Hurricane Helene dealt the nursery a severe blow
by Jeanne Malmgren
Many of us know about Carolina Native Nursery in Burnsville, North Carolina. They’re the Southeast’s largest from-seed grower of native plants—perennials, ferns, grasses, shrubs and trees. Bill Jones founded CNN 20+ years ago. They’re a standard bearer for the environmental benefits of using indigenous flora in our landscapes. Their motto: “Saving the Earth, One Plant at a Time.”
They’re also a good friend of SCNPS and in particular our Upstate chapter, since their mountain-adapted cultivars are well suited to our growing conditions. For years, CNN has served as a supplier for our plant sales.
In late September, Carolina Native Nursery was severely damaged by Hurricane Helene. While we in the Upstate were being buffeted by high winds and falling trees, CNN—like so many places in Western North Carolina—experienced fierce flooding. Prices Creek, the placid mountain stream that runs through their 18 acres, turned into a wild river, burying the property under four feet of water and mud. Hurricane-force winds uprooted trees and threw them onto hoop houses, bending the metal frames into twisted sculptures.
Photo Credit: Jeanne Malmgren
At the height of the storm, raging floodwaters swept through the hoop houses, carrying away tens of thousands of potted plants that were sitting on the ground. Debris from neighboring properties lodged in huge piles: wooden pallets, plastic chairs, oil tanks, a full-size trash dumpster, cabbages ripped from the farm field down the road.
Photo Credit: Jeanne Malmgren
Jones and co-owner Shelby Jackson met at the nursery hours after the storm to assess the damage. Potted plants lay scattered across the property, overturned and caked in mud. A huge number of plants had disappeared altogether. Empty pots ended up in pastures a mile away. Others were stuck in the branches of trees growing along the creek, a hint at how high the water rose.
It was 90 percent of the nursery’s inventory—healthy mature plants, ready for fall sales, retail value more than $1-million. All of it … lost.
“I cried tears of despair,” Jackson said.
The nursery put out the word about their plight, with regular video updates on social media featuring drone footage. From above the nursery looked like the site of a bomb explosion. Jones, a man with a sense of humor, described the thousands of plants that washed away and said: “This wasn’t exactly how we wanted to reforest North Carolina, but … we’re happy to help.”
Photo Credit: Jeanne Malmgren
Jones and Jackson have vowed to “rebuild and regrow” the nursery. Insurance will help, as will the GoFundMe set up by a friend. Many of the donors to that fund were colleagues in the horticulture industry: landscape contractors and owners of garden centers around the Southeast that sell CNN plants.
In the first week after the hurricane, many of those friends stepped forward to help with urgent needs: salvaging what plants they could, scraping mud out of hoop houses, rebuilding the irrigation system.
“My tears of despair turned into tears of gratitude,” Jackson said.
There was also good news from the nursery’s retail shop: The limited inventory there survived the storm in fine shape. So CNN started inviting people to visit them and go shopping. Every purchase, no matter how small, would help them get back on their feet. They moved the plants to a far end of the nursery, not normally open to the public but out of the way of damaged areas.
In mid-October, I was in Burnsville volunteering at a hurricane relief center. It was just a few miles from Carolina Native Nursery, so I decided to drop in and see how they were doing, maybe buy a few plants.
Even then, almost three weeks after the storm, CNN was still heartbreaking to behold. Jackson drove me around the nursery on a UTV and I took photos, sucking in my breath at the devastation I saw.
Photo Credit: Jeanne Malmgren
After browsing through the “for sale” hoop house, I brought home a couple of native azaleas, a peewee oakleaf hydrangea, and some hay-scented ferns for my rock garden. They’re probably the prettiest, healthiest plants I’ve ever bought and whenever I see them in my landscape, I’ll remember that they weathered a hurricane.
Since my visit, Carolina Native Nursery has hosted three volunteer days when they invited friends and supporters to help in the ongoing work of clean-up. Folks came from garden centers, nurseries, and botanical gardens all over North Carolina and Tennessee.
Here’s how the nursery looks now … vastly improved.
Photo Credit: Shelby Jackson
Photo Credit: Shelby Jackson
They’ve also reopened the “Bee Native” retail plant shop. There are plenty of non-hurricane damaged plants for sale at regular prices but if you’re looking for a bargain, CNN is also selling some of the “hurricane survivors”—those plants that got soaked in floodwater—for only $4 apiece. Jackson notes that they’ve rebounded nicely from the storm and are expected to be healthy.
Jones and Jackson and their staff are hoping to fully reopen by spring, but there’s still a mountain of work to do. If you’d like to help, there probably will be more volunteer days. Keep an eye on CNN’s Facebook page for updates.
We wish our friends at Carolina Native Nursery all the best for a speedy recovery!
CNN’s Bee Native Plant Shop is open 9-5 Monday through Friday. They’re located at 1639 Prices Creek Road, Burnsville, NC—and all the roads to get there are in good shape.
Note: This article was adapted from a post in Jeanne’s online newsletter, Rx Nature. You can subscribe for free at jeannemalmgren.substack.com.
