Roy Barker's Blog

Royal Palms are a very majestic tree.  They are one of a dozen or so palms that are native to Florida, found mostly in the southern half of the State.  The trees are also native to Cuba and the Royal Palm is the national tree of Cuba.When Thomas Edison purchased his land in Ft. Myers he began pla...

The Queen Palm is very popular in Florida.  It is often planted in yards as a center piece.  They are fast growing and reach about 50 feet.  The large Queen palm in the photo is about 7-8 years old.  The small ones (there are two but you can really only see one) were planted last year and have do...

Christmas palms are very popular in the south half of Florida.  They are not very cold tolerant, so won't grow in the northern half of the state.They look like a small Royal Palm and are self pruning.  These palms are generally grown in groups of 2 or 3, as that makes a better presentation.  The ...

We are a small shop, just me and my wife.  We are looking for an agent, or broker associate, who would be interested in working with us.  We need someone for backup and to take some leads.  If they want to build the business with us then that would also be a possibility.  Ideally the agent would ...

We have had an exceedingly rainy weekend in Cape Coral, and all of SW Florida.  According to the news, Cape Coral alone has had over 8 inches of rain in the last 3 days.  This is our rainy season, but I am beginning to think I need to start working on an Ark! Posted by   Please click on Banner to...

In SW Florida, especially close to the Gulf, the majority of our homes are built out of Cinder Block with Stucco as a finish (CBS). The first time I saw one of these being built I was very impressed.  There is a solid footer poured, a slab and then the blocks are put up.  Re-bar is put in the blo...

We just received the June stats from the local board and Lee County is doing very well!The median sale price of a single family home jumped more than 6% compared to June 2014, to $212,250.The median sale price for condos in Lee County increased 8.2% over June 2014, to $185,000.We also saw almost ...

One of the most beautiful palms in SW Florida is the Bismarckia Palm.  These palms come from Madagascar, where they grow just about everywhere!  The scientific name is Bismarckia Noblis.  The name Bismarckia is after the first chancellor of the German Empire, Otto von Bismarck.  The Noblis comes ...

I always thought that a palm tree was only for decoration, except for coconuts and dates.  How wrong was I?There are a lot of uses for Palm trees that I didn't realize.  Obviously we see the fronts being used in the making of thatched roofs.  However, every part of the palm tree, including the ro...

In continuing with the series on SW Florida Palm trees, we are going to take a look at Coconut Palms.  Coconut Palms come in two basic varieties, tall and dwarf.  The most common are the Jamaican Talls and Malayan Dwarfs.Although there are some commercial growers in Florida, most Coconut Palms ar...