March through May provides perfect planting weather for our area of Northeast Florida, so this is the time to begin adding native plants to your landscape. This guide offers recommendations of numerous plants for a variety of landscape site conditions. All listed plants have some degree of salt spray tolerance, which is noted by each plant.
Native plants are excellent for our area and their use should be encouraged. The major reason is their value to our native wildlife, particularly our butterflies and our birds. Native plants provide the essential elements of food, shelter and areas of reproduction, all necessary for the survival of our wildlife species. Native plants, butterflies and birds have developed together over many hundreds of thousands of years, and many of the plants exist solely to provide food. We can expect to see butterfly caterpillars eat many native plant leaves, and birds eat berries and seeds. It is important to view the native garden from this perspective, rather than viewing it as a perfect, sterile landscape with no insect or bird damage.
Not only are many native plants beautiful, they also thrive in our extreme weather conditions of heat, humidity and occasional freezing temperatures. If carefully chosen, they can be extremely drought tolerant, saving money on our water bills. Additionally, they do not require fertilizer and pesticides. Native plants define where we live and provide a sense of place.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Florida Times Union