[Judith Ann]

I just thought I'd pass on a few things we learned the hard way. When we bought our home, it was two years old. We put in 7 palm trees, almost all new plantings, landscaping walls in the front yard, and borders around all plantings in the back. Four years later, we found ourselves having quite a number of the plantings in the front of the house taken out. There were two reasons. First, we had a number of those plants with the blue or white flowers...plumbago? They can be pretty, but they grow so, so fast and don't look neat unless they are trimmed every couple of weeks. They are fine in the backyard, but not in the front where we want a more "perfect" look. We would caution anyone from planting them. Second, we all know that new plantings look small, but things do grow fast here. So, before you know it, things get too big even with constant trimming. Therefore, we would recommend caution about over planting. Less is more.
For what it is worth, that is what we learned. Our yard looks lovely now!

[dotti105]

Yes, people do tend to forget that we are in a tropical area and the small plants put in by your landscaper to make your landscaping look lush and attractive will become an untamed jungle in a couple of years.

Start small....add later....It never hurts to wait!

[Bonanza]

One of the real keys is to know a shrub's size at maturity and to know it's rate of growth --
fast or slow, and to not over plant for "instant results."

Also, be aware that we are in north central Florida, and are not in a true tropical area.
Our temperature can dip into the 20s.
Very often Lowe's and Home Depot will sell plants that will not withhstand that kind of downward dip.

[jebartle]

Palm trees are heavy maintenance and bugs love them....We have removed all of our palms

[Judith Ann]

We haven't had any bug problems with palm trees, and the maintenance is well worth it. We love them!!

[Happinow]

Totally agree that less is more while planting in Florida. We didn't know a thing about Florida plants/trees/flowers/shrubs when we did our landscaping. We over planted in the front of our home. Things grow so fast here that in the summer it's a constant battle to keep things looking neat. If I were to do it again, I'd start with about half of what we planted. We have palms too and love them!

[Carla B]

We overplanted, too. Also, plants on different sides of the house thrive and the same plants in another area struggle. The pittosporums in front of the house have grown gigantic, while the pittosporums at the rear are scraggly, pitiful things.