave the third (intact) branch so that it has some leaves for photosynthesis to make energy for the plant. Then I would watch to see what Mother Nature wants to do with it. You can always go back to your idea to cut it to the ground next spring. I would give it the rest of this season - with some leaves - to form a stronger main trunk. Just my two cents (but it's your plant and if you want to cut, cut!) I also had a large (12') crape myrtle whose branch bent all the way to the ground after a long, heavy few days of soaking rain. In the photo below, what looks like a shrub in my neighbor's yard is actually my crape myrtle branch, bending into their yard. After three days and it did not go "back up", I ended up cutting it off. I couldn't have it laying in their yard. Would not have been my first choice, but I had to be a polite neighbor and I didn't want them to have to ask. So I kinda committed Crape Murder - - once. :) Carol in Jacksonville
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Steve Massachusetts
10 years ago
Ken is, of course, right. If you choose to remove the leaves the plant will come back with smaller leaves this year, and it will be diminished in size next year. It's much better to leave the shredded leaves on the plant and deal with the uglies this year. Those damaged leaves are feeding the plant so let them be, and the plant will continue to increase next year.

Steve
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coll_123
10 years ago
yes, ditto to the above. We had a ferocious hail storm tear through my garden in June of 2010. Many leaves were dangling by threads, but I left them all and most did not even brown up...The next year, all plants were back and better than ever. I cut one hosta all the way back to see what would happen and that hosta was greatly reduced in size the next year. Also a local shop with mature hostas out front cut all theirs back after the storm and they were all much smaller the next year. So I am so glad I left mine, ravaged as it was.

One thing that made me feel better was to get some new hostas...just having something to look at without the damage was nice. I'm so sorry about the hail- I know how heartbreaking it is.

Here is Parhelion after that storm...pretty bad. The next year it came back wonderfully

last year, right on track to being a giant
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paul_in_mn
10 years ago
We've all had hail so we commiserate with you. It could be worse, you could have deer problems ;-).

Paul
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leafwatcher
10 years ago
Coll, that picture looks like a CRIME SCENE !

Paul, yours is more like a Marines first hair cut ! CLOSE !
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User
10 years ago
Your Parhelion is a great example of letting well enough alone. I'll remember that when I'm tempted to remove any leaf dangling by a celery thread.

I have some white leafed and white mid-leafed hosta that look pretty much the worse for wear, but not because of hail. It is from the dropping spiky sweet gum balls, they rip through leaves all year long. Either green or ripe, those things are deadly missiles, but not hurled from more than 100 feet up, so not as bad as the hail. Just, they can do it any time there is a breeze.

Note the split leaves on White Elephant.
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don_in_colorado
10 years ago
Sorry to see that happen. Happened to some of my plants earlier this month. This is a pretty good example of the damage. Like stated in previous answers, I'm just gonna leave 'em be until second flush. They'll be back.

Don B.
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Gesila
10 years ago
So sorry to hear about the hail damaging your hostas. But yes, hail is much better than deer or rabbits. I had a rabbit mow down my Tequila Sunrise AFTER it's second flush last year. I'ts half the size now than it was when I bought it. I also had a few more that were mowed down by the rabbits last year that didn't even come back this year.

Gesila
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luckykat13
Original Author
10 years ago
Thank you so much everyone for your sympathy and advice. I can't believe how upset this has me. I feel kinda like an idiot when I talk to friends and coworkers who have had car and property damage costing thousands of dollars and I'm stressing over Hosta damage. I knew you guys would understand. I will follow the "leave them alone" advice. I also intend to follow the buy more without damage advice:). That will help. Thanks again!! Gail
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santamiller
10 years ago
Sorry to hear about your hail damage. That would make me sick to my stomach. I've experienced that sort of feeling keeping corals.

A question about cutting off damaged leavesÃ¢ÂÂ¦..does that mean that even if you have one or two or three damaged leaves due to a split, a burn, a critter or other damage that even those shouldn't be removed until and if they brown out?
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bkay2000
10 years ago
Santa, when it's only a few leaves, it probably doesn't matter that much. When it's all of them, you get to choose between next year being smaller or looking at ugly hosta all year.

bk
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garden_grammie
10 years ago
I feel your pain. The size of the hail was unbelievable. They were the size of ice cubes and just walking around my gardens is sickening. All my perenials are shreaded. Does the same hold true for all the plants.
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JoPierson
10 years ago
I have around 20-30 Sum and Substance throughout my yard here in Kansas. It was confirmed that virus x has contaminated them. After I dig them up & destroy, how long should I wait to replant? Does anyone have ideas for shady area under magnolia tree other than hostas? I do already have some Blue Umbrella growing there, also. Are there any resistant varieties that i should know about?
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bkay2000
10 years ago
Jo, you should start a new thread with your question. You won't get the experts to comment on your question buried in this thread.

Go to the top of the hosta forum home page. Under the blue bar is a line of links. The far right one is post a message. That's the one you want. Title your posting as you have and you'll get some help.

Sorry, I don't know enough to help you.

bk
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coll_123
10 years ago
Gail, it's ok to feel upset about this...yes, there are worse calamities in life, but I remember feeling devastated when my entire garden was trashed in ten minutes. Even the daylily scapes were destroyed! I feel like we wait a long time for our gardens to mature and come awake from winter dormancy and my garden is a huge source of happiness for me, so when my husband remarked, after the storm, that they were "just plants", lets just say that did not go over well. We here get it. The good news is that there is no permanent damage and it is still early so many of them may surprise you by sending up growth that will camouflage the damage. Some are better than others at that, like the Stained Glass family.
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