Now that Carol is retired, she has more time to spend in her yard. Above she shows off a path to the street that she installed at the western edge of her property and how her neighbor now has native plants in her landscape, too. Notice how natives – not turfgrass – grow to the edge of the road.
She “advertises” at the street that her comely yard includes mostly native plants and that it provides for pollinators …
Wildlife, too. We were greeted by a screech owl who emerged to check out the dozens of people in the driveway …
A canopy of live oaks (Quercus virginiana) provides shade and habitat …
Lots of wild coffee (Psychotria nervosa) graced her yard and attracted this zebra longing butterfly …
(Pepperomia obtusifolia) is a delightful ground cover for shady areas …
Native plumbago (Plumbago zeylandica) has white flowers and performs best in shade …
Ironwood (Krugiodendron ferreum) is a not-so-common native tree …
Snowberry (Chioccoca alba) gracefully sprawled along the edge of the driveway …
Tropical sage is a wildflower that grows in shade or sun and is shown here in seed …
Carol provides scale for crownbeard (Verbesina virginica) that grows larger and thicker in full sun. Check out its distinctive winged stems …
Dahoon holly (Ilex cassine) was flowering alongside her bee house …
A red mulberry tree (Morus rubra) grows in the background, a Florida thatch palm (Thrinax radiata) provides contrast, and twinevine (Funastrum cynanchoides), a.k.a. climbing milkweed vine and a larval food for monarch butterflies, climbs around the owl-topped post …
Plants in sunny spots along the road include tallowwood (Ximenia americana) that Carol grew from seed …
… Bahama strongbark (Bourreria succulenta), Carol’s favorite tree and a true pollinator-pleaser grows nearby …
… and lots of wildflowers including blanketflower (Gaillardia pulchella) …
… ticklseed (Coreopsis laevanworthii) …
Native grasses grow nearby …
Carol kept everyone smiling throughout her yard …
There sure was lots to see …
ircnativeplants.org 