Deadheading tropicals!
Tropicals, they say, are all the rage among Mid-Atlantic gardeners.
More and more varieties are making their way across the Mason-Dixon Line with the expectation that they will be able to withstand a Mid-Atlantic winter....Well, maybe not a Mid-Atlantic winter like the one we are having.
Anyway, Garden Variety is in Fort Lauderdale for the weekend (try not to hate me) where she witnessed a REAL deadheading job on some tropicals!
These workers were cutting off the browned fronds from palm trees. And as you can see it isn't an easy job.
Photo credit: Baltimore Sun/Susan Reimer
Ladders are pressed up against the truck of the palm. Workers climb and hack off the fading greenery with machetes. If the tree is too high for ladder-climbing, the workers use these extension rod saw blades.
Carrying off the plant material requires a strong back.
But there is a reward waiting at the truck, where the fronds are chopped down, again with machetes, and coconuts are hacked open for a drink!
Truly. Tropical gardening is not for sissies.
