Leaving the cattle business for ornamental palms and tiki huts turned out to be a moneymaker for a longtime farmer.
By JANET ZINK
Published May 7, 2004
RIVERVIEW - Like so many cattle ranchers in Hillsborough County, Richard Bailey has deserted cows for greener pastures.
He has turned 34 acres of his family's farmland into a nursery for palms and a showcase for tiki huts.
"This farm where we're at was a cattle farm for years," said Bailey, a third-generation Hillsborough farmer. His brother, David, still raises cattle on 30 adjacent acres.
But Bailey decided nine years ago there wasn't enough money to be made raising cattle, an issue he's prone to become philosophical about.
"In American society it seems like the more necessary the product the lower the profit on it. So the things we need the most, like food, the people who produce it make the least amount of money," Bailey said. "The more useless thing you can dream up to sell the more money you can make at it."
The numbers prove his point. According to the Hillsborough County division of economic development, in 2002 beef cattle generated $165 an acre. Ornamental plants, like palms, were worth more than $53,000 per acre.
Bailey started growing palms in 1983, partly for fun and also with the thought that it might eventually become a moneymaking venture. Getting started years before going into business was key; it takes five to 10 years for a palm seed to reach the point where it's ready for retail. At Palmscapes, Bailey has fields planted one, two, three and five years ago.
He employs eight people and grosses about $400,000 a year, he said.
The tiki hut business was a natural outgrowth of the palm nursery.
"We had all these palm fronds left over from the palm trees and a couple guys are good carpenters, and I said why don't we make some tiki huts," Bailey said.
In the past five years, the tiki business has taken off and now he has a crew dedicated to building the huts.
Ron Daugherty, a retired electrical engineer who used to design F-16 radar systems for Westinghouse, oversees construction of the huts for clients from Treasure Island to Orlando. They're installed over hot tubs, inside pool enclosures, in backyards.
It takes 300 to 600 fronds and one to two weeks to make a tiki hut. A waterproof liner hidden in the fronds guarantees water won't get through.
"You can stand here all day and not get wet," Daugherty said, leaning on a post inside one of his huts as if ready to do just that.
The fronds are cut while still green.
"If they lay on the ground for three weeks they get dry and don't want to bend," Bailey said.
The rafters, Daugherty said, are built so that when the fronds decay, which takes about seven years, they roof can be replaced with tin, shingles or plywood if the owner is tired of the tropical look.
Daugherty uses fronds from cabbage palms, which grow wild on Bailey's land.
"They're a fan type frond, so they're more water repellent," Daugherty said. "it's almost like layering shingles on a roof."
The cabbage palm fronds are also relatively insect-resistant.
Bailey sells about 20 different varieties of palms. There's a foxtail palm, a native of Australia that retails for $75, and is named for its frond that has leaves all around the spine, giving it the puffy look of, well, a fox's tail. There's the tall and graceful queen palm; a Canary Island date palm, with long menacing thorns on its fronds; and needle palms, a Florida native that's an endangered species.
Bailey knows his palms.
One secret he reveals: Palms are not really trees. They're in the same family as grasses, orchids and lilies because when they first sprout from a seed, only one leaf emerges. Trees originate with two leaves. He easily lists the names of Florida natives - cabbage palms, needle palms (an endangered species), palmettoes, Everglades palms. And he notes that Florida's first residents pressed them into service. The stems could be used to build forts and homes, the fronds could be used for thatched roofs and the hearts make a tasty meal.
"They were a real boon for the settlers when they came here," Bailey said.
Now, they're a boon for Bailey.
PALMSCAPES
WHERE: 10313 U.S. 301 S., Riverview.
PRODUCTS: Tiki huts range in price from $1,500 for an umbrella-only hut to $3,500 for one with a bamboo-lined bar. Palms range from $55 for a pygmy date palm to $525 for a queen palm and $1,500 for a Canary Island date palm.
HOURS: 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.
