Re: More demons of ignorance, arrogance, and darkness

Prognosis consensus is that it will probably grow back--given 10 or 20 years of benign neglect.

The Historical Society has taken on the Parks Department as a special cause, so maybe they won't do anything quite this stupid again for a few years. One real problem is that this quaint little island has become highly desirable real estate, drawing speculators, developers, and other quick-buck types from far and wide. Preventing them from wreaking havoc--all in the name of progress, of course--is pretty much a full-time undertaking.

On Apr 26, 2006, at 2:21 AM, Marge Talt wrote:

Sickening; just sickening.  It looks like that jerk left some of the
DG bits on the palm...do you think, Jim, there's enough for it to
come back again?

I sure hope the locals are letting that city park dept. have it with
both barrels.  Don't they have a training program before they let
these guys loose?  I suppose not; just hire the cheapest labor going
as per usual.

It's probably a sign of aging, but it seems to me that a larger
proportion of the "employees" of any given entity one comes in
contact with these days were born one brick shy of a load and proud
of it.

Marge Talt, zone 7 Maryland
mtalt@hort.net
Shadyside Garden Designs



james singer <islandjim1@verizon.net> wrote:
  Last evening I got an e-mail from a reporter in the Venice bureau

of

the Sarasota Herald. She found me via "Dave's Garden." She wanted

to

know if she could quote something I'd written on DG about night
blooming cereus. Then she asked me if I was aware of what had

happened

to one of 80-year-old night blooming cereus plants in an older
neighborhood on Venice island. I said I wasn't.

Turns out that a woman, Ms. Ruth, now in her 80s, "planted" night
blooming cereus on two palm trees [Phoenix canariensis] in the

median

in front of her house in the mid-1940s. I don't know which genus of

NBC

they are--they're an epiphyte and their vegetative body is

cylindrical,

about the diameter of a hot dog but in much longer stems. For the

last

30 or so years, the annual blooming of these two plants has been
occasion for a block party; many neighbors gathered in Ms. Ruth's

front

courtyard at sundown and waited until the cacti flowers open.

Last year, the reporter told me, the assembled neighbors counted

more

than 200 blooms. It must have been beyond glorious.

About a week ago, a young city park's department employee cut the

NBC

off one of the palms before he could be stopped. "I was told to

clean

up street trees," he said. "And I thought this one was ugly." Here

are

two pictures I took this AM; one is of the remaining "ugly" tree,

the

other is of the beautified tree. If you know anything about pruning

P.

canariensis, you'll find the beautified tree looks like it was

trimmed

by Freddy Krueger.

http://snipurl.com/pnxg

Island Jim
Southwest Florida
27.0 N, 82.4 W
Hardiness Zone 10
Heat Zone 10
Minimum 30 F [-1 C]
Maximum 100 F [38 C]



---------------------------------------------------------------------

To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE GARDENCHAT



---------------------------------------------------------------------

To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE GARDENCHAT

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE GARDENCHAT



Island Jim
Southwest Florida
27.0 N, 82.4 W
Hardiness Zone 10
Heat Zone 10
Minimum 30 F [-1 C]
Maximum 100 F [38 C]

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE GARDENCHAT
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index