Florida Native Plant Society Blog

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 beca...

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. ...

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...