Give back to nature with native plants, sustainable practices
The beauty and spectacular fragrance of maypop will bring guest and pollinators to your garden.
March 29, 2025
When I was growing up, one of my dad’s favorite expressions was, “Don’t just leave; leave it better.”
My husband’s constant refrain is “We live in paradise, and we are the luckiest people in the world.” He’s right, but we’re also doing a good job of destroying that paradise through mismanagement and poor environmental practices. A recent United Nations report on the imminent loss of more than 1 million species worldwide underscores the need for each of us to do our part to restore the ecosystems in which we live.
We all want the best possible community, with healthy open spaces, top-notch educational facilities and the most advanced health care. Shouldn’t that also include clean air, water, and soil? The simple solution is to add more native plants while reducing the amount of broad-spectrum chemicals we apply to our landscapes. These not only kill beneficial organisms essential to soil and plant health but also leach into and contaminate our aquifers.
The best way to support and maintain a healthy sustainable community is by giving back to the residents. And those residents include the original inhabitants: the wildlife, birds, and pollinators.
The first zebra heliconian emerged in my garden this past week (to great fanfare from the littles), along with some yellow cloudless sulphurs. Seeing the first butterflies always makes me smile. The host plants for the zebras are passion vines, including the maypop (Passiflora incarnata) and the corky stem (Passiflora suberosa). Both vines are easily grown and the maypop has the added advantage of an incredibly showy flower with a fabulous fragrance.
The corky stem is less showy but will attract the tiny caterpillars that in no time will reward you with lots of delightful zebra-like butterflies. The host for the yellow sulphur is Bahama senna (Cassia chapmanii), which is a wonderful airy shrub with brilliant yellow flowers that bloom from October through July.
The beautiful caterpillar of the orange-barred sulphur sits on a Bahama Senna.
Not only are these plants beautiful (and fragrant), but they are incredibly important in giving back to the environment by providing larval food and nectar for numerous butterflies. Butterflies have adapted over millennia to consume the foliage of only a select few plant species, and these must exist for the butterflies to survive. To bring butterflies into your gardens, all you need do is plant their host species.
Aldo Leopold, often considered the father of modern conservation, recognized back in the early 1930s that society’s relationship to “the land” was simply exploitation of our resources without giving anything back. Overworked soils caused catastrophic erosion, rivers were treated as sewage repositories, marshes were drained, forests were clear-cut, birds and wildlife were slaughtered, and grasslands were overgrazed and plowed under, destroying habitat for anything left.
We have been guilty of all these exploits here in Florida, and we have learned hard lessons from our mistakes. Why then do we continue to inundate our crops and landscapes with neurotoxic pesticides and herbicides that wreak havoc on our health? Whenever I see landscape “technicians” treating properties with chemicals I am simply baffled at what the homeowners are thinking. I’m sure many of them don’t appreciate the consequences of their actions to the rest of the community, and those technicians are undoubtedly telling them that the treatments are necessary.
But the application of systemic chemicals kill beneficial organisms essential to soil and plant health, as well as our pollinators. And those pollinators are keeping us all alive.
This arching canopy of live oaks provides shade and beauty.
Too many of our gardens consist of the same overly manicured alien plant species; they may look nice but provide no environmental diversity or sustenance: no butterflies, no birdsong, no crickets chirping at night. Where is the beauty in that? I watched in dismay the other day as landscapers carefully removed all the leaf litter from beneath a lovely hedge of seagrape along the Intracoastal. Those leaves provide fundamental mulch for the plants’ roots, retaining moisture by preventing evaporation and decomposing to add essential nutrients to the soil. They also provide habitat to pollinators and insects, which are food for birds.
Our environment is an incredibly complex machine that sustains us without our intervention. But we need to change the paradigm of what we consider beautiful and learn to appreciate and respect the native plants that have thrived for millennia in our communities. I’m not saying we should return to a tropical jungle, but we could use a little less rigidity.
Chemically treated lawns are biological wastelands whose soil has been stripped of essential micronutrients that support healthy root growth. You can have a pretty, healthy lawn without chemicals if you plant the appropriate species for your location. And you’ll provide a far healthier environment for your children and pets. Unless they are invasive, beautiful non-native plants are fine; but adding natives to your landscape will do wonders in creating complex food webs and healthy soil that stores carbon, protects watersheds, and contributes to the local ecosystem.
Here are a few more suggestions for native species that will delight you with color, fragrance and integral beauty, while enhancing your gardens with birdsong and butterflies.
Clusters of berries on a black torch plant sparkle after a rains showers.
Black torch (Erithralis fruticose) is a dense, rounded evergreen shrub growing 7-8 feet with delicate panicles of small white star-shaped flowers. These are followed by beautiful clusters of shiny black berries that are loved by birds. This does well in sun or shade, and the glossy evergreen foliage makes it a stunning feature in the garden.
Coral bean (Erythrina herbacea) is a showy plant for semi-shade, with vivid red blooms that will bring you hummingbirds. This is deciduous, so should be planted in the back of a bed or beneath a tree where the bare branches are less noticeable in winter. Come spring, interesting triangular leaves appear with the emergence of the upright crimson flower spikes. This is salt- and drought-tolerant, and not particular as to soil.
The brilliant orange-red flowers of the coral honeysuckle attract hummingbirds as well as butterflies.
Coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) is a wonderful evergreen vine with brilliant orange-red tubular flowers that will bring butterflies galore to your garden, along with hummingbirds. This blooms profusely in spring, providing essential nectar for hummingbirds who are about to begin their northward migrations. After its grand display, it continues sporadic blooms throughout the year. The red fall fruits are an important food source for numerous birds, including cardinals. This will thrive in full sun or part shade, and will climb a trellis, arbor, or tree, providing interest and color.
Wild allamanda (Pentalinon luteum) is another terrific vine for sunny locations, perfect arching over an entryway or southern arbor. The large, bright-yellow, trumpet-like flowers are a magnet for skipper butterflies and will provide you with constant color. This is drought- and salt-tolerant and does well in sandy or alkaline soil.
The intense blue of Blue Pea makes an instant statement growing up a tree or trellis.
Blue pea vine (Clitoria ternatea) has the most amazing regal blue flowers you will find anywhere, and is easy to grow in any landscape. It will climb up a tree or trellis, or wind around a fence and will enthrall you with its glorious blooms. The foliage provides larval food for the long-tailed skipper and the Dorantes longtail. This will readily grow from seed from numerous pods, so you can share the bounty with your neighbors and friends.
Let’s highlight commitment to environmental stewardship and sustainable practices to preserve the natural environment upon which we all depend.
-Kim Frisbie
Original article on the Palm Beach Daily News is HERE.