Aurora spared heavy hail damage, but plants pay the price

The City of Aurora got what seems like a glancing blow compared to neighboring communities which saw lots of property damage. Still, it's not something people are thrilled about.

"Hail is a four-letter word around here," said Colette Haskell.

She is a horticulturist for Nick's Garden Center in Aurora, but that doesn't mean her yard and garden were shown any mercy by Thursday night's hailstorm.

"I heard the hail coming, and I went out and I grabbed everything I could that was in pots that I could bring into the garage. And then the garden just got what it got," said Haskell.

On Friday she was mourning the loss of her garden like many Aurorans, but things could have been much worse. The hail seemed to be small and while plants took a beating Colette says there's a pretty good chance many of them will survive.

"Most of the time perennials and trees and shrubs, they're not going to die from hail damage. They just look bad," said Haskell.

It's the smaller garden plants that may not make it, but only time will tell.

"I just evaluate. I just kind of go up and clean up the mess a little bit and then wait a week and see how things are going," said Haskell.

Haskell says a bigger danger for your plants is infection.

"They have all these wounds. And then if it's cool and damp for the few days after, they can catch diseases because they're like people. They have wounds and bacteria can get into the vascular system and give them infections," said Haskell.

While she says it's a shame her and so many others' plants were damaged, it comes with the territory.

"It's part of gardening in Colorado that we get some random hailstorms. And so we just kind of go with the flow," said Haskell.

Haskell says it's a good idea to keep some five-gallon buckets, bamboo sticks, clothes pins or clips and a tarp of some kind handy so you can cover you plants for future hail storms.