A yellow tabebuia tree in full bloom.
Photo provided by Richard Randall
By Tao Woolfe
The city is offering a sweet, shady deal this month to homeowners who want to spruce up their properties.
Boca Raton residents can buy one or two tropical trees — a bright yellow tabebuia and/or a copper-trunked gumbo limbo — have them planted, and learn how to tend them, for only $103 per tree ($53 for the tree itself, the rest for delivery and planting). Residents must order quickly, though — the deadline is April 15 and supplies are limited.
Encouraging tree planting is the main goal of Boca’s Project Shade Trees. The city launched the program about 20 years ago to celebrate Arbor Day, make the city more graceful, and add to the urban tree canopy.
Each year the city selects two species of drought and heat-tolerant trees and offers them at low cost to single-family homeowners.
“We always offer a shade tree and a flowering tree,” said Richard Randall, a 15-year member of the city’s Beautification Committee, which runs the program. “We look at what’s available from the nurseries and what we think would be a good choice for that year.”
Past selections have included live oaks, Southern magnolias, silver buttonwoods, jacarandas, golden rain, pink tabebuias, and Hong King orchid trees.
Boca, designated a “Tree City USA” by the Arbor Foundation for many years, takes its arbor duties seriously.
The city has one of the toughest tree protection ordinances in the state. It requires developers to specify, in their site plans, how many trees will be left intact on a tract slated for bulldozing or how many will be moved and transplanted.
Without this information — which encourages architects to design around existing trees — the city will not issue a certificate of occupancy. The law has become a model for cities across the country.
Randall said Boca has other tree-planting activities throughout the year. The committee educates residents about the selection and care of trees and emphasizes that beautification is just one of many rewards of tree planting.
Every dollar spent on planting and caring for a tree yields benefits that are two to five times that investment, according to the National Arbor Day Foundation. Those benefits include cleaner air, lower energy costs, improved water quality, storm water control and increased property values.
Trees will be delivered to homeowners this year by Gardening Angel Nursery. The young, healthy saplings will be about 6 feet tall. Yellow tabebuias will grow to about 25 feet in height and have a 15-foot spread. The gumbo limbo, with its distinctive peeling red bark, will grow to 50 feet and boast a 30-foot spread.
Randall said the city’s signature royal poinciana trees, which erupt in May and June with red blossoms, are not offered through Project Shade Trees because they are just too huge. Take a ride through the southern end of the city this spring, though, and see why they symbolize South Florida and are among the world’s most beautiful trees.
You can find more information about Project Shade Trees, on the city’s website at ci.boca-raton.fl.us.
Tree Facts
Every dollar spent on planting and caring for a community tree yields benefits that are two to five times that investment — benefits that include cleaner air, lower energy costs, improved water quality and storm water control and increased property values.
Trees remove pollution from the atmosphere, improving air quality and human health.
Global forests remove about one-third of fossil fuel emissions annually.
Roadside trees reduce nearby indoor air pollution by more than 50 percent.
Office workers with a view of trees report significantly less stress and more satisfaction.
One large tree can provide a day’s supply of oxygen for up to four people.
More than 20 percent of the world’s oxygen is produced in the Amazon Rainforest.
Forested watersheds provide quality drinking water to more than 180 million Americans.
Evaporation of water from trees has a cooling influence. Trees cool the city by up to 10°F by shading our homes and streets and releasing water vapor into the air through their leaves.
Trees absorb carbon dioxide (CO2), removing and storing the carbon while releasing the oxygen back into the air. In one year, an acre of mature trees absorbs the amount of CO2 produced by a car driven 26,000 miles.
During one year, a mature tree will absorb more than 48 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and release oxygen in exchange.
roper placement of only three trees can save an average household between $100 and $250 in energy costs annually.
Trees properly placed around buildings can reduce air conditioning needs by 30 percent and can save 20 to 50 percent in energy used for heating.
Source: Arbor Day Foundation
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