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Battered garden reborn

 
Published Oct. 12, 1992|Updated Oct. 12, 2005

Silently, but with great vigor and speed, millions of green leaves have emerged from the battered remains of one of the country's finest botanical gardens.

Two-thirds of the 83-acre Fairchild Tropical Garden was badly damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Andrew.

"We couldn't have walked 10 steps in any direction," said Don Evans, the garden's chief horticulturist. "I could find myself in a part of the garden that I normally know well, and not know where I was."

Immense trees were thrown to the ground, sometimes one on top of another. Nearly every leaf in the garden was blown off, Evans said.

In some cases, trees were saved by losing their leaves. The royal palm, for example, has brittle leaves that break off easily in high wind, leaving only the smooth trunk behind. A more aerodynamic, leafless tree is less likely to be thrown to the ground.

In general, Evans said, species like the royal palm that are native to the hurricane-prone area survived better than others. Sable palms, also natives, did comparatively well.

To rescue hundreds of other trees that fell, the Fairchild staff and tree experts from other gardens and states have been working every day since the hurricane, hoisting trees one by one and replanting them. Some replanted trees already have begun to grow.

Palms were salvaged first because the Fairchild garden has what was considered the finest collection of palms in the world, with about 700 species. Palms have only one point of growth, unlike other trees that grow from a new spot along their trunks if the main growing point is damaged.

Each of the fallen Fairchild trees that had a chance of recovery was hauled upright by a crane, and then its roots were covered with mounds of soil from a backhoe and loader. In the case of the palms, buds had to be sprayed with fungicide because they are easily invaded by fungi.

Special wooden braces were built and wedged into place to keep each tree from falling.

Four hundred volunteers helped in this and other salvage work. Plant specialists arrived here from Walt Disney World, from the Morris Arboretum in Philadelphia, from the Bronx Botanical Garden in New York, from Oregon and from Kew Gardens in London.

The most complicated hoist was a sandbox tree. About 70 feet tall, its canopy of branches and leaves was at least that wide before the storm. The bark is covered with sharp, brown thorns at least a half-inch long, and its sap is poisonous. The tree is related to the poinsettia, a Christmas flower that is also poisonous.

"When the tree is cut, sap runs very freely, and it is very caustic," Evans said. The team of workers who righted the tree wore special suits, like ones worn for spraying noxious pesticides. Although they sawed off several broken limbs, including one as wide as a large tree itself, no one was injured.

Now the tree stands alone in an empty space, with a vast circle of grassless, newly turned black earth around its roots. A few leaves have sprung from its upper branches, but other than that it is bare.

"This was probably one of the saddest moments, when I realized that this tree was down," Evans said, looking up at it.

"A lot of the trees are so badly damaged that they'll never be good specimens again," he said, "but we're uprighting them for propagation."

Some trees had obviously been killed, but they have not gone to waste. First, William Klein, the garden director, invited the National Cancer Institute to take samples from the fallen trees, to be tested for use as drugs against cancer, AIDS or other diseases. Emissaries from the Bronx Botanical Garden collected 300 samples of leaf, root and stem tissue for the National Cancer Institute and for their own garden. It was a rare opportunity, because the Fairchild collection is large and carefully identified.

"We wouldn't have allowed these people to come in and cut down our palms," Evans said. But the hurricane did it for them.

To further use destroyed trees, volunteers have been sawing the trunks of fallen tropical hardwoods. The rare wood is prized by carpenters and artists, so the garden will hold a sale and auction of the wood on Oct. 31. Rarer wood will be auctioned, and more common wood like teak and mahogany will be sold.

"This is really an amazing collection of rare woods. I don't think you'll find anything like it anywhere else," said Evans, looking at a growing pile of logs, some of them bright yellow or deep red, or both.

The proceeds of the wood sale will go to rebuilding the garden. Fund-raisers already have collected $1.8-million for rebuilding, according to James W. McLamore, president of Fairchild and co-founder of Burger King. McLamore said the figure does not include donations from the garden's 5,000 to 6,000 members, since they haven't yet been asked for rebuilding contributions.