NC State Extension Helps Ornamental Growers Recover After Helene

Sam Marshall stood in a field in Burke County, gobsmacked by what he saw. It was a few days after Hurricane Helene swept through the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina. As Marshall looked around, his brain had a hard time processing what his eyes beheld. 

“I was out here a week after the storm,” he said. “The floods had gone down but you could still see the waterline. Your eyes see it, but you can’t comprehend what you’re looking at because it just doesn’t make sense.”

The waterline told the story of the unimaginable destructive power of the storm that tracked through western North Carolina in late September. Debris could be seen at the very top of the tallest trees. 

The low-lying bottomlands are prone to flooding, but the floodwaters are usually measured in inches. In the aftermath of Helene, it was feet.

“They’ve seen flooding; this is not new,” he said. “But the level and the extent of the damage and how widespread it was, it is unprecedented.”

Marshall is NC State Extension’s area specialized agent for ornamental nursery and greenhouse producers in western North Carolina. Growers in the industry provide trees, shrubs, house plants, flowering plants and bedding plants for use in residential and commercial landscaping. Basically, “plants that you don’t eat are ornamental,” Marshall said.

North Carolina ranks No. 5 in the nation in total horticultural sales. It’s a $600 million industry in the state, and western North Carolina accounts for about $150-200 million of that. 

“A lot of our production is in field nurseries,” said Marshall, whose region encompasses 28 counties. “These are ornamental trees and shrubs that are in a field. They’re sold and shipped all up and down the Eastern seaboard.”

Sam Marshall, NC State Extension’s area specialized agent for ornamental nursery and greenhouse producers in western North Carolina, assesses a field damaged by Hurricane Helene in Burke County with grower Dee Clark.

After Helene, there will be significantly fewer trees and shrubs coming out of the fields in the mountain counties. The field where Marshall was standing in Burke County, where the waterline provided eloquent testimony of the extent of the flooding from Helene, belongs to a grower. The storm flooded hundreds of such fields, and ruined hundreds of thousands of plants.

“We had over 300,000 plants that were underwater, at least a foot deep,” said Dylan Gragg of North 40, a wholesale plant nursery in Burke County. “We had emeralds [emerald green arborvitae] ready to harvest — some of them were 8 feet, some of them were 10 feet — and we lost probably close to 15,000 of them. That’s almost $3 million. And just that’s the emeralds. That’s not the green giants or some of the hollies that we lost. This one hurt pretty bad.”

The storm’s high winds toppled trees. The flood waters killed trees and shrubs, and deposited trash and debris in others that, even after cleaning, makes them difficult to sell. When the water receded, it left silt and sand that could impact the growth and health of present and future plants.

Related: NC State soil experts assess storm-impacted land 

Marshall estimates the loss at some $300 million in direct sales, ruined equipment, and labor costs to clean, repair and replant. 

“The impacts from the storm were immediate,” he said. “We had growers that couldn’t sell the trees that they had promised to businesses and landscape companies. They lost those sales directly. It’s a big deal. It’s significant.”

Hurricane Helene damaged or killed hundreds of thousands of trees and plants grown for the ornamental nursery industry.

The economic impact is not just statistics on a spreadsheet. The numbers represent a significant setback and challenge for people he works with on a daily basis.

“This is a job that I love and it’s a group of people I love working with,” he said. “This was such a devastating event. The very least I can do is to show them that I’m working hard for them, so that they can see that they’re not forgotten. Their livelihoods are at stake.”

They are growers like Dylan and his brother, Caleb, with North 40 Nursery, and Dee Clark with C&G Nursery. Dylan and Caleb are fourth-generation growers. Dee began C&G in 1984. Between them, they have decades of experience.

They are well aware of the ups and downs in their business. There are good years and bad years. Weather can affect profit margins, as can consumer tastes. Something planted because it was popular five years ago might be out of vogue when it is ready to be harvested.

“I’ve heard it said that one of the biggest gambles in the agriculture industry is nursery production,” Marshall said.

Dylan quickly agrees.

“We gamble every second of every day,” he said. “You win some and you lose some.”

But even for veteran growers accustomed to the vagaries of the industry, Hurricane Helene was shocking. 

“I’m 62,” Clark said. “The worst flooding that I had seen in my lifetime was in ‘04, when we got 24 inches of rain in 36 hours. This was 30 inches in less than 24 hours.”

Clark has fields in Burke and Avery counties in North Carolina, and in Johnson County, Tennessee. Geographic diversification can be a hedge against localized flooding, but Helene devastated the entire region.

“Between the three areas, I’m estimating about $3 million in losses just in plants,” said Clark, who lives in Avery County. “I’ve lost at least 75% of my ornamental evergreens. And then we lost Frazier firs that were tagged to sell this year to landslides. That doesn’t count the equipment. And then labor, I mean, that’s another $200,000 right there.”

NC State Extension expert Sam Marshall (second from right) discusses storm damage with ornamentals growers Dylan Gragg, Dee Clark and Caleb Gragg.

Burke County, where North 40 is located, is in the foothills. The fields where ornamental growers plant their trees and shrubs are flat, for the most part. They are close to rivers and streams, because that is where the good soil is.

It’s easy to envision them covered by a few inches of flooding after a heavy rain. It’s hard to imagine the fields converted to lakes, with water several feet deep. 

Then again, it’s hard to imagine the sheer volume of water produced by the storm, and the destructive power of the floods as they swept through. 

“You had tractors, skid steers, trucks, box trailers getting moved 300 or 400 yards in places where it was not supposed to flood, where you never thought it would flood,” Caleb said. “You moved it to higher ground and you’re like, if it floods right here, everybody’s done. And it sure enough ended up flooding right there.”

When you hear that a hurricane is moving through your area, you know things will be bad.

“They were calling for 10 to 12 inches of rain,” Clark said. “I know when we get 5 inches on this side of Avery County, we’re going to get flooding down here in Burke. It’s usually just creeks getting up a little bit. When they were calling for 10. I knew we were going to get some decent flooding but nothing catastrophic. We ended up getting 30 inches. And all of that water comes down here.”

The simple laws of physics dictate that water rolls downhill. Burke County sits below Avery. The massive rains in the higher areas, combined with 15 inches locally, made this a historical event.

“We’re sitting just below Caldwell County and Avery,” Marshall said. “So all the runoff from those counties ends up here in Burke County, where it starts to level off. The extent of the flooding in this area was huge. We had a nursery in Marion, that sits below where a lot of the runoff happened, that was completely devastated. When we say gone, it means gone. I mean, in some places it looked like a nuclear bomb had gone off.”

The growers tell stories of flooding, of trees lost, of tremendous financial losses, with a combination of stoicism and gallows humor. Recovery will take years. They are facing lean times for the foreseeable future. But this is their life and their livelihood. They are in it for the long haul, and are prepared for whatever it takes.

“You’ve heard of mountain strong and farmer strong,” Dylan said. “I mean, there ain’t nothing you can do. You can’t cry about it because if you do, you’re just going to have a wet face and dead plants. You might as well get back to work, buckle it up and keep on going.”

The financial impact from Hurricane Helene could be felt for years to come.

They are getting back to work knowing they have a vital partner in NC State Extension.

Related: Extension Works to Rebuild Lives, Renew Hope after Helene

Marshall began communicating with growers as soon as cell service was restored, and was out in the field when flood waters receded and roads allowed access.

“Sam has been excellent,” Caleb said. “About a week after the flood he came and we rode around and looked at all the damage. Immediately they were trying to figure out what they could do. Other agents came down, and were hands on.”

Extension experts from the central and eastern parts of North Carolina came west to help clean debris from fields.

In the immediate aftermath, Marshall worked with state representative Destin Hall to provide personal protective equipment and leaf blowers to allow growers to safely go into their fields and begin the cleanup process. Marshall also helped procure irrigation equipment to channel water out of fields and back into rivers and streams, worked with federal, state and local authorities to match growers with any governmental assistance available, and coordinated volunteers from around North Carolina who came to help.

“A lot of that was talking directly with growers and figuring out what their immediate needs were and coordinating with the central and eastern parts of the state,” he said. “This industry is a very close-knit group. We worked with the NCNLA [North Carolina Nursery and Landscape Association] to help coordinate some of their efforts, and we were able to get help from other nurseries. We had people driving in equipment, tractors, backhoes, to help rebuild roads so they could get to their plants just to salvage what they could.”

The sand and silt deposited by floodwaters from Helene made fields in Burke County resemble the sandy soil of the coast.

There could be yet more damage from the storm. The effects from the volume of flood water might not manifest for weeks and months from now. The silt and sand left behind could introduce pathogens and diseases. The accumulation of sediment could choke off new growth, and make it difficult to dig and plant.

“We don’t know the long term impact, whether trees that are remaining in the field will continue to be viable,” Marshall said. “It could be months, it could be a year before those trees start to decline. It’s kind of a wait-and-see game. You’re waiting for a minimum of 3, 4, 5 months, but sometimes it can be up to a year before you notice that damage.”

Trees that appeared to have escaped significant damage were still clinging to their leaves three months later, a sign of storm-related stress.

“A lot of shade trees are dormant right now,” Dylan said. “It won’t be until probably April, May, that we’ll be able to see if some just end up dying from the stress. That’s stuff that we don’t know. We’ve already put the time and the money into trying to save them, and we don’t even know if it’s going to work.”

After helping with short-term needs, Marshall is now focused on helping mitigate the damage in the long term.

“I’m moving back into my consulting and advisory role,” he said. “I’m looking into the trees that are going to continue to grow to make sure that diseases aren’t a problem right now. As we get into the growing season, I’ll continue to monitor plant health.”

Marshall will rely on research-based information from NC State’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to answer questions from growers and to provide solutions.

“We know that ambrosia beetles attack stressed trees,” he said. “Trees are certainly stressed now going into the dormant season, and they’re certainly going to be stressed coming out of the winter. So we’ll start our monitoring programs a little bit early. We’ll scout more often. I’ll set traps out in multiple counties to monitor for ambrosia beetles.”

He will work with campus experts for help with issues such as soil health, and network with other Extension experts as problems emerge. 

“None of the work is ever done in a vacuum,” Marshall said. “It’s always a team and community effort. I’m proud to work for NC State, and I’m proud to get to work with this group of guys and women that put it all on the line. And they’re still doing it. They could easily say, ‘I’m leaving. I’m walking away.’ And I don’t think anybody would blame them. They’re not, and that’s encouraging. It’s an honor and a privilege to be able to help them in the way that they deserve to be helped.”