WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Have you noticed something strange with your plants and bushes since Hurricane Florence?
October is here and leaves aren’t falling but, flowers are blooming.
Hurricane Florence made a huge impact on gardens and will continue to over the next couple of weeks. Warm and humid weather conditions are making for a very unseasonable response.
“What’s happened is that the storm and high winds caused a lot of stress on our trees and so when it comes stressed its natural reaction is to make sure that if it passes or dies is that it has babies that are going to live after it goes,” said Susan Allison Brown, NHC Consumer Horticulture Culture Agent.
Brown says it will not last long because the plants will soon go dormant and preserve their energy for spring. So, what happens if we get more fall like temperatures?
Airlie Gardens Grounds Maintenance Supervisor Scott Childs says it could affect future seasons.
“If it got really cold, especially if they are counting on bees and other insects to do the fertilizing on the flowers, they would not be fertilized so the seeds would not be produced,” said Childs. “By producing these flowers now a lot of these plants in the spring will not have enough viable buds or at least a diminished number of viable buds.”
Fruit trees and blueberry bushes are also a concern because they can have the same response as blooming flowers.
The Arboretum took a hard hit from Florence by losing multiple large oaks, a half of a mature red bud and multiple elms.
Childs said they will remain closed for a few more weeks to clean-up.