The island's lack of sandy beaches has spared it the dense coastal development that envelops much of Florida's southwest coastline. Enclosed by mangroves, about one-third of Pine Island is zoned agricultural and enjoys its own microclimate that makes it extremely fertile for growing things.
Ironically, there are few pines on Pine Island. Most of the pine forests were cut down to make way for farming and homes. What does grow there, however, is a host of plants, trees and fruits that don't fare as well if cultivated just a few miles away, including exotic palm trees. Thousands and thousands of exotic palm trees.
On a recent summer morning, the king of palm tree growing on Pine Island emerges from his cypress-paneled office and shows off the lush grounds of his home. In khaki slacks, plaid short-sleeve shirt, thick rubber-soled shoes and no socks, Edd Dean stops at a small tree, plucks a green fruit and slices it in half with a pocketknife. "Guava," he says, as he bites into the blood-red flesh. "More vitamins than any other fruit in the world."
He points out an assortment of other tropical fruit trees: Papaya, mango and carambola, also known as star fruit. Further along, he shows off several small bushes. "Coffee," he says, with a broad smile. "You won't find this" anywhere else in Florida except in Homestead, which has a similar climate.
While the fruit and coffee plants are showpieces, a few miles down Stringfellow Road is Dean's bread and butter. Together with his son, Mark, Dean grows around 800,000 palm trees on 800 acres they own and another 1,000 acres owned by investors who pay the Deans to farm the land.
The demand for ornamental plants has driven the value of ornamental crops of all kinds in Florida past that of the state's signature orange harvest, and the Deans have been in the right crop at the right time, growing to become one of the biggest palm tree farms in Florida.
This year, Palmco Inc., the farm management and marketing company Mark founded with his wife, Ronda, will sell some 120,000 ornamental field-grown palm trees -- ranging across 35 species -- to municipalities, large-scale residential developers like WCI Communities and wealthy individuals throughout Florida. Some buyers, such as developer Donald Trump, trek to Pine Island themselves to select palms for their properties or homes. The Deans won't disclose the company's annual revenue, but Mark Dean says it's not unusual to sell more than $500,000 worth of palm trees in a week.
It may seem odd that there are businesses in Florida cultivating palm trees. The state tree, after all, is the ubiquitous native sabal palmetto, also known as cabbage palm. A hardy tree, it grows wild throughout the state and is one of the least inexpensive palms. It is used extensively in highway landscaping. For variety and a more tropical look, landscape architects prefer the more exotic types of palm trees grown by the Deans.
The Deans prefer the cold-sensitive palms such as royals and coconuts that make up 80% of the company's total output. "I like the more tropical palms," Edd Dean says. "The tropicals are more lush than the cold-hearty palms like the Florida native cabbage palm. They look like a pole with a few limbs on top." In addition to their appearance, Edd Dean enjoys drinking the milk out of the coconuts and eating their rich white meat.
Change of plans
A fourth-generation Floridian from Winter Haven, Dean, 63, came to Pine Island via a circuitous route. He sold his orange groves in Polk County in 1977 and moved to Costa Rica, where he owned and operated a cattle ranch for five years. When he returned to Florida in 1982, he settled on the northern end of Pine Island and acquired a 10-acre vegetable farm with a sketchy plan to grow tropical fruit commercially.
Dean was soon joined by Mark, his only son, who'd just graduated with a business degree from the University of Florida. The two tried growing "all kinds of fruits and vegetables," including mangoes, star fruit and watermelons, says Mark Dean, 42. "We grew great crops. We just couldn't make it work economically." When the NAFTA treaty opened the U.S. market fully to foreign growers, prices for tropical fruits plummeted.
The Deans noticed that a few of their neighbors were growing ornamental palm trees on a very small scale. Despite having no experience growing palm trees, the pair decided to give it a try. Their 10 acres on the northeastern corner of Pine Island enjoyed the mildest weather on the island (sometimes several degrees warmer in the winter than the island's southern end) and a good water supply.
The Deans found they could grow palms from seeds to full trees in open fields twice as fast as the palms would grow on the mainland. Perhaps more important, they were able to successfully cultivate high-quality, cold-sensitive varieties such as royals and coconuts that require more attention but are in great demand in Florida because of their size and shapes.
The exotic species also bring higher margins: A common variety 16-foot queen palm that takes 2 1/2 to three years to grow, for example, sells for about $112 wholesale. By comparison, the same size royal palm fetches $240.
Hitting their stride
The Deans' switch to palms has coincided perfectly, it turns out, with Florida's continuing building boom -- thousands of subdivisions and homes needing landscaping.
Florida growers sold an estimated $123 million worth of palm trees for landscape use in 2000, according to Alan Hodges, professor of food and resource economics at the University of Florida. That represents 5.6% of Florida's estimated $2.2-billion ornamental plant industry, which is the state's fastest-growing sector of agriculture.
For the moment, the Deans' business is secure: Subdivisions continue to spring up in Florida, and the cost of transporting palm trees from overseas remains prohibitive for potential foreign competitors. Further helping the Deans' competitive situation is development around Homestead, which has traditionally been the center of large-scale palm farming in Florida and still supplies many of the trees used in landscaping in Florida. But development has sent land values there soaring, and many acres of palm fields have been converted to housing.
The younger Dean, who's taken over most of the day-to-day operations, spends most of his days working at the farm. In his spare time, he's been building a lavish garden next to his home as a showcase for visiting landscape architects. His specialty is growing large palm trees into all sorts of twisting and turning shapes -- the practice even has a trademarked name: "Super curve."
Edd Dean, meanwhile, busies himself with some of the financial aspects of the business. "After so many years in the citrus business, I like to stay out of the day-to-day stuff now," he says. "I like to get the check each month."