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sherrygirl5

Devastation evaluated today.

Here goes, the results of yesterday’s rain, almost 6” and hail 1/2” to 1”. We have never had a storm as bad as this here. I counted my hosta today I have 90, that was a surprise, of those only four with no damage. I have everything from a couple of holes in the leaves to completely torn up. I also have about 150 daylilies all with shredded leaves to varying degrees. Everything growing in my yard is drooping. Sooo disappointed...... so much hard work......gone in an instant. The daylilies should recover if it ever stops raining here, foliage will look bad all summer.



Sherry

Comments (37)

  • 7 years ago

    So sorry, Sherry, that does not seem to be appropriate words for you though. I hope your garden recovers better than you hope, I know hosta won't do much, but I bet the daylilies can. I gather no major damage to your home or trees?

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked Nancy 6b
  • 7 years ago

    I am so sorry to hear of the damage to your beautiful garden. i just saw video of the tornado...my heart goes out to all who went through such a devastating storm.

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked mae (zone 5b On)
  • 7 years ago

    Your poor plants! So sorry you had this kind of storm. With that much rain, the daylilies will grow new lush foliage. And I bet within a month your hostas will look OK too. I had a similar thing happen one May, and by the second half of June all but a few plants looked OK.


    Debra

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked shive
  • 7 years ago

    Oh gosh. Again, I am so sorry. It is so heartbreaking to see damage like that after you have worked so hard.


    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA)
  • 7 years ago

    So sorry Sherry. You wait all winter to be over and then this happens. I hope they recover quickly.

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked Julia WV (7a)
  • 7 years ago

    Yes, again Sherry I feel so badly for you. One of the worst parts is having to let the Hosta leaves remain to aid in their recovery. Hopefully the new foliage will quickly cover the old damaged leaves. I have been through this on a much lesser scale and some recovered quite quickly.

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked peren.all Zone 5a Ontario Canada
  • 7 years ago

    I wish I could fix it..it's one of those gardening disappointments..you'll bounce back :-)

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked nicholsworth Z6 Indianapolis
  • 7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    One interesting thing about yesterday, my clematis look great, go figure! No house damage here, Thank goodness, in the area, some uprooted trees a few miles from here .

    Sherry

  • 7 years ago

    the year before i was to be on the national convention ... this happened twice .. yes.. twice ... during the same growing season ...


    severe damage.. they releaf .. probably on stored energy ... and then when they just about looked good again ... bam .. the second storm ... and of course.. they releafed again ...


    needless to say.. they were a bit smaller.. for the convention year.. burning all that energy ...


    but one thing for sure.. i didnt lose any of them ...


    ken

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
  • 7 years ago

    I am so sorry. The double almost but not quite back to back sustained late freezes after the plants jump started from over warm periods and had decided to grow and were over halfway,up ,,,destroyed my foliage. I will include a photo taken on February 26th of this ear before the damage. Some of the foliage did not recover, and I lost about three plants. But you can see these plants are resilient, because they are blooming pretty normally. The foliage is a bit ratty, but I will pet it in fall and have a new start. Your flowers will be there too.


    kay


    kay

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked organic_kitten
  • 7 years ago

    Sherry, so sorry to hear of your devastating weather. Our area didn't experience the bad weather. I guess it all went north of us. Thankfully, you and your house are ok. The plants will recover but it is disappointing to work so hard in your garden and then have all your efforts erased in just a few minutes.

    Nancy

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked hoosier_nan (IN z5b/6a)
  • 7 years ago

    Add my sympathy to that of others. I suppose one good thing is that your lilies were not all scaped up and blooming. But those poor hostas. And of course, so glad no house damage. From what I have seen on storm footage, many of those were ferocious.

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked lilykate7a
  • 7 years ago

    Glad you and the house are ok! I understand the disappointment though... but it’s like a bad haircut, it all grows back eventually. I’m uncomfortable traveling right now... we have very severe weather predicted for KC tonight and I hated to leave the house (and garden). I know my neighbors will keep an eye on everything, but still....

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked windymess z6a KC, Ks
  • 7 years ago

    That just sucks ! Wow Sherry, Such a big disappointment but good news to hear you , your family and your home are all ok. We had a similar event here a few years ago, but not on the scale you show . I decided to cut everything back including the hostas . Within a couple of weeks you would never have known anything happened . I decided to cut the hostas as they were a ) really shredded and ugly looking and b) didnt want the plant to waste energy feeding leaves that were going to die anyway. I don't know but they seemed to recover more quickly. I hope that is the case for you. We will be waiting and wanting an update as your gardens recover please if you have the time .


    One good thing to come out of it is all these people who responded coming out of the woodwork. Hopefully they stick around and share info and images from their gardens.

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked signet_gw(6b)
  • 7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    We had hail, but not like that. A bit smaller than marbles. Mother Nature always has some curve balls ready to throw.

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked mantis__oh
  • 7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    sherry, I'm sorry to hear this happened to your garden. Been there, done that, so I can commiserate. You know the hail was bad when even the daylily leaves are shredded. Keep in mind that it will all come back and look great again..... next season. :-( .....I'm sure some of it will still look as good as always, like your clematis!


    When this happened to me I found one positive.... If you have any plans to make some changes but were hesitant to do so because you didn't want to mess up your gardens, now is the time to get it done! You can use this season to dig, move, build, whatever, ....we gardeners always have something in mind, right?

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked sandyslopes z6 n. UT
  • 7 years ago

    sandyslopes..what a great way to think of storm damage - as an opportunity!!!

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked nicholsworth Z6 Indianapolis
  • 7 years ago

    Sorry you have this problem. I can commiserate, too. Most hosta lovers have experienced it if they've had them very long. ken once showed us the photos of his hosta after a really bad hail storm. If I remember correctly, he got it twice in one year. We had a bad one the year we had the Chihuly glass exhibit at the local arboretum. That was really a mess.

    bkay



    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked bkay2000
  • 7 years ago

    Oh, *#&%. Sorry to see that. Hail just really sucks.

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked don_in_colorado
  • 7 years ago

    So sorry your gardens were damaged, happy your house is ok. Still, so much work goes into preparing for the “good time” of year I can understand your frustration and disappointment.

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked oursteelers 8B PNW
  • 7 years ago

    My heart goes out.....I can imagine your disappointment (I know how I would feel). But, they are Hosta ..... and they will come back....hopefully bigger and better!

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked mbug_gw
  • 7 years ago

    Sherry, I’m so sorry to read about the damage to your gardens. Very glad to hear that you and your family and home are okay. Hopefully your plants will bounce back quickly and will look great later this season.

    Lori

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked tarheelgirl_7b
  • 7 years ago

    That just sucks! Can't say much more than that. Makes my cold damage plants seem trivial.

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked old_dirt 6a
  • 7 years ago

    Plenty of time for a reflush of leaves. Won't be as good as HL photos, but the ROOTS are not damaged and you will have stronger plants. All is not lost. Deer and rabbits eat the tops, just like hail and frosts, but the ROOTS are going strong. Keep the faith....

    -Babka

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked Babka NorCal 9b
  • 7 years ago

    Sherry, so heartbreaking. Glad you are OK.

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked Beth (5b - SE-Michigan)
  • 7 years ago

    OUCH! Hopefully since it is early in the season your garden can recuperate to a great extent and start looking good again. - Jon

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked Jon 6a SE MA
  • 7 years ago

    So sorry Sherry.

    Brad

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked Brad KY 6b
  • 7 years ago

    All that hard work ruined in a flash! I’m so sorry for you. Maybe sandy slopes recommendation to make some changes this year will give you some ideas and restore your enthusiasm!

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked zkathy z7a NC
  • 7 years ago

    So sorry about your weather disaster. We lost 3 large trees last week one fell on 2 of my lily gardens and one fell across my brand new garden shed. I almost cried until I remembered how so many people have lost everything through these terrible tornados. We are blessed that all we lost are flowers and plants

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked shawndee
  • 7 years ago

    Looks like you had a bigger disaster than me. Hoping things look brighter for both of us by summers end!

    Sherry

  • 7 years ago

    I am so sorry to hear about the destruction in your garden. Words are not enough. Dick

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked dick_in_ohio
  • 7 years ago

    Bummer, I really feel for you. I wait all year just to see how my plants are doing each spring and to have all that ruined in one night is terrible. Sure, lots of worse things can happen, but to have your gardening parade hailed upon is just a joy killer. Wishing you gardening joy the rest of the year.

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked steve duggins(Z6a) - Central Ohio
  • 7 years ago

    How is it today?

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked lindalana 5b Chicago
  • 7 years ago

    No droopy plants or shrubs now, everything looked weighed down for several days. What is left of the beat up hostas is standing upright too, I’m in a quandary what to do with them. Ken would probably say to leave what’s there to feed the roots, just hard to look at them. The daylily leaves are browning a bit where their leaves were torn so they are looking a bit tired. Another sore spot is I might lose my campanula, a few heuchera and couple perennial geranium. We’ve had so much rain that there are curling leaves and yellowing happening. This garden is definitely having a less than stellar year.

    Sherry

  • 7 years ago

    Keep giving us updates. I still think everything will grow back out in another month and a lot will flourish and bloom despite the storm damage. Hang in there!


    Debra

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked shive
  • 7 years ago
    last modified: 7 years ago

    I figured yours would recover nicely, My grandson stomped my hosta flat looking for Easter eggs...It shows no sign of damage.

    kay

    sherrygirl zone5 N il thanked organic_kitten