by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
When the City unveiled in April its $2 million plan to turn Bay Street into downtown’s premier entertainment corridor, artist renderings depicted couples strolling along renovated sidewalks underneath lush, green palms.
Eight months later, the street and sidewalks are in place as anticipated. But the Washingtonian Palms have withered, almost since the day they were planted.
The trees aren’t dying, just dormant. The stress from moving and planting the trees commonly shocks them into a fallow phase before new, green leaves sprout, said Charles McGehee, owner of S & J Nursery in Mandarin. McGehee said the Washingtonian Palms are among the most popular of the 17 varieties of palms he sells.
Public Works spokesperson Marcy Cook said the trees should emerge from their dormant stage by the spring. Cool temperatures until the Super Bowl will likely keep the palms brown for the estimated 100,000 visitors headed to Jacksonville for the Feb. 6 game.
“It’s a matter of timing,” said Cook. “It wouldn’t make sense economically to tear them up and replant them just for the Super Bowl.”
Work on Bay Street was delayed by a little over a month as the mayor’s office and General Counsel’s Office debated bidding procedures for the contracts, including landscaping. Although work began in late August instead of June, contractors followed an accelerated work schedule and look to be on track to finish the project in early January as originally scheduled.
Getting the trees in the ground a month earlier probably wouldn’t have kept them green for the Super Bowl, said McGehee. Palms typically shed their leaves for two to three months after being transplanted. Green fronds usually don’t sprout until warmer weather arrives, he said.
“They will shock a little bit when they’re first planted, but by spring and summer they’ll produce new leaves,” he said.
Once green, the trees should stay that way. McGehee said the Washingtonian Palms are among the hardiest varieties of palms and one of the cheapest. McGehee gets $22 a foot for his Washingtonians so a 20-foot tree like those lining Bay Street would cost about $440 coming from his lot. Some varieties of palms cost thousands and require special care.
McGehee said the City likely got a discount for buying in bulk. Public Works didn’t know how much the trees cost but the City spent about $800,000 on the renovations running from Ocean Street to Liberty Street.
The Bay Street contractor, Onas, had to get its trees from a nursery in Arizona after the late-summer wave of hurricanes wiped out the supply in South Florida. If the trees don’t come back by summer, the City will have them replaced at no cost, said Hall. The palm trees are under warranty.
New Washingtonian Palms bordering the Sports Complex appear to be holding up a little better than their Bay Street counterparts. Those trees were planted earlier by another company as part of a different project, said Hall, and are from Florida.