Florida Native Plant Society Blog

Minneola, Florida, resident Gallus Quigley has gone native - and he’s persuaded his whole neighborhood to join him. Like many people, Quigley lives in a subdivision. The landscaping in such communities usually isn’t very enticing to birds, but Quigley wanted to change things up when he bought his home in October 2009. He envisioned a wildlife refuge of native plants. The problem was how to get his neighbors to go along with it. Quigley became involved in the homeowners’ association that governed the subdivision, was elected secretary, and fnally persuaded the association to embrace native plants for future landscaping. It took more than two years of work, and it helped that Quigley could show other homeowners how he had successfully landscaped his own yard with native plants. “Seeing something new makes it less scary,” he says. Quigley explained to the other homeowners the benefts of native plants, such as less water use, lower maintenance costs, and more pollinators for v...

By Joan Bausch Florida Native Plant Society Martin County Chapter A hearty "good job" to the Flagler Beach Library community and director, Ruth Young, for their initiative to subtract lawn and add Florida native plants at the library on 7th Street  (just west of A1A,  south of Route 100). Their efforts are noticed and welcome. Thank you Ruth and your collaborators! Visiting in Flagler Beach in December, I found that the library there had installed some really nice natives to kick off of their goal of eliminating "lawn" care. I reached out Sonya Guidry, Paw paw Chapter Rep, and eventually recieved an email from Ruth Young, Library Director. “With funds from our annual book sale, and the help of two special people, a local man who likes not to be recognized, Art Woosley, and MaryLou Baiata (now deceased), a local landscape business owner, this vision became a reality. Art did most of the work, with a little help from a few others. MaryLou was generous with her e...

By Karina Veaudry New Villages Chapter Officers! Inaugural Meeting On Friday, January 30th, Steve Turnipseed, inaugural President, led The Villages Chapter inaugural meeting.  Steve had signed up interested persons through website and newspaper publicity ads and we were expecting 30 to 40 people.  By the start of the meeting, 162 people had filed in and we scrambled to set up enough chairs.  It was standing room only!  Within the first 15 minutes, a VP of Programs, VP of Field Trips, Secretary, Treasurer and Chapter Representative were confirmed.  Steve is a strong leader with excellent communication skills.  He has already given tasks and they are on their way to opening a bank account, etc. – and they have the next 4 months speakers recommended and are lining them up.  This chapter will be very successful. I talked about the history of the FNPS, its mission, typical chapter meeting format, chapter initiatives, field trips, membership due...