The Beautification of Hemming Plaza

[civil42806]

by the way those aren't sago palms planted in the 7th picture, on the 2nd page, are they?

[mbwright]

hard to tell.  There is holly fern, and most likely coontie in the photos.  Sago's are not a good choice now, due to an alien, imported scale (gotta love the global economy).

[Keith-N-Jax]

Yes looks like coontie.

[PeeJayEss]

They look like coontie to me as well, which are a great choice.

[civil42806]

Coonties make a good selection , its hard to tell from the pics, was hoping they didn't select sagos, they get huge and aren't a good selection due to the cold in jax

[Josh]

hard to tell.  There is holly fern, and most likely coontie in the photos.  Sago's are not a good choice now, due to an alien, imported scale (gotta love the global economy).

Well, it's not like sagos are native cycads anyway; only coonties are. Asian cycad scale was definitely an epidemic last decade when it arrived in Miami and people started ripping out their sagos, but from what I've read it seems the plants (or predatory bugs) have adapted and scale didn't turn out to be the apocalypse many predicted. Those that over-prune (or prune at all) their sagos contribute more to damage from cycad scale than the bugs themselves do.

Coonties make a good selection , its hard to tell from the pics, was hoping they didn't select sagos, they get huge and aren't a good selection due to the cold in jax

Given Hemming Park/Plaza's history, the landscaping will be completely changed before sagos would be even remotely large given how small the plants they're planting now are. But yeah, you would never plant sagos like that.

Coonties can definitely get large themselves though. The ones planted in some of the medians in Avondale are getting to the point where they are starting to affect visibility for cars and pedestrians, especially when you allow Bermuda grass or something similar to grow through it which results in vegetation growing through them and sticking out an additional foot or two. Last year someone did a good job of cleaning up Edgewood, but Ingleside is a disaster.

[mbwright]

A huge improvement, and a job well done.

[mtraininjax]

Coonties can definitely get large themselves though. The ones planted in some of the medians in Avondale are getting to the point where they are starting to affect visibility for cars and pedestrians, especially when you allow Bermuda grass or something similar to grow through it which results in vegetation growing through them and sticking out an additional foot or two. Last year someone did a good job of cleaning up Edgewood, but Ingleside is a disaster.

Ingleside got a haircut at Ingleside and Oak recently. Could really use some flashing lights to make people aware or turn it into a 4-way stop, like Riverside and Ingleside.

[I-10east]

A group named "The Friends of Hemming Park" wants to bring more events to Hemming Plaza.

www.news4jax.com/news/plans/plans-for-hemming-plaza-in-the-works/25419052

[tufsu1]

^ yes, they were the only ones who submitted on the City's RFP late last year.  DIA voted the other day to give them initial funding