Green Gift Monday @ FNPS

Green Gift Monday
Do you wish to have less impact on the environment this holiday season? (Thanks to The Nature Conservancy for getting this idea going.) Here are some ideas for you:

Buy a year's membership in FNPS for someone who'd enjoy learning more about Florida's native plants.

If you'll be shopping online for your holiday gifts, FNPS offers merchandise on our store website. (Update: the store is not available at this time. Sorry.)You may also use our link to Amazon to purchase not only the great Florida plant books we have listed, but anything else that Amazon of fers.  By using our link, FNPS receives a small referral fee for everything you buy.

Plan to use Our Good Search and Good Shops button, which also benefits FNPS every time you use it.

Purchase gift certificates from your local native plant nursery to give to your neighbors who have been admiring your more naturalized landscape.

Give the gift of gardening labor to an elderly neighbor, a local school, or community association. It could be a one time two-hour session or several sessions throughout the year.

Pay the registration fee for FNPS's annual conference for a fellow member. And give yourself the gift of attending the conference as well. More details later. (Read our live blog posts from last year's conference here and Sid Taylor's report here.)



Purchase a living native tree for your Christmas tree and plant it right after the holidays. Suggested trees (with links to the Atlas of Florida's vascular Plants site so you can check to see if a tree is found in your region of the state) include magnolia (either M. grandiflora or M. virginiana), red cedar (Juniperus virginiana),  pine trees (Pinus spp), hollies (Ilex spp), wax myrtle (Myrica cerifera), live oak (Quercus virginiana). Or purchase a large speciman of one of the stoppers, Simpsons (Myrcianthes frangrans), Spanish (Eugenia foetida), or Redberry (Eugenia confusa) for instance. These can be used as shrubs or left to grow as trees, but all would make lovely backgrounds for your holiday decorations.

The National Wildlife Federation has been certifying habitats for decades. Now you can purchase a gift certificate for the $20 fee here. So if you know of a school or community property that could be certified, now you can provide the certificate to get them started.

Use your own native plants to make your wreaths and decor instead of buying more stuff. Of course, it's best if you plan ahead for this and use this occasion to trim back suckers and water sprouts. More on this later.

Enjoy the holidays and plant a native plant as a gift to Mother Earth!
sue dingwell
Ginny Stibolt

Comments

Anonymous said…
Great ideas. Thanks for thinking green.

V. Avery
November 29, 2010 at 9:15 AM
Jan Allyn said…
... and buy local!
November 18, 2011 at 8:05 PM
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