Beautiful, low maintenance, native plants

[Velvet]

What plants would be lovely, native and low to no maintenance for TV? For the front garden.

[Fredman]

Artificial

[Velvet]

LOL, I’m a rosarian up north but I find the roses seem to struggle somewhat and need a lot of care in TV - I could be wrong. There must be some beautiful native plants in Central Florida, I just don’t know what they are.

[anothersteve]

Any palms, succulents or grasses for starters.
Steve

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Lots: Best Flowers for Florida Gardens | Costa Farms (http://www.costafarms.com/get-growing/slideshow/best-flowers-for-florida-gardens)

[Velvet]

Now that I remember, my mother had a magnificent aloe in her garden, used it for her skin too. I so look forwards to having plants that would never make it in colder weather.
Jazuela, your reference includes lavender! Yes, yes, yes.

[Bonnevie]

the Villages chapter of the native plant society meets the last Fri. of the month I believe. they are a great resource and can give you advice.

[thetruth]

LOL, I’m a rosarian up north but I find the roses seem to struggle somewhat and need a lot of care in TV - I could be wrong. There must be some beautiful native plants in Central Florida, I just don’t know what they are.

I too am an ex-northerner. I expect the story is true here.
Roses are high maintenance anywhere. If, you want nice roses you, in most cases, need to spray every two weeks.

I recall a short drive to the garden center, to buy more rose spray and on the way I noticed a rose surely not taken care of growing fine at the side of the road.

The roses we tend to buy are bred for the,"perfect," flower.
Easy care, low maintenance, is not a top priority. For low maintenance roses research some of the heirloom, old fashioned,
roses.

A rose by any other name-if you see one growing wild, you can cut pieces of the stem and root them.

[raynan]

We've had really good luck with drift roses and blue daze and pentas and allamandas.

[Velvet]

Great ideas, thank you. I love old garden roses, and some hardy bush roses too. If they can live by the side of the road they are not getting much maintenance. My roses are the high maintenance kind, Peace, and Old English cabbage roses. I live in a 3 storey house in the city which casts a shadow on my garden and the Rosarian society actually recommended that I lower the building so the roses could get more sunlight....
The garden club of native plants sounds good too. Where do they meet? The soil is completely different in TV and the weather, I never had subtropical climate before for my garden. This is going to be fun!

[Topspinmo]

There called weeds, just let you’re yard go and you will get plenty of native plants:ohdear:

[Velvet]

No problem with that as long as the plants are beautiful and in the right place. The definition of a weed is a plant you don’t want or a plant that is in the wrong place.

[Henryk]

LOL, I’m a rosarian up north but I find the roses seem to struggle somewhat and need a lot of care in TV - I could be wrong. There must be some beautiful native plants in Central Florida, I just don’t know what they are.

I’m a retired CR and Hort Judge from Massachusetts. It’s VERY different here.

You might like to attend the Villages Rose Club. Meetings are usually the third Wednesday of the month, 9:00 a.m. at Laurel Manor. Exceptionally well organized and informative

The president of the club often brings in displays from her own garden and they are amazing! Trust me..

[Velvet]

Wow! Sounds great, I will be there as soon as I can.

[Ozzello]

The major problem with most pretty plants , is the high (alkaline pH) of the native fill. I didn't say native SOIL, because TV homes are built on fill from a pit. Average pH of 7.2 . Acid loving plants will not thrive in 7.2

Succulents and cacti will do just fine. The native cacti is a small prickly pear, and there is a native yucca, but neither are very showy for a small landscape as typical in TV

[Velvet]

Interesting, that might explain why my neighbor is growing plants in containers where as they would be usually grown in the soil.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Interesting, that might explain why my neighbor is growing plants in containers where as they would be usually grown in the soil.

I noticed this as well, and I'm planning on doing some nice container planting. There's already some in my new yard that came with the place, but the plants in the containers are the same plants that are in the flower bed itself. So I'll make use of the existing pots and grow things that can grow in native Florida *soil* rather than *fill*.

[Ozzello]

The 'stack wall' you see added to many landscapes, making terraces of the landscape beds, allows the easy adding of good soil to grow plants in.
Just make sure your installer is bringing in a SOIL and not more junk fill. HINT, the orange dirt is the cheapest, and NOT good soil. Pure sand would actually be better than that.

[Midnight Cowgirl]

Just keep in mind that just because you happen to like a certain plant or shrub doesn't mean it will look right in a planted area, particularly in the front of your house. Aloe by itself normally would not be considered a pretty plant to plant out front unless it could cleverly be incorporated with some other varieties of different plants.

A rose bush here and/or there probably would not look right either. Roses normally are not considered a "front of house" good choice for a landscaped look . . . a standard perhaps, but not a bush.

[MorTech]

Bush Daisy...Needs imidacloprid a couple times a year so the bugs won't eat them.
At least the frost won't kill them.

[Velvet]

I think Florida has her own beautiful plants - I can’t wait to explore them!