As a follow-up to her speaking presentation at our March chapter meeting, Stephanie Dunn offered to give a guided tour of the native plant demonstration garden at the Indian River County Administration Building.
Stephanie, working for Cadence Landscape Architects, designed the native plant garden for Pelican Island Audubon Society. The goal of the project was to have a native plant landscape in a highly visible location where people would be able to see how a variety of native plants can be utilized for an attractive garden setting with less maintenance than typical nursery ornamental plants.
Eugenia Chapter’s first field trip for 2025 was a delightful success. The weather was perfect, and since it was a Sunday morning, the tour group people were the only ones present.
Stephanie explained the design criteria for the site and why specific plants were chosen: flowering potential and pollinator appeal, ease of maintenance, vertical or horizontal growth habit, water, light, and soil requirements and longevity for growth. She graciously fielded questions from onlookers, and lively exchanges took place among the tour group participants.
If you didn’t attend the outing, consider stopping by the site for information and motivation. As seen in the photos, lots of color dotted the garden. Our state wildflower, Coreopsis (a.k.a. tickseed), has 2 species represented: lanceleaf (C. lanceolata) and Leavenworth (C. leavenworthii). Both of these species readily reseed and will travel all over your garden and provide you with colorful surprises. Those bright yellow flowers certainly look pretty with the purple verbena (Glandularia spp)!
ircnativeplants.org 