ANNA MARIA – A large kapok tree now graces a residential construction site along the 700 block of North Shore Drive.
The new beachfront home is being built by Ross Built Custom Homes with Max Gazzo serving as project manager, Jake Ross serving as superintendent and Michael Gilkey serving as the landscape architect and landscape contractor.
Gilkey owns the Sarasota-based Michael A. Gilkey Inc. landscape architect and contracting firm that has clients on Anna Maria Island and other barrier Islands from Boca Grande to St. Petersburg.
Gilkey said the kapok tree now standing along North Shore Drive is 60 to 80 years old. It came from Pahokee, Florida, on the southeast rim of Lake Okeechobee, and is approximately 57 feet tall – as tall as it can be for transportation purposes.
Extensive preparations preceded the tree’s recent relocation to Anna Maria.
“The tree has been being prepared for about three years for the move, with extensive preparations happening over the last six months,” Gilkey said. “Initial pruning started three years ago. Initial root pruning started three years ago. In the last six months, getting ready for transport, the majority of the heavy pruning took place. The day before the move, they cut the buttress roots, or the flared roots, off the tree and labeled and numbered them to the corresponding parts on the tree. The tree came on a separate truck from the roots. We got it on-site and pinned it all back together using large stainless-steel screws.”
Gilkey said transporting the massive tree required permits from the Florida Department of Transportation and the Florida Highway Patrol, with escort vehicles accompanying the trucks transporting the tree and the tree’s root system.
“A crane and about 20 people were involved on-site with the planting and logistics to get it in. It was a massive effort,” Gilkey said.
Relocating the kapok tree was just the start of a lengthy and ongoing process.
“It’ll take about five years to get the canopy looking normal. We won’t trim it for the first year. The tree’s going to be using its leaves and branches for its health and nutrients, but after the first year we’ll start reducing the number of sprouts for the purpose of making strong connections,” Gilkey said, noting he’ll remain involved in that process.
“The tree will have an arborist overseeing its pruning twice a year for five years. Over time, you want to thin those new branches down from the 20 branches that may sprout to the most viable branches to make those strong connections,” Gilkey said.
When asked if kapok trees are common in this area, Gilkey said, “I wouldn’t say they’re common, but they’re out there. Selby Gardens (in Sarasota) has a real beautiful one people are probably familiar with and there’s a big one on the bayfront in St. Pete as well.”
Gilkey said transplanting this kapok tree was the result of the homeowners wanting to have some large established trees on their property.
“Over the years, I’ve planted several trees this size or bigger and we were able to accommodate them,” Gilkey said. “With new construction, a lot of times it’s hard to save existing trees on a site; and sometimes it takes five, 10, 15 years to get appropriate scale to a new house, especially a two-or-three story house. It’s cool to be able to plant trees that give you an immediate sense of scale. We’re able to give this house scale and context of landscape.”
According to Wikipedia, a kapok tree’s flowers provide nectar for bees and bats and an oil can be pressed from its seeds. The kapok tree is considered a sacred symbol in Mayan mythology and is considered a sacred tree in some religions.
Greg and Lee Ross own Ross Built Custom Homes. The couple have long been fixtures in the Anna Maria Island construction community and the Island community as a whole.
After noting the homeowners wish to remain anonymous, Lee Ross said, “She is in love with the home and the tree is his baby.”
Regarding Gilkey’s work, she added, “He is one of our go-to landscape designers. He’s very professional and always a pleasure to work with. The moving of this giant tree was as smooth as you could possibly expect it to be.”
