No less a publication than Southern Living magazine has long recommended our native Firebush, Hamelia patens, to its readership. And it’s no wonder. The species has many endearing qualities. First, if not foremost, it’s rather cold-tolerant. The Florida Native Plant Society regards it as suitable for planting through Zone 9a, whose northern limit is along…
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This week we take a look at a very interesting group of Florida native plants known collectively as stoppers. All stoppers are members of the Myrtaceae, an enormous family that also includes the genus Eucalyptus. Some grow as shrubs and some as trees. Each of the five described below not only has ornamental value, but also has proven…
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Seminole Pumpkin (Cucurbita moshata) is called the wild squash of the Everglades. This is a native Florida pumpkin which the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes cultivated before the Spaniards arrived in the 1500’s. They would plant the seeds at the base of dead trees and allow the vine to grow upward with the fruit hanging down…
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If you’re at all like me, you value your privacy. Around your property, one way to help ensure privacy is to install a good hedge. Contrary to what some growers will tell you, not every hedge plant is capable of fulfilling homeowners’ needs for a dense, long-lasting screening material. It may sound like heresy for me to…
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We last dealt with the trees known as stoppers in an article published on the Richard Lyons’ Nursery website on March 2, 2013. Legend has it that these species got that common name because their constituents were used in concoctions to stop, er, uh, intestinal problems. An alternate, more pleasant explanation is that these plants could be used to create a thicket capable…
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