By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Visitors arriving in Sea Isle City may be tempted to double check their navigation systems to see if they took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in Miami Beach instead.
Although it may seem like an illusion at first, they’ll be greeted by dozens of swaying palm trees that have transformed Sea Isle’s John F. Kennedy Boulevard entryway into a tropical-like setting more reminiscent of Florida or the Caribbean than the Jersey Shore.
“It is a way to put smiles on people’s faces as they cross over the bridge and enter Sea Isle. It’s a bit of whimsy and a cheerful greeting,” city spokeswoman Katherine Custer said of the leafy green palms.
Sea Isle spent $8,000 to buy 40 palm trees from a grower in Florida. They have been planted just in time for the Memorial Day weekend, the traditional start of the summer tourism season.
Thirty-eight of the palm trees line both sides of the JFK Boulevard corridor and two others have been planted in Excursion Park, Custer said.
They are Christmas palm trees, a variety that is popular in Florida and known to grow as tall as 25 feet. But in Sea Isle, they are never expected to live long enough to reach maturity. According to the website allaboutpalmtrees.com, Christmas palms are not considered a hardy tree in cold temperatures and do not tolerate frost.
Mayor Leonard Desiderio acknowledged that the palm trees likely will not survive through winter.
“We know these won’t be permanent and we know we’ll need to do something else when winter comes, but we thought this would be a nice touch; and we think it’ll look great when you come over the bridge,” he said in a statement.
The palms have replaced maple and magnolia trees that fared poorly in the shore’s salty and windy environment. Many of the trident maples and sweetbay magnolias lining JFK Boulevard died off or were reduced to scraggly, leafless skeletons – hardly leaving a good first impression on visitors arriving in Sea Isle.
“For the past several years, the city has struggled to establish street trees that will thrive along JFK Boulevard. Apparently, the wide open east-west corridor makes it especially difficult for many species of street trees to survive in this environment. We’ve had several landscaping professionals review this issue; and after the most recent failure of these trees, we’ve decided to try something a little different,” Desiderio said.
In the meantime, he is hopeful that Sea Isle’s residents and visitors will enjoy the Florida-like look that is beautifying the main gateway into town now. The inviting entranceway is designed to lift everyone’s spirits as more and more visitors head to the shore to enjoy summer vacations again and businesses begin to recover from the pandemic, Desiderio explained.
“In recognition of the re-opening of businesses and a return to normalcy, and with a wish to make our city’s entrance as inviting as possible, we are placing palm trees along the JFK corridor,” he said.
So far, the reaction from the public has been favorable. Custer noted that the city has been getting “a lot of positive feedback.”
Joann Cervantes, 67, an artist who lives in East Stroudsburg, Pa., and is a summer resident at the shore, said she enjoys painting pictures of palm trees in Florida and can’t wait to do the same in Sea Isle.
“I would drive to Florida just to see the palm trees,” said Cervantes, whose family has had a summer home in Sea Isle for nearly 60 years.
While marveling over the new palm trees along JFK Boulevard, Cervantes said they are a pleasant surprise that should help people feel welcomed in Sea Isle as the pandemic continues to wane.
“It’s lighthearted. It’s happy. It’s whimsical. It surprises you. In art, what you want to do most is catch people’s attention, and that’s what these trees do,” she said.
