Landscape - Nor'easters, Flooding, and Trees/Shrubs

With the nor'easter coming over the next several days, I thought it would be appropriate to post information on flooding and trees and shrubs.

Severe storms (“nor’easters”) may cause flooding in coastal areas. Some plants can tolerate flooded or waterlogged soil, such as green ash, deciduous holly, red maple, and red osier dogwoods. Others are intolerant of flooding: European mountain ash, basswood, beech, birch, cedar, crabapple, American holly, dogwood, forsythia, hawthorn, hemlock, black locust, Norway maple, white oak, white pine, privet, redbud, sassafras, sourwood, spruce, tulip tree,
black walnut, yellowwood, and yew. Dormant plants, no matter how intolerant, can tolerate flooding or waterlogging for several weeks without much damage.

Information from Steven K. Rettke, Ornamental IPM Program Associate, in the November 2, 2006 edition of the Plant and Pest Advisory, Landscape, Nursery and Turf Edition from Rutgers University.