Florida Native Plant Society Blog

Thank you to everyone who took the time to apply for a Landscape Award this year. By going native, we ALL win. Congratulations to the following award recipients: Page Field Aviation Terminal, Lee County FNPS Landscape Award of Merit      Designed to blend with the Southwest Florida environment, this new aviation terminal opened for business in August of 2011. Airports typically do not fit in with a community setting so an important part of this project was design it to blend in with the urban setting and enhance the aesthetics of the airfield, while still enabling safety and aviation protocol. Choosing the landscape plant materials for an airport is challenging because the plants and trees should not attract birds or other wildlife that could interfere with aircraft. This is the opposite of why we typically plant native landscapes. The challenge was to choose native palms and trees, shrubs and perennials that not only added to the beauty of the site, but also d...

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...

The crowd assembles on Friday morning for announcements and awards. Anne Cox accepted the award for the Society, and of course, for herself. Friday at the FNPS conference Susan Grandin, Director of State Lands for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection,   presented awards of appreciation for FNPS, for Anne Cox, and then for the whole land review comittee. (Anne Cox, chair; Danny Young and Kevin Love, vice-chairs; and to long-time reviewers Annie Schmidt and Jack Stiles.) The land review committee does phenomial work and puts FNPS high on the list of influencial organizations that make the decisions concerning lands in Florida. One of Jim Draper's ecosystem paintings. Jim Draper Friday's keynote speaker Jim Draper, a Jacksonville artist spoke about Florida's natural systems and how he depicts them his topic was the Feast of Flowers.       The Native Plant Sale The eight native plant vendors have worked hard to p...

A lovely quilt made by FNPS member is being offered as one of our raffle items.  An update from the FNPS conference in Jacksonville. Wish you were here! Yesterday, people coming back from field trips had smiles on their faces from all their great adventures from the Okefenokee Swamp just across the border in Georgia to Camp Blanding in Clay County. Also yesterday, the first of four workshops was offered, the nature journaling workshop taught by artist and nature journalist Elizabeth Smith. (See below.) This workshop was one of four workshhops offered. We also have a basket weaving workshop taught by Dick Workman and a tree planting workshop on Friday, which have both sold out.  The homeowners landscaping workshop on Saturday still has room and you may sign up onsite. It's only $25. All the vendors, inside and out, have set up and are ready for business. And we have three different raffle items: the lap quilt with FNPS chapter logos surrounding the FNPS logo, a...