When Hurricane Dennis roared through last Sunday I had several hours of
tropical storm force winds (landfall was about 100 miles west of me). It was
too much for my very old privacy fence to handle, especially since we had
only patched it up after Hurricane Ivan damaged it last September. Two
sections fell completely, one of them squashing my young (4 foot tall)
banana plant and several of my gladioli.

Now, let me say first that I am grateful to only have to deal with a few
loose shingles, a busted privacy fence, and a few flattened plants from
these storms. Many other people have *far* worse problems. Hopefully my turn
won't come next week with Emily!

But regarding the plants:

(1) I know the banana will come back from the root; I'm not concerned about
the plant's survival, though I expect it will set the plant back.

However, my neighbor told me that I should cut off the stalk at the break,
then cut the stalk into roughly one-foot sections, and bury each of them
vertically, leaving a couple of inches exposed at the surface. He said if I
would do this, the sections would root and I would have a clump of banana
plants at the end of the season instead of just one.

This sounded like a great opportunity to turn lemons into lemonade to me, so
I did it. (Also, I had nothing to lose but a few minutes of my time; since
the stalk was broken, the top growth would have just died if I'd left it
there.)

So, has anyone done this before - will it work? If so, when should I expect
to see new growth? Any tips? I'm assuming since they are bananas that I
should keep them moist, and I am assuming that like any other cuttings I
should not fertilize them until I'm sure they have an established root
system. Am I on the right track?

(2) The gladioli are broken (not just bent) just above ground level, and
their foliage is starting to die. Should I leave their foliage until it is
completely dead, or can I cut off the leaves now?

Are they likely to die completely? If not, will they re-sprout now, or
should I expect them to go dormant until next spring? Assuming that they
live, when can I expect them to bloom again?

If it makes a difference, these bloomed about 2-4 weeks ago, and I used them
for cut flowers.

Thanks for any advice,

Laura

NW FL, USDA Zone 8b; first frost date is late November.