Bend Down the Branches

When we opened the blinds on the back windows this morning, we squinted into the morning sun and were greeted with this sight:

Taking pictures through a screen into the sun isn't really optimal, but you can still get the idea. This female anhinga was perched in our very young cypress tree, bending it halfway to the ground as she dried her wings.

Anhingas (Anhinga anhinga) are waterbirds common in Central Florida. They resemble cormorants, but in warmer months, cormorants are nearly always found on salt water rather than freshwater. Anhingas are more common on freshwater all year.

Anhingas swim with almost their entire body submerged, ducking entirely below the surface to swim for prey. When they surface and wish to fly, they must emerge onto dry land and dry their wings. Unlike ducks, they do not have oils on their wings to make the feathers waterproof. This makes it easier to dive but harder to fly in a hurry. So they are often found perched along the edge of waterways, wings spread to the sun.

With a patch of tall strong pine trees only ten yards to the right, this cypress seems like an odd choice for this anhinga. The landing must have been amusing, as the tree bent closer and closer to the earth, and the bird struggled for balance. Still, she managed it, and although this great blue heron that wandered over almost seems to be saying, "What are you doing up there?", we're glad to have anhingas anywhere they want to be in My Florida Backyard.

Blast From the Past

My Florida Backyard will be on its own for the next few days while its owners head north to visit family. In the meantime, you might enjoy this article I co-wrote with Kristen Gilpin, who runs the BioWorks Butterfly Garden at MOSI. It's an interesting look at how different gardening in Florida was 50 years ago, when DDT was still A-OK and the term "exotic invasives" just didn't exist...

Where it All Went Terribly Wrong: Post-WWII Landscaping in Florida

by Kristen Gilpin and Jill M. Staake

Most Florida gardeners today are familiar with the concept of “Florida-Friendly Gardening”. It involves simple steps like eliminating water-hungry turfgrass, minimizing use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to protect our waterways, focusing on native plants, and avoiding exotic invasives. But the ideas behind Florida-Friendly Gardening didn’t evolve overnight - instead, like many things, they were developed in response to serious mistakes Florida residents made in the past. A Florida gardening book from 1962 shows the astonishing turnaround Florida gardeners have made in the last 50 years.

The Way We Were: In the last one hundred years, Florida’s population has boomed to over 18 million residents. But in 1900, Florida had a population of 528,542 people and was a largely agrarian state. That all changed with the land boom of the early 1920’s and near doubling of the state population just after World War II. Low property costs, a gorgeous climate, and an inexpensive cost of living saw rapid Florida development. Urban areas sprouted vast tracts of suburban housing developments and millions of new residents streamed into Florida. These new homeowners were from all parts of the nation and looking for some ways to make their new properties look lush and tropical.

Gardening in Florida is like gardening no where else in the country. High temperatures, seasonal rains, and extended dry seasons test even the most experienced of gardeners. New Florida residents were looking for gardening tips and wanted fast-growing plants that would make their property look more established. Without  the Internet or TV gardening programs to consult, many residents of Pinellas and Hillsborough county tuned their radio dials to listen to Uncle Pasco Roberts’ Radio Garden Club.

“The Radio Garden Club is a 15-minute program over Radio Station WSUN (St. Petersburg, Fla.) five days a week (Monday through Friday) at 1:45 to 2pm. It is devoted to What Grows in Florida... How to Grow It... and Where to Get It.” (Florida State Horticultural Society, 1950)

Uncle Pasco’s show was so popular it led to the publication of The Book of Florida Gardening in 1962. It featured a month-by-month gardening guide and even a section on the newest gardening craze, hydroponics. It’s clear that Uncle Pasco wanted to provide his readers with garden tips that would help them combine traditional northern gardening with the exotic feel of the tropics. The first chapters of the book focus on establishing a turfgrass lawn (“No matter whether you have a modest or palatial home, estate of building, it usually takes a beautiful lawn to give it the proper setting,” he notes on page 15), along with planting roses, azaleas, and lilies - plants Northerners would be familiar with, even if they were a little challenging to grow in Florida’s climate. He also provided lengthy chapters on hibiscus, camellias, and gardenias, appealing to the desire to create a tropical oasis. Judging by the stock most nurseries carry, it’s fair to say these same desires exist among gardeners today. Although Uncle Pasco rarely recommended a native plant to these new Florida gardeners, many of his recommendations are still popular and acceptable in modern Florida gardens.

So What’s the Problem?  It’s when Uncle Pasco begins to focus on trees that we begin to see how these new residents quickly created an ecological nightmare for Florida’s native plants. Of the 24 trees he recommends in his chapter “Fast Growing Trees”, 18 (75%!) of them can now be found on the FLEPPC Category I and II invasive species list, which includes plants that are or may become “invasive exotics that are altering native plant communities by displacing native species, changing community structures or ecological functions, or hybridizing with natives.”

Let’s take a look at some of the recommendations from Uncle Pasco:

• Golden Rain Tree: (Koelreuteria elegans) native to eastern Asia, in China and Korea is a fast growing and colorful tree that does incredibly well in Florida. It is now listed as a category 2 invasive species in Florida.
• Melaleuca : (Melaleuca quinquenervia) is an aggressively spreading member of the myrtle family with blooms that attract butterflies and bees. Planted in numbers to help drain swampy portions of the Everglades, these trees quickly escaped plantings. Mellaleuca is highly flammable, which helped to worsen wildfires in the area and increase their intensity. It is now listed as a category 1 invasive in Florida.
• Tree of Gold (Tabebuia argentea) is native to South America where it was an important nesting tree for the highly endangered Spix’s Macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii). Each year it blooms with brilliant yellow trumpet shaped flowers.
• Golden Shower Tree (Cassia fistula) is native to southern Asia and blooms with lovely yellow flowers each spring. It develops large seed pods and has seeds that are toxic.
• Earleaf Acacia: (Acacia auriculiformis) It is native to Australia, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. It is now listed as a category 1 invasive in Florida.
• Australian Pine is native to Australia. Uncle Pasco Roberts notes that the shallow root system has been recently identified as a problem with the note “during the worst of hurricanes in the Everglades, they blew across the roadways and became a hazard.”. He further notes that the planting of this tree has become prohibited but continues to recommend it as windbreak protection perfect for wide open spaces and sandy beaches! It is now listed as a category 1 invasive and is prohibited from further planting in Florida.
• Chinese Tallow (Sapium sebiferum) is native to Eastern Asia and is now listed as a noxious weed on the Florida Invasive Species List. This tree had rapid growth and quickly outperforms native tree species. It is now listed as a category 1 invasive species in Florida.
• Mother’s Tongue Tree (Albizzia lebbek) is native to tropical southern Asia and drops huge seed pods over the course of two months in the spring. It is now listed as a category 1 invasive in Florida.
• Monkey Pod Tree (Pithecolobium) native to Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. Uncle Pasco Roberts writes: “The tree is good for shade, ornament and for food for monkeys”. Well, at least our Mystery Monkey of Tampa Bay can find some good forage out there!

Perhaps the most interesting recommendation is the Java Plum (Syzgium cumini), which is native to Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Indonesia. Uncle Pasco particularly praises this tree for for its fruit, and includes a recipe from his wife for Java Plum jelly. He proudly credits himself with the spread of this Category I invasive in the Tampa Bay area, noting on page 61:

The author came across several [Java Plum] trees in Laurel, Fla. about 1949 and from seeds and small trees obtained... I have helped popularize this tree in Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties to the extent that there are many hundreds now growing and some have reached 60 to 70 feet in height. The first seeds I planted produced a growth of 20 feet within three years...

 Uncle Pasco does not recommend a single native tree from Florida or even from the Southeast United States. This sort of gardening advice is precisely what landed Florida in the spot it is in today. Costly remediation efforts are being conducted every year to remove trees like these that have escaped cultivation and are outperforming our native trees. Non-native species are often unaffected by local diseases and pest populations and can spread unchecked by the normal balances of nature. To learn more about the problems caused by invasive plants in Florida, visit the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council website.

A 1962 view of “pesky worms”: Uncle Pasco’s 50-year-old advice contains other recommendations that modern gardeners would do well to ignore. Among these are his recommendations on fertilizer (everything needs it!) and pesticides.

Butterfly gardening has really only been popularized in recent years, so reading 50-year-old commentary on caterpillar destruction can be a touch unsettling.The beautiful Cloudless Sulhpur and Orange Barred Sulhpur butterfies host on many species of cassia, including Christmas Cassia (Cassia bicapsularis). Butterfly gardeners today welcome these creatures, but Uncle Pasco disagreed. In the planting guide for April on page 89, he says, “This is the month that most of the insects, pests, etc begin to show up in numbers... For instance those pesky worms appear on... cassia (Cassia bicapsularis)... and look like part of the foliage or flowers. Spray with arsenate of lead.”

Uncle Pasco seems to dislike caterpillars on general principal. The quick and darting Canna Skipper butterfly hosts in the leaves of native and ornamental cannas where it rolls the leaf around itself for protection from predators.  In the February planting guide (p. 86), he tells us, “One of the old time garden favorites that is staging a comeback is the canna... they are very easy to grow but are bothered however with leaf-rollers that cut good sized holes in the leaves. This may be controlled with a Chlordane dust.”

Not surprisingly, every pesticide Uncle Pasco recommends is now banned or not used in the United States. Chlordane was a carcinogenic insecticide that has not been sold in the United States since 1983; arsenate of lead was banned in 1988. He also recommends Nemagon (banned in 1975), Toxaphene (banned in 1986), and explains the proper application of DDT for flea control.

Lessons Learned: It’s important to remember that we can’t blame Uncle Pasco Roberts for his advice. A number of the species he suggests were also found listed in an article by the Florida State Horticultural Society from 1951 entitled Ornamental Trees, Shrubs, and Vines for South Florida Homes by Frank J Rimoldi. Clearly, this was the sort of information that was available to new Florida residents in the 1950’s and 1960’s, and they didn’t know then what we know now. The gardeners of 50 years ago had no idea how out of control their plantings could become. No one meant to destroy native habitats, or apply pesticides that would cause cancer, but lack of knowledge caused widespread and far-reaching damage.

What should we as modern gardeners learn from Uncle Pasco? Perhaps the most important thing to understand is that we all must become more considerate and thoughtful gardeners. We should learn more about the plants we choose to put in our yards, and think about what will happen when we’re no longer there to take care of them. Mexican Petunia is tempting at the nursery with its fast-growth habit and numerous pretty purple flowers, but this Category I invasive is displacing native wild petunia (Ruellia humilis) used by Buckeye caterpillars as a host plant, and it’s nearly impossible to remove once established in a yard due to its deep root system and aggressive seed distribution. Florida-Friendly Gardeners are learning to consider native plants when possible and carefully investigate non-native species before introducing them into the ecosystem.

It’s really about a return to common sense. If we can avoid chemicals in the garden, we should, whether the EPA tells us they’re safe or not. Today’s “safe pesticide” is tomorrow’s DDT. When chemicals like pesticides and fertilizers are necessary, we can use them sparingly, rather than applying them widely and regularly regardless of need. Rather than looking for fast results, which Uncle Pasco and the new Florida residents of 50 years ago desired, we can plan for the future and work toward a yard worth having and enjoying - safely.

Uncle Pasco teaches us to learn from the past. As Dr. Dale E. Turner said, “Some of the best lessons we ever learn are learned from past mistakes. The error of the past is the wisdom and success of the future.” We don’t need to cast blame on Uncle Pasco and his contemporaries, but we can certainly see where they went wrong and try to avoid similar mistakes in the future.

Who Will Buy My Pretty Flowers? (Part One)

As mentioned the other day, we recently took a little field trip and visited several new native plant nurseries along the way. This is the first of three posts detailing those nurseries and the plants we bought there.

 Between Tampa and Ford Myers, just east of Sarasota, is one of Florida's gems:  Myakka River State Park. It offers a 7-mile drive that winds through the park along the river and lake, meaning you don't even need to get out of your car to spot wading birds, alligators, deer, and more. Of course, there are plenty of trails, including one leading to a tree-top canopy walk, as well as all the other amenities you'll find at state parks.
 

Just north of the park on Myakka Road is Florida Native Plants, the kind of place that's tucked away so well you have to know it's there in order to find it (thank you, GPS!). Set in a beautiful area with the park nearby and farmland all around, Florida Native Plants is a lovely little nursery with a good selection and reasonable prices, bearing in mind you pretty much always pay more for native plants.. The staff was friendly and helpful, and all the plants were well-labeled and described (I refuse to buy a plant unless I know what it is and what it needs to grow well).


We made two purchases at Florida Native Plants: a wild lime tree and a starry rosinweed. Wild lime (Zanthoxylum fagara) has been on our wish list for quite some time, as it serves as a host plant for the gorgeous giant swallowtail butterfly. It's a manageable little tree with a moderate growth rate; we plan to keep it more the size of a large shrub in our yard by some judicious pruning. It grows best in full sun, so we planted it in the front yard where it will have room to spread a bit. It's tiny now but can grow to about 10-15 feet in Central Florida. This is a wonderful native plant to add to your gardens, as long as you're aware that it's not a tree you want to get up close and friendly with - like all citrus trees, wild lime protects itself with very sharp little pricklies all over the branches.

Our other purchase, starry rosinweed (Silphium asteriscus), is a member of the aster family. Sometimes called tall rosinweed, this native wildflower resembles a sunflower when in bloom. It grows about 2-3 feet tall and is very drought-tolerant. It's a great nectar source, so we planted ours in the butterfly garden. It doesn't look like much now, but this perennial should start to bloom before too long, so we'll provide pictures when it does.




So, that wraps up the first installment of our native plant shopping. Look for part two tomorrow, when we visit the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation!

That's Good, That's Bad

For several years, My Florida Backyard has been trying to identify the mystery tree in our front yard. This week, we finally succeeded - by following our nose (it always knows!).

It turns out our tree is a Camphor tree (Cinnamomum camphora). While there are plenty of good things about it, there is one major downside - this tree is a Category I invasive tree in the state of Florida. If we were really responsible and dedicated to Florida-Friendly gardening, we'd get rid of it.

But we're not going to.

First, a few facts about the Camphor tree. It's native to East Asia and was brought here to be cultivated for the oil it produces, which has medicinal properties (something you know if you've ever put Campho-Phenique on a mosquito bite or cold sore). Farmers found it wasn't really commercially viable here - the tree only grows half as tall as it does in its native region, and China and Japan had really cornered the market already anyway. The tree gradually shifted to being sold for residential use, and now you'll find some in most neighborhoods throughout the state. It is a deciduous tree, but it does not lose its old leaves until it's already grown new ones, leaving you with a pretty mix of new spring green and older growth dark green leaves for a few weeks, as shown in the picture. At the same time it produces new leaves, it begins to flower, followed by a profusion of black berries later in the year. A very easy way to identify this tree (and one we finally thought to try after several puzzling years) is to crush and smell the leaves - the camphor odor is unmistakable. In the warmer months, it serves as a host plant for the beautiful Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly.

So what's all the fuss about? Camphor tree is very invasive in Florida, which means it has escaped controlled cultivation and is known to be pushing out native plant species needed by our native animals. If you're committed to native Florida gardening, you really shouldn't keep it in your yard - the seeds are easily spread by birds to other areas. According to the Center for Aquatic and Invasive plants, in nearby Polk county the camphor tree is pushing out the native Florida jujube (Ziziphus celatus), relegating it to endangered status. As responsible gardeners trying to make our yard as native as possible, we really should remove this tree.

But... Our tree was probably planted when the house was built, about 25 years ago. It's well-established and provides much-needed shade on the west side of the house. To remove it and plant a new tree would leave an ugly gap that would take many years to fill. Plus, though we've never seen a Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly in My Florida Backyard, it's quite possible they use the upper branches to lay eggs out of sight of the puny humans.

So, we're going to live with the guilt, and with the camphor tree, at least for now.

Brand New Life

"I think that no matter how old or infirm I may become, I will always plant a large garden in the spring. Who can resist the feelings of hope and joy that one gets from participating in nature's rebirth?"

~Edward Giobbi

On a day when Christians around the world were celebrating rebirth, My Florida Backyard had plenty of life re-awakening as well. We were especially pleased to find that two of our new additions from last fall survived the chilly winter and are beginning to show signs of life at last.

As part of the Hillsborough County Adopt-A-Pond program, My Florida Backyard received a young bald cypress tree last fall. As all cypress trees do, it lost its needles when winter started, and we've been waiting and hoping to see new growth for the last month or so. Today, the re-birth was easily visible against the brilliant blue sky (above) and water.

The other plant we've been anxiously watching is our dwarf paw paw, which we planted last fall in an attempt to lure zebra swallowtail butterflies to the garden. Long after all the surrounding plants began to show spring green, this little twig in the ground remained brown, though a light scratch into the bark showed green beneath. Today, at last, we noticed new growth at the tips - the paw paw is reborn!

Spring has inspired poets and artists for thousands of years, and it's easy to see why. Every day brings a new surprise, a new triumph over winter, and hearts in tune with the rhythm of earth can do nothing less than rejoice!

This Bud's for You

On honor of Superbowl Sunday, today we salute the Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis) tree. (Not following the logic? Superbowl = Beer Drinking = Budweiser = Bud = Redbud tree. Too much of a stretch for you? Too bad!)

My Florida Backyard isn't fortunate enough to have one of these beauties, but a neighbor down the way has one, and we can enjoy the view for free.

Native redbuds are deciduous and in Florida are often considered an early sign of spring. The redbuds began to bloom a week or two ago, and are reaching their peak now. Click here to see some nice up-close shots of redbud blooms taken in the MOSI gardens by a friend of My Florida Backyard.

About a month after the Great Freeze of 2010, most things are recovering nicely. The grass is green again, many plants are putting out new shoots and buds, and the sun is warm on our backs even if the breeze is still a bit cool. Spring is here in My Florida Backyard, and it's nice to have a redbud tree nearby to confirm it!

(Sorry for the blurry picture - it's really hard to get a clear picture of a tree on a windy day!)

Wade in the Water

The other night, our community held our first planting for the Adopt-A-Pond program. Despite a pouring rainstorm and some slightly less than helpful Boy Scouts, we managed to plant over 900 plants in less than 2 hours. Click here to see pictures of the planting if you're interested.

Although this first planting was focused on the playground area at the other side of the pond, we were able to bring home a few plants to start in the water by our house. Since we were already wet and muddy from head to toe, we plunged in and got them planted right away.

It doesn't look like much yet, but the plants will grow and spread over time. We planted duck potato, blue flag iris, canna, and lemon bacopa. We also planted a bald cypress tree:

Now we'll need to be vigilant to make sure that the HOA maintenance crews don't spray herbicides on our new plants. We'll also have to watch for invasive weeds (yup, they grow in the water too!) that could choke out our new plantings. Water planting is a new experience for us here in My Florida Backyard, so there's a lot to learn.


P.S. It seems to be dragonfly season - they are simply everywhere. I never realized before just how many colors there are - this vibrant blue fellow is actually one of the less conspicuous ones!