GARDENING : It's Santa Ana Winds That Blow Ill for Unprepared

By JULIE BAWDEN DAVIS

Nov. 21, 1992 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

The Santa Ana winds that hit Orange County earlier this month left many gardeners shaking their heads in dismay.

“I looked outside and thought, ‘that can’t be my yard,’ ” says North Tustin resident Sharon Whatley, about the morning after the winds. “My banana tree, which took me four years to grow, is now just a stick--it was stripped of all its leaves. My bougainvillea fell over, and the winds tore all of the flowers off my rose bushes.”

The Santa Anas, which occurred on Election Day, were definitely a striking introduction to the season, says Stephen Burback, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., who provides forecasts for The Times. “That day there were gusts of 30 to 40 m.p.h. and even 50 m.p.h. in some areas.”

Winds of this velocity can do a lot of damage to plants, says Gary Cramer, manager of Nurseryland Garden Center in Costa Mesa. “They can uproot trees, strip leaves off plants and burn foliage.”

Foliage burn shows up three to four days later in the form of browning around leaf perimeters.

The winds are also very drying, which can dehydrate your landscape, even killing container plants if you don’t water them quickly.

The winds are exclusive to Southern California (although parts of Central California get a milder version). They hit periodically during the months of October through April, generally originating from storms in the Gulf of Alaska.

“When there is a storm in the Gulf of Alaska, it moves down the coast, settling in the Great Basin in Utah,” Burback says. “Then a high pressure system builds up behind it and within a day or two, the air begins traveling toward sea level (Southern California).”

As it progresses, the wind gets faster, warmer and more destructive.

Although the Santa Anas can be a formidable landscape foe, there are preventive measures you can take to strengthen your yard against their onslaught. The more precautions you take, the less likely you’ll be to suffer casualties during the next gale.

“The best way to deal with the Santa Anas is to practice preventive maintenance, which includes correct pruning,” Cramer says. If trees aren’t pruned or are trimmed incorrectly, they will become dense, making it likely that limbs will break off when the wind hits them.

“Tree limbs like eucalyptus can be deadly if they snap off in the wind,” Cramer says. “One couple died while sitting in their car because a eucalyptus limb struck the vehicle during a windstorm. This could have been prevented if the tree had been properly maintained.”

Although you may have read that you should prune trees in late winter and early spring, don’t be concerned about trimming now, because fall is a great time to cut back, says Jeffrey Garton, a partner in the full-service landscape firm Paradise Designs Inc. in Dana Point.

To properly prune trees for the Santa Anas, it’s important to lace them out so that the wind can easily flow through, rather than butt up against them, Cramer says.

“Although this type of pruning takes a little longer than shearing or hedging, it will save your plants from being knocked over by high winds, and it is actually very attractive, because when pruning you follow the natural growth of the plant,” he says.

To thin a very dense tree, Garton says to work from the inside out. “Go in and take out crossing branches until you can see through the tree,” he says.

For an example of good pruning, take a look at Disneyland’s trees the next time you’re there, Cramer suggests. “The park has some very old trees that look great--there isn’t a weak branch on them.”

Another way to protect your trees and shrubs is to stake them. This is especially helpful for new plants and those in open areas likely to be buffeted by winds. All supplies needed for staking trees can be found at local nurseries.

Thanks to advances in meteorology, we now often know when the Santa Anas are coming. If you hear about expected high winds, there are a few things you should do immediately.

“The winds are extremely drying, so it’s important to water everything really well before and right after the storm,” Garton says. “This includes all container and ground plants and even the lawn.”

Because they’re easy to move, protecting container plants during windy times isn’t too difficult, Cramer says.

“Before the Santa Anas hit, I recommend moving container plants to safety inside a garage, next to a wall or under house eaves--anywhere they won’t get hit by the winds. This is especially important with hanging basket plants.”

You may want to place larger container plants on rollers so they can be easily pulled to safety. Or use an old nursery trick and set pots on their side, packing newspaper on top to keep the dirt in.

“Not only will this save your plant from damage, it will also prevent your pot from tipping and breaking,” says Cramer, who gets an influx of people in the nursery looking for containers the day after a storm.

Although protecting container plants can be done fairly easily, it’s usually not so easy to shelter ground plants. Placing something such as netting over a plant to protect it may seem like a good idea, but it isn’t always the answer. Because the winds can get torrid, the shelter could simply blow away, Cramer says.

Netting on a plant may even stress it at the roots, because the wind is then pushing against the plant as one solid mass. You can, however, net some vine plants such as bougainvillea if they’re up against a structure such as a wall or trellis, Garton says.

“Netting on bougainvillea will prevent the leaves from rubbing together and falling off,” he says.

Besides taking preventive steps during and after a windstorm, you should also plan ahead when planting. “Before you plant in a certain area, think about the wind that area receives,” Garton says. Is the area out in the open, or are there walls nearby to buffer the wind?

“If you determine that an area does get windy, then choose plants that do well in the Santa Anas and won’t look terrible afterward,” he says.

Plants that survive better in the wind generally have smaller, thinner, longer leaves that the wind can easily move through, Garton says.

Some wind-resistant plants to consider include:

* palm trees, such as the queen or king palm;

* acacia pines;

* pittosporum;

* melaleucas, which are soft and tend to bend with the wind;

* sequoias;

* New Zealand Christmas trees;

* oleanders;

* escallonia;

* bottlebrush;