St. Petersburg has removed 2,750 oleander plants from interstate medians because of a fungus.
By MYDRIA CLARK
Published July 12, 2003
[Times photos: Bill Serne]
A barren stretch of median exists now that St. Petersburg workers have ripped up diseased oleander plants along Interstate 275 near the 27th Avenue N overpass.
City crews have been cutting and taking away diseased oleander trees that were planted near city streets and highways. Some of the trees are dead and some are dying but still green.
ST. PETERSBURG - Once dubbed "the perfect median plant" by former Mayor David Fischer, the oleander has provided color and beauty to barren stretches of interstate roadways.
In the past decade, about 26,000 oleanders were planted on the interstate and around the city as part of Fischer's "Operation Greenscape" beautification plan.
Now, crews from the city's parks department are ripping thousands of them out of the ground.
This week, the city removed 2,750 diseased oleanders from the interstate, transforming Fischer's interstate garden into shallow pits of soil. The plants contracted a fungal disease called sphaeropsis.
"We didn't know about this when we planted it," said Cliff Footlick, parks operations manager for the city.
Sphaeropsis creates stem swellings on the plant, causing an abnormal growth of branches followed by the dieback of the branches, said Bob McGovern, director of the plant disease clinic at the University of Florida's Gainesville campus.
"It sits quietly in the tissue and then comes out under stress," said Tim Schubert, administrator for plant pathology in the state department of agriculture and consumer services.
It can take years for the symptoms of the disease to be expressed. McGovern suspects the harsh environment of the interstate, including pollution, caused the problem.
The plants have been removed from the medians on Interstate 275 (between Fifth Avenue N and 30th Avenue N), Interstate 175 (between Fourth and Eighth streets) and in other isolated spots in the city where the oleanders looked particularly bad, Footlick said.
These plants were some of the first oleanders planted with funds from early beautification grants.
Over the years, the city received nine grants for the project, totaling $2.3-million, Footlick said. At $11 per plant, including installation, the city ended up losing $30,250 in oleanders this year. However, Footlick doesn't consider it a loss.
"I don't look at it as losing money," Footlick said. "It's the ongoing cost of having landscaping out there."
The city has $55,000 left to find a replacement for the oleanders. The state Department of Transportation must approve the new plan. The city hopes to insert the new plants by September.
"We wish there is a plant just like an oleander that doesn't get this disease," Footlick said.
Sphaeropsis, also known as witches broom, has been known to affect holly, bottlebrush and citrus. The disease spreads through spores that enter the wounded tissue of the plants.
The problem isn't only on the interstate.
Oleanders were planted in other parts of the city as well, so homeowners should beware.
Instead of uprooting and planting new oleanders, however, there are a few methods homeowners can use to keep their oleanders healthy for as long as possible.
The best way to fight the disease is to prune the plants often, Schubert said.
He suggests cutting off the diseased parts with shears sterilized in alcohol or Clorox, then destroying them.
He also said homeowners should spray fungicide on the plants to protect them. And as always, homeowners should keep their plants in the correct locations and maintain them properly, McGovern said. Oleanders need to be placed in sunny locations and to be watered adequately, he said.
