07/30/2025
How Sun-Fire Nurseries in Florida recovered from three hurricanes: https://www.nurserymag.com/article/sun-fire-nurseries-florida-hurricane-recovery/
The city of Sarasota, Florida, has experienced years-long reprieves from hurricanes. And the locals used to enjoy retelling a piece of folklore based on “Legend of Sara de Soto,” a story by George Chapline written in the early 1900s. The story describes a forbidden romance between Sara, the daughter of an early Spanish settler, and a Seminole prince, Chichi-Okobee. When the warrior becomes gravely ill, Sara nurses him back to health, but she eventually falls ill herself and dies. Okobee buries her in the bay, and her spirit guards the area against hurricanes. It’s a quixotic legend, but it doesn’t inspire the same sentiment anymore. Not since hurricanes Ian, Helene and Milton.
Before those three hurricanes assailed Sarasota, there were also armchair meteorologists who’d come up with interesting explanations as to why the area was spared so often — and which were about as veracious as the Sara de Soto legend.
T. Jay Higgins, owner of Sarasota-based Sun-Fire Nurseries, knew it was balderdash. It’s Florida, after all, and there’s no escaping a hurricane at some point, he says.
