EL PASO - The deep freeze we had last month didn't help with electric bills or landscaping costs. If you think you've lost hundreds in dead palm trees and cacti, you're not alone.
Most experts say, wait before you think about replacing your palm trees and other fragile plants because of the unpredictable weather we've been having. And now with all this blowing dust, it doesn't seem like we'll catch a break.
"I could've cried, all the work and the money and the time we've put into it," said Dorothy Haverland, who lives in Chaparral, NM. She says she's done buying palm trees after hers became brown, dried, and droopy. The arctic temperatures can be blamed for the first round of damage but now, the wind can be blamed for the second.
"It's drying them out even more, we just keep socking the water to it, what are you going to do," Haverland said.
She thinks she's lost as much as $300 worth of plants including her palm tree.
"We're proud of our yard but mother nature just sort of zapped it," Haverland said.
"We lost pretty much all our Phoenix Palms, and whatever Mexican Fan Palms that we did have," said Michael Griffith, who owns Northeast Plantworld Nursery. he also lost a lot in the storm, But unlike Haverland, he stands to earn some of it back.
"We have had a lot more customers come in, either buying new plants or coming in and asking questions," he said.
He says he gets about 40 to 50 customers each day asking questions about palm trees. But he gets multiple shipments each week, so if they're out, you can put your name on a list.
But with the blowing dust, he says the worst isn't over. So before you declare your palm tree dead, Griffith says to wait it out a little bit more.
"Give it some time and like i said the thing right now is to fertilize it and use a Superthrive root stimulator; that's your best option right now," he said.
Even though Haverland has sworn off palm trees, she's holding out hope that there's another desert plant out there for her.
"But we keep trying, we don't give up, there's got to be something," she said.
Experts also say you should trim off those dried-out fronds so when the dust comes sweeping in, it doesn't make the top even heavier and blow it over.
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