A Yard In Fort Pierce

Today Heathcote Botanical Gardens of Fort Pierce Florida was hot. It was my first time back since Tropical Storm Fay hit us. Heathcote was not damaged to much, the grounds keeper J.D. was telling us what happened, there was minor flooding in certain areas, some trees went down but for the most part Fay cleaned up.

Today Brandan and I cleaned up some areas that were affected by Fay and we transplanted a Red Feather Palm Tree ( Chambeyronia macrocarpa ) that was originally planted in the sun. These Palm Trees are much more happy in the shade. Some other names for this Palm Tree are Houailou Red Leaf Palm,Blushing Palm Tree and the Flamethrower Palm Tree. This Palm does not get very tall, they grow to heights of about 6 feet. This one wasn't looking at it's best so we thought it would be best to move it. We have documented today's transplant and I will show you step-by-step how we did it.

Here is the name tag.

Here is a before picture of the Red Feather Palm Tree. As you can see it is directly in the sun.

I thought that it gave off a nice shadow.

Here is a closer look at the Palm Tree.

After we picked out a location to transplant the Palm Tree into, we dug a hole for it.

Then we filled the hole with water. This is an important step in transplanting, always fill the hole with water.

Then we went over to the Red Feather Palm and dug it out of the ground and transported it over to the water filled hole.

After we placed the Palm Tree in the hole, we added more water. Water is your friend when transplanting, use lots of it.

This is another view of the watering. While adding water we added dirt back into the hole. When adding dirt back into the hole you capture air bubbles which can cause your roots to dry out and damage your tree or even kill it. To prevent this from happening I use a piece of metal rod and stab it into the ground surrounding the tree. This action releases the air bubbles.

Then we finalized the project by mulching.

The following is a close up picture of the Red Feather Palm Tree fronds.

I hope you enjoyed this post. See you again next time.