By Eileen and Paul Goldfinger. Re-post from March 2021.
Billy Kunkler’s Arboretum. Pine and Coral Drives. Ft. Myers, Fla. Eileen and Paul Goldfinger photographs 3/09/21. Click to enlarge.
“Screwpine”–a jaw dropping specimen at Billy’s Arboretum. All photos March 9, 2021.
Billy tends to his exotic tropical Screwpine tree. Female seedpods are prominent. The leaves have spikes, so watch out! Forum photographs.
By Eileen and Paul Goldfinger. March 9, 2021. Tropicana Park. Ft. Myers, Florida. RE-POST OCT. 2022. Billy Kunkler took some of the earliest photographs after Ian hit. If you have a report about his garden, please email Tropicana Forum at Blogfinger@verizon.net
Billy Kunkler has been a resident of Tropicana for 7 years. He is from Kansas City where he spent his earlier years working on and racing cars and motorcycles. He’s had quite a few broken bones and other injuries in the past. Billy also has many tattoos up and down his arms and he is part Apache and proud of it. He says that people sometimes misjudge him by his appearance, but he is more professor than Harley guy.
Billy came here to fulfill a dream and he found it at the intersection of Pine and Coral Drives in Tropicana Park. That unusual location looks like a green peninsula with plenty of room to plant, and plant he did, and he has never stopped.
Kunkler is an expert on exotic trees and plants and he loves to discuss his personal arboretum. Eileen and I stopped by and were astonished by what we saw, and Billy enthusiastically gave us a tour.
His collection of trees and plants includes quite a few exotic specimens. Billy says, “I spend all my money on plants.” He is generous with cuttings, and his neighbors have quite a few of Billy’s botanical offspring on their properties.
His most impressive tree is a Screwpine, native to Madagascar, with large female seedpods hanging down. It took six men to lift the huge root ball and place it into the ground on his property, on the Pine Drive side. The strange bottom consists of secondary growth for support.
Billy paid a small fortune for that specimen, but it gives him year round pleasure.
Here are some photos of a selection of his plantings:
Prickly Pear cactus.
A rare yellow crown of thorns. There are sharp needles.
“Poison Bulb” Fragrant flowers.
Money Tree. Does money grow on trees? Not this one.
RUSS CARLYLE WITH BLUE BARRON Radio and Recording Rarities. “Garden in the Rain.”