By james art 
May Nursery in Havana, reeling from heavy damage from Florida’s winter storm
Outdoor daycares across the region are grappling with millions of dollars in losses and structural damage days after Tuesday’s winter storm dumped unprecedented levels of snow, sleet and freezing rain.
Outdoor wholesale nurseries across the region are grappling with millions of dollars in losses and structural damage days after Tuesday’s winter storm dumped unprecedented levels of snow, sleet and freezing rain.
Where do we begin, Richard May said as he searched for words to describe the devastation. The third-generation farmer, president of May Nursery in Havana, the same wholesale farm his grandfather founded, is trying to deal with the aftermath.
Large sections of the farm were leveled. Towering blinds that concealed his vast inventory collapsed under the sheer weight of heavy snow, wet from rain and then iced by sub-zero temperatures. The greenhouses twisted. Rows of shrubs and flowers such as azaleas, hydrangeas, nandinas and abelias — crushed.
Still, May was unable to get a full picture of the damage.
“We don’t know because the snow hasn’t melted yet,” he said Friday afternoon in an interview with the Tallahassee Democrat. “We can’t actually get under the fabric to see what they look like.”
To make matters worse, when the canopies and greenhouses fell and collapsed to the ground, they broke irrigation pipes needed to irrigate the farm’s 225 acres of produce. May estimates the farm suffered $1 million to $2 million in structural damage, which does not include the hit to inventory. He said the farm had never had this much damage, even during Hurricane Michael in 2018, which left about $500,000 worth of damage in its wake.
With 140 employees, May Nursery is one of the largest wholesale farms in the region and ships orders to nearly every state east of the Mississippi River, along with Texas, Missouri and parts of Canada, May said. It also serves local nurseries and garden centers such as Esposito’s and Tallahassee Nurseries.
How will the winter storm affect May Nursery and others?
Lloyd Nursery Damaged By Snow, Ice, Florida Winter Storm | Drone video
At Lloyd Nursery in the small unincorporated town of Lloyd, 18 miles from Tallahassee, the farm lost about two to three football fields of inventory.
The snowstorm affected about 15 percent of May Nursery’s property — compromising about 35 acres of shade plants and shrubs. The equivalent of approximately 35 football fields.
At Lloyd Nursery in the small unincorporated town of Lloyd, 18 miles from Tallahassee, the farm lost about two to three football fields of inventory.
Lloyd Nursery owner Alex Kantor said storm damage to nurseries in the region was extensive, adding that Clinton Nurseries next door to May Nursery had enough damage to fill 10 football fields. Monrovia Nursery Company and Flowerwood Nursery, both in Cairo, Georgia, had another 30 to 40 football fields of damage.
“This is worse than a Category 5 hurricane hitting every kindergarten in North Florida,” Cantor said. “If you take a hurricane and make it the size of Hurricane Michael and drive it down I-10 from Madison to Pensacola, that’s the damage we see on every single farm.”
“Hurricanes don’t move from east to west,” he continued. “They run north and south for the most part. So usually a hurricane doesn’t even have the power to affect us all equally.”
The mass loss will impact customers. In the crop industry, Cantor said he and his colleagues are not able to change prices as quickly as other commodities, such as gas or supplies, adding that “we don’t have that power.”
“Plants may be in short supply,” he said. “The only way to make a new baby plant if it’s dead is to grow it another year.” I don’t necessarily need to replace it immediately. It must take time to grow. So there will be some supply chain issues.”
He explained how sub-zero temperatures are a plant killer. Cold temperatures freeze the juice inside. When the sap freezes, it expands and cracks the stem of the plant.
“They don’t die immediately, but there’s no going back from that level of cold damage,” Cantor said. “Different plants have different tolerances, so it depends on what types of plants which farms grow. It’s too early to even assess that damage.”
How the winter storm affected the surviving plants, operations
Even if some local nurseries were spared direct damage, they were all affected by a loss of revenue when businesses were forced to close.
At Esposito’s on Capital Circle Northeast, general manager Mary Rock said employees were unable to work for two days and the independent retailer lost much-needed income. By Thursday, it had reopened and had customers looking for chainsaw blades or just needing to get out of the house after being closed.
A burst pipe was found and quickly fixed. The outside area was still too icy to walk on so it was off limits.
“We didn’t want anyone to go out there and get hurt, and then we had icicles just flying off the top of the roof. So that was another danger,” Rock said.
It may be several more weeks before nurseries can determine whether their products will survive and be able to be sold. When he spoke to the Democrat on Friday, Rock said staff were still waiting to assess the damage.
The wait and anxiety is likely to be felt by everyone in the plant industry.
For May, he said most of his products are “complete plants,” meaning they can be ready for sale in March, April, May and in the spring.
“Now these plants are going to be basically squashed to the ground, which means I’m going to have to cut them to the ground and hope they grow back,” May said. “If they grow back, they won’t be able to sell in March, April and May, which is our main shipping period.”
“They might not be ready until September or October,” he continued. “So we basically have to re-grow the entire crop.”
May said he thinks his damage may not be covered by insurance because the damaged shade is considered a temporary structure. He is working with his insurance company to determine his options.
Manufacturers are now turning to government officials for guidance and help.
Cantor said he has spoken with elected officials such as Jefferson County Commissioner Austin Hosford and state Rep. Alison Tant, both of whom have listened and offered guidelines for reporting major damage and a call to action.
“Today Alison Tant from the Florida House called me to hear first hand about the damage nursery owners are experiencing. She listened with attentive interest and said, ‘I care about the farmers in rural North Florida,'” Cantor said, adding, Tant said, “I’m not going to let you feel isolated as a result of a natural disaster.”
Cantor said Tant assured him she would raise the issue at the capitol to warn lawmakers about the damage to the agriculture industry.
“Typically in Florida, there are processes to assist farmers in hurricanes that support structure loss, ranging from greenhouses to crop losses and hurricane stuff,” Cantor said. “There are no exact snowstorm programs because we’ve never had one.”
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