Five Natives You Don't See Everyday, But Should

Several native Florida plants have become so commonplace that you can now find them at Big Box stores. Coontie, dune sunflower, blanketflower and muhly grass are among these "cross-over" plants that have made the leap from relative obscurity to mainstream popularity. They are the horticultural equivalents of the low-budget Indie film that wins an Oscar.

I have these plants and love them. They are the trailblazers, hopefully to be followed soon by many more representatives of "real Florida."

But I also like to be different. Part of the fun of gardening is discovering new plants, and sharing them with others. Here are five lesser-known Florida natives that have performed well in my Tampa yard, and that I'd personally like to see more widely used:

• Tampa Vervain (Glandularia tampenis)

A beautiful little groundcover that can be used along borders and pathways, in front of larger plants, or as an alternative to turfgrass. It produces lovely clusters of pink blooms that attract bees and butterflies, and sails through West Central Florida winters without a care. Tampa vervain is endangered in the wild, but is legally cultivated and sold by native plant nurseries.  I have a low border of these along an edged landscape bed, where they spill out along a shell walkway. It's gratifying to know I am helping to sustain this imperiled wildflower in my own urban garden.

• Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum)

Who doesn't love blue in their garden? This plant, with leaves resembling a salvia, produces clusters of dainty, sky blue or violet blossoms on stalks up to 3 feet high. Mistflower is a prolific reseeder: Once planted, you'll have it year after year (fair warning: it spreads!). Bees and small butterflies like skippers are fond of this wildflower in my yard. It grows in moist soils in the wild, but has flourished in my water-thrifty butterfly garden. Perfect as a border plant or tall groundcover. Dies back in winter, but never fear: It reappears, in increasing numbers, each Spring.

• Cutleaf Coneflower (Rudbeckia lanciniata)

This is my first year with this hefty perennial wildflower, and I'm smitten! Unlike the purple coneflower (echinacea), this is actually a black-eyed susan with green, not black "eyes." Although native only to North Florida, it has been quite happy in my Zone 9 garden. Like mistflower, it prefers moist soils but is doing just fine in my yard on summer rainfall alone. I purchased two of these plants in April and they are robust and gorgeous now, with constant blooms of bright yellow flowers rising up from the intricate, deep green foliage. I only have two of these beauties, but plan to add more because they should be stunning when planted in mass. They can be 4 feet wide and just as high, so give them some room to grow.

•  Ocala (Yellow) Anise (Illicium parviflorum)

Ocala, or "star anise" flower bud

 

Everytime I walk past my "hedge" of Ocala anise and brush up against the leaves, I am reminded of why I love this shrub. True to its name, it smells just like anise! It doesn't have showy flowers (indeed its yellow flowers are positively puny) but, oh that fragrance! Crush the leaves and inhale, and I  bet you fall in love too. Ocala anise gets extra credit for being a serious water miser, pest-resistant, and not at all fussy about haircuts. And, it grows in good soil or poor, sun and shade. All in all, a plant that is simply screaming "Abuse and Neglect: Bring It On!" Left unchecked, it will be a large shrub of 10-12 feet, or even a small tree. I prune mine to about 6 feet to provide a nice privacy hedge.
 

My Ocala anise hedge

• Marlberry (Ardisia escallonioides)

Another newcomer in my yard, planted a little over a year ago. Now about 5 feet tall, it should reach 10-15 feet high at maturity and can be kept lower with pruning. A terrific little understory tree for shade. Marlberry has lustrous,

Marlberries

dark green leaves, and lovely little white flower clusters in the spring, followed by berries that ripen to a rich purple hue. Marlberry is a wildlife-attracting powerhouse, offering nectar for butterflies and bees, berries for birds and small mammals, and hiding places to provide cover. Add bonus points for wind resistance and drought tolerance. What's not to love?

*****

Have I tempted you? To find native plant nurseries that sell these plants, go to www.plantrealflorida.org. At this website, you also can plug in your zip code or county to find more native plants that grow in your area.

These are some of my favorite "Not Your Everyday Natives." What are yours?
 

After The Deluge: A Photo Diary

Thanks to Tropical Storm Andrea, the summer rainy season got off to a rousing start in my garden, with more than 10.5 inches of rain in the past seven days!

In between soakings -- and partly to relieve the forced "cabin fever" of being cooped up -- I strolled through my yard. Taking the time to look at my plants in detail reminded me of  how rainfall amplifies their beauty. Fresh and clean, even the most mundane of plants assumes an aura of newness, a sheen of self-satisfaction. 

Is there anything more lovely than a garden after a rain? 

Magenta passion flower is dripping with happiness...

A simple echevarria shimmers with pearly drops...

 Perfect oval beads dangle from the tubular flowers of firecracker fern...

 The huge flat fronds of Monstera deliciosa, also known  
  as swiss cheese plant, are dappled with raindrops...

 While this cluster of buds on  
 the agapanthus (Lily of the    
 Nile) looks as though it can't 
 wait to pop open and
 welcome the sun.

 Dainty cutleaf coneflower, a Florida native that fares much better in my landscape than the more common purple variety, stands proudly like a golden sentinel among the orange cuphea (cigarflower) and purple porterweed in my butterfly garden.


 It's summer in Florida, and my plants couldn't be happier. 
 How about yours?

A "Micro" Miracle

Three years ago, Rick and I took a micro-irrigation workshop at the Hillsborough Extension office. We received a free starter micro-irrigation kit at the end of the class.

We brought the kit home and put it in our shed, intending to install it in a few weeks.

There it sat, collecting dust and nibbling around the edges of my guilty conscience, until last month. 

The thought of enduring another spring dry season of hauling buckets and hoses around the yard to water my beloved plants was just too much. Added motivation came when my yard was selected for a neighborhood garden tour -- a can't miss opportunity to showcase the eco-friendly elements of our low-maintenance landscape. Installing micro-irrigation moved right to the top of the Honey-Do list!

Yes, we have a drought-tolerant landscape. And yes, it mostly survives on the rainfall Mother Nature provides. But there are always times, especially in the spring, when Mother Nature is stingy, I am refreshing my landscape with new plants, and we may not get a drop of rain for weeks.  I have a lot of money, sweat and love invested in my  landscape, and I don't want to see my plants keel over and die.

For the last three years I have hauled watering cans from my rain barrels until they ran dry, and then hand-water plants to keep them going during the usual March-May drought period. But standing in my yard with a hose in my hand does not meet my definition of "low-maintenance." And, even with a shut-off nozzle, it's still wasteful.


Enter micro-irrigation. Short of Mother Nature herself, it's the most efficient watering system around. Traditional  in-ground irrigation systems typically apply 3 gallons of water per minute. Our micro-irrigation system uses 10 gallons of water per hour! Plus, micro is so easily customized that you can virtually ensure the water goes only to your plants -- no more watering sidewalks or streets!

Other benefits:

• Micro, especially drip irrigation, applies water directly to the root zone of a plant, reducing evaporation, runoff and pest problems. It's ideal for watering plants on steep slopes.

• Tremendous flexibility in tailoring irrigation to the differing needs of new versus mature plants.

• The system connects directly to your outdoor water spigot.
• Ease of adjustment: As you modify your landscape over time, moving the tubing and/or spray heads to accommodate the changes is a snap. We've already moved our components a few times to get the spray heads away from fast-growing plants that caused interference with the water stream.

• Micro-irrigation is so efficient that it is usually exempt from watering restrictions, except for the time-of-day limitations. Of course, that doesn't mean we run ours every day; after all, we are committed to conserving water. But it does mean we don't have to remember which day is our "watering day."

Alas, micro-irrigation is not recommended for use on lawns, but that is just another great reason to ditch your lawn in favor of landscape plants!

Micro does take a while to install -- pretty much an entire weekend. But it truly is easy to do.  

And our free starter kit wasn't nearly enough to cover even our small urban lot, so we had to make multiple trips to the store for additional tubing, extensions and spray heads. We used a combination of Mister Landscaper products available at Lowe's, and DIG products available at Home Depot.

All told, we spent about $250 on the system - including the required backflow preventer and pressure regulator for our outdoor faucet, and a good-quality digital timer so our system comes on automatically early in the morning, two days a week.

Currently only our backyard has microirrigation. But we are so pleased with it, we already have decided to install it in our front yard too.

Our only regret? That we didn't do this a while lot sooner. Like three years ago! 

Do you have micro-irrigation in your landscape? Please share your experience installing and using it. If you don't have it, I'd also like to know if I've inspired you to give it a try.

For those of you who haven't yet "waded in" to the world of micro, here are some online resources to nudge you off the fence:

A Guide to Micro-Irrigation for West Central Florida Landscapes

Tampa Bay Community Water-Wise Awards: Efficient Irrigation (Video)  

Micro-Irrigation How-To Videos (Mister Landscaper products)

Hillsborough Extension Garden Blog


Free micro-irrigation workshops are offered by many Extension offices. Sign up early as the classes fill quickly!

My Big, Bad Gardening Boo-Boo

Just when I think I'm actually getting the hang of this Bay-Friendly Landscaping, reality slaps me right up side the head!

And I have no one to blame but myself. 

Two years ago, I planted a pretty low-growing groundcover native to the Pacific Islands called  dwarf chenille plant, (Acalypha pendula), in my mulched beds to take up space.

It took up space alright. This innocuous looking plant, with its pretty red fuzzy blooms that resemble caterpillars, has become what my husband calls my "biggest gardening mistake ever."   

As Scooby Doo would say,  "Ruh Roh."


Chenille plant loved my yard, too much. It spread, and spread, and spread. It also started to climb.

It climbed up the shrubs.

 

It climbed up the trees.

It climbed up containers.

It spilled out over the edging of my landscape beds.

It grew on top of landscape fabric intended to suppress weeds. 

It grew in my shell pathways.

By now, you get the picture.

Before I bought this plant, I did what I thought was the responsible thing, and researched it. It was not listed as invasive in any of the sources I found, including the University of Florida EDIS database that I consider the most accurate. One Extension publication even recommended it as a groundcover in areas without foot traffic, which is exactly where I put it.

To be fair, the EDIS Fact Sheet says it is "not known to be invasive."
I suspect that horticulturists just don't have enough evidence about this plant's greedy nature yet, because it is not that commonly used. It's usually sold in hanging baskets, which is exactly where it should stay, based on my experience.

You have been warned.

About a month ago, we began removing it. I spent two days, about 4 hours each day, pulling it up. My husband joined me for one of the days.

A week later, it was back, popping up everywhere. We spent another few hours ripping it out.

Same thing last weekend. Rick and I each spent two hours on chenille destruction duty. We have traded in what was a very low-maintenance landscape for what seems like endless chenille patrol.  

      Four loads of chenille plant in three weeks!        

Unlike plants that grow individually from seeds, chenille plant grows by underground rhizomes that seem to have no beginning and no end. This makes it very difficult to control. There is just no way to successfully hand-pull all the rhizomes. 

After last weekend's waste of time when we should have been fishing, cycling or just sitting on the deck with a little umbrella drink, I added a new layer of pine bark mulch to my landscape beds and laid pine straw on top of that. It may slow the invading chenille, but I don't think it will stop it.

As much as I hate to say this, I think we are headed toward chemical warfare. With a plant that is as aggressive as this, a good herbicide containing glyphosate may be our only solution.  I have not used a chemical in my yard in years. But I need to defeat the chenille plant before it defeats us.

This hard lesson has reminded me of how vulnerable Florida's hospitable climate is to invasive plants and animals. It also reinforces that plants behave differently in different places and conditions. What is invasive in one yard may be well-behaved in another -- though I have since read complaints from other gardeners about the invasive nature of dwarf chenille.

But, as someone who has successfully eradicated a large plague of air potatoes in my yard, and who manages to keep in check the annoying Mexican petunias that continue to pop up 15 years after I first removed them, I know an invasive when I see one.

Stay tuned. This battle is just beginning. 

I've Got The Blues

Yes, indeed, I have the blues, but I'm not bawling.

This is the kind of blues that gives me a big grin.

My Blue-eyed Grass is in bloom! Those dainty little blossoms can cheer me up like no other plant in my yard.

Formally known as Sisyrinchium angustifolium,. this oh-so-pretty native plant  only blooms for a few weeks each Spring. But what an impact it makes!

Blue-eyed Grass is not a grass, but a member of the iris family. A perennial, it grows in a clump and stays short, about 1-2 feet high and equally wide. Mine is a gift from a friend, and it has grown and spread considerably in the last year.

Blue-eyed grass is a wonderful border or filler plant. The foliage looks nice even when it's not blooming. Frankly, I sort of forgot it was there until it bloomed last week. I didn't even notice that it was getting ready to bloom!

Now, it's impossible to ignore. I could look at it for hours, I think, especially in the early evening as I sit on my deck with a glass of wine. It's just plain adorable.

The 6-petal blooms stand tall and proud on individual stalks, with yellow centers. The petals vary in color. Mine are a deep blue, almost purple shade. 

Its native habitat is open woods, moist pinelands, meadows, marshes, the edges of swamps and along roadsides. 

But it's the perfect urban garden resident, happy as can be with very little care once established and tolerant of both full sun and light shade.

If you want to dig the blues in your garden, contact a native plant nursery. Florida Native Plants Nursery in northeast Sarasota County carries it, and owner Laurel Schiller is a fount of native plant knowledge. If you know of other sources for this plant, please post them in the comments section.

I did actually see blue-eyed grass very recently at a Home Depot as well -- one of the Florida Friendly Plants grown by Riverview Flower Farms. 

Or, make friends with someone who has this adorable flower in their garden and is willing to share the easily divided clumps with you. You won't be blue with this happy face to welcome Spring!