Pictures of the new ambitious works at the Palmetum. 2010-2011

[Carlo Morici]

Dear friends,

I have been away from the forum for a while. One of the main reasons is that I am overloaded with the new works started a few months ago at the Palmetum in Santa Cruz.

Some very ambitious works have been contracted during last spring, for an amount of 5 million Euros. The goal is to open the park to the public next Spring. This botanical garden was started in 1996 but it has never been inaugurated.

The works mostly consist of civil engineering and there is very little botany and gardening. However I am working along with the construction management team. I find surprising to see how this project is now running at such a pace, after a decade at very slow speed.

Without more details I will show the first photos I took in the months of July and August. Everything is now more advanced and I promise that I will later update this with more pictures.

For those who want to give a look to the past, HERE are the pictures taken in 2007-2008 during the last flush of big works.

Carlo

[Carlo Morici]

Stone walls under construction at the base of the Southern slope.

New stone walls by the Southern slope.

More…

Inside the octagon (shade house) while the old structure was being taken down. Part of the structure can be seen on the floor under Heterospathe elata.

[Carlo Morici]

Views from the Madagascar area towards the old shade house structure while being dismantled.

Views from the Caribbean section to the old shade house structure while being unmounted.

Old structure of the octagon.

Crane and structure.

[Carlo Morici]

Old shade house structure in front of the Madagascar lake. The lake will be cleaned and replanted.

Old shade house structure Sabal and Thrinax in the foreground.

Shade house structure with Roystonea regia, Copernicia and Coccothrinax in the foreground.

Stone walls under construction, oil refinery in the background.

[Carlo Morici]

Inside the museum building. It needs to be restored. There are lots of abandoned objects, ready to be removed.

Access road on the Southern slope.

Access road on the Southern slope, oil refinery in the background.

Access road on the Southern slope facing East, our friend Efren for scale.

[Carlo Morici]

Access road on the Southern slope, facing East toward the Caribbean area.

Crescentia mirabilis. This Cuban endemic was germinated in Spring 2008 and now it is showing the first flowers.

Crescentia mirabilis. Atlantic ocean in the background

[Rusty on Pine Is.]

An incredible amount of work....the daily activity must be staggering!

Really looking forward to seeing more pics of the progression!

Rusty

[Carlo Morici]

Thank you Rusty. I am back with more pictures.

Concrete foundation for future staff building and nursery greenhouse.

Restauration of the artificial stream in the Caribbean area.

Restauration of the artificial stream in the Caribbean area. Roystonea lenis and old shade house structure in the background.

Western entrance to the “octagon” shade house. The concrete walls, built in 1996 are now being coated with natural stone.

[Carlo Morici]

Colvillea racemosa, planted in April 2010.

View of entrance drive way towards the section devoted to the Canarian thermophilous forest.

Construction works of the entrance building. It will be a two storey structure standing over micropiles. A small tower by the building will contain an elevator, that will take visitors to a bridge. The bridge will help visitors to reach the top of the hill.

Drilling machine at work, for the micropiles.

[Carlo Morici]

Drilling machine working on the foundation works for the entrance building.

More of the same.

Jonathan and Carlo (me) in New Caledonia area. This picture was taken by Paco Álvarez.

Melanesian section, electricity system installation works.

[Carlo Morici]

Pritchardia “forest” in the Hawaiian area and electricity system installation works.

New pedestrian and vehicle access for the New Caledonia area. Araucaria columnaris in the background.

Electricity system installation works in the New Caledonia area, by the Araucaria columnaris “forest”.

The octagon (Shade house) without the old shading structure. General view of the surviving vegetation.

[Carlo Morici]

Shade house area without the dome.

View from pedestrian bridge in the waterfall area. View towards the Southern side of the octogon.

José Luis Olcina, chief engineer, with the book of the recuperation project for the Palmetum in the foreground.

Construction work in Madagascar area.

[Carlo Morici]

Melanesian section, electricity system installation works.

Plaza in front of the Palm Museum building.

Intsia bijuga, flowering.

Foundation works of a new bridge over the artificial stream in the Caribbean area.

[Carlo Morici]

The main overlook in the Caribbean area looking towards the city of Santa Cruz. It was started 15 years ago, but it was left unfinished. The platform was built this summer.

Shoring works of two mature specimens of Syagrus botryophora, damaged by a windstorm.

Pulling up Syagrus botryophora.

Plumeria púdica and Syagrus sancona trunks in the South American section.

And this is all for a while. These pictures were taken in Summer. In some days I will upload more recent images from the last few months.

Carlo

[calyptrocalyx&licuala freck]

WOW Carlo, It's coming along fast, good looks great dude....

Cheers .Mikey

[monkeyranch]

Ambitious is right. What an incredible opportunity to help create this dream garden. Complements to your construction crew for careful work amongst so many valuable plants vulnerable to damage. Good luck and looking forward to seeing this garden as it evolves.

[John in Andalucia]

It's coming along nicely, Carlo! Will the Syagrus botryophora need permanent support? Maybe tie it to the tree on the other side of the track, and hang a banner!

[Charles Wychgel]

Some very ambitious works have been contracted during last spring, for an amount of 5 million Euros. The goal is to open the park to the public next Spring. This botanical garden was started in 1996 but it has never been inaugurated.

Great update Carlo those Euros are well spent

Will there be a Grand Opening in spring?????(I want to be there!!!!)

[edric]

Fantastic work Carlo! Looks like a lot of it! Ed

[sarasota alex]

Looks like a great place to visit!

[mlovecan]

I visited the Palmetum 4 or 5 years ago and it was a little sad to see such an ambitious, inspired project in such turmoil.

Despite the state of the project at the time, it easily surpassed any collection of palms I have seen in one place! It was a very memorable visit.

It's really fantastic to see a new beginning and chance for such an important place!!

BTW Carlos, is the shade house going to be restored or does it not fit in with the new plan?

Regards

Maurice

[ariscott]

Great job!! I hope everything will go together in time for the opening. I still owe you some seeds, don't worry... I haven't forgotten. I went there the other day to find out that one of my friend has cleaned out the seeds under the tree. Will go back in a few weeks...

Regards, Ari

[Paco]

As the only Landscape Architect involved in the restoration works of the Palmetum I will like to thank Carlo for giving me the opportunity to work with him in such an interesting project.

We have a huge ammount of work that sometimes seems overwhelming. Having to deal with a team mainly compound by engineers is not an easy task for a landscape architect and even less easy for a botanist that has to face unique specimens being damaged by heavy machinery as well as threatened colections of very rare plant material by "temporary water shortages".

We fight to get the most of this project. So far we have managed to open 6 amazing terraces overlooking the blue Atlantic ocean, we are working on increasing the number of rare and threatened species as well as improving the overall design layout of the park...not an easy task for such an extense area.

I will like to thank also all the palm experts/enthusiast that have contributed with the Palmetum either economically or with plant material. We are doing our best.

For me is very exciting to see all the improvements, week after week, and above all to see that some of our proposals are becoming a reality! As a landscape architect I feel very inspired by this place that just a few decades ago was a huge rubbish dump mountain. Today that same space as being recycled as a magnificent, unique and full of soul botanical park, the process has not being easy but under my humble opinion it's being well worth it! and I will asume that all the wild life that as decided to make from the Palmetum its home thinks the same (wild canaries included)!!

New Caledonia-Terrace before

New Caledonia-Terrace after

shade house pedestrian paths under construction

More to come

Lodoicea maldivica planting bed?

Caribean beach restoration works(notice the great planting design job done more than a decade ago by Carlos Simón)

Best Regards,

Paco

Edited November 29, 2010 by Paco

[Carlo Morici]

Thank you all for your nice messages.

John> Yes, those Syagrus botryophora will need support for about two years. They have been staked with three wooden beams for each palm.

Charles> A grand opening in SPring? I think so, but no dates have been set yet.

Maurice> The shade house will have a new "ceiling". This time we will leave the emergent trees in place and add some shade cloth mounted over steel wires, in order to shade the areas without trees.

Paco> Thank you for posting your pictures. I will add mines in a few days. I need some time to organize them.

Carlo

[paulgila]

its looking fantastic! i will have to add it to my list of "must-see" places to visit!

[MattyB]

Wow! Looks amazing already, the finished project will be awesome! Those S. botryophora are real whimps when it comes to wind.

[Morabeza]

Colvillea racemosa, planted in April 2010.

Wow Carlo, is that Colvillea from the seed I sent you?

It's great to see all this progress!

[kylecawazafla]

Those are such great photos! I can't believe how much progress is being made over there. I can't imagine how much hard work that must be. The "Octogon Area" looks so strange without the dome on top! I hope no palms were damaged when they removed it. It seems very incongruent to see so much construction surrounded by such a great palm and tropical plant collection! I can't wait until the construction is finished!

[palmtreesforpleasure]

Hi Carlo and Paco

The Palmetum is really changing since my visit, it is going to be even more amazing place to visit, hopefully will be able to see the Palmetum in April. The Palmetum is a credit to Carlo, Paco and all those passionate, determined people who helped it survive the tough years. And thanks to their foresight, tenacity, ability to share the vision and motivating Govt to become involved, this opening is becoming a reality.

Thanks for sharing it with us

regards

Colin

[Alex-v]

I'm happy for you, after years of hard work, you are finally getting the reward for much effort.I imagine the enthusiasm with which you will be carrying out these "last works".

I hope to visit soon

Regards

[Carlo Morici]

Get ready! I have just uploaded new 105 pictures taken in December and early January. I just need some little time to organize them.

[Dave-Vero]

The new work looks impressive. It's good to see that the Cuban plants seem to be thriving. We in the US now have reasonably good opportunities to visit the island.

The University of Chicago Press has some of Alexander von Humboldt's works in English translation. He visited Cuba, and wrote a commentary on its politics!

The recovery plan for the derelict area looks massively thick!

(And thanks as usual for posting in English)

[Carlo Morici]

I am done with the first batch. I will mix in pictures taken by me and by Paco Álvarez. The file name of each picture contains the name of the photographer for credit.

ENTRANCE BUILDING

As you may remind, an incredible machine was brought to drill holes for the micropilotes.

Then…

[Carlo Morici]

Now this is more or less how it is looking now. It will all be coated with stones and then planted with lots of vegetation.

[Carlo Morici]

A bridge will start at the top of the tower. The red markings show how the bridge would look like in a few months.

[Carlo Morici]

GOING UP

I will show what you see while you go up through the main ramp. This is the lowermost part with Canarian native vegetation, during irrigation.

We often see this while we go up.

Up

Ditch for the draining channel

[Carlo Morici]

Now we get to the flat top of the mountain and enter in the Malgasy Section

This is happening in our Madagascar

Entrance of the palm museum

[Carlo Morici]

Restoring the entrance

Main Waterfall in the Caribbean Section

This waterfall was built in the 90's but it had to be impermeabilized again.

[Dr. George]

Carlo - Thanks for the report and the updates - marvelous project and one of my favorite posts - gmp

[GTClover]

Wow! What an incredible project! I can't wait to see more !

Susan