PELICAN COVE LANDSCAPING-RECOMENDATIONS TO GROUNDS COMMITTEE

These recommendations represent the thoughtful views of almost 100 residents, The Friends of Original PC Landscaping. 













We are concerned with the long range consequences of continuing certain landscaping practices.

Those practices are:

1. HAPHAZARD REPLACEMENT OF AGING TREES

2. LANDSCAPING WITHOUT A SKILLED LANDSCAPE DESIGNER

3. INTRODUCTION OF OVER 600 LARGE, COLORED SHRUBS

We believe if action is not taken NOW to stop them and institute a system of checks and balances, our landscaping will become a hodge-podge within 10 years and there will be no way to recover.

OUR PROJECTIONS:

Our projections of what will happen to the landscape AT THE END OF 10 YEARS are as follows:

A) 100 aging trees will have been cut down before their time, depriving us of a canopy that will take generations to re-grow.

B) Over 2000 more oversized, luridly-colored shrubs will have been planted, ruining the beauty, harmony and symmetry of our existing shrubbery. 

C) 20 large areas will have been re-landscaped in a manner not in harmony with the original landscaping design. These new areas will represent about 25% of the total landscape. Our beautiful, irreplaceable landscape will have become a hodge-podge.

THE LUSH ORIGINAL LANDSCAPING

These estimates are projections based on what has actually taken place over the past 3 years:

1. Attempted removal of 10 aging trees from Boathouse Circle that. were in excellent condition during the last 2 years. 

2. The planting of over 700 large, colored shrubs throughout the shrubbery of PC during the last 3 years.

3. The landscaping of two large areas (Brookhouse Circle/Vamo and Butterfly garden) without the aid of a skilled landscape designer over the past 2 years. 

OUR RECOMENDATIONS

We respectfully submit the following recommendations, which we believe will correct the situation. We welcome any comments or additional suggestions from the committee.

1. REPLACEMENT OF AGING TREES

The Problem: HAPHAZARD REPLACEMENT OF AGING TREES.
Our most precious resource is our trees. They are irreplaceable. A tree removed before its time will take 35-75 years to reach its former height. 

Old trees should only be removed when they are truly old to the eye, and not merely because they have been tagged as “old.”

Once a 75 foot tree has been cut down, it will take 75 years for the new one to reach that height again. 

In replacing old trees, there has been a continued tendency to remove large numbers of trees before they actually have to be removed. 

Many are still in good shape with 5, 10, 15 years worth of life in them despite their “old tree silver” tags.

A CASE IN POINT: The unannounced, planned removal of almost half the trees on Boathouse Circle in Nov 2008 was one recent example of a plan that would have completely destroyed the look of Boathouse Circle with its majestic 75-90’ trees. 

The rationale was it would look better with all the trees being the same 25 foot height. 

Fortunately this was blocked by Boathouse Circle homeowners. Only 5 of the proposed 15 trees were removed.

A good landscape designer would tell you exactly the opposite: that it would look far worse with all 15 trees removed and that both shade and the high loft beauty would be lost for years to come.

OUR TREE REMOVAL RECOMMENDATIONS

A BEAUTIFUL ORIGINAL GROUPING OF TREES
FEATURING DIFFERENT SPECIMENS AT BROOKHOUSE POOL.

1. As far as we know, and as evidenced by the continued confusion at the recent February 19, 2009 Harbor Club meeting on TREE REMOVAL, no concrete plan for sensible removal of aging trees exists at this time. 

We suggest the Grounds Committee recommend the one we are proposing and that the General Manager sees it is enforced. 

2. The Tree Replacement Method That Should be Adopted 

A. Any tree proposed for removal should be wrapped with a red ribbon for 3 months so the residents can examine them. 

That plan should include the General Manager setting up a neighborhood meeting to allow the homeowners enough time to attend, discuss and vote on the proposed tree removal. 

We suggest that an initial neighborhood meeting be set up be set up by the General Manager (using bulletin boards and email) no later than 2 weeks after red ribbons are placed on trees, and that the meetings be continued until there is a satisfactory agreement as to which trees are to be removed 

B. We should also budget a small amount of money each year to plant saplings to replace middle-aged trees that have not yet been tagged. Currently this is not being done. 

 This is the accepted landscaping practice, where new saplings are planted 10-35 years ahead of time so as to provide replacement trees down the road.
This practice should also be undertaken here now. It is not only smarter but cheaper. A sapling at $100 is a fraction of the cost of a $3000 20’ tree.

2. LANDSCAPING DESIGN PRACTICES

RECOMMENDATIONS ON LANDSCAPING DESIGN PRACTICES

The Problem.
Over the past 3-4 years massive re-landscaping has occurred in PC without the advice and guidance of a skilled landscape architect. The PC landscape is an irreplaceable jewel.

If this continues, our magnificent landscaping will become a hodge-podge. This degradation of the landscape can currently be seen in three areas:

1) The newly landscaped areas at the Vamo end of Brookhouse Circle and the Entrance to PC (The Butterfly garden). Any trained eye will immediately see they are not up to the standards of the original landscaping.

2) The massive introduction of over 600 large colored shrubs throughout PC that clash violently with the existing shrubbery.

3) The premature cutting down of aging trees before their time.


Our Recommendations:

Establish a landscape sub-committee of 3-6 members skilled in design and /or gardening to advise the Ground Committee on the suitability of any re-landscaping plans submitted by:
a) an outside landscape architect; b) the grounds manager c) any resident wishing to re-landscape their unit d) any other PC committee

3. COLORED SHRUBS

OUR RECOMMENDATIONS ON COLORED SHRUBS 

The problem: The massive introduction of over 700 colored shrubs (Purple Thai plants and various red and orange Crotons) over the past three years has severely degraded the color scheme, proportions and harmony of the original PC shrubbery. 


SOME OF THE NEW SOME COLORED SHRUBS (CROTONS)

There are currently 742 of these new colored shrubs THAT HAVE GROWN FROM THE 600 ORIGINALLY PLANTED:

Harbor/ Bay houses 182, Grove houses 141, Tree Houses 105, Glen houses 182, Brook houses 132

Here are some hard facts:

1. These new colored shrubs will grow to a height of 8 t0 10 feet or more. Their size will eventually destroy the harmony of the surrounding shrubbery, whose normal height is 3 to 6 feet.

2. There are simply too many of them. 742 colored shrubs is ten times the TOTAL COMBINED COUNT of all the naturally flowering hibiscus, bougainvillea, alamanda, and oleander shrubs currently in PC.


The original PC landscape design used naturally flowering green shrubs (like hibiscus) for color because they elevated the emotions. 

THE BEAUTIFUL, ELEVATING COLOR OF BOUGANVILLEA


3. The new colored shrubs do not elevate the emotions. Use this simple test: take a small cutting from any Thai plant or Croton and hold it directly against any of the hibiscus or oleander or bougainvillea plants in PC. Then ask yourself the following question: which of these would I bring to a friend as a gift? 

Your emotions will immediately choose the hibiscus or oleander or bougainvillea because their colors elevate the emotions while the Crotons and Thai shrubs don’t.

This emotional depression is very subtle but it is repeated every time you look at one of these colored shrubs. It is an unconscious emotional reaction.

When these new colored shrubs mature in 2-3 years to 8-10 feet and overwhelm the surrounding shrubs, this unconscious reaction will be multiplied.

You can see what the future will look like right now in the shrubbery leading to the Brookhouse pool. (1677 Brookhouse Circle).
In two more years, the rest of PC will look like this. Judge for yourself if this is the look you want in PC. 

This is what happens when changes are made to the landscaping without the advice of a skilled landscape architect.

Our Recommendations:

1. STOP any further planting of these colored shrubs. 

2. TRIM all of these colored plants down to the height of the surrounding shrubs.

3. Introduce future color in accordance with the original PC landscaping plan by planting naturally flowering green shrubs and vines such as tropical hibiscus, alamanda, bougainvillea and oleander.



THE ELEVATING COLOR OF TROPICAL BOUGANVILLEA
IS SUPERIOR

END of recommendations

Assumptions behind 10 year PROJECTIONS

Our projections of the landscape AT THE END OF 10 MORE YEARS are as follows:

A) 100 aging trees will have been cut down before their time, depriving us of a canopy that will take generations to re-grow.

B) Over 2000 more oversized, luridly-colored shrubs will have been planted, ruining the beauty, harmony and symmetry of our existing shrubbery.

C) 20 large areas will have been re-landscaped in a manner not in harmony with the original landscaping design. These new areas represent about 25% of the total landscape. Our beautiful, irreplaceable landscape will have become a hodge-podge. “

Explanation

A) AGING TREES

I based my estimate of 100 aging trees being cut down before their time on the fact that 10 aging trees that had 5-15 years of remaining life in them were scheduled to be cut down in Boathouse Circle in 2009 because no adequate aging tree removal process is in place.

Unless a foolproof process is put in place that involves red ribbons and approval by the residents, I project that an additional unnecessary trees will be cut down each year.

10 trees/year x 10 years = 100 trees cut down unnecessarily.

B) .COLORED SHRUBS

Despite the Grounds Manager’s claim that he had only ordered 600+ crotons and thai plants, I counted 700+. Either way it is an extraordinarily high number to plant. I suggest the Chair get in his car as I did and count them as I did. Two other explanations are as follows: the count on the bill was per pot and not per plant and that some pots contained two or more main stalks. There is no way to tell if it is one or two plants once planted.

My estimate of 2000 more crotons and thai shrubs being planted over the next 10 years were based on the fact that 700 were planted over the past 3 years.

700 shrubs/every 3 years = 700 x 3. = 2100 new shrubs over 10 years.

C) NEW LANDSCAPING

Clarificatiion: I based my landscaping projections on the potential target land area that could be re-landscaped.

I excluded harbor and docks, all roads, sidewalks, nature walks, the mangroves, the wild areas between the Brookhouses and those that border the brooks and harbors. I also excluded the entire Wilbanks Complex ( land and buildings) as they are landmarks and would never be targets for re-landscaping. I also excluded all pools, tennis courts, and recreation centers. What remains is the target land area upon which my projections were based.

Here is a summary of the re-landscaping that has occurred over the past 3 years. IT is a good indication that after 27 years of no change, Pelican Cove is going to be in constant change UNLESS WE PUT A STOP TO IT. :

2007 Clower Creek Swales behind Grove houses

2008 Vamo Rd /Brookhouse re-landscaping ( invasive plant)

Brookhouse pond re-landscaping

2009 interior Glenhouse area re-landscaping

Phase 1 Boathouse Circle re-landscaping

Phase 3 Boathouse Circle re-landscaping

Butterfly Garden re-landscaping ( invasive plant)

South end Pelican Cove fence re-landscaping

In coming up with an average I omitted year 2007 as not being representative of the full forces for change being exerted by invasive plant removal.

Invasive plant removal is a major force behind re-landscaping and is likely to continue to request that new areas to be re-landscaped and thus 2008 and 2009 were better sample years.

An example of this force can be seen in the two areas currently being targeted as containing invasive plants (that I am aware of) :the entrance area adjacent and just west of the Butterfly garden and the interior area between some of the the Brookhhouses.

My estimate of the total 2008-2009 re-landscaping area is that it was 4-5 % of the target land area, thus giving an annual rate of 2-2.5% annually., which I conservatively downgraded to 2%

I did my estimates based on a visually mapping the re-landscaped areas onto the target land area.

Thus my projection:

2%/year x 10 years = 20% new additional Landscape area.

Note: I had based my 25% projection based on initial estimate the 2008-9 average land area change being 2.5% (of the target land area). I decided on a more conservative estimate of 2%, but forgot to change the projection( 25%). A clerical error.

P. C. LANDSCAPING AS OF JAN 2016: AN EVALUATION FOR THE BOARD AND RESIDENTS

To the Board and Concerned Residents

Olmsted

I happened to pick up a document in the office a few days ago and saw this statement:  “...the PC landscaping was not done by Frederick Olmsted.”

This seems to me an attempt  to dismiss a critical point  I brought up 10 years ago  about Olmsted’s design principles and their influence upon the masterful Wilbanks/ Morris PC landscaping.  

If you look at my extensive  website on Pelican Cove landscaping, you’ll see what I actually said about our masterful landscape design was "The Wilbabnk's landscaping was done by a protege of Olmstead."  

Here is the link to that extensive site:
http://artmargaretspringfamily.blogspot.com/2014/06/pelican-cove-landscaping-guide-to.html

I made that critical observation, along with the support of almost 100 residents, to stop the damaging changes then being made by well-meaning amateurs to our beautiful, irreplaceable, Olmsted-influenced landscape.  

Here is a detailed site on those damaging changes if you are not familiar with them. 
http://artmargaretspringfamily.blogspot.com/2014/06/pelican-cove-landscaping-pictorial.html 

For those who aren't familiar with  Olmsted's design principles, let me quote Olmsted himself: "The landscape architect should create an artificial landscape that looked natural and fulfilled the use for which the property was intended."

In my efforts to educate PC residents and management about the true nature of our beautiful Wilbanks/ Morris landscape design, I later paraphrased Olmsted by saying: “Our PC landscape didn't naturally evolve with a little help from Morris and  Mrs. Wilbanks and her friends but  was designed by skilled landscape architects as an artificial sub-tropical landscape made to look natural, just as Olmstead had done with his famouus Central Park design."

What our virgin PC property really looked like 

 The PC landscape was transformed by a series of skilled landscape architects influenced by Frederick Olmstead into an artificial landscape made to look natural 

 In the same way, in the 1860s, Olmstead transformed  wild woods in the center of NYC into  an artificial landscape made to look natural. That new landscape was called Central Park, and its design principles changed  American public and private landscasping forever. 

OK, LET'S GET ON WITH IT.


WHAT THIS SITE IS ALL ABOUT

One reason why I'm determined to set the record straight on Olmsted's influence  is that  the widely accepted view that  our landscape "just happened naturally with a little help from Bob Morris and Mrs. Wilbanks and her friends," is not only completely erroneous but also the kind of view that led to well-meaning amateurs believing they could change our landscape in whatever manner they wished and not harm its beauty. 

I use the term amateurs as a general term that includes those with no landscaping experience as well as those with some landscaping experience but no proven experience with landscape design and no degree in landscape architecture. All of these types were involved in the damaging landscape changes of 6-10 years ago.

our one of a kind PC landscape 

I understand that the Board is considering setting aside some money for hiring a horticulturist to assist them, but that is not the kind of advice the Board needs.

A horticulturist would know the specific genetic and biological characteristics of individual plants and trees in Pelican Cove, but would not be able to show the Board how to economically modify our landscape so as to recapture the  sub-tropical harmony and beauty  of our original Wilbanks/ Morris PC landscape design as it stood in 1979, the year I moved here.

Only a working, experienced landscape architect can do that, and I have outlined an extremely economical way  to gain the advice of such a professional in a later detailed section.

THE CURRENT STATUS OF OUR ONE-OF-A KIND LANDSCAPE

When I made the statement ten years ago (that “our landscaping is a masterful, one-of-a kind, artificial landscape made to look natural, just as Olmsted had done with Central Park”) I did so in an attempt (along with the support of almost 100 knowledgeable residents) to stop the massive plantings by amateurs that were completely out of harmony with the original colorful sub-tropical landscaping.

These unharmonious plantings, by the way, were not detected  by the Board, nor the General Manager, who seemed to be unaware of what was being done, mainly because they had no knowledge of  landscaping design. This became very clear to me years ago when I first spoke to them about what was happening .

I believe this is pretty much the case today. This not to disparage the Board and General Manager in any way. It is just a statement of fact. Their expertise is generally financial and structural and they are very good at it. 

For example, if the Building Committee and Building Mgr.  had taken the same approach with our structures, it would it would have resulted in something like red and blue paint trim, purple doors, brick walls and the like, all of which would have been completely out of harmony with the beige/ light brown colors selected by Bob Morris, the architect of Pelican Cove.  

Needless to say, the Board and General Manager would have spotted these changes  and stopped them immediately. Unfortunately, because they lacked the same kind of expertise when it came to the landscape changes, especially in their initial, small planting stage, the they did nothing.

Luckily, the disastrous changes being made to our landscape were detected by a group of aroused , landscape knowledgeable residents, who clearly saw what was happening.

http://artmargaretspringfamily.blogspot.com/2014/06/pelican-cove-landscaping-pictorial.html

Thanks to their efforts and the the later restorative efforts of a new Gen. Mgr. (Connie Lang), our Wilbanks/Morris PC landscape is currently at about 85% of its original 1979 harmony and beauty. 

What our landscape still lacks are the original sub-tropical pastel colors that gave you an emotional lift simply by looking at them. Those colors were markedly present  in the sub-tropical patel flowering trees and shrubs of  the 1979 landscape. 

For a variety of reasons, primarily the lack of sub-tropical expertise on the a part of  our Grounds Managers and Committee (who came mainly from the north) these vibrant, astel sub-tropical flowers  and shrubs and trees were not maintained and replanted as they should have been. 

In their place, flora and shrubs with darker,  colors and conflicting shapes were planted in large numbers throughout the PC landscape and were completely out of harmony with the pastel colors of the original 1979 landscape.

I believe we should make every effort to restore the beautiful sub-tropical colors of our original 1979 PC landscape. 

It will not be difficult to do, nor expensive. 

All it requires is that the residents and governng bodies of Pelican Cove recognize that it must be done if we are to restore and keep our beautiful, one-of-a-kind landscape in its original glory.

The rest of this site is divided into two sections. 

The first section is for those wanting a quick overview. 

The second section is for those who want more detail



 SECTION ONE: A QUICK OVERVIEW

AN OVERVIEW : OLMSTED'S INFLUENCE ON OUR LANDSCAPE

AN OVERVIEW: THE NEED FOR AN  ADVISORY LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT

AN OVERVIEW:  RESTORING OUR LANDSCAPE TO ITS  1979  SUB-TROPICAL GLORY

AN OVERVIEW: OUR ORIGINAL VIRGIN LANDSCAPE. 

AN OVERVIEW: THE DAMAGE DONE TO OUR LANDSCAPE 6-10 YEARS AGO

SOME FINAL WORDS




 SECTION TWO: FOR THOSE WHO WANT MORE DETAIL 

THE DETAIL:  THE DAMAGE DONE TO OUR LANDSCAPE 6-10 YEARS AGO 

THE DETAIL: HIRING A NEW GROUNDS MANAGER 
AND ADVISORY LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT 

THE DETAIL: SOME MORE ABOUT OLMSTED'S INFLUENCE

THE DETAIL:  OUR ORIGINAL VIRGIN LANDSCAPE 

THE DETAIL: RESTORING OUR LANDSCAPE TO ITS  1979  SUB-TROPICAL GLORY

SOME FINAL WORDS

ADDENDUM: THE UNSUITABILITY OF TI AND CROTON PLANTS IN OUR PC LANDSCAPE

SECTION ONE: A QUICK OVERVIEW


AN OVERVIEW: OLMSTED'S INFLUENCE ON OUR LANDSCAPE

But let me get back to Olmsted for a moment. 

The reason I never said that Olmstead himself did the landscaping, was because I knew Olmstead had died in 1903. As the Wilbanks’ estate wasn’t constructed until the mid 1930’s, Olmstead obviously couldn’t have done the  landscape design. 

But his marked influence (which revolutionized American landscape design) can be seen both in Mrs Wilbanks’ original design in the 30s and the second complementary design done by Bob Morris when he created Pelican Cove in the late 70s.

The result was a beautiful, harmonious sub-tropical design, as good in its own way as Olmsted's masterpiece, Central Park.

By the way, the landscaping design of Olmsted's Central park is never changed, only maintained. The maintenance of our landscape has been good. Where things went wrong ws when the landscape was changed in a way that was out of harmony  with the final 1979 design.

Like Central Park, we should never change the PC landscaping but only maintain it. By that I mean if a palm tree dies, we should replace it with the same species palm tree, or if a red bouganvillea has to be replaced, we replace it with the same species red bouganvillea.

Secondly, if for some reason we have to change it, say because of disease, storms etc., a skilled landscape architect nust be employed to maintain the integrity and harmony of the original design. 

Let me say a few more things about Olmsted and his marked influence upon our PC landscape design. 

Olmsted's Central park: is an artificial design made to look natural out of the existing wild wood.. You can see the original dense woods in the section called The Rambles, which was left standing. 

Central park in NYC is Olmsteds’s  most celebrated design. He did it in the 1860's, but his web page shows hundreds more of similar public and private designs throughout the states. His web page is worth viewing to see how extensive the reception was to his ideas. 
http://www.olmsted.org/the-olmsted-legacy/the-olmsted-firm/an-introduction

Olmsted’s firm remained functional until 1979 and continued his design ideas which influenced the entire school of American landscape design.  Whether his firm did the original Wilbank's landscaping or it was done by a very good landscape architect believing in Olmstead’s principles is unclear, as there are no surviving records on either side of the fence. 

Proof of Olmstead's inluence lies in the kind of trees planted by the Wilbanks landscape architect many of which are not native to Sarasota or even  Florida and some (like the Maleleuca " punk trees", Austrailian Pine, and African Tulip) not are not even native to the United States.

Thus it is clear that the original 1930s Wilbanks landscape was not an accident but laid out in complete accordance with Olmstead’s principles, namely: “To create an artificial landscape that looked natural and fulfilled the use for which the property was intended.”

Florida pines and scrub similar to original virgin PC Property

 The PC landscape was transformed over vtime into  an artificial landscape made to look natural 

One of the things I hope to make clear in this site is that our landscape was originally a mass of ugly Florida pines (above) that was completely transformed by a series of landscape architects who believed in Olmsted's ideas into an artificial, subtropical landscape made to look natural . 

At any rate, it was this ignorance of, or refusal to recognize, Olmsted's influence, preferring to see our landscape as something that "just happened naturally with a little help from Bob Morris and  Mrs. Wilbanks" that led  some to believe that unskilled amateurs could change our masterpiece landscape and not damage its beauty. 

Classic Ferrari

If I may make an analogy: letting an amateur redesign our masterfully-designed landscape would be the same as letting a local automobile body repairman  change exterior aspects of a classic Ferrari and expect that its beauty and harmony would not be damaged.

Classic Dior

Similarly, letting a local seamstress change elements of a classic Dior gown and expect that its beauty and harmony would not be damaged would be foolishness.

Everyone knows this kind of thing would destroy the beauty and value of both.

A masterful design  is always recognized as something that should be maintained but never changed, which is why these unchanged Ferrari and Dior originals sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction.

We should treat our masterful landscape design in the same way so as to maintain its irreplaceable beauty and immense financial value.

I can assure you that 50-75 years from now, when all of our structures will have ended their useful life and are torn down, our beautiful landscape, if properly preserved, will be sought after by luxury home developers and will be worth a small fortune to the surviving owners. 

PC  landscaping and structures behind mansion

           
AN OVERVIEW: THE NEED FOR 
AN  ADVISORY LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT

This section is must reading if we are to restore the beauty and harmony of our sub-tropical masterpiece as it stood in 1979. A more detailed section follows thos overview

Just as it took three skilled landscape architects from the 30s thru the 70s to create a sub-tropical masterpiece out of a dense pine forest, only a skilled landscape architect can properly help us restore  our landscape to its former sub-tropical glory that was evident in the final 1979 design.

PC sub-tropical  landscaping 

That is the genius of our landscape: it is an Olmsted inspired artificial landcape made to look natural. It is literally one of a kind and in no way a virgin landscape that naturally evolved with some minor help from Mrs Wilbanks and developer Bob Morris.

(By the way, if you want to see what a truly naturally-evolved  landscape looks like, i.e., a Sarasota landscape that happened naturally, all by itself, you can look at the Eide estate just to the north of PC.

It is filled to the brim with Florida pines and scrub, which is exactly what the virgin PC property looked like before being purchased by the Wilbanks. The Eide property, by the way, was once an undeveloped part of the Wilbanks property.)

I am not making a picky point here about Olmsted. We are about to hire a new Grounds Manager in a year or so. I believe that unless the Board goes about it in a different way, we are leaving ourselves open to repeating the same type of well-meaning but damaging changes to our landscape that were made 10-6 years ago.  

Bob Morris 

Those changes corrupted the beautiful, subtropical landscape designed by landscape architects  employed by  Mrs. Wilbanks and Bob Morris. 

To make matters worse, they were made almost overnight without a landscape architect and without any prior notification to the residents in general. 

If PC had been rolling in money, the best solution would have been to pull them all out and replant the original landscape that was destroyed. Unfortunately, the best that could be done was to cover the damage up as best we could. 

I am sure the current Board does not want to go through the 5 year turmoil that resulted from those damaging changes, nor do I and the other landscape-savvy residents. 

To avoid that turmoil, this site suggests some simple things the Board can do  to prevent those kind of landscape changes  ever happening again. 

The fact that those damaging changes are not as apparent now as they were originally is due to the behind the scenes corrective efforts over the past 4 years of Connie Lang, our previous General Mgr., who knew a great deal about landscaping design. During the turmoil, I had suggested to the Board that the next General manger they hired had to have Lndscape design experience and they listened. 

Without Connie, outr landscape today would be a disaster. I'll say more about her critical efforts later in a more detsiled Section 2.

I hope what I have to say in this site is received with an open mind as I believe its suggestions will help preserve the harmony, beauty, and financial value  of our irreplaceable landscape. 

Most residents know me as a poet and artist, but I was also in the mainframe software computer business from 1960 on, and in 70s founded  a very successful computer software company which I eventually sold in 1979 to return full time to art and poetry. 

As a businessman, whenever I ran into a problem that I knew nothing about, I listened very carefully to those who did.  

I hope the Board treats this site  in the same way.  

As an artist who moved here in 1979  at the age of 39 because it was clearly the equal of any botanical garden,  I have a keen sense of how our landscape has fared over the past 35 years.

I have come to the conclusion that we can no longer treat our landscape as something that will take care of itself. We have seen what happens when we do that

We must pay the same keen attention to it as we do our finances and structures. 

At this critical point in time, we need to engage a landscape architect to guide us in an advisory capacity. This need not be expensive if done in the way I suggest in  Section Two, my later later detailed section on hiring a grounds manager and advisory landscape architect. 

However, I believe that if we continue in the same haphazard manner we will eventually severely degrade the financial value and beauty of our one of a kind landscape. 

There will be some who will disagree with me as to what should be done, but the way to solve that dilemma is for the Board actively tackle the problem by interviewing intersted landscape architects and:

1. actually visiting and looking at the various landscapes designed  and implemented by the architects they are interviewing. If they don't like what you see, that landscape architect should be dismissed out of hand.

2. asking the architects for their frank, detailed opinions of both our landscape and my comments in this site.

This shouldn't cost us a penny. The opportunity to be associated with this landcape is woth its weight in gold.

I don't care if the landscape architects completely agree with me or not. 

But if they have no substantial opinions either pro or con, that landscape architect should be dismissed out of hand.

Eventually, the right man  will show up.

Here is a link to my artistic and design background:

http://artmargaretspringfamily.blogspot.com/2014/06/pelican-cove-landscaping-my-credentials.html

Some people think I want to design the landscape of PC. Nothing could be further from the truth. Good landscape design is a very difficult art that few master, and I have never pretended to be among those few. 

What I do have as a prize-winning poet and artist, however,  is an extremely accurate sense of when something is beautiful and harmonious, as well as when it is not. 

I am not alone in this, there are many other residents who have that same sense and who joined me in opposing the damaging changes. You can see their credentials here:
http://artmargaretspringfamily.blogspot.com/2014/06/pelican-cove-landscaping-pictorial.html 

What we all saw very clearly was that the damaging changes  were not in harmony with the 1979 Wilbanks/Morris PC landscaping. They corrupted its beauty.  And cost us a great deal of mis-spent money. 

What I want to do in this site is suggest a few simple steps that will prevent our landscape from being damaged like this again. These steps will cost nothing. In fact they may save us money.
  

I'll go into those steps in detail later in Section 2,but one of the steps that is absolutely necessary is for the Board to establish a working, advisory  relationship with a skilled landscape architect. 

Establishing that relationship costs nothing. And the landscape architect can also help direct us  to a new Grounds Manager who is familiar with semi-tropical flora.

Without it, I believe we are very likely to repeat the errors of the past.

When I  moved here in 1979, it was  not to retire, but to live in a sub-tropical botanical garden the equal of any I had ever seen. The Wilbanks/Morris PC landscape of 1979 was clearly a masterpiece. But it has become clear to me over the past 35 years  that the various Boards have tended to view our  landscape as something that would pretty much take care of itself with help from a maintenance staff. As a result, the various Boards spent most of their critical time on our finances and structures, and they have done an excellent job.  

Unfortunately, that is one of the reasons why we got into trouble 10-6 years ago.

Lush sub-tropical  landscaping at mansion

Our masterful landscape can no more "take care of itself with a maintenance staff," than our structures and finances can. 

As the past has shown us, if we don't have the proper supervisory attention, occasions will surely arise again when damaging, costly changes will be made to it by amateurs.  

I have therefore taken some time in this new site to show that our landscape is something that the Board needs to pay attention to in the same way it does our structures and finances. 

In addition,  this site also corrects the equally mistaken view held by many that our masterful subtropical Wilbanks/Morrs landscape of 1979  was a "naturally evolved" landscape that “just happened” with some minor assistance from Mrs. Wilbanks and some friends of her in, the 30s and later in the 70s by devloper Bob Morris.

Finally, this site, in my later detailed Section 2, I lay out the qualifications our new Grounds Manager should have as well as what rules he should operate under.

  

The masterful design of the final Wilbanks/Morris PC landscape of 1979, as I will show, didn't just happen naturally but was originally a mass of Florida pines and scrub that was transformed  into a masterful artificial sub-tropical landscape made to look natural.

Florida pines and scrub similar to original virgin PC Property

That transformation was not done by amateurs but by skilled landscape architects employed in the 30s and 70s  who believed in Olmsted's ideas. 

This is why our landscape design shouldn't be tampered with by amateurs any more than we would allow amateurs to tamper with our structures and finances.

This new site therefore includes many helpful pictures, references  and linkages that  back up my thinking about the steps we should take to protect our landscape.  

It will be especially useful to those Board members and residents who weren’t here 25 or even 10 years ago and therefore probably don’t know the true background of our property, nor how easily it can be damaged.

AN OVERVIEW:   RESTORING OUR LANDSCAPE TO ITS  1979  SUB-TROPICAL GLORY

We should be planting more subtropical flowering shrubs, flowering trees and flowering vines. There were many more of these when I came here in 1979.

Our landscape was designed to be a sub-tropical garden, and because of that the original 1979 landscaping had a wide range of  sub-tropical pastel flowering trees, flowers, vines and shrubs.  Many of those, however, have died or been cut down and not replaced since 1979. 

I believe this happened because the various Grounds Commitees and Managers, who came mainly from the north, were unfamilar with the sub-tropical flora planted by the various landscape architects in 1935 and 1979. They simply let them perish as they aged and replaced them with flora they were familiar with. 

The result is that a large part of our Wilbanks/Morris PC landscape lacks the kind of color and shape harmony it had in 1979. 

This may not be apparent to those who are only here during the winter, as hundreds of beautiful, pastel impatiens are planted and hung beneath mailboxes. These colors have the same beneficial effect of lifting the emotions as sub-trpical flowering flora do. This effect is heightened by the briefly blooming azaelas.

BRIGHT PASTEL IMPATIENS

When the winter season is over, however, the briefly blooming azaelas stop blooming and the impatiens are removed as they can't take the summer heat. The result is that the PC landscaping goes flat emotionally. 

Those who live here year round will attest to that.

That is why we should be planting more subtropical flowering shrubs, flowering trees and flowering vines with their beautiful pastel colors. 

They bloom all year round and will provide that same emotional lift ALL YEAR ROUND, just as they did in 1979.

I believe the best, cheapest and easiest way to do this is to introduce sub-tropical, pastel colored  flowering trees, shrubs and vines in selected focal spots around the property. 

Where our roads meet (or where they end) provide natural, dramatic focal spots 

This has the advantage of leaving 99% of our current landscaping intact

Such spots should be designed by a landscape architect. The picture below will give you some idea of what such a natural-looking focal point might look like.

this is the kind of color harmony a landscape architect can supply

Below are some samples of  the many sub-tropical flowering flora that could be planted at selected focal points. Some of those shown below are already here, but there are not enough of them and  many are very old and need to be replaced.

SOME SUB-TROPICAL FLOWERING TREES

Some flowering trees bloom all year round, like the African Tulip, but most flowering trees bloom at specific times: spring, summer, fall, winter. The trees should be selected to cover the entire year. 

AFRICAN TULIP TREE

HONG KONG ORCHID TREE 

RED PRINCE TREE

JACARANDA TREES

GOLD TREE

ROYAL POINCIANA  TREE 

CREPE MYRTLE TREE

MIMOSA TREE

          

SOME SUB-TROPICAL FLOWERING VINES

Sub-tropical shrubs, vines and flowers, however, bloom all year round and are critical in supplying the eye-level emotional lift that only pastels can give.   

BLEEDING HEART VINE

PINK TRUMPET VINES

PASSION FLOWER VINE

BLEEDING HEART VINE

SOME SUB-TROPICAL FLOWERING SHRUBS

BOUGANVILLEA

MIXED LANTANA  SHRUBS

PURPLE  LANTANA SHRUBS

GOLD LANTANA SHRUBS

RED OLEANDER SRHUB

PLUMBAGO SHRUBS

PINK OLEANDER SHRUBS

SOME  SUB-TROPICAL FLOWERS

PENTAS

RUMBA FLOWERS

DRAGON WING BEGONIAS

MIXED PERIWINKLES

Again, the reason we should be planting the bright, pastel colors of semitropical flora is that they give you an emotional lift. 

BRIGHT PASTEL COLORS GIVE YOU AN EMOTIONAL LIFT

AN OVERVIEW: OUR ORIGINAL VIRGIN LANDSCAPE 
  

Let me now state some hard facts about the origin of our PC landscape, as many still erroneously believe it was always pretty much as we see it today. 

This mistaken view is somewhat reinforced by an incorrect view of our virgin property that Irv and John give in their excellent History of Pelican Cove, where they quote an unknown source describing the virgin property as follows:: “the land… was replete with towering palms, oaks, exotic fruit and nut trees..” 

There is no mention of pines.

This view of the virgin property seems to me to be a mixed version of the property after it was purchased by the Wilbanks (I give the details for this later) because  all the evidence points towards the fact that the original virgin property consisted primarily of hundreds and hundreds  of florida pines and pine scrub along with a few live oaks and Sabal palms. (see photo below).

Florida pines  landscape similar to original virgin PC

That evidence consists of the many huge Florida pines still scattered throughout the PC landscape and the fact that all the virgin land in this area of Sarasota consisted  (and still consists) of dense forests of various Florida pines containing only a few oaks and Sabal palms. I go into the evidence for this in detail later on. 

So unless the virgin land was developed by previous owners who chopped down all the Florida pines and then planted “towering palms,  oaks, exotic fruit and nut trees..” for which there is no hard evidence as far as I know,  I think we can safely say that our virgin native landscape (prior to its original Wilbanks landscaping) was much like the Eide estate just north of us, which is covered by  hundreds of ugly Florida pines and pine scrub with only few  Sabal palms and live oaks. The groupings of live oaks are mostly near his home and were probably planted when Eide built his home. 

If John or Irv have any hard information to the contrary, I’d be glad to hear about it.

(By the way, if you want to see what a truly naturally-evolved  landscape looks like, i.e., a Sarasota landscape that happened “all by itself,” you can look at the Eide estate just to the north of PC. 

I can assure you, however, that our virgin land looked absolutely nothing like the finished landscape of Pelican Cove, which is an artificial semi-tropical landscape made to look natural.

Initially, the  Wilbanks' 1930s landscaping was done by an unknown, but very skilled, landscape architect employed by Mrs. Wilbanks and later modified in 1979 by two skilled landscape architects employed by Bob Morris.

The result is a design that is not only uniquely beautiful but also extremely valuable from a financial point of view. As its financial value is directly linked to our maintaining its beautiful design, I believe the Board should pay the same kind of excellent attention to it as it does to our structural and financial issues. I have several suggestions how they can do this later on in this site in my Section 2. 

Let me return for a moment to the erroneous,  widely held view that our PC landscape is not a masterful Olmsted-inspired design. 

This view holds that when Mrs. Wilbanks purchased the virgin PC property, it looked pretty much as we see it today, save for some minor fudging by Mrs. Wilbanks and some friends, and then some later minor fudging by Bob Morris when he purchased the PC property from Mrs. Wilbanks to build Pelican Cove.

Because this totally incorrect view of the PC landscaping has somehow become a generally accepted belief by many,  and a potentially harmful one that can lead to modifications by unqualified residents and staff, I believe it should be corrected publicly by the Board.

This will help the residents really understand that the financial and aesthetic value of our unique landscaping is due to its masterful design by several Olmsted-influenced landscape architects. And that any changes done to it without a qualified landscape architect will result in damage to its financial and aesthetic value.

Right now, however, I want to repeat some hard facts about the origin and nature of our landscaping.   

First of all, the original virgin property consisted primarily of hundreds and hundreds  of Forida pines and pine scrub, (see photo below).

Florida pines  landscape similar to original virgin PC

Today, in place of those hundreds of Florida pines now stand hundreds of various hardwood trees,   flowering trees, and various palm trees that are not native to this area of Florida, or sometimes even the United States. 

That didn't happen by accident, nor was it something that "naturally evolved." 

Those non-Sarasota trees were planted by landscape architects in the 30s, and later in the 70s, to create an artificial subtropical landscape that looked natural.

There is no otlher way for such a massive, natural looking landscape filled with hundreds of foreign trees to have happened.

AN OVERVIEW: THE DAMAGE DONE TO OUR LANDSCAPE 6-10 YEARS AGO 

Let me say something about  the corrupting landscape changes of 10-6 years ago.

I believe  those responsible  did so with the best of intentions. Indeed, on paper, their ideas looked quite sensible if you weren't knowledgeable about the problems inherent in making changes to landscapes like ours. As it turned out, however, those changes damaged the beauty and harmony of our lush, sub-tropical landscape, because:

1)  shrubs and trees were brought in whose shapes and colors clashed with our subtropical  landscape design .

2) they were all done without a landscape architect and without proper notification of the residents that there was to be a complete changing of portions of our landscape 

Let me list those changes: 

1) The introduction of over 600 unharmonious, darkly colored, spindly Tis and Crotons. throughout a third of  our landscape. 

2) The destruction of the existing landscaping surrounding the pond in the Brookhouse area and replacing it with Florida native plants. 

3) The destruction of the existing landscaping in several areas of PC and replacing it with Florida native plants in exchange for free trees from the county. 

The  details on each of these changes can be seen at:

http://artmargaretspringfamily.blogspot.com/2014/06/pelican-cove-landscaping-pictorial.html

SOME FINAL WORDS

I am a gardener and have a love of botanical gardens, as many poets do, and moved here in 1979 at the age of 39, when PC was still being built, not to retire, but to live in a sub-tropical garden the equal of any botanical garden in the states. 

It is a unique treasure, and as such everyone responsible for managing Pelican Cove should be aware that it should never be changed, only maintained in its original glory.

Finally, as a reminder how the landscape can be damaged by well-meaning amateurs, here is another site showing  changes made 10-6 years ago to Boathouse Circle. I have not mentioned this site previously. It should be visited if you'd like more info on the kind of damage that can be done without a landscape architect. There are plenty of pictures.

http://artmargaretspringfamily.blogspot.com/2014/06/pelican-cove-landscaping-re-landscaping.html

I hope this gives everyone a sense of how valuable our landscape is, and how fragile it can be if changed by amateurs inexperienced in landscape design. 

I can assure you that 50-75 years from now, when all of our structures will have ended their useful life, that the landscape, if properly preserved, will be sought after by luxury developers and will be worth a small fortune to the surviving owners.   .

Here is a link to a site on my design experience:
http://artmargaretspringfamily.blogspot.com/2014/06/pelican-cove-landscaping-my-credentials.html

Here is a video site that will improve your eye for excellent landscape design in an effortless way. All it takes is a car ride out to Lido Key to see the real thing. It will instantaneously improve your eye for beauty and harmony in landscapes.
http://artmargaretspringfamily.blogspot.com/2014/06/pelican-cove-landscaping-easy-way-to.html

I hope the Board finds this site useful in determining future policy. I’d be happy to hear any comments or answer any questions in public or private.

Justin Spring

1620 Boathouse Circle

Gr201

306 1119

A Founder and Resident since 1979

SECTION TWO: FOR THOSE WHO WANT MORE DETAIL



THE DETAIL ON DAMAGE DONE 
TO OUR LANDSCAPE 6-10 YEARS AGO 

Let me say something about  the corrupting landscape changes of 10-6 years ago.

I believe  those responsible  did so with the best of intentions. Indeed, on paper, their ideas looked quite sensible if you weren't knowledgeable about the problems inherent in making changes to landscapes like ours. As it turned out, however, those changes damaged the beauty and harmony of our lush, sub-tropical landscape, because:

1)  shrubs and trees were brought in whose shapes and colors clashed with our subtropical  landscape design .

2) they were all done without a landscape architect and without proper notification of the residents that there was to be a complete changing of portions of our landscape 

Let me list those changes: 

1) The introduction of over 600 unharmonious, darkly colored, spindly Tis and Crotons. throughout a third of  our landscape. 

2) The destruction of the existing landscaping surrounding the pond in the Brookhouse area and replacing it with Florida native plants. 

3) The destruction of the existing landscaping in several areas of PC and replacing it with Florida native plants in exchange for free trees from the county. 

The  details on each of these changes can be seen at:
http://artmargaretspringfamily.blogspot.com/2014/06/pelican-cove-landscaping-pictorial.html

Small leaved,skimpy  Florida native shrubs

Before I go any further, however, I want to make something very clear about so-called Florida native plants (L).

They really don't belong in our type of landscape.

They were never used by either Mrs. Wilbanks' or Bob Morris' landscape architects for that very reason. 

Darkly colored Crotons and Tis 

The same goes for the hundreds of darkly colored Crotons and Tis (L) that were planted.( See left) 

There is a section on them at the end of this site. They really don't belong in our type of landscape.

They were never used by either Mrs. Wilbanks' or Bob Morris' landscape architects for that very reason. 

Florida native plants are really survivor flora  that can tolerate the rainless Florida winter. Here are some samples of what they look like:


. 

Most of these survivor plants, as you can see,  have very small leaves that are widely spaced on long spinly branches. That is what is requied to survive our rainless Florida winters.

They clash instantly with the lush, large leaved flora that make up our sub-tropical landscape. See  examples below.

 The PC landscape is an artificial landscape made to look natural 

Lush, broad leaved Sub-Tropical flora

Lush sub-tropical  landscaping at mansion

To use Florida native shrubs in PC on a mass basis, which is what was planned, would have eventually destroyed our lush, sub-tropical landscape (left).

We always have to remember that what the county wants is not necessarily good for our landscape. They have their own agenda which is not necessarily ours. We don't have to comply with their suggestions. They are not law, just suggestions.

We also have to remember that the county is always working under the direction of the state, whose programs promoted the planting of Florida native flora because (in theory) they use only rainwater and no fertilizer.


On paper that looks good, but in practice, it didn't work out that way within PC, most especially in the case of the Brook House pond.

The way that failure was eventually corrected was by the planting of Wedelia, which I suggested, and which had also been planted by Bob Morris 35 years ago behind the mansion. Since  Morris's time, however, the state had declared it an invasive plant, which most people here took to mean it was something like a virus that would take over our landscape.

Australian Pines

What invasive really means, however,  is that is an agressive, healthy, fast growing plant that will spread if boundaries aren't set up.  The state has also declared Maleleuca trees and Australian pines as invasive, but PC wouldn't be here today if those trees weren't used to drain the original property, which was very swampy. And they haven't invaded anything over the past 85 years.

We have to remember that the state's agenda is a political one and doesn't necessarily apply to the PC landscape which came into existence far before the state set up its agendas as to what what is a proper plant for Florida. 

Maleleuca trees

For example, the state considers what it calls Florida Native trees and plants as the only ones proper forplanting, yet planting these skinny survivor plants in PC would devastate the lush, subtropical look of our landscape.

As for the "invasive" Wedelia, Morris set up those boundaries and the Wedelia has worked very well as a ground cover for 35 years.

In the same way, Wedelia was eventually planted as a ground cover around the pond (which provided the boundaries) and it quickly covered the failed Florida native plantings. I had been advocating its use for many months and both I and the Grounds Manager  think it was an excellent solution. Go over and take a look.

Wedelia

We have to remember that it was also the state that accidently let loose a virus that eventually spread from the Everglades and threatened to destroy our shaggy-barked Maleleuca trees that line the entrance and other formerly marshy areas in PC. 

It was only the quick reaction of a resident, John Adler, that led to the use of an experimental vaccine that saved those trees. 

As an aside, let me mention that there are plans in the air to replace the Maleleuca trees at a cost of $3-5000 each, presumably to replace the aging trees at our entrance, which by my reckoning are close to 100 years old. There are, however,  two reasons why we should look at this proposal with a critical eye:

1) we no longer need their drainage, which is the reason they were originally planted.

and 

2. it seems somewhat risky because of the potential virus problem, which may still be around and perhaps in a newer, different  form for which there is no vaccine.

If the virus problem can be discounted, the only reason I can see for this new planting would be to preserve a certain "look", and if that is so, it seems to me that a better planting  would consist of  50%  Malelueca trees and 50% Live Oak trees (which provide a much better canopy tunnel and are 1/2 the cost:  $2500 for a 25 foot tree.) 

Such a layout should be designed and planted under the direction of a landscape architect to make sure it preserves the "Malelueca look". Otherwise we might wind up with a visual mess that could never be corrected.

But let me get back now to the landscape architects used by both Bob Morris and Mrs. Wilbanks, because they all followed Olmstead’s ideas to the letter. 

Here again is an exact quote from Olmsted: "The landscape architect should create an artificial landscape that looked natural and fulfilled the use for which the property was intended."

In the first landscape design phase in the 30's, the "use intended" was a sub-tropical garden for the Wilbanks to live in, as is made clear in Irv Bennett’s and John Adler’s excellent History of Pelican Cove

In the later Bob Morris  landscape design in the  70's, the "use intended" was a subtropical garden to surround and blend with a 750 unit low-rise condominium.

(Note: It is unclear what percentage of the original Wilbanks landscaping shubbery beneath the trees Morris was able to salvage, as the property, when he bought it from Mrs. Wilbanks, had been  left to grow wild for years. In Morris own words (according to The History of Pelican Cove, "..the property was overgrown with weeds, vines and impenetrable forests." This, by the way, is exactly what Pelican Cove would look like if it was left to grow wild over  7-10 years. My guess is that Morris' landscape architects used whatever percentage of the original shrubbery was still healthy, but what percentage that was we will never know.)

At any rate, here are some of the flowering trees and shrubs used in the final masterful 1979 Wilbanks/Morris PC landscape:

BOUGANVILLEA

GOLD TREE

AZAELAS

The lush subtropical Wilbanks/ Morris PC landscape is an artificial landscape made to look natural 

I think it should be clear, just by looking around at the combined Wilbanks/ Morris landscape today, that  it didn't just happen with some help from Mrs. Wilbanks and her friends.

What we have today is a masterful artificial landscape that looks natural  that was designed by skilled landscape architects and fulfills the use for which the property was intended.

Let me give you some more details on this. 

THE DETAIL ON HIRING 
A  NEW GROUNDS MANAGER 

AND 
ADVISORY LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT

As we are about to replace the current Grounds Manager, who is retiring in a year or so, I am going to suggest some steps that the Board should take with regard to hiring a new Grounds Manager.

The most important thing for the Board to focus on are the qualifications of the new Grounds Manager.

1. Based on past experience, I believe it is critical that the new Grounds Manager should be very experienced in tropical and sub-tropical flora, especially flowering trees, vines and shrubs.

2. Secondly, the new Grounds Manager should be told in no uncertain terms that his job is to maintain our landscape, i.e., to replace injured or old trees and shrubs on a one-for-one basis (with the same exact species) and not to replace them with species of his own choosing.

(I believe if the current Grounds Manager had been firmly instructed by the Board that he was never to change the landscape but replace plants and trees on a one-for-one basis, and that if he had  extensive tropical and subtropical background,  he would never have tried to introduce color by planting 600 non-harmonious Croton and Ti plants throughout the property.)

I believe what the Board needs to do is hire a good, proven maintenance foreman as Grounds Manager who can organize and manage the large ground staff in their various maintenance procedures, which are complicated and time dependent. 

ESTABLISHING A RELATIONSHIP WITH 

AN ADVISORY LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT 

At the same time, the Board should establish a relationship with a proven landscape architect capable of advising them as well as designing any changes that might have to be made. I realize the Board never likes to consider this as landscape architects cost money, but so do consultants for our finances and structures.

At any rate, what I am proposing is smply establishing a relationship. That doesn't cost anything. And if the right kind of landscape architect is chosen the fees will be small.

At any  rate, there should be few changes except for recovering from blight or fire or storm damage and reinroducing the subtopical pastel flora that should have been planted rather than the Crotons and Tis.

Here is what I believe to be the best way to interview and select an advisory landscape architect.  

First of all, here is a landscape architect who already knows Pelican Cove that you should talk to. He is Fred Colagiovanni, President of Tropical Landscape Solutions.

Contact Fred at  941.351.5703, he is familiar with Pelican Cove as his firm was one considered  by grounds committee 6 years ago for consulting.. They weren’t selected because the grounds committee wanted a larger firm with capabilities beyond landscape design. 

I thought Fred's firm was the best candidate, however, when it came to landscape design per se.

You can actually see their designs right here in Sarasota. Here is a gallery of their residential projects:

http://www.tropicallandscapesolutions.com/index.php?src=photo

Here is something about the firm that I took from their site:

Tropical Landscape Solutions has been creating artistic landscapes in southwest Florida since 1993. Between them, company founders Fred Colagiovanni and Daniel Shulman have nearly 50 years in the landscape design and maintenance. During that time, they've designed commercial landscapes for clients such as Home Depot, Publix and the Ritz Carlton, as well as countless waterfront estate landscapes on Longboat, Siesta, Lido, Manasota and Casey Keys.

Both Fred and Daniel are graduates of the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science & Forestry. Fred is a registered ASLA member, and Daniel is a Registered Landscape Architect (#0001642). With 43 employees and a 6-acre nursery, Tropical is well-equipped to handle landscape projects of any size, anywhere in the Southwest Florida region. Tropical Landscape Solutions is also a member of the Gulf Coast Builders Exchange, the Florida Homebuilders Association, and the Chamber of Commerce in both Sarasota and Venice.

  

I think the best way to find similar firms is to go to the Lido Key neighborhood just before the Bridge to Long Boat key. It is the second neighborhood shown on the video at:

http://artmargaretspringfamily.blogspot.com/2014/06/pelican-cove-landscaping-easy-way-to.html

These are new homes on New Pass, but the landscaping is a combination of very old and new, much as Pelican Cove. I would simply drop a letter in the mailbox of any home with landscaping you like and ask them to direct you to the firm that did the landscaping. I wouldn’t be surprised if only a few firms did all of the landscaping, as that’s the way it works in wealthy neighborhoods, so I’d drop many request letters to insure you get more than one firm.

Let me get back to the new Grounds Manager for a moment. If the Board concentrates on hiring a proven foreman, it will also be less expensive than trying to hire those who want a large salary because they claim to have landscaping design ability—but no degree. We don’t need that kind of help. It will only lead to problems. Believe me.

A strong foreman can pick up on the excellent procedures of the current Grounds Manager, who has done  an excellent job in maintaining the property. If the maintenance procedures he has developed are passed on to the new foreman Grounds Manager, we should be in very good shape. 

But any future landscape changes should be directed by a qualified landscape architect. The picture below shows the kind of natural looking, flowering landcape that can be created by a skilled landscape architect.

This is the kind of harmony a landscape architect can supply

I’ll say more about this as I go on, as such design advice needn’t be as expensive as the fat-cat landscape consultants hired by the Grounds Committee to advise them some 7 years ago because of the   residents’ objections to what had been done to the landscape. 

To my mind they were both expensive and accomplished little. Unbelieveable as it seems, they were never asked to comment on the accuracy of the residents' objections to what was being done to the landscape beneath the trees, even though a complete site was available for them to study and comment on:
http://artmargaretspringfamily.blogspot.com/2014/06/pelican-cove-landscaping-pictorial.html 

If my memory serves me correctly, their only contribution was to count the trees, mark which ones needed to be replaced because of age, and then suggest that the remaining trees be thinned by 1/3 every year afterward. I believe I still have the emails on this ridiculous last suggestion. Luckily this last suggestion was rejected or we wouldn’t have the landscape we have now, which was designed to be thickly wooded.

For those Board Members and residents who may think that after this tremendous effort on the part of the residents that the  PC landscape is currently managed on the principle that the PC landscape is to be maintained according to the original design, but never changed, let me cite a few instances that may change your minds. 

I think it should then be evident why the Board needs to establish rules and safeguards against unwarranted changes, because it's going to happen.

JACARANDA TREE IN BLOOM

About a year ago, a beautiful, very large lavender-flowering Jacaranda tree was cut down behind the Harbor club. It was most probably cut down because of its age and therefore was undoubtedly planted many years ago (along with the many other non-local flowering trees) by Mrs.  Wilbanks’ landscape architect.     

After several months had gone by, I inquired of the Grounds Manager when he was going to replace it, as the pledge Bob Morris gave Mrs. Wilbanks was that PC would maintain as many of her trees as possible. The Grounds Manager replied that PC had no rule requiring the replacement of trees cut down. A year has passed by and the Jacaranda tree still has not been replaced. By the way, I have the emails backing this up.

For some reason, the Grounds Manager took it upon himself to change the PC landscape by not replacing the Jacaranda, the kind of flowering tree that gave PC its original sub-tropical beauty. I believe that neither the Board, the new General Mamager nor the Grounds Committee were  aware of this and would still not be aware of it if I hadn’t brought it up just now.

If Connie Lang, the previous General Manager, had still been here this would have never happened. The Grounds Mgr. gave me a number of excuses for doing this, but they made no sense to anyone who understands landscape design, as Connie did. In her absence, neither the Board, nor the new General Manager nor the Grounds Committee, had enough background to tell the Grounds Manager toplant a replacement Jacaranda to take the place of the aging one cut down. 

I know that no one likes to hear news like this, but it is something that has to be taken into consideration when instructions are given to our new Grounds Manager, because the rule that has to be understood and enforced is that the PC landscape is to be maintained according to the original design, but never changed.

A second situation where the landscape was changed for the worse was in the planting of three white, weak-flowering Chinese Orchid trees rather than the magnificent, purple-flowering , seedless Hong Kong Orchid trees that were planted by Morris and Mrs. Wilbanks thoughout the property.

two of these inferior Chines Orchid trees was planted several years ago on the north side of the harbor, and the second about 1 1/2 years ago on the corner of the Harbor House tennis court, which was specifically to be a purple Hong Kong Orchid tree. You should go take a look at the one by the tennis court.

chinese orchid with seed pods

Unfortunately, the trees planted were the wrong species and not the beautiful, purple-flowering hybrid called Hong Kong Orchid  (Bauhinia blakeana)

This same Hong Kong seedless hybrid was planted around the grounds by both Mrs Wilbanks and Bob Morris not only because of its purple-flowering beauty but because it is sterile and does not create hundreds of large, unsightly seed pods.

PURPLE HONG KONG ORCHID W NO SEED PODS

If the Grounds Manager had been experienced in tropical flowering trees, this never would have happened. For sure, the previous landscape architects knew the difference, which is why we have 5 or 6 of these beautiful, purple flowering Hong Kong Orchid trees on our property. Now, in addition, we have two additional weak flowering, ugly seed pod Orchid trees that never should have been planted and that are an eye sore.

Again, I believe that neither the Board nor even the resident members of the Grounds Committee were aware of this and would still not be aware of it if I hadn’t brought it up just now.

I happened to notice both these changes because I am particularly interested in the welfare of our flowering trees, many of which re nearing the end of their lives, being originally planted by Mrs. Wilbanks.

It would be criminal if we were to allow them to suffer the same fate as the chopped-down but not replaced Jacaranda behind Harbor House.

At any rate this is why the new Ground Manager we hire:

1) should have proven experience with planting and maintaining tropical and sub-tropical flora, especially flowering trees, vines and shrubs.

2) be firmly instructed that the PC landscape is to be maintained on a one for one basis according to the original design, but never changed.

3) be instructed that any landscape changes should be directed by a qualified landscape architect

Let me say something about the hiring of an inexpensive qualified landscape architect to direct any changes that have to be made. In the Sarasota area there are several small gardening firms owned by very good, working, practical landscape architects with staffs about the size of our ground crew.

I became familiar with one of these firms when six or seven landscaping consultant firms were being interviewed by the Grounds Committee. The owner of one impressed me with his thinking and design backround and experience. He told me they could design a small plot, present an accurate picture of it for approval, and supervise the actual planting for a few hundred dollars.  

This is the kind of working, non fat-cat architect we should establish a relationship with. After all, we use temporary consultants for our finances and structures. Our landscape should be no different.

As there is plenty of time before the new Ground Manager is hired, here is what I suggest be done. Interview a few of these small gardening firms owned by landscape architects and go see what they've done. Then select one you’d like to work with. If the Board wishes, I’d be glad to assist them in this.

The selected landscape architect would work with the new Grounds Manager, but he should report to the General Manager and the Board, not only on the changes he is directed to make, but also on any unwarranted changes he detects.

This is the kind of safeguard we need, especially since the current Board and General Manager have no landscaping experience as far as I know. I don't mean this in a disparaging way, it is simply a statement of fact. 

Here is something else that I suggested to Connie Lang a few years ago, but she left before we got to talk about it seriously.

Here is what I suggested to Connie: Have the landscape architect you want to establish a relationship with suggest a few people he knows who would be qualified Grounds Managers, i.e., proven maintenance foremen. Most probably they will be people who have worked for him in the past, but  it could also be someone currently working for him.

One thing for sure, the landscape architect  is not going to choose a lemon because he will want to firm up his relationship with PC. 

What you would then have is a Grounds Manager familiar with the thinking of the landscape architect and who also has a pre-existing working relationship with him. This can only help communication between the Grounds manager and the landscape architect. I suspect they would talk back and forth informally and it wouln't cost PC anything.

This relationship might eventually lead down the road to hiring temporary workers  from the gardening firm of the landscape architect. This, in turn,  might lead down the road to not replacing some of our own older workers as they retire but using more temporary workers. (which would be cheaper, no FICA etc). 

However, I believe we should always keep our own ground crew but perhaps not as large. 

Thus there would be many options the Board could take, as the relationship develops, all of which would reduce costs and improve the quality of our landscape.

Needless to say, I believe any such small firm would jump at the chance to have a relationship with Pelican Cove. It would also be good for Pelican Cove.

THE DETAIL:  SOME MORE ABOUT OLMSTED'S INFLUENCE 

Let me say some more about Olmsted's design influence. Anyone familiar with landscaping design will tell you, without a moment’s hesitation, that Olmstead’s revolutionary ideas about landscaping, first introduced around 1860, changed American landscaping forever.

The pictures below show large gardens looked like prior to Olmsted. They look completely unatural.

This is an example of Central Park's artificial landscaping made to look natural 

By the 1930’s, if not sooner, Olmsted’s ideas formed the basic curriculum of every college offering a degree in landscape architecture. His ideas were the first thing students were taught and they still are.

They are as important to landscape design as Einstein’s theories are to students of modern physics.

People who know landscaping will also tell you, without a moment’s hesitation that our original Wilbanks landscaping was done in accordance with Olmsted’s design ideas, as were the later, extensive modifications done by the two landscape architects employed by Bob Morris.

Wilbanks mansion and masterful landscaping 

As part of Bob Morris’ purchase of this property, he  promised Mrs. Wilbanks that he would protect and maintain as much of the landscape as he could, and because of that, I believe Pelican Cove has something like a fiduciary responsibility with regards to preserving the PC landscape.

What those responsible for the disastrous landscaping changes of 10-6 years ago didn’t really understand is that landscape design is a very difficult art, because unlike a painting, or a sculpture, the plants keep growing and changing shapes and colors.

In short, they didn’t know enough about landscape design to understand that a masterpiece like our landscape should never be changed, only maintained along the original lines. For sure they didn’t have any idea who Olmsted was, or his design ideas were, until I brought him up.

I can assure you that our landscape today is absolutely nothing like the original native land. Nor did it happen all by itself with the help of one of Mrs. Wilbanks’ neighbors (Dr. McAdow), which is the mistaken impression the History of Pelican Cove unwittingly gives.

The Wilbanks’ initial landscape, as I have shown, was done by someone who knew landscaping, and the initial job was as masterful as the modifications done by Bob Morris’ highly skilled landscape architects some 45 years later.

I fear that unless the  Board sets some different rules for the new Grounds Manager and also insists that our unique and beautiful PC landscape should never be changed only maintained on a one-for-one basis,  we are leaving ourselves open again to its being damaged.




At the time those damaging changes were made, neither the Board, nor the General Manager, nor the Grounds Manager had any knowledge or experience in landscape design. 

I believe this is somewhat the same case today.

The result  was that massive changes were made to the landscape (almost overnight) without the Board and the General Manager being aware  of  (or understanding) what was taking place. (The one exception to this was the planting done around Brookhouse Pond, although I don't believe the Board understood the ramifications of doing this without a landscape architect.)

It was only when  knowledgeable residents became aware of what was happening, that the changes were stopped by a referendum oF almost 100 residents.

http://artmargaretspringfamily.blogspot.com/2014/06/pelican-cove-landscaping-pictorial.html

That referendum, along with the later corrective efforts of a new General Manager, Connie Lang, restored out landscape to about 85% of its original beauty and harmony.

As someone who knows a great deal about landscapes and design (and how easily they can be damaged) I feel it is imperative that we actively respect and protect this landscape in the same way that we respect and protect the structures and accounting systems.

 THE DETAIL ON OUR ORIGINAL VIRGIN LANDSCAPE 

Here are the details that will set the record straight on what the original land looked like, and what an incredible jump our finished landscape represents. First of all, we should be aware that prior to Mrs. Wilbanks purchasing the property, it looked something like the virgin land just to the north of Pelican Cove, the Eide estate, which will soon be developed:

https://www.scgov.net/PlanningServices/RezoneSpecial%20Exception%20Documents/13-25%20Elling%20O.%20Eide%20Chartiable%20Foundation.pdf

According to the Irv Bennett’s and John Adler’s excellent History of Pelican Cove, the 18 acre plot called the Eide estate was sold by Mrs Wilbanks to The Prebyterian Church in 1964. Sometime later she sold a 15 acre plot near the entrance that eventually became Bay Village. 

So we only have to look at the Eide estate (which was never developed outside of the bayfront area around Mr. Eide’s home) to see what some part of the Wilbanks estate still looked like in 1964. 

By 1964, a great deal of the Wilbanks estate  had been landscaped, but a part of the northen area (which was sold off and became the Eide estate) and a part in the southwest ( which was sold off and eventually became Bay Village) were still in a virgin state and consisted of hundreds of ugly Florida pines with lots of small sabal scrub, and a few oaks and sabal palms.

From this it is easy to deduce that the original Wilbanks property bought in the thirties was identical, i.e. it contained nothing but hundreds of ugly Florida pines and small sabal scrub, with a few sabal palms and a few oaks. Further proof of this are the  massive Florida pines that were not cut down and remain scattered throughout PC.

While the Eide estae is still undeveloped, I suggest that those who want to see for themselves how different the original virgin PC landscape looked in its native state should view it, if only through the fence, or the drive at the Presbyterian Church leading to the estate off 41.

As I pointed out earlier, what Irv and John in their excellent History of Pelican Cove say about the original, virgin landscaping, (“the land… was replete with towering palms, oaks, exotic fruit and nut trees..”) is incorrect. 

It must have been difficult for them to go back  a hundred years for positively accurate information about our virgin property, and in some cases I believe Irv and John had to rely on the memories of others, which were bound to be somewhat questionable as to the time period being described

Some “towering palms” were undoubtedly there (native Sabal palms can grow to 40 feet if not shaded out by the surrounding pines), but I suspect that the “exotic fruit and nut trees” may describe the land sold off by Mrs. Wilbanks (and in which fruit and nut trees were later planted before it  became Bay Village). It seems clear to me therefore that the exotic fruit and nut trees”  were not a part of the original virgin property that Mrs Wibanks purchased.

If John or Irv have information to the contrary, I’d like to hear about it. As for the oak trees, I believe that like the sabal palms there were only few because in a native Florida landscape they are shaded out by the faster growing pines.

This is obvious if we look at the Eide property or indeed at any  undeveloped virgin property in this area. Everything, including  oaks and sabal palms, are shaded out by the faster developing Florida pines.

As I mentioned earlier, some remnants of those original Sabal palms and Florida pines are still here in PC.  Two of these tall pines can be seen on the SE corner of the crossroads just before the office. I am not talking here about the very tall Norfolk PInes that look like Christmas Trees on steroids. They seem to have been planted by both Morris and Mrs. Wilbanks,

Thus I think it’s safe to say that original native landscape of the PC property  is pretty much what you also see today not only in the Eide estate but also in any  virgin undeveloped land in this area.

Florida pines  landscape similar to original, virgin PC landscape

Where the native PC property was different from the native Eide estate, was that it was extremely marshy and had a great many mangroves not only on the shoreline, but where the Wilbanks pool is today, as well as the shallow estuary feeding the bay.

That estuary was fed by Clower Creek, and was eventually enlarged by Bob Morris into what we now know as the Harbor.

One indication of how marshy parts of the land were can be seen in the huge Melaleuca (punk) trees that the original landscape architect planted along on the drive leading to the mansion and on many other marshy areas around the the Brookhouses and just south and around the mansion.

These Melaleuca trees were not native but imported from Australia and  were historically used in Florida to dry up marshy land, as they suck up enormous amounts of water.

The Melaleuca trees were probably the first artificial planting done by the architect, but they were soon followed by hundreds of trees that were also not native to this area, or the state, or even the country, such as the African Tulip trees that were planted on the lawn of the original mansion. Some still survive at the SE corner of the lawn.

Sub-tropical flowering trees such as Jacaranda, African Tulip, Royal Ponciana, and perhaps some of our older Hong Kong Orchid trees were also imported, just to name a few, along with a staggering variety of imported hardwood trees including the huge Norfolk Pines and the planting of many more live oaks. 

The imported palms included fish tail palms, areca palms, and Chinese palms, which are not native to this area. Bob Morris’ landscape architects also planted similar trees later to keep in harmony with the original landscaping.

In short, the trees and shrubs you see today in PC bear no relation whatsoever to the rough native Forida pine and Sabal palm trees and mangroves that filled the virgin PC property. 

Here are pictures and data on each of the Florida pine trees,  Sabal palms and palm scrub that populated our  native virgin property. Click on the descriptions for more information on each:

 LongLeaf Pine











Slash Pine

Sand (Scrub) Pine

The remaining trees were stumpy sabal palm  scrub , left.

and native cabage palm / sabal palm  trees., left

typical orange grove  

Irv and John in their History of Pelican Cove also cite about 40-50 acres of the Wilbanks estate being devoted to an orange grove, which they say Mr.Wilbanks planted prior to building the mansion. 

When I came here in 1979, a few spotty, gnarled remnants of this orange grove could be seen around PC, much as the scattered massive Florida pines and Sabal palms I’ve just mentioned.

The construction of this grove, of course, would have meant cutting down a great many of the virgin pines, and because of this, I have to believe the grove was worked into the original Olmsted-influenced Wilbanks landscaping plan to create the final Wilbanks landscaping.

The result was a masterful artificial design made to look natural and that also served the purpose for which Mrs. Wilbanks purchased the land: creating a sub-tropical garden to live in. An orange grove fit right into that sub-tropical garden, just as Mrs.  Wilbanks’ flowers and green house did.

(As a note, after 35 years, it is sometimes difficult to tell if some of our mature trees were planted by Mrs Wilbanks or Bob Morris, but you can generally tell the trees planted by Mrs. Wilbanks by their size but also by how close they are to the roads that Bob Morris later created.

Sometimes only inches separate them from the road, which is bad landscaping practice, and Morris knew it, but evidently had no choice, as both the roads had to be laid and the trees saved, so he did the best he could. The trees and shrubs that Morris himself planted were always a significant distance from the roads and structures.  

Take a walk around PC. Any large tree dangerously close to the roads or structures is probably a tree planted by Mrs Wilbanks' landscape architect that Bob Morris chose to save despite the fact that it was bad landscaping practice.)

I might add that Bob Morris’s pledge to Mrs. Wilbanks that PC would preserve as much of the original landscaping as possible was carried out by his employment of two distinguished landscape architects to design and maintain the changes made to the original landscaping.

One was from the Cornell School of Landscape Design, the best in the country, and the other was from the U of F School of Landscape Design, in Gainesville, a leader in sub-tropical and tropical landscaping. They were well-schooled in Olmstead’s principles. Their harmonious blending of new semi-tropical trees and shrubs was done to perfection.

It is a unique treasure, and as such everyone responsible for managing Pelican Cove should be aware that it should never be changed, only maintained in its original glory.

What remains to be done as of 2016 is the continued planting of the subtropical flowering shrubs and flowering trees that should have been planted rather than the unharmonious, spindly, darkly colored Crotons and Ti plants.

Many people can't see the difference between the bright, pastel colors of semitropical flora such as hibiscus, oleander, bougainvillea, alamanda, Royal Poinciana, and Jacaranda, etc., as compared to the darker colors of the Tis and Crotions. 

The difference is this: the bright pastel, colors of sub-tropical shrubs like hibiscus, oleander, bougainvillea, alamanda, Royal Poinciana, and Jacaranda, etc., give you an emotional lift, whereas the darker colors of the Tis and Crotons don’t. 

That emotional lift, by the way, happens of its own accord. It can't be avoided. 

THE BEAUTIFUL PASTEL COLORS GIVE AN EMOTIONAL LIFT

THE DETAIL:  RESTORING OUR LANDSCAPE TO ITS  1979  SUB-TROPICAL GLORY

We owe the previous General Manager, Connie Lang, who had an extensive landscaping background, eternal thanks for the variety of ways in which she minimized the effects of these non-harmonious plantings over the past 4 years, so that we now have a landscaping that is about 85% of the original gorgeous subtropical landscape I experienced when I moved here in 1979. 

I suspect that few Board members or residents know of her behind-the-scene efforts in this regard.

The way Connie did this was by working with the Grounds Manager to:

1. Let our original shrubbery grow in height by an additional 1 1/2 to 2 feet so as to minimize the impact of the spindly, dark-colored Tis and Crotons which were spread every where like salt and pepper. 

2. Remove some to the Tis and Crotons that couldn’t be hidden because the original shrubbery wouldn’t grow higher.

3. Begin planting  more new sub-tropical shrubs, primarily hibiscus.

(Unfortunately a great many Crotons have been left to grow to sometimes to the size of trees and completely out of proportion to the surrounding shrubbery, which  violates one of the most basic rules of landscaping. 

I took a cart trip some months ago around PC with the Grounds Manager and the Chairman of the Grounds Committee  to point out these very large Crotons. Unfortunately, it seems they will not be cut back, and with the knowledgeable Connie no longer here to step in and ask why, it appears they will stay that way until a new Grounds Manager is hired.)

PASSION FLOWER VINE

What remains to be done is to continue the planting of a wide range of subtropical flowering shrubs and flowering trees and flowering vines that should have been planted rather than the unharmonious, spindly, darkly colored Crotons and Ti plants

That new planting, however, should not be done in the haphazard manner of the past with no respect for harmony of colors and shapes. (See photos below.)

THE HAPHAZARD  TI AND CROTON SHRUBS  
CLASH WITH ORIGINAL LANDSCAPING 
AND ARE HARD TO HARMONIZE WITH

Too much of that has happened already with the result that a large part of our Wilbanks/Morris PC landscape lacks the kind of color and shape harmony it should have, and did have in 1979. 

There is little we can do about this, however, because:

1)  the darkly colored Tis and Crotons are notoriously dficult to harmonize with.

2) they were planted randomly  throughout the property where their shape and colors clash with the original srubs surrounding them.

I believe the best, cheapest and easiest way to plant more flowering sub-tropical flora is to introduce sub-tropical flowering trees, shrubs and vines in selected focal spots around the property. 

The main crossroads at the Wilbanks is one such spot but there are several others, such as the corner next to the Harbor Club tennis courts. There are several other good spots.

Such spots should be designed by a landscape architect.


The picture to the left is an example of an harmonius landscape, but it is a bit too manicured for PC, but the same harmony can be achieved in a more natural way by a skilled landscape architect. The picture below gives an example of such a harmonius landscape spot made to look natural a la Olmsted.

this is the kind of harmony a landscape architect can supply

Here are some samples of the hundreds of sub-tropical flowering flora that could be planted at selected focal points. Some of those shown below are already here, but many of them are very old and need to be replaced.

SOME FLOWERING SUB-TROPICAL TREES

HONG KONG ORCHID TREE 

JACARANDA TREES

GOLD TREE 

AFRICAN  TULIP TREE

ROYAL POINCIANA  TREE   

   

MIMOSA TREE

  SOME SUB-TROPICAL FLOWERING VINES

BLEEDING HEART VINE

PINK TRUMPET VINES

PASSION FLOWER VINE

SOME SUB-TROPICAL FLOWERING SHRUBS

BOUGANVILLEA SHRUBS

MIXED LANTANA  SHRUBS

PURPLE  LANTANA SHRUBS

GOLD LANTANA SHRUBS

RED OLEANDER SRHUB

PINK OLEANDER SHRUBS

PLUMBAGO SHRUBS

 SOME SUB-TROPICAL FLOWERS

RUMBA FLOWERS

MIXED PERIWINKLES

PENTAS

Again, the difference between the bright, pastel colors of semitropical flora such as hibiscus, oleander, bougainvillea, alamanda, Royal Poinciana, and Jacaranda, etc., as compared to the darker colors of the Tis and Crotons is often unclear to the inexperienced eye.

The difference is this: the bright pastel, semi-tropical colors give you an emotional lift, whereas the darker colors of the Tis and Crotons don’t. 

THE DARKER CLORS OF TI AND CROTON SHRUBS DON'T LIFT THE EMOTIONS 

BRIGHT PASTEL COLORS 
GIVE YOU AN EMOTIONAL LIFT

If you still have trouble in seeing this, think of the emotional lift you get from the hundreds of semi-tropical, pastel Impatiens hung in baskets and planted in several areas in the winter. 

Azaleas

That same emotional lift, by the way,   is also provided briefly during March twhen the beautiful pastels of the Azalaas bloom.

When tthe azaelas stop blooming and the heat-intolerent impatiens are removed in late spring, the PC landscaping goes flat. 

Those who live here year round will attest to that.

By planting the bright, pastel colors of semitropical flora such as Hibiscus shrubs, Mimosa trees, Oleander trees and shrubs, Bougainvillea shrubs, Alamanda vines, Royal Poinciana trees African Tulip trees, HongKong orchid trees, Jacaranda trees, Passion flower vines and many more these emotionally uplifting colors will be here all year round.

SOME FINAL WORDS

I am a gardener and have a love of botanical gardens, as many poets do, and moved here in 1979 at the age of 39, when PC was still being built, not to retire, but to live in a sub-tropical garden the equal of any botanical garden in the states. 

It is a unique treasure, and as such everyone responsible for managing Pelican Cove should be aware that it should never be changed, only maintained in its original glory.

Finally, as a reminder how the landscape can be damaged by amateurs, here is another site showing another of the changes made 10-6 years ago. I have not mentioned this site previously. It should be visited if you'd like more info on the kind of damage that can be done without a landscape architect. There are plenty of pictures.

http://artmargaretspringfamily.blogspot.com/2014/06/pelican-cove-landscaping-re-landscaping.html

I hope this gives everyone a sense of how valuable our landscape is, and how fragile it can be if changed by amateurs inexperienced in landscape design. 

I can assure you that 50-75 years from now, when all of our structures will have ended their useful life, that the landscape, if properly preserved, will be sought after by luxury developers and will be worth a small fortune to the surviving owners.   .

Here is a link to a site on my design experience:
http://artmargaretspringfamily.blogspot.com/2014/06/pelican-cove-landscaping-my-credentials.html

Here is a video site that will improve your eye for excellent landscape design in an effortless way. All it takes is a car ride out to Lido Key to see the real thing. It will instantaneously improve your eye for beauty and harmony in landscapes.
http://artmargaretspringfamily.blogspot.com/2014/06/pelican-cove-landscaping-easy-way-to.html

I hope the Board finds this site useful in determining future policy. I’d be happy to hear any comments or answer any questions in public or private.

Justin Spring

1620 Boathouse Circle

Gr201

306 1119

A Founder and Resident since 1979

ADDENDUM: THE UNSUITABILITY OF TI AND CROTON PLANTS IN OUR PC LANDSCAPE

  I have added the following section to help residents discriminate good color from bad color in a semi-tropical garden such as the PC Landscape. 

It is particularly focused on the unsuitability of the use of Tis and Crotons in the Pelican Cove landscape: 

In 1979 and for 26 years afterward, the Pelican Cove landscape was clearly the equal of the gardens of the great English estates, the magnificent estates of the Hudson Valley, Fairchild Gardens in Miami, Bok Towers Garden in Central Florida and our own Selby Gardens.

Like those great gardens, our landscaping was planted along the same rules that have governed the creation of serious landscaped gardens for hundreds of years. These same basic rules apply whether the garden is Temperate ( Hudson Vally) or Tropical/Semi tropical ( Bok Towers, Fairchild, Selby).Our own PC landscape is Tropical/Semi tropical.

The rules are known to all  landscape architects:

1) Beauty is achieved by the creating a collage of differing shades and shapes of green foliage. This rule is critical because green is the color that we subconsciously react to in the most positive way. We feel renewed, reborn, refreshed simply by looking at green foliage. It is in our genes.

2) Additional color is introduced by the natural flowers belonging to that green foliage, and in the case of Tropical/Semi tropical landscapes,  examples of those flowering shrubs and trees would be roses, hibiscus, oleander, penta, alamanda, Mexican petunia, orchid trees, jacaranda tree, and magnolia tree to name just a few. The beautiful colors and shapes of these flowers reflects centuries of natural and human selection.

Green, naturally flowering bouganvillia and azeleas
with their pastel, refreshing colors.

There was no good reason for these classic rules to have been ignored by planting the red and orange colored crotons and the tall muddy purple thai plants that have overwhelmed our original landscape.

They contain no healing green and their dark colors are inferior to those of naturally flowering pastel shrubs.

I am sure it seemed a good idea: why not supply color by using colored shrubs. Many of these colored shrubs require less maintenance and water, which also makes them financially attractive.

Unfortunately the color combinations of their leaves are not the simple, bright , pastel colors of naturally flowering Tropical/Semi tropical shrubs

But more importantly, when planted in large numbers, these luridly colored shrubs block our ability to see the green. They are like too much makeup on a well dressed woman. We no longer see the dress, only the make up.

In some sections of PC, the ratio of these plants to the green foliage is already 30% or more. At this point, the ability of these dark colored shrubs to visually block out the surrounding green is more than evident.

This is why these colored shrubs are not used in any distinguished botanical garden except as specimen plants.

They are represented as specimens in botanical gardens because it is the duty of botanical gardens to reflect all flora.

Thus at our own Selby, you will see small specimen plantings of things like orchids and bromeliads and crotons and ti plants, but you won’t see the crotons and thai plants in huge numbers saturating and obscuring the green landscape as at Pelican Cove.

No trained landscape architect would ever do that, because in classic gardens such as Pelican Cove and Selby, color is introduced into the green landscape through naturally flowering shrubs and trees.

There is a good reason why: the ability of these lurid colors to blot out the eye's ability to absorb the healing, refreshing effect of green foliage is a fact and is known to all experienced landscape architects.

Here are some examples of the lurid, colored shrubs that have been massively introduced throughout the Cove. They don't fit in, will grow to ten feet in height ,and seem like plants from an alien planet.

These shrubs contain no green leaves, and no flowers.

Examples of the lurid, colored shrubs that have been introduced throughout the Cove. These shrubs contain no green leaves, and no flowers.

Compare their lurid colors to the delicate flowers on the green leaved shrubs (below) that were a part of the original classic landscaping.

The photos below show the soft beautiful flowers of azaela shrubs, bouganvillea and Impatiens.

Examples of beautiful colors of the naturally flowering green shrubs used by the original designers.