Bayshore Boulevard landscaping received its largest replanting since 2018.
According to the City of Tampa, Bayshore’s landscaping typically gets subtle, ongoing plantings, small changeouts as plants begin to fade or die.
But this larger planting has roots in the weekend of December 16th-17th, when storm surge kept flood waters from Hillsborough Bay high for an extended period of time. Once the flood waters receded, Tampa entered a dry period for rain, which stopped the natural mechanism to flush the salt from the soil and out of the root zone.
That lingering salt caused extensive plant damage.
“We delayed the replanting from the storm to allow time for the salt to move out of the root zone through natural rain, and by applying reclaimed irrigation water,” said City of Tampa Horticulturist Ken Akins. “The timing of the delay worked out with the Gasparilla parades as well.”
The new plantings – a combination of full-sun perennials, annuals and low-growing shrubs – should reach maturity in about a month.
