Since Ponce de Leon first set foot in Florida around Easter in 1513 and gave the state its name – he called it La Florida, which loosely translates to flowery in English – Florida has been known for its amazing native wildflower displays. Florida’s primary native flower shows do indeed occur in the spring (the one observed by Ponce de Leon) and fall, but my favorite Florida “wild” flower is neither a native nor does it bloom in April or October. Rather, the Philippine Lily (Lilium formosanum) does its thing each year in the heat of the summer, when not much else wildflower-wise is blooming.
Hailing from Taiwan and the Philippines but naturalized throughout the Panhandle, the Philippine Lily is easy to spot. Often confused with Easter Lily (Lilium longiflorum), which blooms much earlier in the year, Philippine Lily blooms mid-July to August and sports classic lily-type flowers held high on study stems that may reach 7’ or higher. Emerging from the drab green of the surrounding summer landscape, Philippine Lily’s very large (10” or more), very fragrant, trumpet-shaped, creamy-white flowers are showstoppers. The propensity of the flowers to appear in elegant, “nodding” clusters of a dozen or more also adds to the effect. Admired by gardeners and other passersby during the day, at night these wonderfully scented flowers become a whirring site for evening pollinators, particularly the enormous Hummingbird, or Sphinx Moth.
Philippine Lily in bloom in late July. Photo courtesy of Daniel Leonard.
In addition to being a beautiful surprise in natural areas, Philippine Lily is among the easiest and most versatile of landscape plants to grow. The species prefers partial shade, but the thousands growing along roadsides in full sun speak to its adaptability. It is also right at home in our often dry, sandy Panhandle soils, and no special soil amendments are needed for the species to thrive. To get plants started, one may use either seeds or transplants from existing stands. If using seeds, simply sow them in your desired garden location into loosened garden soil, cover lightly, and water – the same seed sowing method can be used in pots for transplanting or sharing with friends later. Alternatively, you can dig or pull bulbs from natural areas where Philippine Lily already exists – assuming you have permission from the property owner. These newly dug and planted Lilies will need babying with regular water for several weeks to reduce transplant shock and improve survival.
Philippine Lily is probably best sited in the back of landscape beds to take advantage of the plant’s height and display its flowers over lower growing perennials. Siting in the back also allows pre and post bloom Philippine Lily stalks to hide amongst other plants as they don’t add much aesthetically when not in flower. Philippine Lily pairs very well with other low-maintenance summer-blooming perennials like Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), Garden Phlox (Phlox paniculata), Milkweed (Asclepias spp.), and others.
While not a native wildflower, Philippine Lily certainly adds to North Florida’s reputation as La Florida! They are among the easiest to grow, highest impact “wild” flowers Panhandle gardeners have at their disposal. Enjoy them this summer in natural areas and consider adding a few to your landscape! For more information on Philippine Lily or any other horticultural topic, contact us at the UF/IFAS Calhoun County Extension Office. Happy gardening.
Hopefully, you are enjoying No Mow March. With the extra time provided by not mowing, you can spend more time trying to observe the diverse array of flowering plants coming up in your lawn. Often these are considered weeds, but a weed is just a plant you don’t like growing where you don’t want it. However, if we can find some beauty in these plants and appreciation for their role in supporting wildlife, then maybe we can turn it around and start thinking of them as wildflowers. As a trained botanist, I’m interested in all the flowers and think of how they grow, what eats them, what pollinates them, how their seeds are dispersed, and what niche do they fill in the ecosystem, even if that ecosystem is my residential landscape. Below are a couple of my favorite plants that come up in my infrequently mowed and/or unmowed lawn during the early spring.
Early Violet (Viola palmata)
This is the one that got me started leaving areas of the yard unmowed or infrequently mowed. Those violet-colored flowers were just too pretty to mow over, and I began giving them a wide berth. Now, I have little meadows of these native violets that spring up every year and give me great pleasure to observe.
How could you mow these violets down? Credit: Mark Tancig, UF/IFAS.
Earthsmoke (Fumaria officinalis)
Not only is this one pretty, but it has one of the coolest common names of a plant that I know of. This non-native relative of the poppy plant has delicate foliage, reminiscent of the native columbine, with flowers mostly a light purple, but with a touch of dark purple towards the tips. The flowers also have a strange little twist to them. Part of my fondness for this plant is also tied to a memory from college. I was learning how to use dichotomous keys at the time and was so proud to have successfully keyed this one out. My identification was confirmed by our taxonomy professor, who I greatly admired, and I think he was a little proud of me, too!
Earthsmoke is a delight to find mixed in with the lawn. Credit: Mark Tancig, UF/IFAS.
This one is related to earthsmoke, but in a different genus and just happens to be a native. It also has similar delicate foliage and a twist in the flowers, but these come in yellow.
Smallflower fumewort is a common early spring wildflower. Credit: Mark Tancig, UF/IFAS.
Mock Bishopsweed (Ptilimnium capillaceum)
This native carrot family relative, with small flower clusters and delicate, wispy leaves, is not one that jumps out at you as being super showy. However, being a carrot relative, it is a great larval host plant for the swallowtail butterflies.
This delicate carrot family member is a host to swallowtail caterpillars! Credit: Mark Tancig, UF/IFAS.
Horrid Thistle (Cirsium horridulum)
The common name says everything about how most people view thistles. Thistles definitely get a bad reputation due to those spiny leaves, but our six native species are a boon for pollinators. Being in the Aster family with many flowers grouped together, it provides lots of easily accessible pollen and nectar resources. This one is also a known host plant for the little metalmark and painted lady butterflies, which somehow find their way around all of those spines. I really enjoy the artistic symmetry of the leaves, and also the spines that surround the flower in bud, especially when the dew has collected on it and the light hits it just right.
Every thistle has it’s thorns! Credit: Mark Tancig, UF/IFAS.
Southern Dewberry (Rubus trivialis)
Probably another hard sell for leaving in the yard, but this prickly native plant rewards animals, including us, with delicious fruit. This one is best left in a low trafficked area where it won’t grab you.
A tasty wildflower. Credit: Mark Tancig, UF/IFAS.
Venus’ Looking Glass (Triodanis perfoliata)
This native beauty ties for second coolest common name, which is a reference to the shiny covering of the seed. Related to bellflowers and lobelias, Venus’ looking glass shoots up in the early spring and has beautiful purple blooms atop a wispy inflorescence (flower stalk). You’ll find several pollinators visiting this lovely little wildflower.
Venus’ looking glass. Credit: Sam Mwenda, Creative Commons.
No Mow March is a perfect opportunity to spend time learning more about the non-turf species living in your lawn. There’s a lot more than the list above and your local extension office can help you identify what you’re seeing. You can also use the iNaturalist app for help in identifying these little pretties. If you use iNaturalist during March, please add them to our No Mow March project. For more information on No Mow March, please visit https://sfyl.ifas.ufl.edu/escambia/lawn-and-garden/no-mow-march/.
The interest and use of native plants in the landscape in Florida and the southeastern U.S. has increased significantly over the last 20 plus years. There are many benefits for including them in our landscapes including creating a wider biodiversity and enjoying the multitude of support for butterflies, wildlife, and unique color displays.
Choosing the plant species that works in landscape sites requires a few considerations like being adaptable to the site conditions, soil type and preparation, understanding the plant establishment needs, and finding plants regionally to your area.
Bald Cypress with a Saw Palmetto understory. Photo courtesy of Stephen Greer.
Develop a landscape plan that includes addressing soil and site preparation as many landscape sites are altered during the construction phase with the soil being drastically changed. In Florida many sites need soil backfill to raise the elevation for buildings, drive or parking areas to remain above flood challenges. Choosing the right plant for the right place will need to include understanding the plants’ growing environments. Do the plants perform best in well-drained drier areas or moister situations with slight flooding tolerances? Native plants have acclimated to specific soil settings over thousands of years. When selecting the plants for your landscape, perform a site analysis with soil texture, drainage, soil pH, hours of direct intense sun or shade in the growing season, air circulation in the growing area, and growing space available. Doing your homework first can save a lot of money and frustration later. Visit the local nurseries to see plant availability. Just remember many landscape settings do not always match the natural habitats where many of these plants are established in nature.
Native Muhly Grass. Photo courtesy of Stephen Greer.
Soil amendments will likely be needed to improve the soil conditions and provide optimal plant establishment and performance. Most often the soil that brought in is sandy and nutrient poor with little to no organic matter. In addition, the soils are compacted by heavy equipment during the construction phase. These factors can create native plant challenges leading to poor growth and shortened plant life spans. When the soils have been addressed according to plant needs the selected plants can be placed and the fun part begins by following the landscape plan.
With the landscape conditions likely altered with amendments, choose plants that can establish and grow successfully in these often more difficult conditions. Florida red maples (Acer rubrum), Live Oaks (Quercus virginiana) and Sand Live Oaks (Quercus geminate) all can provide shade areas for future plantings. Butterflies attach to and feed on butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) and swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata). Butterfly weed does well in well-drained sandy soils and swamp milkweed likes it moist. These are just a few of the many plants out there to consider. Just remember to visit your local nurseries and talk with them about native plants and availability. Enjoy your gardening adventure.
October is the premier wildflower month in the Panhandle. Nighttime temperatures drop, days shorten, pollinators emerge, and many native plants explode into flower. Of all the native fall-flowering Panhandle wildflowers, maybe the most striking is currently in full bloom, the Mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum)!
Photo credit Bill Boothe / Natural Encounters
Mistflower is a low growing, spreading native perennial (1-2’ in height) found in sunny, moist areas of meadows and near rivers, ponds, and creeks throughout much of the United States from New York to Florida and even west as far as Texas and Nebraska. This common native wildflower is conspicuously one of the few native plants in our area that has blue flowers, making Mistflower easy to spot in a sea of yellow, orange, purple, pink, and white wildflowers. The flowers appear as little puffs of purply-blue due to the lack of ray florets (think the outer yellow “petals” of sunflowers), possessing only disk florets (think the inner part of sunflower heads) with long blue, fuzzy-appearing stamens. Mistflower is attractive to more than just wildflower watchers as well, it’s a magnet for nectar-seeking butterflies as well; Eastern Swallowtails, Great Purple and Juniper Hairstreaks, and others are often found feeding on the flowers.
Great Purple Hairstreak butterfly on Mistflower. Photo credit Bill Boothe / Natural Encounters.
As lovely as Mistflower is in the wild, it’s probably best left for folks enjoy there, especially those who prefer an orderly yard. Mistflower will indeed grow great in moist areas of pollinator gardens and landscapes, requiring only ample sunlight and rainfall, but it is very aggressive. Its spreading nature via its rhizomatous root system and prolific seed production often lead to it becoming a weedy nuisance in more manicured landscapes. But, if chaos and fall bursts of blue erupting at random throughout your garden don’t bother you, by all means, seek out Mistflower for purchase through seed catalogs and local native nurseries. For more information on Mistflower and other fall-blooming native wildflowers, contact us at the UF/IFAS Calhoun County Extension office! Happy Gardening.
The days are getting shorter, the sun setting earlier each day, and the temperatures are beginning to dip. All the signs are there, we’ve reached autumn which means it’s time for many roadside wildflowers to begin their bloom cycle. Surely, you’ve seen them as you drive down the road, small colorful patches in the ditch or as almost blinding yellows across vast fields. The vibrant yellow in this latter example is that of goldenrod (Solidago spp.). A name attributed to many plants in Asteraceae better known as the Daisy family, they serve to feed pollinators when other plants begin to fade. Two of the most common in the panhandle are seaside goldenrod (Solidago sempervirens) and Canada goldenrod (Solidago canadensis).
Coastal Goldenrod
Seaside goldenrod will be most prevalent in the coastal counties along the panhandle. It thrives on beach dunes in tidal marshes and disturbed coastal areas. Tolerance to saline soils and sea spray allow growth in these environments. A clumping perennial, it grows to 6.6 feet clumping with a 1.6 foot spread. The flowers of this plant bloom in autumn on a spiked inflorescence as tubular disk florets. They are pollinated by several types of insects and birds. This plant was used as far back as the Roman times to treat several medical conditions.
Photo: Joshua Criss
Inland Goldenrod
Canada goldenrod is found in Florida almost exclusively in the panhandle with a few pockets as holdouts in the peninsula. Not as common along the coast, this plant prefers to take hold in ditches and open meadows. At 1-7 feet tall with it spreads via underground stems known as rhizomes. Rhizomatous plants such as these are traditionally difficult to control and may become weedy in some situations. Yellow ray style flowers present in clusters at the end of stems on drooping panicles. Pollen form this plant is often blamed for fall allergies, but does not tend to travel far on the wind making this an unlikely source. As with the seaside goldenrod, this plant was used traditionally as a medicine in ancient times.
Photo: Joshua Criss
Summing it up
Goldenrod along with many autumn blooming wild flowers may be something you’ve put very little thought into. They are proven winners in terms of late season pollinator support. Often overlooked in the home landscape, plants like goldenrod may bring a new twist to your home gardens. They require little water and fertilizer and grow well in our area. For more information on Florida wildflowers, see these Ask IFAS documents, or contact your local extension agent for additional information on this and any topic regarding your gardens and more.
The Florida state wildflower, coreopsis, in bloom atop the Escambia County green roof. Photo credit: UF IFAS Extension
Most of us don’t think much about our roofs until there is a problem—a storm blows off shingles, causing a leak, necessitating a giant blue tarp to hold off the rain until we can get a contractor to replace the roof. But “a roof over your head” is one of those basic needs, perhaps only slightly less necessary for safety and survival than food and water.
Stormwater engineers and landscape architects have been thinking a lot about rooftops. Along with hard surfaces like roads and parking lots, roof area in a community is one of the biggest contributors of stormwater runoff. Those impervious surfaces don’t absorb any rainwater, contributing both to the volume and pollution potential of runoff from any given storm.
The skyline of downtown Kalamazoo, Michigan, as viewed from their City Hall green roof. Photo credit: Carrie Stevenson, UF IFAS Extension
While only applicable in specific situations, green roofs can provide a practical and beautiful solution to this problem. Escambia County has been home to the state’s largest green roof since 2009, housed atop the county’s Central Office Complex (COC). At over 33,000 square feet, it can absorb nearly 20,000 gallons of water during a rain, reducing flooding in a flood-prone area and allowing rain to soak into soil instead of becoming runoff. The COC roof was part of the building’s design from the beginning, but many commercial and government buildings have added green roofs as part of a retrofit. The rule of thumb is that if the building is sturdy enough to support an additional story, it can handle the weight of a green roof—including soil, vegetation, and water storage.
Last month, I visited the green roof atop Kalamazoo, Michigan’s City Hall. The imposing art deco building was constructed in the 1930’s, but the green roof on the building’s perimeter was added in 2011. Green roofs add tremendous environmental benefits but can be cost prohibitive, so many communities find grant funding (like the state of Florida’s Nonpoint Source Management grants) to help cover the expense. The Escambia County and Kalamazoo green roofs were both funded by grants. Besides the runoff reductions, a green roof can provide significant energy savings. Vegetation buffers a building from the incredibly hot summer rooftop temperatures, reducing the use of air conditioning and stabilizing indoor temperatures. This is the case for the Escambia County roof, in which an audit showed a 33% reduction in energy needs when compared to a conventionally designed building.
Green roofs can be built on flat-topped home roofs, and many European countries use them regularly. Plant selection for green roofs varies widely based on climate. Our local roof is mostly planted with beach dune species, while cooler, less humid regions make ample use of succulents like sedums. Low growing grasses and native wildflowers are great choices everywhere, providing color with limited maintenance.
