Hurricane Milton caused widespread destruction to Florida’s nursery infrastructure and crops, including damage to poinsettia plants that could lead to holiday season shortages.
John Taylor, manager of Ralph Taylor's Nurseries in Bradenton, Fla., grows grasses, ground cover, cold hardy and woody ornamentals that he delivers to Florida Home Depot locations. Many of his greenhouse facilities were damaged, leading to expenses from lost plants, infrastructure repair and paying employee wages.
“We basically didn't have any sales for three weeks, and we were paying our crew because we were doing hurricane prep and hurricane recovery. Then we did it all over again,” Taylor said, referring to hurricanes Helene and Milton making landfall less than a month apart.
“For a lot of the growers in the area, it's not just recovery, picking up the pieces, repairing, dealing with the financial stress and burden,” Taylor added. “They were banking six months worth of work or six months worth of revenue on this crop, and it's gone.”
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The Florida Nursery, Growers and Landscape Association estimates the state’s nursery and landscape industry generates $31.4 billion in sales annually.
Taylor said poinsettia growers in his area saw excessive damages just months before the Christmas holiday season that could create shortages.
Extensive damage from Hurricane Milton at Ralph Taylor’s Nurseries in Bradenton, Florida. (Photo: John & Janyel Taylor)The Nursery, Growers and Landscape Association organized a meeting with Robert Bonnie, USDA's undersecretary for farm production and conservation, in Florida Thursday to discuss a disaster assistance package.
“We are an industry that hasn't really asked for a lot, to be quite honest, through all the hurricanes that we've endured through over the years,” said Tal Coley, CEO of the association. “Now with the frequency that they're occurring, I think we certainly want to be put in the discussion.”
Milton was the fourth hurricane to hit Florida agriculture in 14 months.
While the industry is still awaiting results from the University of Florida’s economic impact analysis assessment to determine the price tag on hurricane damage, Coley said it’s important that the package is fully funded as a first priority after coming up short during previous supplemental packages.
A preliminary damage report on Milton from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services estimated the losses to agriculture at $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion.
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