|
|
Entice Monarchs to Your Garden with Milkweeds 'Made in Florida'
 | |
Native Butterfly Weed
(Asclepias tuberosa)
Photo courtesy of floridata.com
|
Every year millions of monarch butterflies migrate from the eastern United States and Canada to central Mexico, a journey of 2,000 miles and more. But this year, the number of monarch butterflies that completed the annual migration to their winter home in a Mexican forest sank to its lowest level in at least two decades. Among the possible reasons identified by scientists are extreme heat and drought in the monarch's North American summer breeding grounds, as well as loss of native milkweed plants from increased use of herbicides in agricultural areas.
 The milkweed plant is the only plant on which the beautiful monarch butterfly lays its eggs. Most Florida gardeners are familiar with the non-native Scarlet, or Mexican, milkweed that is readily available at garden centers. Less well known are the half-dozen milkweeds that are native to Florida. Although not always easy to find, natives like butterfly weed (A. Tuberosa) and longleaf milkweed (A. Longifolia) provide food for both monarch adults and caterpillars, but die back in the winter -- encouraging the last generation of the year to mosey on to Mexico. The native milkweeds resprout in the spring, just in time to nurture the returning migrants as they begin their fascinating life cycle all over again. Our newest short video features Be Floridian partner Chris Parisi, owner of Restless Natives Nursery in Tarpon Springs, describing the cultivation and care of native milkweeds.  | |
Be Floridian: Native Milkweeds
|
Native milkweed plants and seeds can be purchased through these sources: Restless Natives Nursery https://www.facebook.com/restlessnativesnursery Hawthorn Hill Wildflowers http://www.plantrealflorida.org/professionals/detail/215 Wilcox Nursery http://www.wilcoxnursery.com/index.html Florida Wildflower Growers Cooperative http://www.floridawildflowers.com/ |
Be Floridian Partner Profile: Chris Parisi
After replacing his lawn three times in 10 years, Chris figured there had to be a better landscape choice for his Tarpon Springs home. He found it by accident, by helping his daughter with a class project to identify and collect leaves from native plants.
 His search led him to a friend's cow pasture where he found a pretty orange flower called butterfly weed (A. tuberosa). His friend hated it because it made his cows sick when they ate it, and he told Chris to harvest all he wanted. Chris decided to see if he could raise this hardy wildflower, a favorite of monarch butterflies.
He soon discovered there was a market for butterfly plants, and he decided to dive right in. Before long, he was starting seeds, joining the Native Plant Society and getting his nursery certified by the state. He learned that native milkweeds were very popular but rare, so he decided to focus on those. He now grows five species on a regular basis and is experimenting with more. He also landscaped his own yard with a colorful variety of native and Florida-friendly shrubs, groundcovers, vines and flowers, including his home-grown milkweeds. You can buy Chris' plants at native plant sales all over the region, as well as directly from his nursery. Contact him at restlessnatives@tampabay.rr.com |
Tip of the Month: If you plan to fertilize your lawn or landscape plants, April is a good month to do it. Your grass and plants are actively growing as the days lengthen and warm up, and your plants can more readily assimilate and use nutrients.  Only slow-release fertilizers may be used throughout Manatee, Pinellas, and Sarasota counties and the city of Tampa from October-May. Slow-release products provide nutrients gradually, nourishing your lawns and plants over a longer period without releasing nitrogen into our bays, lakes, rivers and the Gulf of Mexico. Remember: Being Floridian means we DON'T put down fertilizer in the summer rainy season when it can wash off and pollute our waters. NOTE: While turfgrass species popular in Florida need to be fertilized to look their best, mature flowers, shrubs, trees and other landscape plants usually don't need fertilizer unless they have a specific nutrient deficiency. Don't assume a sickly plant needs fertilizer; fungus or other diseases, pests, or too much or too little water could be the culprit. Contact your local Extension Office to help diagnose plant problems.
THE DISH ON DIRT: The key to healthy lawns and landscape plants is good soil! Improve yours by adding compost, compost teas, worm castings or other soil amendments. |
| |
Need some expert advice on
Gardening Like A Floridian?
Check out the Garden Coaches, Landscape Designers, Lawn Care Companies and Nurseries that support our mission to protect the waterways that make living in Florida fun!
...
http://www.befloridian.org/partner-companies/
| |
 |  |
Classes and workshops offer free or low-cost instruction on how to save time and money by practicing Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ principles. Check out your county extension service to get started or to learn advanced skills.
|
|
|
|
| |
Pledge to Skip The Fertilizer This Summer and You Could Win Prizes
Take the Be Floridian pledge to "Skip The Fertilizer" this summer
and you'll automatically be entered in drawings to win flamingo mousepads or authentic Don Featherstone plastic pink yard flamingos.
Instead of fertilizing in the summer when rains could just wash that nitrogen right into the bay or Gulf, do the responsible thing: Go boating, or to the beach, or have a nice dinner at a waterside restaurant!
There are four ways to take the pledge:
Via your Smartphone (QR code)
In person where you see our Flamingo Wrangler, Kalika, and her traveling flock of plastic pink yard flamingos ( check here for schedule)
Additionally, four lucky winners will win one of our Grand Prize "Yard Makeover Consultations" or "Jump Start Your Florida Yard" native plant packages.
Yard consultations donated by Landscape Designer Lisa Strange of Plant-Wise Landscapes, and Garden Coaches Pam Brown of Pampered Gardeners and Cynthia Glover of Florida Garden Coach.
 | | "Look! Up in the sky! Is that a whole flock of flamingos?" |
|
|
Plants for True Floridians
Simpson's Stopper
(Myrcianthes fragrans)
 Also known as Twinberry, Simpson's Stopper is often used as a hedge along buildings and parking lots. This showy evergreen shrub sports fragrant white flowers and pods that attract bees and butterflies. After the flowers come red berries that birds love to pluck. It can grow from 5 to 20 feet tall and spread 3 to 15 feet. It's easily managed by pruning, can thrive in full sun to full shade, is drought tolerant and can grow in just about any soil. Simpson's stoppers are widely available at native plant nurseries. Check out plantrealflorida.org for sources.
Fun fact: It's named "stopper" because it was used for treatment of diarrhea. Also called "stopper" because it forms a dense thicket that is hard to penetrate.
Florida Friendly/Non-Native
Commonly seen in yards, along medians and highways, and in landscapes throughout Florida, the colorful crepe, or crape, myrtle blooms in summer in big showy clusters of white and many shades of pink and lavender. They are among the hardiest and longest blooming trees with flowering periods lasting from 60-120 days.Crepe myrtle likes lots of sun and moist soil, but it tolerates dry conditions once established. Depending on variety, crepes grow as large shrubs or as trees and some varieties are very fast growing. Don't be a "crepe murderer" -- pruning is recommended only to remove overly dense branches and crossing limbs. Colorful dwarf "myrtlettes" are bushy plants that will grow 3 to 4 feet. They are a great way to add color to small spaces and container gardens and hot sunny balconies. Crepe myrtles can be purchased at most general nurseries and garden centers.
|
|
Recipes for Relaxing
| |
Are you ready for blueberry season? Regional U-pick berry farms should be open for business in late April or early May! With an easy-care Florida-Friendly Yard, you'll have time for a fun afternoon at a local farm to pick some fresh berries ripe off the vine.
You won't be blue if you make blueberries a part of your regular diet. The health benefits of blueberries are amazing -- they rank #1 in antioxidant activity when compared to 40 other fresh fruits and vegetables! They are also a good source of vitamins C and E.
Here's a quick and easy recipe for a delicious blueberry smoothie, the perfect snack for relaxing on your porch or deck.
Blueberry Heaven Smoothie
2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries
1 1/4 cup apple juice
1 cup vanilla ice cream
1/4 cup milk
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
In blender, combine all ingredients until smooth. Serve immediately in tall frosty glasses with a little pink umbrella. Serves 4.
Recipe from blueberry-recipe.com
|
|
Get Your Be Floridian Bling
| |
Buy a computer mousepad featuring Felix, our flamingo mascot, at our online Zazzle store. You can also get key rings, coasters, t-shirts, postcards to send to your relatives up north, and even iPhone cases!
A portion of the revenues from our Zazzle sales comes back to us to support our educational campaign.
 | | iPhone hard case. |
|
|
|
 |
What's Be Floridian?
Be Floridian is an educational campaign sponsored by the Tampa Bay Estuary Program. Our partners include Manatee, Pinellas, and Sarasota counties; the cities of Clearwater, St. Petersburg and Tampa; and a variety of landscape designers, gardening coaches, fertilizer companies and lawn care specialists. We are calling on all Southwest Floridians to help protect what makes Florida so fun -- our bays, lakes, rivers and the Gulf of Mexico -- by skipping the fertilizer in the summer to prevent water pollution and creating landscapes that flourish in harmony with Florida's quirky climate.
|
|
|
|
|
