Frequently Asked Questions

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 Wondering what’s up with the flight restrictions at Palm Beach International Airport begun by the Federal Aviation Administration last October? 

You’ll recall that following an order from the U.S. Secret Service, the FAA restricted planes from flying over Mar-a-Lago, even if the president was not in residence. The city, the county and the town of Palm Beach reacted with court filings. 

Here’s the latest:  On June 9, lawyers for Palm Beach County, West Palm Beach and Palm Beach petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, jointly, arguing that the FAA acted unlawfully when it placed the flight restrictions. The gist of the argument is that the FAA’s actions were “arbitrary and capricious” because they were based solely on a Secret Service request, lacking independent analysis to balance security with the needs of the public and the airport. 

They are asking the court to cancel the restrictions and the redesigned flight procedures. 

Meanwhile, a Citizens Committee on Airport Noise was set for June 25, while this Flyer was in production. (These meetings are available on Vimeo to watch later.)

As previously reported, Airport Director Laura Beebe provided resources for residents who believe they’ve suffered damage to property as a result of the temporary flight restrictions. You can contact the FAA to make them aware of the impacts of the recent FAA implemented changes to the arrival and departure routes at PBI. 

The FAA Aviation Noise  Complaint and Inquiry Response service portal is at www.faa.gov/ancir. Or phone 202-267-3521.

Gregg Weiss is the District 2 county commissioner serving (and living in) Flamingo Park. He welcomes email (District2@pbc.gov) or calls to his office

 Greetings to our fellow Flamingos! Rainy season and the hotter weather are upon us, as those who stay here year-round can wholeheartedly attest. We are making some improvements in how and what we communicate with our members, as we figure this may be of interest to you. We’ll begin by including a financial summary of our accounts for your information, so you can see a little better how we get our funds, and how we use them. Stay tuned for details.

Those of you who walk your dogs in the neighborhood and take advantage of our poop-bag dispensers and cans may have noticed that several of the trash cans have rusted and need to be replaced. Good news: Replacements are on the way! We appreciate your using these cans, so keep it up!

Costs to print the Flamingo Flyer have increased, so we have also had to increase our advertising rates to compensate. We’ll also be asking those of you who are out of town if you would like to receive your Flyer by email, as that will save on postage and time if you so choose.

Print space in our Flyer is limited, so if there is more to know than space allows, some articles will point you to our website, where expanded articles and photos will soon be found.

We have also upgraded our MailChimp account to allow us to better communicate with our membership in a timely manner, in between the Flyer’s publication every other month.  Please look for more communication from us in the future. You can always opt out of email notices.

For those of you who would like to renew your membership online, you can do so at flamingopark.org. And, we are working to allow you to autorenew your membership if you

so choose, so you don’t need to remember to write a check every year.

We want to know!

Sometime soon, look for an opinion survey from FPNA in your inbox. We hope you really enjoy living here and want to know more about what you like and what could be improved.

We’ll try to use your anonymous answers to see if we can adjust or add some of our events and programs to continue to evolve that unique Flamingo experience.

Stay tuned, and thank you for your membership!— Rick Reikenis

One of the greatest garden joys we have here in South Florida is the luxury of growing orchids outside, especially in trees. 

Many of us have less than satisfactory success with these exotic flowers in pots but, when put in a tree, the orchids are given a chance to fend for themselves and even thrive. 

The trick to getting an orchid to root onto a tree is having good root-to-bark contact and a firm attachment to the trunk or limb.

Plants that you purchase are usually growing in a bark mixture or sphagnum moss. Remove the plant from its container. Bark tends to fall away while moss holds together.

The roots are placed against the tree bark and secured.

To shade and help hold moisture until new roots can grow onto the tree, it is best to cover roots with moss (sphagnum or sheet moss) before tying. Palm or coconut fiber also works well and is easier to acquire. That’s the woven fiber sheeting that usually falls with a spent palm frond.

It is important the plant is unable to move once secured. I prefer vinyl garden tie tape but twine, cotton string or even old pantyhose will do.

Be careful with zip ties or wire, they are not biodegradable and can strangle the host plant before they rust or eventually break.

Another assurance is to roll a few prills of slow-release fertilizer (Dynamite, Nutricote or Osmocote) and a pinch of gel (water storing) crystals in to a little ball of moss placed between the roots and the out moss or fiber coating. This will provide nutrients and the crystals will help hold water until the plant is established. 

Before you run out and start putting orchids on any limb or trunk, educate yourself to what  types of orchids you have and what are their basic requirements.

Phalaenopsis, the moth orchid, is the most common and affordable orchid. They are distinguished by having large, oval shaped, dark green and succulent leaves.   Large roundish flowers are moth- or butterfly-wing-like and come in an array of soft colors: white, pink, purple, pale yellow to peachy-orange. Petals are of clear color, mottled or striped.  All of this group prefers shade and is best on a limb or trunk under a leafy canopy without any direct sun (especially afternoon).

The dendrobium species is probably the next easiest to find and grow, plus comes in a full range of bright colors. These prefer light shade to bright light. Because of their upright growth and flower spikes this species seems appropriate attached to vertical-growing trunks of palm trees.

They adapt well to relying on our high humidity, rain water or an occasional squirt with a water hose.

The cattleya is known as the “corsage orchid” because of its preference as a wrist corsage. This vast group has been crosshybridized to create an array of plant and flower sizes.

The plants have bulbous leaf stems (pseudobulbs) with a thick green oval to narrow leaf. Flowers consist of three large petals (often ruffled) with a larger lower petal (lip).

They are available in a nice variety of colors and are often two-toned.

The larger plants are perfect on lateral tree limbs under dappled canopy light, smaller types on vertical trunks. This group enjoys our climate but prefers occasional extra watering.

The last most available orchid is the vanda group. These tend to be large strap-leaf plants,  with large showy flowers and long, dangling aerial roots, although there are dwarf and  vining species as well.

The key to success with the vanda is bright light and water. Often this type is sold and  grown without any soil, just the plant attached to a long hook to hang from the roof eave, tree branch or fence. For best results, vandas need almost daily misting so placing them where a sprinkler can spray them or adding a drip tube with a mist head on the plants is advantageous.

I like mounting them near the base of the tree trunk so the roots can capture landscape shrub irrigation; this will free you of always having to tend to them. Many plants come with little mesh bags or netted plastic capsules of slow-release fertilizer which you can refill or purchase.

One last trick, although frowned on by true orchid enthusiasts, is draping Spanish moss around the base of the orchid. Although people find it attractive, I do it to help shade the orchid plant and roots while getting established. 

With Vandas, the shading by moss or a landscape shrub (if mounted nearer to the ground) keeps the roots cooler and requiring less water.

Joel Crippen,

horticulturist