Good grief, Virtue!! Thank goodness you had a basement to take cover! I had some plants blown over by very strong straight line winds and when they hadn't straightened up by themselves in a couple of days I staked most of them. Many of them were lanky from growing under big poppies I should have pulled earlier, so if yours are stronger they might spring back up on their own. Can you tell if they are broken off at the bases, or just bent?

I grew up in the country and we had a creepy old storm cellar which had spiders and other yucky things in abundance. So, it had to be pretty bad for us to head down there. No one has basements here. Of course, my grandmother's cellar was worse--it often had water standing in the bottom along with snakes!!

Hope your plants recover quickly.

Debby

I went out to see them again. Thank God, they are not broken. However, I was wondering why the top 2" branch/leaves are upward again even though the main branch is still down. I mean, the tip of the branch are going vertical again. I corrected some plants but others doesn't want to be corrected anymore. It feels like it's going to break when I bring them back up again.

I see the disadvantage now of not having any mulch. The dirt was all over the tip of the plant. I saw some plants where the top leaves are covered with the dirt.

With enough sunshine they will probably stand back up, not too sure about the sunflowers though. Glad to hear that you are all safe. I've got some penstemons laying on the ground due to all the rain we've had here, and some rue that is totally flat on the ground. IF we can get some sun, they should do ok.

Alberta

wow! What suburb are you in again?

Ihope they straighten back up again.

Thank goodness you are all okay... Plants can always be replaced - I know it's heartbreaking, but look at the bright side - you are all fine... I wish you the best and hope your plants stand right back up again!

Carrie

The main thing is that you are ok. We got hit this afternoon and supposed to into the evening, drenched but not too high winds so far, storm siren went off.

In time, I'm sure your plants will be ok, but I never have much luck saving flattened anything unless it isn't broken and I stake it. Can't very well stake SOTM but might be worth a try with the Russian sage. If it were mine, I'd at least try it.

Ok. Thanks everyone! I'll see how they will look like after few weeks. :)

Glad to hear that you're okay, and your plants sound like they will be, too. They may have a serious lisp... uh, LIST for the rest of the season, but that's better than the alternative. I would stake them up as far as they'll tolerate right now, and gradually train them up straight & tall going forward. May take some time.
WOW.

Oh. no. So very sorry you had a tornado.
Thank goodness that all of you are alright.
It doesn't sound like the plants were broken, though. They'll start to stand right up. Maybe you can support them little by little. They'll be good.

A huge thunderstorm woke me up at 3 in the morning yesterday.
3.97" of rain was reported at OÂHare airport.
You are not that far from OÂHare, v1rtu0s1ty.
It must be scary to go through that.

A lot of basements in my neighborhood got flooded, so was mine. That's what I need to do today: clean the basement.
It rained early this morning too. Bummer.

We already have 10" more precipitation than normal.
My coworker said his uncleÂs farm was all flooded and the crop ruined from previous rainfalls.

Can we give some of this rain to the west???? And eastern Ohio??

SighÂÂ

Glad to hear that you are OK. As Carrie said, plants can be replaced.

I go through this with my plants way too often. A lot of things might well recover. When the rain stops, shake off the water gently. With skinny stems, like petunias, this alone can help a lot. Might help some of them, too, if you cut back the height a lot, by about half, on the stronger stemmed stuff.

Karen

v1rtu0s1ty,
I'm glad to hear you are okay. Tornadoes scare the heck outta me-- one reason I stay in Upstate NY.

Pit,
I hope you get your basement cleared out without too much trouble.

Like Karen said, I know we love our plants, but you guys are more valuable!

Linda