Florida Native Plant Society Blog

Alex Farr, President of the Sea Oats Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society Sea Oats was, until recently, a small, struggling chapter that wasn't holding regular meetings. When asked why she did jumped in to lead the chapter, she said, "No one else wanted to do it. I was like, damn it, let's do it!" Alex has been a Florida Native Plant Society member for five years, she was working in general horticulture when she saw a tiny little notice in the newspaper for a native plant meetup group, so she joined. She quickly learned about native plant landscaping and soon joined St. Augustine Beach's Beautification Advisory/Tree Board . Three years later she has transitioned three city landscapes from non-native to native and is the Vice-Chair of the Board! Initially, the leadership at the time put Alex in charge of the Facebook page , which was essential in keeping her engaged in the chapter. Chapters, take note. Past presidents Michael Bowles and Eric Powe...

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...

By Alex Farr (Sea Oats Chapter member) I first saw the sign on a walk around the block, on my way to the corner swamp.  "Oh, no.  This can't be good!"....flashed through my mind, and all of the horrors of the bulldozer followed that thought.  But that was in October, still not much building happening, and anyway, with all this talk of global warming, water rising, huge hurricanes, impossible insurance rates (if any insurance at all), would  make these lots a hard sell. How hard would it be to sell these lots? Late February---I heard that all too familiar sound of beep, beep, beep, diesel engines, swoosh, the sickening sound of trees falling.  But I was off to work, not time to investigate.  Turning down my little lane that afternoon, I was horrified to be able to see the next street over, and the condo's on the next street.  The trees and entangled growth that blocked that view were gone.  It was the site of that For Sale sign back in Oc...

By Laurie Sheldon The Ixia Chapter has taken several field trips to GTMNERR over the past few years. Why do we keep going back? Because it rocks! The Reserve is literally brimming with native flora and fauna (both resident and migratory, like our conference attendees) - the species list at the end of this blog is a testament to that. In short, GTMNERR is not a "been there, done that" kind of place. What's in a Name? GTMNERR is sort of a binomial acronym, in the most non-botanical way, though. The first part, GTM is a tribute to the three rivers that make up the site's estuary ( G uana, T olomato, and M atanzas). The Guana River was named by the Spanish explorers, the Tolomato after an Indian village in Darien Georgia, and Matanzas - also named by the Spanish - translates as massacre. The "massacre" it refers to took place near the river's inlet, where the Spanish forces executed several hundred shipwrecked Huguenots from Fort Caroline (a French ...

Sea Oats; photo by Shirley Denton by Eric Powell introduction by Laurie Sheldon Eric Powell has taken on the ambitious task of assembling a monthly newsletter for his chapter, Sea Oats in St. Johns County. In addition to including information about upcoming meetings, field trips, and local events, Eric catalogues the specimens that are concurrently blooming in his own landscape while working on the publication. The following is an excerpt from Sea Oats' most recent circular. Garden Update Every month, I prepare a list of all the plants I have in bloom at the time I put the newsletter together. At least three people have confessed that they actually read it; for the life of me, I have no idea why. Although I readily admit to being a plantaholic, I swear I have not bought, been gifted, or stolen one single plant this month!  Must be a record!  Regardless, it seems that all it takes for my list to grow longer is some time spent staring at the ground. And man, has ...

s The Sea Oats chapter's table with lots of literature, and sample native plants including this lovely white-flowered swamp milkweed ( Asclepias perennis ) When I read last week’s post about Diane Neill's landscape transformation, “ Keyhole Garden In –Lawn Out ,” I was surprised at the landscape guys’ comments that native plants weren’t pretty ("The doom and gloom guys"), but last weekend I heard a grower say the exact same thing and more. I was a vendor at the Garden and Home Show in St. Augustine October 1 & 2. While I’m not on an official book tour, it was fairly close to home and I was available with a box of books to sell. The weather was gorgeous and a fair number of folks came out to buy plants, participate in the 4-H activities, and to hear presentations. The Sea Oats FNPS chapter had a table at the entrance to the hall. A swamp sunflower ( Helianthus angustifolius ) next to my table with a Sleepy Orange butterfly guest. I'd also bought ...