Walking through the Botanical Gardens in late October, visitors may have seen collapsed trees or the broken bridge leading to the medicinal garden.

Hurricane Milton made landfall on Oct. 9, 2024 in Siesta Key, bringing a storm of devastation to Tampa Bay.

The hurricane flooded the Gardens. The medicinal and wildflower gardens were left under four feet of water, and blank plots are now replacing some plants.

Related: USF’s Riverfront Park, Botanical Gardens temporarily closed following Milton 

Three months after Hurricane Milton, a walk through the Gardens looks similar to before the damage. 

Craig Huegel, the Gardens’ lead curator, said he has been working with volunteers to clean debris and restore the plants. 

Huegel said he spends most days hunched over gardens such as the wildflower meadow, potting soil and replanting seeds. 

“We have cleaned up all of the places that had fallen: trees, debris, mulch covering stuff,” Huegel said. “Nothing is back in place the way it was, but we have put a lot of the pieces back in.”

A large portion of the medicinal garden has been restored, Huegel said. Staff and volunteers cleaned up debris while FEMA workers removed broken trees.

Related: USF Botanical Gardens begins Milton cleanup: ‘There’s never been anything like this’

Huegel said fallen wooden fixtures were all mainly repaired. Some broken fencing remains, but any noticeable damage was cleared.

Staff assistant Leila Sujanani spent November cleaning the Gardens alongside her regular work. Cashiers spent their shifts cleaning debris during the plant shop’s closure that month.

Sujanani, a junior ecology and Chinese major, rescheduled the fall plant festival to Nov. 9-10 and scaled it down in size.

“The Gardens are completely self-funded, so we were worried about being unable to host the festival,” Sujanani said.

Huegel said although the festival was profitable and attendance was high, the Gardens lost potential income by rescheduling because not all vendors could attend the new date. The plant shop’s closure also strained the Gardens financially, he said.

No cashier is working at the plant shop. As a result, the shop is mainly closed throughout the week, Huegel said.

Huegel and the rest of the staff have been planning the landscaping, ordering and planting seeds and programming events for the spring semester.

Once the debris was cleared, the Gardens were left covered in holes and weeds, Huegel said.

Sujanani said although many aspects of the Gardens were lost, such as the African Tulip tree, some plants bloomed unexpectedly as the hurricanes changed their blooming period.

 “That was kind of a nice silver lining,” Sujanani said.

Newly opened space also allowed certain parts of the Gardens, such as the wildflower meadow, to receive more sun, Huegel said.

Huegel said despite the Gardens’ reopening, there haven’t been as many visitors. Students leaving during winter break, cold weather and leafless plants have contributed to the lack of attendance, he said.

To attract visitors, Huegel is prioritizing planning educational programs and festivals and finalizing the restoration of blank spaces.

Huegel said the Gardens are hosting three festivals that do not revolve around plants this semester. These include programs about migratory birds, pollinators and vegetable gardening.

“The Botanical Gardens is a work in progress, and when people come here, it’s not the endpoint,” Huegel said. “They’re coming to today’s starting point. We are what we are from what happened in the past.”