Wrong Plant, Wrong Place

South Florida suffers from an epidemic of wrong plant, wrong place. This has been going on for years and accounts for our butchered trees under utility wires with V or L shapes. Palms are the worst example as they cannot easily bend to avoid wires. Palms only have one growing point at the top of the tree and if this is pruned out the palm dies. One often sees singed palm fronds where the leaves touch power lines.

One of the problems is that there is not enough information available on how big plants grow. One old book I have says that black olives grow to 20-25 feet tall. I saw black olives in Puerto Rico with trunk diameters of 5 feet and heights of 90 feet. This is one of the problems with books. What is written is based on knowledge from that time. Time reveals many other factors that authors may not have been aware of like the staining the black olives cause and trees splitting because of poor branch structure despite strong wood.

Most people are guilty of these oversized problems. When I moved to Florida I fell in love with the rainbow gum which has spectacular patterned bark. I first saw the tree at the Subtropic Research Center in the South Miami area. The tree I saw was about 20 feet tall and 20 years old. I did not know about oolite rock that the tree was growing in. Planting holes are drilled into the rock and the tree is planted in the hole. The tree is pot bound in the rock which stunts the growth. I planted a 3 gallon tree in sugar sand near my house in 1983. The tree did not have restricted roots and grew rapidly. I donated it to Softscapes Nursery in 1992 just 2 weeks before Hurricane Andrew hit. The tree grew 9 feet a year and was 65 feet tall and had a 20 inch trunk diameter when it was moved. The root ball was 11x11 feet and 4 feet deep. This tree weighed 28,000 lbs. when it was moved. The tree was loaded on a big flatbed truck and was replanted at Softscapes.

It is important to check for underground and above ground utilities before you plant. Sewers, septic tanks, drain fields and underground wires are all affected by tree roots.