Live blogging from the conference: Saturday

Saturday at the conference: 

FNPS held its annual membership meeting, winners of the plant ID contest were announced, and Palmetto awards were presented. Then everyone turned out for keynote speaker Roger Hammer.
Saturday keynote speaker Roger Hammer entertained a full house.
His theme was "La Florida" so he showed us how
Ponce deLeon probably appeared here.		 He also had wonderful slides of some of the flowers
that would have inspired the name.
We had many great speakers...
Bill Berthet talked about rare butterflies of NE Florida. He also led one of the field trips. Andrea Delong-Amaya talked to us about the cool projects at the Ladybird John Center in Texas. They've been created innovative venues for kids including this Stumpery and bird nests that kids can play in.

Lunch Break

Many attendees spent lunchtime out on the back deck: the pavilion.
Roger signed his books along with other authors at lunch time out on the pavilion.
Some movers and shakers for FNPS.

Afternoon sessions:

The afternoon presentations included the special homeowners' workshop.
Ixia members and landscape architects, Laurie Sheldon and Jake Ingram, presented the workshop
o a group of more than 60 participants. Many of them bought native plants from our vendors to get started right away.
The homeowners workshop included landscaping principles and personal
experience with natives in your yard. Hint: They grow!

The silent auction room was busy as the bidding time drew close.

Linda Schneider won the quilt raffle.


FNPS president, Steve Woodmansee, won the kayak raffle.
REI donated this item to the conference.

The Saturday Evening Social

The committee arranged for a Low Country boil in the Dolphin Plaza located in Hanna Park, which includes miles of Atlantic Ocean Beach. The food was great and so was the company.
Dunes next to the Dolphin Plaza, the location of our Saturday evening social.

Our performers at the Saturday evening social: Bella Voce.
We were treated to a wonderful selection of 16th century Spanish pieces to complement the conference theme: "La Florida"

The dune vegetation included some windswept magnolia trees.

Magnolia grandiflora

And so another conference ends...


People were off on field trips this morning to conclude the 2013 conference. Thanks to everyone who came. You made it fun for all of us on the committee.

The organizers of the 2014 conference were in attendance and were taking notes and soaking in some of our experiences. It will be hosted by the Coccoloba Chapter in Ft. Myers at the Florida Gulf Coast University from May 15 - 18, 2014. See y'all there!

More detailed summaries of some of the presentations will be posted here in the next few weeks.

Photos and text posted by Ginny Stibolt.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wednesday's Wildflower:Spanish Needle

Image
Spanish Needle, Bidens Alba Submitted by Donna Bollenbach, Suncoast Chapter Biden's alba , all photos by Donna Bollenbach Nothing attracts more butterflies and bees than a simple white flower called Bidens alba . Also called Romerillo, Beggar’s Tick, Spanish Needle or Monkey’s Lice, this Florida native wildflower is the third most reliable source of nectar for pollinators in our state. There would be many starving bees and butterflies if not for the Bidens family of flowers. More so, Bidens alba and its sister plant, Bidens pilosa , are both edible and have medicinal value. Yet, many gardeners have a love/hate relationship the plant, and some even consider it a pesky weed. Why?
Read more

Florida Native Azaleas

Image
Piedmont Azalea, Rhododendron canescens. Photo by Lilly Anderson-Messec By Lilly Anderson-Messec While growing up in North Florida, I began to recognize the arrival of spring by the boisterous show of white, pink, and fuchsia blooms of azalea shrubs. The house I grew up in had large, mature azalea hedges with a variety of different colors and forms. Every spring, my mom would bring in vases full of them and my dad loved to point out the showy shrubs as we drove through town. I suppose I assumed these plants were native, but most likely I never gave it a thought. I didn’t differentiate a native plant from a non-native one because I didn’t yet know the importance of native plants as the basis of our functioning ecosystems. I was so surprised when I learned the azaleas I was so familiar with (Rhododendron indicum) are actually transplants from Asia! They are favored by the horticultural industry for their fast, vigorous, and dense growth of evergreen leaves and large, showy blooms. Curio
Read more

Paradise Tree: Beautiful and Useful

Image
"The native Paradise tree is more useful than Google, and easy to grow." And how could any blogger resist leading off with this intriguing quote from the Key West Garden Club? I am a Master Gardener and a Master Naturalist, but I only know so much; so I always check out  statistics from experts before posting information about plants. I have a beautiful Paradise tree in my yard, it came from the raffle table at my chapter's program night about six years ago.   Paradise tree                Simarouba glauca For the first six years the little tree had a perfect, closed, cone shape; but just this summer I was astounded one morning to walk out and notice that my tree had changed. The canopy had begun to open up, there were open spaces between the layers of branches. It seemed to happen overnight. Proving again that a garden is constantly in motion, which is one of the fascinating things about observing them. Pinnate leaves of the paradise tree The leaves
Read more