Florida Native Plant Society Blog

When scheduling Butterfly Holiday trips to all parts of the world, I always leave open the months of September and October. During this time, the greatest diversity and number of butterflies and many other N.E. Florida pollinators are attracted to  flowering plants in the Genera: Carphephorus , Liatris , Dalea , Vaccinium , Dioda , Elephantopus , Bidens , Lachnanthes , and  others. Southern Dogface on Liatris pauciflora When conditions are right, in the dry pinelands and sand hill areas in Julington-Durbin Preserve, Ralph E Simmons and Jennings State Forests, acres of Summer Farewell ( Dalea pinnata ) can be in bloom attracting multitudes of butterflies and other Northeast Florida pollinators. Summer Farewell ( Dalea pinnata ) There are eight native Dalea species growing in Florida. Three are vouchered in Northeast Florida, D. carnea , D. carnea var. albida , and D. pinnata , with D. pinnata being the most common. Summer Farewell ( Dale...

by Shirley Denton Have you ever read a newspaper article or website that makes a statement like this: "Planting natives will save water."? This is an example of a native plant myth. Most myths, including this one, come from broad generalizations that are only sometimes true. Likewise, the converse, "planting non-natives will waste water" is a broad generalization that is not always true either. This article covers this myth, and future blog posts will address some others. Stay tuned... Florida's varied ecosystems Florida has a broad range of native ecosystems that support characteristic plant communities. We have rosemary and sand pine scrubs and sandhills (very dry), we have flatwoods (moderately wet to moderately dry), we have hammocks (some wet, some dry), we have wetlands such as swamps (very wet), and a long list of other ecosystems. A good summary of these and others is found on the FNPS website resource article: Native Plant Communities . ...

Many people enjoy planting “odd” things in their yards. In the world of native plant landscaping, this has often meant planting things that seem unusual … and what this has often meant is planting species that may be “native” based on occurring naturally somewhere in the state or in some landscape other than the one we’re working on. I’ve been there. Sometimes, I still can’t resist the beautiful plant in a pot that is being sold at the latest native plant sale. But, over time, I’ve had the opportunity to rethink this. I began landscaping with native about 30 years ago. At that time, I owned a home in southern Michigan. All lawn and old field weeds – about two acres of them. I went on the warpath against mowing by converting much of the lawn to old field and then began planting trees which I gathered locally, often from uncleared parts of the property. Many years later, after I’d been in Florida for about 10 years, I got a call from a woman who had bought the property and tracked me ...

This is Part 2 of an interview with Mike Thomas, Ph.D., P.E., who works at the Florida DEP, about the Florida Friendly Landscaping program.  Link to Part 1 here , where we asked Mike about primary objectives of the Florida-Friendly program and its law (HB2080), rain gardens, and Tallahassee's TAPP (Think About Personal Pollution) program. 5) There is quite a bit about landscape design included in the new, 104-page online and print book ( The Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ Guide to Plant Selection & Landscape Design ). Who is the intended audience and how will you market it? The primary target of the new book is the homeowner, but the highest priority is the HOA landscape and architectural control committees, so they will have a good reference to what many FFL options look like. We hope that this book will help to dispense with the notion that sustainable landscapes are necessarily weedy and unkempt. Many of the most beautiful gardens in the world were maintained in Charle...