Native Plants Love Florida Sunshine

So many plants just can't stand up to the heat and humidity of a central Florida summer.  Even those plants labeled for "full sun" aren't usually up to it.  There are some plants that can take whatever strong Florida sun comes their way.  These plants are Florida natives.

(Notice the baby lubber grasshopper at the bottom left next to the "www." He is no more.)

Some natives are named for their hometown such as Tampa Verbain, Glandularia tampensis.  I'm gradually incorporating more native plants in with the non-natives that I find do well in my garden. 

Finding native plants is becoming easier to do as more and more garden centers  are stocking them.  Riverview Flower Farm's Florida Friendly Plants stock Home Depots with this Tampa native as well as Blue- Eyed Grass, Sisyrinchium angustifolium and many others.


Blue-Eyed Grass makes a great border plant or ground cover out in the full sun.  It only blooms its bright blue flowers in spring, but it keeps its green grassy foliage year-round.  This plant laughed at the heat of summer and the cold of our recent winters. 


Native Blanket Flowers, Gaillardia pulchella, have reseeded and are popping up in all the sunny spots here at My Garden Path.  When these tall flowers take a breather from blooming they tend to look a little weedy.  All that needs to be done is to trim down to the lower leaves and soon they will be sending up more flowers.

A hybrid form of the Gaillardia has been added along the pathway.  This form is lower growing and much more compact. 

(Notice the lady-bug in the upper left next to the "www."  She has not been harmed.)

As I learn more about native Florida plants I am enjoying incorporating them into my garden.  Certainly, they are hardier and more reliable than many other plants which just don't have what it takes to survive freezing temperatures in the winter and the suffocating humid heat of our Florida summers.

Reworking the Sunny Corner

This corner in the backyard adjoins the bed along the chainlink fence.  It is an area that receives mid-day to afternoon sun.  There was a golden dewdrop, duranta repens planted in the back corner with a multi-color lantana, lantana camara, across the front.  The golden dewdrop was killed to the ground in January just as it was last winter.  It was decided that another butterfly and hummingbird attractor that could make it through cold weather was needed instead of the golden dewdrop which was relocated to a less prominent spot. 

 

A three feet tall red bottlebrush tree callistemon citrinus was planted where the dewdrop had been.  This specimen will be full of bristly red blooms very soon.  Butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds all love them.  Since this small tree will be green during winter as well as summer, it will provide some privacy screen to the chainlink fence area.  When it achieves its full height it will be around 12 feet tall.

 

Beautiful blooms are imminent.

Blue-eyed grass is a native plant that grows in damp open fields.  This corner should be a perfect spot for it.  Placed as a border grass in front of the bottlebrush its sweet little blue flowers add interest to its lush greenness.

The lantana was also killed to the ground but it was left to come back between the border of blue-eyed grass and the bottlebrush.  Should it not make it back to the land of living plants it will be replaced most likely with a mixture of red and white pentas. 

The sunny corner package.