Florida Native Plant Society Blog

The Annual Meeting of the Membership was held on June 17, 2023 from 10-11:30am EST.  Watch the meeting This is the opportunity for all members to catch up on the major events of 2022, learn who the very deserving Palmetto award winners are, who is getting a Conservation or Research grant, and to vote on incoming Board Members! Please take the time to review the agenda and the minutes from last year's meeting  and corrections to the minutes . Candidate Statements - 2023 FNPS Slate Vice President for Administration Athena Philips Citrus Chapter (Lecanto, Citrus County), FNPS member 2015-present I joined the Florida Native Plant Society (FNPS) shortly after moving from the Tampa suburbs to the Nature Coast. It was wonderful to see a part of Florida that still had numerous wild places with much biodiversity, and I wanted to be part of the movement to preserve that. The Society continues to grow and I commit myself to help it develop as a dynamic conservation organization, fosteri...

In case you missed it, the FNPS Board Meeting and Council of Chapters Meeting was on August 13 at the  FFS Leadership Training Center in Haines City.  If you want to know more about what the Society is doing on the state level to support chapters and further our mission, or if you want to make a meaningful contribution to the society, please consider attending one of the quarterly retreats. Here are some of the  highlights  of what  we discussed and accomplished. To read t he complete summary, along with additional topics, click  here .  Submitted by Donna Bollenbach     FNPS Meets the Wild West…. The venue for the 2017 FNPS conference (May 17-21, 2017) was unveiled and approved by the board, and the winner is  Westgate River Ranch Resort & Rodeo.  In a secluded location just south of US Hwy 60 on the Kissimmee River, Westgate River Ranch is centrally located between the Atlantic and Gulf beaches within Polk C...

by Mark Kateli, Tarflower Chapter I thought I knew my FNPS tribe! We were the rough riders of the Florida landsc ape that understood natural beauty in a manufactured civilization. But here in Camp Kulaqua (run by Seventh Day Adventists) I found pillows, pressed sheets, and (gasp!) Wi-Fi. Accommodations Being a city boy this was certainly a welcomed sight as we are all accustomed to so many amenities that are taken for granted every day. That being said, this was certainly not the retreat I had envisioned in my head- chilly nights, encircled around a campfire in the middle of nowhere, listening to coyotes howling away, and cold showers in the morning. This was, comparatively, upscale living. Opening Night Friday was an informal social gathering in the evening by the entrance lobby. I did, as usual, hobnob with some other local chapter members. In particular, I had a long conversation with Ina Crawford of Sweetbay Chapter. It was as though the heavens were listening to...

By Laurie Sheldon We got lost on our way, but finally made it to the Disney Wilderness Preserve late Friday afternoon. A quintet of wild turkeys ushered us in as we navigated along Scrub Jay Trail en route to the Conservation Learning Center. Petra Royston showed us the lovely room that the Board and Council would be using on Saturday for our meetings, then handed us a map and pointed out where our accommodations were, noting the trails nearby. After dropping off what we'd brought for the business portion of our trip, the eight of us piled into the two vehicles capable of driving on the unpaved road to the "dorm" we were staying in without getting stuck. "Dorm," as it turned out, was code for a double-wide trailer that had once served as the Preserve's offices. It had several rooms of beds, some bunked, a small kitchen, two bathrooms at the end of the hallway (one labeled "ladies" and one labeled "guests"), and two gathering ar...