Eulogy for a coconut palm - General Tiki

T TikiHardBop Tiki Socialite Rockledge, FL Joined: Feb 21, 2009 Posts: 584	T TikiHardBop Posted posted on Thu, Jun 24, 2010 5:54 AM TornadoTiki has a good column today about the passing of the coconut palm in our front yard: http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20100624/COLUMNISTS0106/6240303/1047/LIFE/This+tree+hugger+misses+hula-dancing+palm+already une 24, 2010 This tree hugger misses hula-dancing palm already CHRIS KRIDLER SPACE COASTING I'm not sure why "tree hugger" has become such a disdainful term. Yes, it's weird if you're actually dating trees. But given how attached I get to them, in a nonromantic sense, I will happily call myself a tree hugger. Unless, of course, it has prickers. As one who loves trees and the tropics, I was especially forlorn this week when we declared the coconut palm officially dead. My husband and I found it as a baby, back when we were dating. It was more coconut than tree, an orb lolling on the side of the road in the Florida Keys, with a couple of leaves sticking out of it. I found a crib for it -- a modest pot on the back patio of my rental at the time -- and helped it grow. By the time we were wed, it had grown a few feet high, and there was only one thing to do: plant it in the ground. I know we are at the northern extreme of where coconut palms can survive. Still, the local discount stores occasionally put out the toddler trees, poking out of their shells, and lovers of all things tropical find them hard to resist. I understand. When you find a coconut and raise it from a pup, you get kind of sentimental about it. Ours grew fast, and in the winter of 2009, I worried and fretted about it. I wrapped it in blankets and lights and a roll of insulation. When it survived with minor damage, I was immensely relieved, and last summer, it was beautiful, flowing and waving its arms in every breeze, like a big, green hula dancer. And then came the real winter. Multiple freezes, of many hours each, were too much for the blankets and lights. I have a snapshot of the palm, still looking lush and green, wrapped in its blanket. By the time we cut it down this week, it was sadly brown, the last frond had fallen, and it smelled of decomposition. We couldn't quite get the stump out of the ground, despite my husband's valiant efforts, some yanking with the truck and a lot of sweating, so we hired a guy who finished it off. I had a feeling that the ghost of that pretty tree was digging in its feet. It wanted to stay and do one more hula. I wished I had hugged it goodbye. It appears a few tenacious coconut palms linger on the Space Coast after the horrible winter, especially beachside. I don't see myself ever planting one again. Parting was too painful. We're putting in a cold-hardy palm this time. It may not do the hula, but it should survive a winter like the one we just had. Of course, there are always hurricanes. Contact Kridler at 242-3633 or [email protected].

TornadoTiki has a good column today about the passing of the coconut palm in our front yard:

http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20100624/COLUMNISTS0106/6240303/1047/LIFE/This+tree+hugger+misses+hula-dancing+palm+already

une 24, 2010

This tree hugger misses hula-dancing palm already

CHRIS KRIDLER
SPACE COASTING

I'm not sure why "tree hugger" has become such a disdainful term. Yes, it's weird if you're actually dating trees. But given how attached I get to them, in a nonromantic sense, I will happily call myself a tree hugger. Unless, of course, it has prickers.

As one who loves trees and the tropics, I was especially forlorn this week when we declared the coconut palm officially dead. My husband and I found it as a baby, back when we were dating. It was more coconut than tree, an orb lolling on the side of the road in the Florida Keys, with a couple of leaves sticking out of it.

I found a crib for it -- a modest pot on the back patio of my rental at the time -- and helped it grow. By the time we were wed, it had grown a few feet high, and there was only one thing to do: plant it in the ground.

I know we are at the northern extreme of where coconut palms can survive. Still, the local discount stores occasionally put out the toddler trees, poking out of their shells, and lovers of all things tropical find them hard to resist. I understand. When you find a coconut and raise it from a pup, you get kind of sentimental about it.

Ours grew fast, and in the winter of 2009, I worried and fretted about it. I wrapped it in blankets and lights and a roll of insulation. When it survived with minor damage, I was immensely relieved, and last summer, it was beautiful, flowing and waving its arms in every breeze, like a big, green hula dancer.

And then came the real winter. Multiple freezes, of many hours each, were too much for the blankets and lights. I have a snapshot of the palm, still looking lush and green, wrapped in its blanket. By the time we cut it down this week, it was sadly brown, the last frond had fallen, and it smelled of decomposition.

We couldn't quite get the stump out of the ground, despite my husband's valiant efforts, some yanking with the truck and a lot of sweating, so we hired a guy who finished it off. I had a feeling that the ghost of that pretty tree was digging in its feet. It wanted to stay and do one more hula. I wished I had hugged it goodbye.

It appears a few tenacious coconut palms linger on the Space Coast after the horrible winter, especially beachside. I don't see myself ever planting one again. Parting was too painful.

We're putting in a cold-hardy palm this time. It may not do the hula, but it should survive a winter like the one we just had.

Of course, there are always hurricanes.

Contact Kridler at 242-3633 or [email protected].

Post #538656 by TikiHardBop on Thu, Jun 24, 2010 5:54 AM