It doesn't look like a north Alabama patch of land, does it? But like any special garden, the median at 8th and Quintard sometimes needs special care. George Kauffman with Alabama Power cuts down some overgrown limbs on a tree. (Anniston Star photo by Bill Wilson)
Hayes Jackson, urban regional extension agent with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, designed and planted the median 20 years ago, he said.
“After 20 years landscapes run their course,” Jackson said. “It needs some redesign.”
That redesign is taking place in advance of a meeting of the Southeastern Palm Society on Oct. 6 at the Longleaf Botanical Gardens in Anniston, Jackson said. He expects around 75 members from all over the Southeast to attend.
When the work is completed, the newly cleared and mulched median will showcase some of the rare palms that are planted there, Jackson said.
The median has an Afghan palm called the Mazari that is very hard to secure now, he said. Even the seeds are now difficult to get out of Afghanistan, Jackson said. In addition, the median contains a Washingtonia palm, which probably won’t grow any further north than here, and an Algerian cedar tree that is now disappearing from the northern African desert, Jackson said.
While the work probably won’t be completed before the meeting, Jackson hopes to make the median easier to care for by creating more non-cultivated surfaces, including a path for pedestrians, he said.
Staff writer Laura Camper: 256-235-3545. On Twitter @LCamper_Star.
