Volunteers, staff work to reopen Leu Gardens
Hurricane Irma’s fierce winds shaved off tops of banana trees, toppled hearty bamboo stalks and decimated century-old hickory trees at Orlando’s Harry P. Leu Gardens.
Work to clean the park is well underway as contractors and volunteers face the towering task of preparing the garden to reopen. Robert Bowden, the garden’s executive director, hopes to allow visitors to parts of the park by Oct. 1.
“We lost a lot of magnolias, hickories,” Bowden said. “Those trees that didn’t come down in Charley came down this time.”
In order to reopen, contractors last week began chipping away at one of the largest obstacles standing in the way of reopening. With chainsaws, they hacked away at a 120-foot tall hickory that was uprooted and fell along one of the main sidewalks, chipping up concrete and damaging guardrails.
The tree was wider than 3 feet at its base, and Bowden said it was one of the 50-acre gardens’ largest. In total, Leu Gardens lost 175 trees.
Famous specialty gardens, such as rose, vegetable and tropical gardens had minor damage, but escaped the catastrophic wreckage the huge trees caused.
In the middle of the lush property, the Leu House Museum, built in 1888 and designated on the National Registry of Historic Places, saw a 2.5-ton Laurel oak limb crash through the roof on a wing of the home.
“There’s been significant water damage to the historic wing,” Bowden said.
He plans to hire a company that specializes in restoration to repair.
Bowden said the city doesn’t yet have a financial estimate to the damage to the entire garden yet, but Hurricane Charley cost about $350,000. It took a crew of about 30 workers 30 days to get the facility up and running again.
Charley downed about 200 trees Bowden said, in part because a tornado ripped across the property in the 2004 storm.
The garden is hosting a volunteer cleanup day Sept. 30, but quickly reached its 100-volunteer capacity. Bowden said he’s seeking organizations to help with repairs other days.
On a recent weekday, volunteers with rakes and gloves worked to clear sidewalks and pick up limbs covering shrubs and bushes around the garden. One commented to Bowden as he passed that they would have job security in the coming weeks.
At Winter Park’s Mead Garden, Irma damaged the tree canopy and downed several large trees and limbs, said Jason Seeley, who oversees Winter Park’s park’s department.
It also saw washouts to dirt roads and trails that snake through the park and had some power lines knocked down. However, the specialty gardens came away unscathed.
“Fortunately those things that are somewhat irreplaceable didn’t take any heavy damage,” Seeley said.
The tree damage at Leu Gardens was mostly hickories and magnolias, which have thicker leaves that make it difficult for wind to pass through.
When Bowden returned after the storm, he found thick layers of brush and limbs covering the sidewalks and had a tractor push them clear.
Two days after the hurricane an assessment on the damage was done, and he suspects FEMA will foot the bill for the repairs.
“We lost an amazing diversity of trees in this storm,” Bowden said.