Natives to plant for a sustainable garden
A monarch butterfly lands on a saw palmetto at Pan’s Garden in 2018. The saw palmetto requieres little attention, and is resistant to drought and salt. [Meghan McCarthy/Daily News file photo] Palm Beach Daily News
Februrary 10, 2019
Editor’s Note: Resident Kim Frisbie is a member of the Garden Club of Palm Beach and a transplant from Pennsylvania and Boston with a master’s of science in ornamental horticulture from the Longwood Program at the University of Delaware. She has written for Horticulture Magazine and her gardening column ran in several Philadelphia newspapers for several years. Look for her columns regularly in this space.
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The symposium held at Town Hall this past week asked the question, “Where have all the songbirds gone?”
The panelists explained in no uncertain terms that by eliminating insects, we have removed the nutrients essential for sustaining birds, and all other fauna, in our environment. The importance of insects, which cannot be understated, lies in their ability to transfer energy from plants to animals that cannot eat plants directly.
Without insects, we as humans could not exist. Because all plants have specific toxins in their leaves for protection, only those insects that have evolved with certain plants are able to ingest them. Which is to say, we must replant native species in our landscapes if we want to support the insects that will in turn support our wildlife. We don’t need to remove all our alien ornamentals to provide a habitat for birds and butterflies, but we do need to carve out some space in all of our gardens for native species if we are to have an effect.
So here are a few plants to consider that can be easy and interesting additions to our gardens:
* Let’s start with native Florida firebush, Hamelia patens var. patens. This is one of the most colorful and productive of our native shrubs, providing year-round clusters of beautiful reddish-orange tubular flowers. It is a magnet for nectar seeking hummingbirds, and songbirds will feed on its fleshy purple fruits. It is a host plant for the Pluto sphinx moth and the brown tersa sphinx. If given the space, it can grow to 6 to 8 feet, but it can be kept to a smaller size. It thrives in moist or dry soil and will handle full sun to partial shade. In full sun, the leaves will be tinged with red, which makes them quite stunning.
When purchasing, make sure that you specify the native variety, as this is often confused with Hamelia patens var. glabra, the non-native Mexican firebush, with more yellowy flowers. You can also distinguish the native variety by the slightly hairy leaves arranged in whorls of three along the stems.
* Another favorite and useful native is the saw palmetto, Serenoa repens. This is a tough, versatile plant that requires little attention, is resistant to drought and salt, and thrives in sandy, nutrient-poor soils. It grows slowly and looks great along a driveway or as an underlayer to larger palms to form a rich hedge that will never need spraying.
The coastal blue form is particularly striking. Tiny, fragrant white flowers are attractive to bees and especially to the rare, highly prized Atala butterfly. The leaves are hosts to the larvae of palmetto skippers. As if all this wasn’t enough, the fruits provide an extract that helps maintain a healthy prostate. Let’s all get some for our spouses for Valentine’s Day.
* Coral honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens, is another terrific native for attracting hummingbirds and swallowtail butterflies. This well-behaved evergreen vine will grow into the canopy of trees or can be trained onto a trellis or fence — or it can be left to grow as a twining, shrublike plant or groundcover.
Regardless, it will provide a glorious display of tubular orange red (coral) flower clusters in the spring, with less profuse flowers throughout the year. The red berries in autumn attract thrushes, orioles and mockingbirds, among others. It prefers moist soil but will tolerate full sun to partial shade.
This is just to whet your appetite; next time we’ll discuss some trees and groundcovers.
Native plants also will eliminate the need for spraying toxic chemicals, which are ending up in our lakes and aquifers and have been linked to cancer, autism, Alzheimer's and nervous system disorders. This is definitely an issue whose time is now!
-Kim Frisbie
Original article on the Palm Beach Daily News is HERE.
