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Showing posts from 2015

Giving Tuesday Recap

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#GivingTuesday By Andy Taylor The Florida Native Plant Society was happy to participate in 2015 #GivingTuesday!  What is #GivingTuesday you ask? It is a global initiative of giving back following Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  You can read more about #GivingTuesday here . FNPS participated by using our social media pages to look back on some of the work the Society has done and opportunities to give, either financially or as a volunteer. You can donate financially to FNPS at this link . Did you know your employer could double or even triple your donation??  Until December 15, 2015 , Double the Donation has made their database free to see if your employer makes donations.  Please check it out at https://doublethedonation.com/giving-tuesday/ Sunrise at DeSoto Park by Georgia Wilson. Some of the programs and projects we looked back at for #GivingTuesday: FNPS chapter field trips: Georgia Wilson recently took this beautiful photo of the sunrise at

Doing some online holiday shopping?

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You can help FNPS while you shop and it won't cost you anything! Use our Amazon links to buy all your merchandise. We have listed books here on the blog and on our website dealing with Florida native plants, native ecosystems, and sustainable landscaping with links to Amazon. If you use our links when you purchase these books, FNPS receives a referral fee. BUT you can also help FNPS when you purchase anything from Amazon. Just use one of our book links to get into Amazon and then search for other items on your list from there. FNPS will receive referral fees for your whole shopping list. See? Wasn't that easy?? Here are some new or interesting books you many be interested in for yourself or as a gift: Principles of  Ecological Landscape Design by Travis Beck Your Florida Guide to Butterfly Gardening:  A guide for the Deep South by Jaret Daniels Attracting Hummingbirds and Butterflies in Tropical Florida by Roger Hammer Everglades Wildfl

A Walk in the Florida Dry Prairie

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A FNPS Education Committee Project By  Debra L. Klein, Chair with members Richard Brownscombe, Ellen Broderick and Kirsi Johnson Introduction A Walk in the Florida Dry Prairie began serendipitously at the May 2014 FNPS conference while at the Saturday night dinner social.  The Education Committee had an impromptu meeting with Richard Brownscombe, Ellen Broderick, joined by Kellie Westervelt, Cammie Donaldson and myself in attendance.  The idea of filming a field trip was floated with proposals of who should guide and what location.  Cammie suggested that the Friends of Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park had asked Roger Hammer to guide a field trip planned for November 1, 2014.  Subsequently, Craig Huegel was also asked to join. Christina Evans of both the Florida Native Plant Society and Friends of KPPSP suggested that we use Jennifer Brown of Into Nature Films to do the video shoot. Work Plan With the whole team assembled, the Education Committee produced

Why Florida Native Plant Month?

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A New Initiative As the weather turns nicer and chapter events start increasing, the Florida Native Plant Society is starting a new initiative for the fall this year.  Welcome to the first ever Florida Native Plant Month!   You can find a list of events at http://fnps.org/news/plantmonth . The St. Johns County Proclamation of October being Florida's Native Plant Month  We are working on a coordinated outreach and membership campaign to tell everyone we can find in the state about the work FNPS does.  As part of this, we are building relationships with local elected officials, media and organizations who may not know much about us. The proclamation document. There are currently 36 scheduled proclamations across the state for an event FNPS decided to proceed with in late July.  We have already found people that share a similar mindset as FNPS who were not members.  One of the coolest stories so far is a City Commissioner reaching out to us because he wanted to do a Flo

Speak up for Florida!

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WHAT  Most of Florida's County Legislative Delegations have scheduled local meetings over the next couple of weeks. Your Legislative Delegation meeting provides local constituents with a rare opportunity to speak directly with the state lawmakers who represent them in Tallahassee. You may also have a chance to speak more personally with your delegates during breaks and/or at the conclusion of the meeting. (Find your representatives: Find your Florida senator and Find your Florida House representative . ) WHY  As a member of the Florida Native Plant Society or someone who cares for Florida's wild spaces and their native ecosystems. We ask you to attend your local delegation meeting to express your support for Florida. Please consider attending and speaking at your local meeting and emphasize the points below: Be organized because you'll only have 3 minutes to make your point. (G. Stibolt at a Clay County Delegation meeting.) MAJOR POINTS TO EMPHASIZE 1.

Our Beautiful Subtropical Garden

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By Mary Ann Gibbs When my husband, Tucker, and I bought our house in Miami some 16 years ago, we inherited a yard that was mostly grass with five large melaleuca trees, several Queen palms and a Surinam cherry hedge. We tore all of that out and evolved our yard into what it is today – a haven for people and wildlife. There is a sense of beauty and peace in the garden where we can observe the birds, butterflies, bees, squirrels and other critters that share our space with us. A more than 15-year-old lignam-vitae tree on left is the standout in our new hedge planted with many young native trees and bushes, including here coral-bean, golden dewdrop, satinwood and Florida Keys blackbead. Growing up the chicken wire around a fishtail palm to the right of the lignam-vitae is passion vine, a larval host for heliconian butterflies. The bromeliads in the front will come out as the young slow-growing natives fill up and out. We have never liked grass in our yard. We replaced m

Finding Native “Apples” in Florida

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The Story of a Field Trip Leader who Just Wouldn’t Give Up By Sande Habali Native “Apples” in Florida!  “Apples” in Volusia County?  Thanks to the dedication of our intrepid field trip leader, Sonya Guidry, the two year search for the endangered Harrisia fragrans is over!  Pawpaw chapter members located a Prickly “apple” orchard in southern Volusia County! Sonya and I first met Dr. Jon Moore from Florida Atlantic University, Wilkes Honor College , where he presented a paper on the Prickly Apple at the 2012 FNPS Conference in Plant City. His research paper was entitled " Transplantation of the Endangered Fragrant Prickly Apple Cactus,  Harrisia fragrans, in St. Lucie and Indian River Counties ." He explained the scrub habitat and conditions of its survival historically and that it exists now in St Lucie and Brevard County coastlines. He mentioned it could “possibly” be found in Volusia County and gave Sonya the coordinates. When he said it would be “hard to find”

Planting a Feast for Nature

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By Marlene Rodak Creating Bird and Butterfly Habitat at Middle School A tiny butterfly on bloodberry ( Cordia globosa ), which is one of the native species that will be planted at Fort Myers Middle Academy on Tuesday   The school corridor to be planted A spectacular event will take place the morning of Tuesday, July 28 at Fort Myers Middle Academy.  Florida Forest Service employees and volunteers from the Florida Native Plant Society are planting hundreds of native plants in an outdoor corridor, which will transform the area into important bird and butterfly habitat.  This planting will demonstrate how natural, native landscaping functions in the environment by providing food and shelter to wildlife.  Best of all, the entire project is provided to Fort Myers Middle Academy and Lee County Schools FREE OF CHARGE! FNPS Coccoloba Chapter President Martha Grattan shoveling mulch at Fort Myers Middle Academy Florida Native Plant Society is coordinating the pla

2015 FNPS conference: Native Yard Tour

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A conference field trip by Donna Legare with photos by Lilly Anderson-Messec On Thursday, May 28th Native Nurseries led a tour of native yards in Tallahassee for the Florida Native Plant Society's 35th Annual Conference. The tour featured three yards. 1) A rain garden and more... The first illustrated what could be done with a blank slate in a neighborhood that was previously a cow pasture with scattered large live oaks. Landscape designer, David Copps designed the native landscape for Mark and Linda Powell, whose home is certified as LEED Platinum. The native landscape helped them earn this designation. David described how he implemented his design, beginning with very heavy mulching of existing vegetation. He included a rain garden in a natural depression and created a future forest of mixed hardwoods in one section and a small longleaf pine grove in the back yard. Jody Walthall, owner and landscape designer at Native Nurseries talked about what is involved in mainta