Buffie’s yard at six months
The Dune Sunflower, Gaillardia, Black Eyed Susan, Beard Tongue and Firebush are now blooming heavily and the shrubs and trees are taking off. This is April when a lot of growth starts. Little growth of trees and shrubs occurs between January and April.
The first month after planting Buffie’s yard
This is the first month after planting and already the Dune Sunflower and Beach Verbena are blooming yellow and purple. The shrubs are still small, but watch them grow over the years.
The golf course takes away their privacy and will be completely screened out in just two years. There are Saw Palmetto, Locust Berry, Jamaica Caper and other shrubs planted on the other side of the fence. They took about four years to really take off and are now full sized.
Coontie is one of our most drought tolerant groundcovers. It takes only a few weeks of watering to become fully established. The thick, water storing tap root goes down deep to find moisture.
It is tolerant of salt air, yet not much salt or fresh water flooding, and prefers full sun to partial shade. A freeze may kill the plant, which is why it only ventures to the Georgia border. Zamia pumila is a catch all for all the native species of cycad in Florida. I am a splitter, so please see this interesting description, click Here.
The starch containing root was once pulverized, then washed and fermented several times to break down the hydrocyanic acid that it contains.
It was a major source of starch for the Native Americans and early settlers. See this article for more information click Here.
Coontie can be found in the Everglades Rocklands, coastal hammocks and some scrub or scrubby pine habitat. I have seen it occur naturally on the dune in Vero Beach, The Pine Rocklands of Dade County, the scrub trail at Wekiva Springs State Park and the Rafael Sanchez Trail in Martin County.
On this trail it appears under a large old Live Oak. These were small coontie and I have a feeling that the mother plants were placed there by native Americans or settlers… Just a hunch.
Coontie needs a fertile, deep, dry soil. It will not take flooding for long before rotting into mush. New growth comes in May and June which is also when the atala hairstreak butterfly lays its eggs.
If you have this butterfly, you may want to manage the caterpillar population by removing all but a few from each plant. Since this plant only sends up new leaves once a year, it can look pretty raggedy when over grazed by caterpillars.
Male and female plants are separate and should be planted about three feet apart if you want pollination and viable seed. The male cones are six inches long and one inch wide while the female cones are up to eight inches long and three inches wide. Two beetle species pollinate the female cone. This is an ancient plant preceding bee pollinators.
The female cones break apart revealing the orange pulp, which covers each single seed, between September and November. The orange pulp is hard to remove, yet the fruit can be dried and planted an inch deep where you want it to grow.
The pulp will rot away naturally. Germination may take six months and is initiated by the summer rains. Do not water the planted seed, let the rains do it for you.
The orange pulp around each seed looks like candy, so if you have small children remove the female cones before they ripen around September. The taste is bitter though.
Bluejays and mockingbirds eat the seed covering while squirrels eat the covering and seed meat. All will spread a few seed across your and your neighbors’ properties. Do not eat the seed!
Plant in small groupings or large masses. This is a plant that will live for decades and become rather wide as it sprouts pups off the main root. Space at least 2.5 feet to three feet apart and back from walkways.
A natural combination is Pine Trees with Saw Palmetto, Coontie, Little Bluestem Grass, Silver Palm, Chapman’s Cassia, Tetrazygia, Marlberry, Myrsine, Randia, Wild Coffee, Lopsided Indian grass and other Pine Rockland species.
A coastal combination is Horizontal Cocoplum, Spider Lily, Dune Sunflower, Beach Verbena, Bay Cedar, Sea Lavender, Red Salvia, Spotted Beebalm and other dune plants. Just give it some light, although it can tolerate growing under open shrubs.
Here is another article you may like, click Here.
Wildflowers: Require a week of daily watering and some slow release fertilizer to become established. They may need watering two to three times a week until the end of the month if showing signs of stress.
Water wildflowers once a week, if needed, during long dry periods after the initial establishment period.
Shrubs and Trees: Require two weeks of daily watering and every three days for an additional month. There is a period from March to July that may be especially dry; this ends with the summer rains.
During this time your plants may require watering every two to three days depending on the moisture holding capacity of the soil.
Within three to six months, most trees and shrubs should be on their own unless there is no rain for more than two weeks.
Always keep an eye on your plants and water them if necessary as it may take one full year before some trees and shrubs are fully established and can make it through our long dry spells.
When planting, pull apart the roots from opposite or three sides of the root ball to break up any roots that have completely circled the inside of the pot.
These will otherwise continue to get thicker in diameter until they strangle the trunk years later.
To do this run your thumb from top to bottom and about two inches into the ball or cut with a shovel. Make sure you don’t cut the root where it begins at the trunk.
The plant should be installed so that the top of the root ball is level with the ground and the soil is firm beneath the root ball. Never put organic matter below the root ball as it will oxidize causing the plant to sink.
If the soil is too loose beneath the plant, it may settle and you will find the root ball several inches below the surface in a few months. Replant if this happens.
Build a ring of soil around the outside of the root ball with the extra soil to hold the water in place when you water.
Use a forceful stream from the hose to soak the soil; a sprinkle will do little to wet the ground. Make sure you water a few inches outside the ring to encourage the roots to move out.
Florida has a variety of soils to deal with. Coastal and scrub soils, which are just west of and east of I95 to the ocean, are very dry. Plants in these soils require more weeks of watering as well as frequency.
Traveling west of this zone the soil becomes moister, yet may have pockets of scrub, until wetlands are encountered near the turnpike and beyond. If your soil is always moist, your plants will only need the first week of watering and as needed thereafter.
Use a slow release fertilizer to help your plants send down their roots. The three to 12 month fertilizers work well. Flowers will need one treatment and trees and shrubs may need three.
Keep weedeaters away from your plants, they will girdle the lower trunk and kill the plant. Stake the tree loosely, if at all, so that it can move and strengthen.
Cut your shrubs back several inches to a foot or two by hand only if needed. Don’t sheer them or the growth will be on the outer tips and none in the center.
In fact, cut the shrub to the ground to rejuvenate. Not all plants can take this but firebush, beauty berry, wild coffee, locust berry, necklace pod and a few others will come back fine. Try this on one plant first.
If you notice insects causing a lot of damage, especially newly introduced ones, try the organic oils or other sprays to control them. Since these introduced insects have no enemies, they can multiply unchecked and kill your plants.
When I plant for you I often need to cut some or your plant’s roots to fit them around a pipe or tree root. This results in wilting and the need for you to water these plants more frequently and longer. The wilting may last a month, so please be patient.Call me if you have any further questions
Carl Terwilliger
561-601-9673
Narrowleaf Yellowtops is a low, mounding, perennial wildflower found in most of Florida. The masses of yellow flowers occur from March to December in South Florida.
These attract bees, butterflies, beetles and other pollinators.
Do not confuse this with the invasive Coastal Plain Yellowtops, Flaveria bidentis. This plant is from South America and is spreading through our coastal areas and other parts of the world. For a good description of this plant click here. And for great pictures, Click here.
This invasive plant has three veins, serrated margins and some hairiness. The native Yellowtop has one prominent vein, entire (untoothed) margins and no hairiness. The leaves of the native are very narrow in the Florida Keys, yet tend to be a bit wider north of them.
I have found them growing along lake edges and along the coast near the dune line. They are tolerant of salt air, dry soil and do well during drought. The two foot high mounds make a colorful addition to the summer garden.
Cut them back to one foot tall when the flowers go to seed and the plant will grow back and flower again. Otherwise it will look weedy and may die as it puts all of its energy into seed production.
Be careful when you cut the stems. Wear gloves and long sleeves because the sap will make your skin itch. This takes about ten minutes and requires thorough washing and a half hour wait for the itch to subside.
Mix with Southern Beebalm, Salvia, Blue Curls, Spiderlily, Spiderwort, Pineland Croton, Sea Lavender, Seaside Goldenrod, Bay Cedar and Mimosa. It can even compete with Dune Sunflower for space.
Be aware that if you let it go to seed, there will soon be many seedlings coming up. This is good if you want to keep them going but a bit annoying if they get thrown about by a mower or dog running through them.
See page nine of this site for more information click here.
Our native Wild Allamanda is a vine with opposite, oval leaves and two inch yellow flowers produced from June to Fall. The vines can grow twelve or more feet long, yet will be bushier if cut back.
Do not confuse this with the Yellow Allamanda sold in stores which is bushy and native to South America. Click here for more information.
Our native Allamanda is found from the coastline of St. Lucie County through the Florida Keys. It is very tolerant of salt air and drought and prefers dry soil and full sun. Moist soil is tolerated, yet not needed. It does very well inland on a trellis or other support.
Since it is in the Oleander Family, Apocynaceae, it should not be eaten and the sap should be washed off immediately or skin irritation will occur. Keep kids away from it.
The polka-dot wasp moth larva eats the leaves. This is orange with soft hairs. The adult is the same moth seen laying eggs on oleander and mimics a spider wasp with an orange abdomen and blue wings. Funny how the scape moth up north and the atala hairstreak butterfly also have this natural warning color combination.
If you are looking for a vine that will cover a trellis or shrubs and trees on the south edge of a planting, this is one of the best. I have one that has grown up into a Gumbo Limbo and pours down with many yellow flowers. This makes the Gumbo look like it has yellow flowers.
Wild Allamanda occurs on the edge of salt marshes in the Keys and among the Saw Palmetto, Redbay and other plants just back of the dune as you travel north to St. Lucie County. I have also seen it in the shady parts of Boynton Hammock, yet there are few flowers in low light.
For more info click here, and here.
Golden Canna is also called Bandana (not Banana) of the Everglades. It is found from Georgia thru Florida and west to Texas. Winter growth is ratty looking in South Florida due to the halt of new growth and in northern areas it is killed to the ground by frost.
This is a colorful, tropical looking three foot tall plant for lake edges and retention ponds. It spreads by underground rhizomes and will produce a large mass in little time.
Bees nectar on the flowers and the canna, also called Brazilian skipper, butterfly both nectar’s on the flowers and lays its eggs on the young leaves. The caterpillar of this skipper has transparent skin enabling kids to see the breathing tubes and inner guts for a neat science lesson. For more info on this butterfly, click here.
The roots and young leaves may be edible, but check out this link, click here and do your own research before putting anything in your mouth. This article puts Canna in the Ginger order, although it is in the Cannaceae family.
I dug up a thick piece of root, cleaned it and put it on the barbie along with some fresh iguana for twenty minutes. After it cooled, I cut it open and ate the starchy insides which tasted like Jerusalem Artichoke.
Next camping trip, you may want to try Canna, Cattail (sprouts, roots, or young pollen spikes), the tender tips of Smilax and other edible wild plants to go along with the fish you catch.
Canna is often used in mitigation plantings along lake or pond edges. The soil needs to be black with organic matter. That is often at the northwest corner of the lake where floating plant material is blown in by our dominant southeast breeze.
Otherwise, you will need to fertilize, which is not wise to do near waterways. The idea is to plant Golden Canna to capture nutrients from lawns before they enter the waterway.
A low spot in the yard can be covered with compost or lots of leaves, grass clippings etc. which will decompose into muck.
Plant in this moist, rich soil using Joepye Weed, Prairie Iris, Duck Potato, Buttonbush, Swamp Hibiscus, Saltmarsh Mallow, various ferns, native grasses, Narrowleaf Sunflower, Florida Lily, American Crinum Lily, Meadow Beauty and Bloodroot.
The above plants can be used on a lake edge from the waterline to the grassline. Pickerelweed,Thalia, Bulrush, Waterlilies and Spikerush can be planted in up to two feet of water.
These will extend the planting from just a few to many feet into the lake. The waterline may rise two or more feet above normal during heavy rains and drown the lower level of plants.
This is why I usually plant in six inches or less of water and let the plants creep down into the lake themselves.
Make an island 20 feet out from the shore and landscape it with these plants along with Pondapple and Cypress. With a water depth of two or more feet, you will have a great nesting site for herons and other wading birds.
It is hard for raccoons and other predators to swim out to the island. They are vulnerable to alligator attack.
For more info, click here, and here.
Wild Sage or Buttonsage is found naturally along the coast from the Florida Keys to Brevard County. It is also found in the West Indies and Puerto Rico. This light silvery colored shrub is tolerant of salt air and drought and likes moderately fertile, sandy soil that doesn’t flood.
The one inch rounded leaves are soft and smell like sage when crushed. The flowers are white with a yellow center and some having a pink blush. The berries are purple or magenta. The flowers attract butterflies and the berries attract birds.
The fruit are considered edible when ripe and may be poisonous, like Lantana camara, when green. Dogs, cats and livestock can be poisoned by Lantana camara, so Wild Sage may be poisonous too. For information on its toxicity, click here.
Wild Sage is a rounded shrub about three feet tall that should be used in butterfly gardens along with Florida Keys Thoroughwort, Bloodberry, Firebush, Pineland Privet, Florida Boxwood, Inkwood, Hercules Club and Wild Lime-which needs lots of space around it.
Make sure you are buying this native species and not one of the “naturalized”-invasive species. None of the low orange or white flowered species are native and most are very invasive. Just buy from a reputable native nursery and do your research; even native plant growers get confused sometimes and may sell you a “native orange lantana”.
For more info, Click here, and here, and for info about the other Lantana species, click here.
There are three species of Twinflower in Florida. The Common Twinflower is the most widely used and is naturally found throughout the Southeastern U.S. down to Indian River County. It prefers higher ground and slightly moist soil in places like Wekiva Springs State Park and the Central Ridge. Click for more info.
This species has small oval leaves, blue flowers and is only a foot or less tall. It spreads by underground roots close to the plant so that a nice tight mass is formed over time that lasts for many years.
Although the flowers aren’t very showy, they, along with the dense foliage make a nice border or groundcover. It works well under a specimen tree like Lignum Vitae. Weeding is fairly easy because the dense growth excludes most weeds.
Try mixing with Havana Scullcap, Fog Fruit, Silkgrass, Mimosa, Beach Verbena, Rustweed and Seaside Joyweed for a very low groundcover. Since it doesn’t climb, other wildflowers can be placed near it. No Dune Sunflowers nearby though. No maintenance other than occasional weeding is needed.
There is a very small species called Rockland Twinflower or Pineland Snakeherb, Dyschoriste angusta That is found in the Pine Rocklands of Dade County. It can also be found rarely up to Martin County in Pinelands.
This has very small linear leaves and blue flowers and makes a nice mat around rocks, between pavers, along a walkway and other tight spaces. Click for more info.
The third species is Swamp Twinflower or Swamp Snakeherb, Dyschoriste humistrata. This is found in moist soil near wetlands in central and north Florida. For its range Click here.
I have found it in Myakka River State Park near the campgrounds. Use this in moist soil such as the wet portion of your swale or along the edge of a Cypress or other swamp. If you irrigate often, try it in a moist flower garden. Click for more info,
All three are a larval host for the common buckeye butterfly. In fact, we raised several buckeye caterpillars to adults in July on the oblongifolia species. The eggs had been laid on this plant.
Seaside Joyweed is found along the coast mixed in with Sea Oats from St. Lucie County thru the Florida Keys. It has one inch rounded leaves that are shiny and often with a reddish or coppery tone.
This spreads by surface runners that root every few inches. On the beach it grows as a long runner only an inch or two high. Yet, in partial shade it will grow 12 inches tall as side shoots point upwards.
Soil conditions are dry to moist, well drained, moderately fertile sand. Full sun to light shade are best. Salt air is fine, but salt water flooding is not. This plant does very well in inland plantings and only requires occasional cutting to keep it out of walkways.
The picture is of a planting below the west side of a native Strangler Fig with a building to the south. Common Snowberry is shooting upward in the background. Click here. It gets dappled morning sun and some direct afternoon sun. Since this is in the Pigweed or Amaranth family, the flowers are dry tufts followed by tiny seeds.
This can be mixed with Sunshine Mimosa, Fogfruit, Goats foot and Seaside Morning Glory, Beach Verbena, Sea Purslane and Golden Creeper kept low for a groundcover mix under 12 inches tall.
Of course, you can throw in Gaillardia, Salvia, Coontie, Seaside Goldenrod, Spiderwort, Spiderlily and Beach Elder for the look of a Coastal Prairie. Both forms of the Pineland Snowberry, although not salt tolerant, will mix in well too. Click here, and here, to learn more about these two forms.
For more info on Seaside Joyweed, Click here.