At Six Years, this planting is separating into the various levels of plants that I imagined. Even the Key Thatch and Silver Palms are rising above the Dune Sunflower.
Other trees have been added to the back left including Inkwood and Bahama Strongbark. The Slash Pines here blend in with the Slash Pines naturally occurring in Barwick Park in the background.
After three years, this planting has grown in very nicely. The Dune Sunflower in the front, Slash Pine, Thatch Palms and Firebush in the rear look great. On the right side of the drive are Beach Creeper, Pines and many other species.
The area between the cars is moist to wet most of the year due to runoff from the roof. I took advantage of this and planted Pond Cypress, Needle Palms, Pond Apple and other wetland species.
This is the Kalinick home three months after planting. Starting from the foreground are Dune Sunflower, Key Thatch, Southern Slash Pine, and Silver Palm.
This took a lot of work to remove the Purple Nut Sedge and other persistent weeds with chemicals. Cardboard or at least three layers of newspaper with mulch on top would have been easier. This should be done a month before planting.
This is the start of the butterfly garden at Abbey Delray, a retirement community in Delray Beach. Some Rosemary was left along with a specimen Jatropha.
In just four months, from June to October, the bare site above top has grown into a crowd pleasing garden with several species of butterflies breeding here. These include Zebra Longwings, several types of Sulfur butterflies, Giant Swallowtails, Monarchs and Atala Hairstreaks. Hopefully Palemedes Swallowtails, Gulf Fritillaries and Ruddy Daggerwings will come too.
The shrubs and trees include Redbay, Shortleaf Fig, Blackbead, Inkwood, Firebush, Coontie, Chapman’s Cassia, Bahama Strongbark and Pavonia. Most of the flowers are long lived and include: Twinflower, Silkgrass, Fogfruit, Mimosa and Seaside Goldenrod.
The short lived wildflowers include: Gaillardia, Southern Beebalm, and Southeast Sunflower. These provide a burst of color, but will need to be cut back and fertilized in order to regrow and bloom again. It may be necessary to rub the seedheads over the ground and nurture the seedlings that come up or just replant these again next year.
Going from left to right is Snowberry, Bahama Strongbark, Florida Boxwood, Simpson Stopper and Firebush.
Instead of a boring foundation planting, try this mix of plants native to our Florida Keys. These include: Saw Palmetto, Necklace Pod, Marlberry, Paradise Tree, Myrsine, Coralbean, Dune Sunflower, Seaside Goldenrod and Maidenberry.
This is a mixture of plants commonly found in our pinelands. They include: Southern Slash Pine, Dahoon Holly, Myrsine, Marlberry, Winged Sumac and Coralbean.
The wildflowers and grasses include: Dune Sunflower, Little Bluestem, Sand Cordgrass, , Beardtongue, Porterweed and Seaside Goldenrod. Bloodberry and Lantana involucrata were added to attract butterflies yet occur in the Florida Keys coastline.
This is a well maintained butterfly garden. For a couple of months weeds overtook the planting, yet due to the hard work of volunteers it became this beautiful garden. Monthly hand pulling of weeds and additions of mulch have kept this looking great.
The plants include: Hercules Club, Redbay, Blackbead, Passion Vines, Chapman’s Cassia, Sea lavender, Inkwood, Bloodberry, Salvia, Beach Verbena, Gaillardia, Beardtongue, Fogfruit, Twinflower and Seaside Goldenrod.
This is a very visible planting on the corner of a main and side road. It took months of herbiciding and hand pulling the existing Mexican Petunia before starting to plant.
There is Sea Lavender on the right, Blackbead, Torchwood, Mexican Alvaradoa, Bahama Strongbark and Locustberry. The wildflowers include: Gaillardia, Seaside Morningglory, Beach Verbena, Salvia and Sunshine Mimosa.
This is the start of the Florida Scrub planting. The sand is “Clean Fill” from a local garden center which matches our local scrub sand perfectly.
This is a mix of plants from both local and Central Florida scrub. They include Wild Coffee, Hercules Club, Chapman’s, Myrtle and Scrub Live Oak, Southern Slash Pine, Hog Plum, Tough Bumelia, Scrub Redbay, Pineland Croton and Sabal etonia. The Necklacepod comes from the scrub portion of Juno Hills Preserve where scrub and coastal hammock blend together. Snowberry is also found in the scrub.
Wildflowers include: Beardtongue, Silkgrass, Spiderwort, Chapman’s Goldenrod, Bluecurls and Pineland Dropseed.