SCCF Native Landscapes & Garden Center staff recently collaborated with the City of Sanibel on a planting project at the Boat Ramp Beach Park. Each year, the City’s Natural Resources Department gets grants to restore and enhance the public beaches and parks.

“This is particularly important since Hurricane Ian destroyed a lot of the beach habitat on the island, which is the front-line protection in such storms,” said Garden Center Manager Becca Grotrian. “It’s crucial to now rebuild these habitats.”

Since this project took place at one of the city’s bay-side beaches, the main focus was to replant trees as well as some other typical beach dune species such as sea oats (Uniola paniculata), seacoast marsh elder (Iva imbricata), and sea lavender (Heliotropium gnaphalodes).

The trees that were installed are good examples of trees that did well after Ian. The trees included Jamaica dogwood (Piscidia piscipula), wild tamarind (Lysiloma latisilliquum), and Lignum vitae (Guaiacum sanctum). Jamaica dogwood and wild tamarind are both fast-growing, large, shade trees. Lignum vitae is a very slow-growing, medium-sized tree, used a lot as a specimen tree or focal point in the landscape.

These trees are listed in our Post-Hurricane Ian Replanting Guide.