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Thursday, July 7, 2016

Flop, or more like smash

I have a problem with drooping, floppy plants right now. Everything was fine until the rains started last weekend -- three weeks or more of dry weather makes you forget what "fun" midwest storms can be for a gardener. Everybody growing upright, a bit dry but otherwise happy. Until the rain.


Yesterday things got even more exciting, as two storm fronts collided in the area and made for some tumultuous weather. We were on the road somewhere close to historic Hannibal Missouri (boyhood home of Mark Twain) when things got scary as shown above. Lots of wind and heavy rain on a winding, hilly country highway, although we were keeping an eye out for debris too.


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After returning home we saw that the heavy rains had indeed fallen there too:



That's a sad rose mallow (Hibiscus lasiocarpos). Full of blooms about to open:


I'll have to tie this up somehow...


At least the Monarda wasn't affected:


Oh.


Guess I'll be tying that up too?


Once a bamboo culm gets leaning outward a bit, heavy rains make it almost horizontal. These two will be cut down:


But the Ph. nigra culms will be tied up:


Too precious to be cut!


The Shibatea kumasaca is pretty much flattened:


Can you tell from that low-quality photo? (Here is a "before" shot) It should pop back up, but many of those are young culms that may not have hardened yet. I haven't checked to see if any have snapped...


It was windy too:




Oh, and remember the Miscanthus that looked so nice a couple of weeks ago but I said would need to be chopped soon?


It's time for that rejuvenating chop!


Anybody else have to deal with plant-flattening storms during the summer?

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5 comments:

  1. No storms here thankfully but all of them should recover up gracefully :)

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  2. Oh yes. First the plants baked and now they're being drowned. And the wind has been stronger than normal even when it was super hot. My plants are not liking all of this.

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  3. We're usually pretty lucky here with mostly storm free summers. However, we still get a few floppy plants, especially with overhead sprinkling. Oh well, time for a bit of bondage.

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  4. Sorry your prediction came to pass. That highway photo really gives some scary context to your storm.

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  5. Rain...in...summer?!? Really? Huh.

    That first photo--what an awesome shot!

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