Native Plant Horticulture Foundation

GO NATIVE: BRIGHTMAN LOGAN ON HISTORICAL CONTEXT AND FINDING WHAT WORKS FOR YOU

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 17:25:00 GMT

Podcast interview with Brightman Logan, pioneer of the native plant industry.

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

Host Mitzy Sosa interviews Brightman Logan with the assistance from Native Plant Horticultural Foundation Executive Director, Cammie Donaldson. Growing since 1981, Brightman reflects on the ecological specificity necessary for success and how specialization may be the future of native plant nurseries.

ABOUT OUR PODCAST

Go Native: the Business of Native Plants interviews seasoned native plant business owners and experts to help others learn from their successes and failures.

Find monthly episodes wherever you find your podcasts , here on our blog or at https://rss.com/podcasts/gonative

Now listen to Episode 9 or read the transcript below to learn more. Go native!

TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODE 9

Host: Mitzy Sosa and Cammie Donaldson

Interviewee: Brightman Logan

Mitzy Sosa 00:02

Hello! And welcome back to go native the business of native plants. My name is Mitzy Sosa and I am your host. We’re back with another episode. This time we are talking to Brightman Logan. The executive director of the Native Plant Horticulture Foundation, Cammie Donaldson sat in with me in this interview to learn more from a true pioneer of the native plant industry in Florida. Brightman started his nursery in 1981 in response to the 1979 federal and state mandates requiring no net loss of wetlands.

Cammie Donaldson 00:39
Brightman Logan has always been my go to person with questions about how the industry works and what is possible. Early on, he showed everyone, all our growers that we could produce native plants to a high quality standard in sizes that the landscape market needed. Brightman has always been a champion for working together, not apart. And that is really important for native plant movement.

Mitzy Sosa 01:02

Today, he is here to share what he has learned over the years. Welcome Brightman.

Brightman Logan 01:07
Oh, gosh, come along way.

Mitzy Sosa 01:10
It’s wonderful to have you with us today. Why don’t you start telling us what sparked your interest in native plants?

Brightman Logan 01:18
Well, I’ve always been interested in biology. And after I got my degree from Mercer University in 79, I started working for an environmental firm in Tampa. And this was just after they had passed the Clean Water Act, which required mitigation and restoration work to be done. So we had projects coming up, and we couldn’t find anybody that grew these plants. And that’s when it kind of just light bulb went off in my head and said, Well, that sounds like a great profession to get into. And I wasn’t really a horticulturalist as much as a biologist. So we had to kind of take a lot of learning steps to figure out how to grow these plants. Because there wasn’t a lot of information out there, like we have today on how to propagate and grow a lot of these native plants. And there were very few growers back then we started. We actually started in 1980, but didn’t incorporate until 1981. And just had a ton of projects that we got to the environmental consulting firms that we started working on. So it was, you know, it was different starting back then, because we didn’t have a lot of people growing the plants, and we had to figure out how to grow them too. So that was a big learning curve for everybody. I think back then.

Mitzy Sosa 02:37
It also sounds like restoration was the main goal. So not necessarily landscapes.

Brightman Logan 02:43
You know, our main goal back then was for restoration work. That’s what we were doing mainly. And later we got into landscape, doing landscapes and things like that as well. But I think everybody that initially got into it was tied into for restoration aspects. And it was interesting, the county agent here in my county, the extension agent, heard what I was doing, and he came out and he said, What in the world are you doing? Who’s Who’s gonna buy that? And I said, Well, you know, not a lot of people, but we got orders for 70,000 of this and 50,000 of that. He just couldn’t believe it. So it was, you know, started right at the beginning when all this stuff was cranking up. And we had a huge numbers of plants that we needed for these projects. So that’s kind of how I got into it originally. And we had some property where we had some peat bogs and stuff where we could get a lot of the aquatic plants. So we started doing that initially. And then just realizing that there was such a need for the shrubs and the trees and other things, too. We took all our profits from that and started building the nursery up.

Mitzy Sosa 03:50
At that point, how big was your nursery?

Brightman Logan 03:53
And we started with maybe half acre of nursery and by the time we finished we were close to 100 acres that we had under production.

Mitzy Sosa 04:01
Wow

Brightman Logan 04:01
I just think native plant movements come such a long way from when we started to think back how long ago it was now, you know, 40 years ago. And you didn’t see any native plants out maybe pine trees and oaks. And that was you know, as far as and then Myrtles wax myrtle. So there were probably three species of plants that they were using and landscapes back then we’re now we’ve got, you know, I see tons of landscapes now that have half at least 50% Natives. So I think the whole industry has done a great job on advancing forward but we still have a long way to go.

Mitzy Sosa 04:36
There’s definitely still a lot of work left to be done. So Brightman, what would be your advice for people that want to jump in and continue this work of growing natives? What would you like them to know before they get started?

Brightman Logan 04:51
Well, I wrote down a few things and I guess the first thing is to know the cost of your product that you’re growing. I think a lot of growers make a mistake and just they see somebody else’s price and a brochure and they put that down. And that’s kind of what we all did initially. But some things take longer to grow and are harder to grow. And, you know, we we’ve actually went in and figured out down to, you know, we’ve looked at the cost of the pot, the soil in that pot, we break it down the fertilizer, how much labor did it take to pot that and put it out on a mat? The mats that you lay down to put the plants on, we had it down to the square foot, how much it cost us for those mats to put down? watering time? How much watering time and how much did that cost you and what was the pH of your water, because a lot of times the pH affects the pH in your in your plants. And you have so much variation in pH and Florida plants that you want to make sure you get that right because the pH affects the nutrients and the water absorption by the roots of the plant. So when you maximize that for each plant, you’ll get better growth and healthier plants that way. Insurance, you know all these other things, that people just don’t figure into their business when they’re producing something. You know, your phone, your electric, how much does it cost you to weed the plants. So we tried to go back and look exactly how much all these costs. And it’s hard in the industry because a lot of people would come in lower than you were but you know, if you’re gonna run a business, you got to make a profit. And I think a lot of these a lot of people early on, and even us to some extent it was it was a business, but it was something that we had to do is you know, it was just like a, we were all called to do this, you know in advance the native plant use. And it actually to protect our state, you know, I’ve got lands- the landscape in my yard. Now I never fertilize it, I never water. And it’s thriving, it looks great. So that’s kind of what the goal was. But don’t getting into a bidding war with other nurseries, there’s always somebody that’s going to come along and undercut you. But if you’re growing quality material, that’s always gonna kind of rise to the top, and people will be willing to pay it. If they want it.

Mitzy Sosa 07:21
What would you recommend for people to start doing now so they can continue to grow quality product in the future?

Brightman Logan 07:27
Put your product, know your plant that you’re growing, read up on everything, you can get so much more information out now than what we had when we first started. But I think the most important thing is to go out on the woods into the habitats where these plants grow and look at the soil and take some measurements of the pH and so and see what they like and why they’re thriving in those areas. You look at a lot of like scrub plans. They don’t like any mulch at all on and a lot of people you see them in landscapes, and they’ll mulch them and they’ll kill the plants because those plants thrive on open areas. But these are the things you can see as you go out in the field and notice these plants are growing. Wow, look at that one, you know, it’s really growing nice. And why is that? You know, look, look at the surroundings, look at the habitat it’s growing in and you try to mimic that we even had different soil mixes for different types of plants. So for our scrub plants, we would have a real sandy soil with bark in it, so it would drain real well. But we would have to put all those on one mat because they had different watering regimes too. And that was an important thing to figure out our wetland plants we typically had more peat in there. So we had different soil mixes in different pH for we had like five different mixes that we would use for plants. You can’t do it for each one but you can get close enough to where it helps maximize the growth potential of those plants.

Mitzy Sosa 8:57
Well that brings me up to my next question. Oftentimes in a nursery there is a lot of different plants being taken care of at one time growing in the space. So there can be quite a lot of maintenance or cycles to make sure that you are keeping track of. Do you have any tips on how to make sure that you’re taking care of all of your plants that have different needs correctly?

Brightman Logan 09:23
Yeah, I guess like I was saying you have to put these plants that like these different types of conditions on separate mats because you water them differently. So we would take all our mesic plants or wetland plants from on one mat or scrub around another wildflowers one on different mats because you don’t need to water them as much or in smaller container. So it’s just thinking through and looking at it and just you gotta really think it through and you’re gonna make mistakes. That’s the other thing. You’re gonna make a lot of mistakes. But you can learn from the growers who’ve made the mistakes and what is all the growers are pretty much open on their techniques, now, some of them, they have proprietary things that they do. Like the tissue culture guys, they’re not going to tell you what they use to do things. And some of us growers have, like a certain product that we may be mixed in there that we won’t tell everybody will tell them everything else. But you’ve got to have some proprietary things, you know, to to help you keep above the rest. It’s a business, it’s not a hobby. And it was very rewarding. You know, we didn’t ever make a ton of money. But it was rewarding to be out there and doing what we were doing. Like we were pioneers, getting all this stuff started. And then I guess we kind of were, you know, seeing where it’s going nowadays.

Mitzy Sosa 10:44
For someone that is just getting started, what would you recommend they do to promote their nursery

Brightman Logan 10:50
I’ve talked about promoting the product and educating the public, the trade shows are very important. And then we even did our own workshops at the nursery, and we would bring all the plants together and get and we would mainly target landscape architects, landscape designers, city, county and state, parks people because they do a lot of work with natives. And we would have, you know, 100 and something people come to these and we’d be able to show them the plant talk about, they can ask us questions, we’ve done the same thing through FANN too. And that’s how you learn. And also just talking with your fellow growers, like I said, they’re gonna not gonna tell you everything, but you can learn a lot. I know, we were having a hard time growing a lot of stuff from seed and I went and talked to Nancy Bissett about it. And she was telling us the secret that they used on it was the type of peat they used. And that was huge for us, you know, it opened up a whole nother door. But, you know, we’re all kind of in the battle together. So we always like to share ideas. So that’s an important part, too is is network, the networking between growers is very, very important.

Mitzy Sosa 12:02
Yes. And a trade show is an exhibition at which businesses in a particular industry promote their products and services. Here in Florida, there is a couple of them. So we recommend that wherever you are listening to keep an eye out for nearby trade shows, you can go and promote your nursery. And Brightman, I want to switch gears here a little bit just to talk about some of the mistakes that you’ve seen people make in the past that you think might be holding them back when they first begin their nursery.

Brightman Logan 12:37
You know, I think now that it’s changed and you have so many more growers out there, I think growers need to specialize more into certain things. We’ve seen some growers do mainly scrub, some do Beach, some just do shrubs, some do trees. And I think to be able to meet the demand, we’re all going to have to kind of take our little niche and figure that out. And go with that. Now how many plants that is I don’t know. I mean, we started out we were growing almost 160 species of plants. And I know, again, I wasn’t a horticulturalist. But these guys from other nurseries would come out and they get how are you growing all that how you keep up with that. We grow 30. And we can’t keep up with it. But at that time, it was the demand and the necessity to have those plants available. But I think now with so many good growers out there, if people could learn to specialize, then we could grow more numbers. And you can concentrate on the quality of the plant you’re doing that point to you’re not trying to run and put fires out here and there trying to keep up with everything. You’ve got a better handle on it, and you’re growing plants that maybe work better for you. And one thing I’ve always found, you can hear techniques or things from other people. But each grower has their own way of doing things. And you could try what somebody told you and it wouldn’t work. But if you tweak it a little bit for yourself, that it would work. So take that information and glean it and then utilize it the way you know works for you too.

Mitzy Sosa 14:11
And what do you think are some resources that we still need to develop to help people in this industry?

Brightman Logan 14:19
I think a lot of it’s still being worked on but seed germination is one thing. We’ve had a lot of hard times trying to get certain seeds to germinate. Maybe they need a longer stratification, cold, maybe they need to be scarified when they’re not. You know think about like Palmetto seeds and things like that when the animal eats them and that takes the the endocarp off of it which is an inhibitor goes through their system, the acids and everything are like a scarifier or and then once that comes out, that’s that seed ready to go. So you have to kind of think about nature and how things work in Nature. I mean, we had trays, sometimes we would try growing stuff and it wouldn’t grow for a year. And we tow the tray out and go look back at the pile and everything germinate and start taking off. So it’s just one of those things again, you got to just kind of keep notes on and always be looking out there and experimenting. But there’s, there’s a lot of great information out there now you can just Google stuff. And I’m surprised, you know, I’m amazed at what comes up nowadays. That’s one of the things I wish we had all this when we started. And then you got things like, gaillardia, which Cammie can chime in on. We’ve been growing, this as a native plant. And now a week or so ago, they came out and said, well, we don’t think it’s a native plant now. And we’ve been saying for years. So this just part of the industry, part of what happened is on. But it’s interesting, because a lot of the growers who were against us years ago are now growing a lot of these native plants. And that’s pretty rewarding to to see them come in and start growing them and understand, you know, yeah, you can put a lot of this stuff out there and not have to do anything to it and just let it go and thrive.

Cammie Donaldson 16:10
You know, Brian, I’m going to step in there with a story that you will appreciate the very first native plant and service directory that I did for FANN, I use the picture of pink muhly grass that you gave me and put it on the cover. And then we shipped out all the directories. And I got a call from someone who had received the directory was not a FANN member. It was another grower, demanding and he was pretty insistent that I needed to properly identify what was this plant on the cover and wasn’t a native and you know, I gave him and, and he was like, Well, I’ve been in business for 30 years. And I’ve never seen that plant. And I said well, we would love to have you grow it. And now I think about that that was 1996 and now almost any highway or street you drive down, you’re gonna see muhly grass planting.

Brightman Logan 17:07
Mhm

Cammie Donaldson 17:08
And then,

Brightman Logan 17:08
Yeah.

Cammie Doanldson 17:08

-Yet it was so unusual at the time. So I use that as an example. It seems like a long time. Maybe to Mitzy. But Brightman and I can tell you that that was a blink of an eye. That 20 years.

Brightman Logan 17:25
And all of it’s happened in that time. Jeez.

Cammie Donaldson 17:27
Yeah, yeah.

Brightman Logan 17:29
But yeah, I mean, that was, you know, and I used to chastise the growers, I don’t, but just saying, Hey, you got the stuff in your back yard people. It’s right out there. It’s growing, why not take it and utilize it. And, you know, basically, I had to shame them into it. But I had a lecture in Tampa one time we had like 400 people there and all the growers, Tampa growers came. And I just started saying that, you know, this has been a change the palette that you use in your landscape growing these plants, they all stood up in unison walked out in the middle of my lecture. There’s like 50 of them. And the whole way out, I was just giving them grief. I just kept peppering them with stuff. Ended up being great friends, you know, it’s just it’s, it just makes so much sense. And that was another thing. I always thought if you notice a lot of those plants last about five or six years, and then they die. And they have to be bought again and replaced. I think that was one of the main things they kept those things because they could keep reselling them. I got plants here in my yard. I’ve been here 25 years, look great.

Cammie Donaldson 18:34
There’s two reports out nationally this year, Brightman, just addressing availability of native plants for restoration.

Brightman Logan 18:42
Mhm.

Cammie Donaldson 18:43
And, and one is from the National Academies of Sciences. And the other is I think from a another government agency, chronic nationwide shortage, chronic nationwide shortage. And am I right to believe that if there’s a chronic nationwide shortage of native plants for restoration, then wouldn’t there be even a greater shortage for landscape? Use?

Brightman Logan 19:10
Yes, yes, indeed. Yeah, I would agree with that completely. And it’s always been that way really. I mean, as we increase demand, we just never could keep up with it. It seems like a lot of people will get frustrated with that, you know, I can’t get these plants. And that’s why we started getting people to contract grow for projects. If you’re going to want these plants in a year, you’re gonna need to put some money down and start growing them up. I’ve got a school going on across the street from me here a vo-tech school. And we talked him into doing all native plants, plenty of great aesthetically pleasing natives. You know, the I guess the one thing too is they everyone wants evergreen, where they don’t enjoy the beauty of something being deciduous and maybe not having leaves for it.

Cammie Donaldson 19:56
Yeah.

Brightman Logan 19:57
There’s a lot of obstacles to overcome. We’re dealing with with the general public.

Cammie Donaldson 20:02
Yeah, that I think that issue of deciduous or seasonal plants, two big things that are needed, of course, the continued education, and you’ve got to make it much more accessible and consumable. And then we need those ecological landscape maintenance specialists. And they need to know how to package and sell that business. It’ll come I believe it will come.

Brightman Logan 20:27
Letting people know that third generation nurseries are getting into growing natives and all these people, you know, we got to kind of get the wave built to where are these kids get interested in it? And really, I mean, I think we’re doing a lot to save our environment in the state by doing this stuff. A day when we you know, we completely cut off our sprinklers, and wasting potable water on our yards and it can be done very easy. Which, just again, takes time and generational time to get those things done.

Cammie Donaldson 20:59
Brightman, I thank you very much for your time today.

Mitzy Sosa 21:03
Yes, thank you, Brightman. And thank you, everybody for listening to another podcast go native. I’m glad that we were able to explore some of the native plant industry history today. And we hope that we inspire you to take on whatever you can to continue to advance the work in the native plant industry. And continue listening to us subscribe right now to Go Native: The Business of Native Plants new episodes every month, and be sure to visit our website NativePlantHort.org to learn more and support us. We’ll see you next time.

More about Brightman Logan : Brightman may say he’s retired but he has remained an active force behind the scenes, supporting our foundation and important partners in Florida, including the Florida Wildflower Foundation and the University of Florida, where he has been instrumental in setting the stage for a future seed materials center to secure a native seed supply chain for the state of Florida.

GO NATIVE: BRIGHTMAN LOGAN ON HISTORICAL CONTEXT AND FINDING WHAT WORKS FOR YOU

By NP Volunteer | April 21, 2025

FNPS 43RD ANNUAL CONFERENCE OPPORTUNITY FOR EMERGING PROFESSIONALS

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 21:28:00 GMT

Under 35 and working in the Florida horticulture or landscape industry? We’re offering stipends to emerging professionals attending the 43 ^rd annual Florida Native Plant Society Conference April 2-6, 2025, in Gainesville, Florida . See native plants in the wild, learn from scientists and conservation experts, and have loads of fun.

We’re proud to sponsor the Florida Native Plant Society’s 43 ^rd Annual Conference, “Seeds for Tomorrow,” held Thursday-Sunday, April 2-6, 2025, at the Hilton University of Florida Conference Center, 1714 SW 34 ^th St, Gainesville, Florida. The Florida Native Plant Society (FNPS) conference brings together hundreds of the state’s most passionate native plant advocates for four days of presentations, field trips and social events. This event offers opportunities to see native plants in their natural habitats, learn about the plants from botanists, ecologists and enthusiasts; and expose yourself to the many ways that native plants support our lives. We’ll be there and hope you will be too.

OPPORTUNITY

$500 and $225 stipends for young horticulture/landscape professionals attending the FNPS conference for two or more days. Details below.

Stipends made possible by donors to the David Chiappini Education Fund .

ELIGIBILITY

Under 35

Currently employed, or self-employed, in a Florida nursery, garden center or landscape company

HOW THIS WORKS

You register for and participate in the conference at your own cost.

You apply for our stipend as soon as possible, and no later than March 29. Applications are open now, will be considered as received, and may close before March 29. APPLICATION CLOSED MARCH 24 .

If we elect to grant you a stipend, we will notify you by email within seven days of receiving your application.

Payment will be made, by check or Paypal, AFTER you participate in the conference and fulfill our requirements (below). Payments made directly to participants, not employers.

REQUIREMENTS TO RECEIVE PAYMENT

Approval of application by the Foundation.

Participation in the conference, evidenced by all of the following:

Checking in with Foundation staff at our exhibit table at the conference on Friday or Saturday
Providing us with a copy of your registration confirmation.
Texting us your favorite selfie image from the conference.
Sharing your conference experience with us at a to-be-scheduled virtual meeting (Zoom)

No payments will be made until all of the above have been completed.

$500 stipends will be granted for full conference registration – Friday and Saturday programs including, at a minimum, one field trip and one evening social.

$225 stipends will be granted for a Friday or Saturday conference registration including, at a minimum, one field trip.

THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

Applications will be reviewed, first come, first serve, without individual identification and evaluated based on the input you provide.

All activities will be at your own risk.

Activities may be photographed, video- or audiotaped for educational, publicity and fundraising purposes.

You must register for the conference and arrange for your own housing and transport.

No stipend will be granted to anyone with a family or conflicting business relationship with any Foundation board member or staff.

No payment made until all requirements, stated above, are completed.

Application does not imply acceptance or grant. Funding is limited and the Foundation is under no obligation to grant stipends.

FNPS 43rd annual conference opportunity for emerging professionals

By Foundation | March 12, 2025

IN-PERSON MENTORING OPPORTUNITY

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 16:08:00 GMT

Talk to native plant industry professionals that can help you get started in your business or career

In-person mentorship is available from 10:30am until 1:00pm on Wednesday and Thursday, October 30-31, 2024, at the Native Plant Horticulture Foundation table at the Central Florida Native Plant Seminar hosted by Florida Association of Native Nurseries (FANN) at Bok Tower Gardens , 1151 Tower Blvd, Lake Wales, Florida. Mentoring services will be provided by the following experienced growers and landscape professionals from Florida’s native plant industry:

Alyssa Lavoro, former Alexander Landscape & Plant Farm owner, Ag/Horticulture teacher and current president of the Native Plant Horticulture Foundation
Jerry Fritz, former SUNCO Native Trees owner
Zack Pitchford, current owner of Wilcox Nursery & Landscaping
Tom Heitzman, current owner of Sweet Bay Native Nursery

In addition to mentoring, you can visit and talk with over 100 native plant industry professionals during breaks in the seminar, stroll beautiful Bok Tower Gardens and take advantage of other space-available benefits. This opportunity is open to students, emerging professionals and career switchers. Application required.

In-Person Mentoring Opportunity

By Foundation | October 28, 2024

Meet and talk with native plant industry professionals who can provide you with business and career insights from their lived experience.

KIVA LOAN SUCCESS STORY: NATIVE & UNCOMMON PLANTS

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 18:27:00 GMT

Introduction Alfred and Leslie Romeu own Native & Uncommon Plants, a native plant nursery that focuses on cultivating pollinator-friendly, sustainable plants. The growing demand for native plants has shifted their goals from retailing to wholesale and focusing on growing more plants.

Challenges in Traditional Funding Traditional funding sources proved difficult for Native & Uncommon Plants. The Foundation’s partnership with Kiva offered an ideal solution, with a no-interest loan and a simple, user-friendly application process.

The Kiva Loan Experience The application process with Kiva was straightforward and quick, making it an ideal solution for the nursery’s financial needs. The Native Plant Horticulture Foundation played a crucial role in endorsing their loan application, raising the probability of funding. Although they only received half of the requested amount upfront, the community support and the ease of the process made the experience worthwhile, Alfred says, and they’ll “ definitely do it again. ”

Impact of the Kiva Loan Despite receiving only half of their requested amount, the loan significantly helped sustain operations during the off season, allowing Native and Uncommon to invest in essential resources. The funds from their Kiva loan were helpful in enhancing their growing operation by adding more plants, a watering system, and enhancing their greenhouse. Alfred reported that their “ goal is to increase inventory on hand fivefold, grow more understory trees that other nurseries don’t offer, and also grow perennials and vines in larger sizes for the local landscaper and garden centers. “

Current Operations and Future Plans Native and Uncommon’s growing operation is now thriving and Alfred and Leslie are in the process of preparing for a bountiful spring in 2025. Their loan was fully funded in just a week, a testament to strong public interest in native plants and the Kiva community support for small businesses that contribute to healthy communities. Looking ahead, Alfred and Leslie plan to apply for another Kiva loan once their first loan is repaid.

Recommendation for Kiva Loans Alfred and Leslie highly recommend the Kiva Loan Program. The process is user-friendly, fosters community support, and is a great option for small businesses with limited financial backing. Learn more about their journey here . You can also learn more on the Kiva Loan process here .

Kiva Loan Success Story: Native & Uncommon Plants

By Janelle Mendoza | June 20, 2024

Leslie and Alfred proudly representing Native & Uncommon Plants

DAVID CHIAPPINI EDUCATION FUND

Mon, 18 Dec 2023 16:48:00 GMT

David’s friends and colleagues have established this fund to honor his memory and support young people interested in working with native plants. Donations provide travel assistance, pay registration fees and provide other educational support to students and young emerging professionals.

David always had time to talk, share information about plants, and to encourage others.

Honor and continue his legacy with your gift.

David Chiappini’s Legacy

From 1996-2009, David Chiappini led FANN (then referred to as AFNN, Association of Florida Native Nurseries) forward, championing the cultivation of native plants and vigorously supporting the development of new native nurseries. FANN members benefited enormously from his direct advice and supportive referrals, and continue to benefit today from the strong association he built. An enthusiastic promoter of the industry, as association president, David helped grow FANN from about 50 members to over 150, expanding to include a cadre of consultants, landscape specialists and retail outlets specializing in native plants. Always pushing quality and availability, David provided the leadership that made botanist Gil Nelson’s book, Florida’s Best Native Landscape Plants, both possible and highly successful (now in its third printing with over 20,000 copies sold). In 2009, the association presented an award to David to thank him for his leadership and service, above and beyond.

Chiappini Farm Native Nursery is known throughout Florida for its biodiversity, quality stock and service. David loved people, and his gregarious personality made him perfect for the job of educating and engaging customers and colleagues. Through the years, David hosted many, many field trips and tours for University of Florida students, landscape architects and others needing to learn about the plants and how to use them. David was known for cooking lunch for his crew and anyone that stopped in around lunchtime. Chiappini barbecue meetings made many great memories for FANN members. It is a testament to Chiappini management that the nursery is staffed by very long-term employees.

The post David Chiappini Education Fund appeared first on Native Plant Horticulture Foundation .

PODCAST LISTENERS SURVEY

Wed, 02 Aug 2023 00:18:00 GMT

Please take a few minutes to give us feedback on our Go Native: the Business of Native Plants podcast . Your input can help us refine our content and better meet the needs of startups, emerging professionals and career switchers seeking to enter the native plant industry. Thank you.

Podcast Listeners Survey

By Foundation | August 1, 2023

Find us wherever you listen to your podcasts.

FLORIDA KIVA LOAN PROGRAM

Fri, 25 Nov 2022 23:01:00 GMT

The Native Plant Horticulture Foundation has been approved as a Trustee by Kiva , one of the world’s most popular and successful nonprofit microlending platforms. As a Kiva Trustee, the foundation can apply its extensive industry expertise and connections within the native plant movement to help small native plant businesses obtain no-interest loans for start-up, expansion or sustainability projects.

The foundation is excited to partner with Kiva, a proven provider of opportunity to small businesses worldwide, to bring funding and opportunity to native plant business startups and micro-enterprises seeking to expand and diversity their offerings. Kiva US has funded nearly $60 million in entrepreneurial projects, but very little has gone to native plant businesses. Kiva recognizes the opportunity represented by native plants, both for our environment and for individual entrepreneurs, including women and people of color, who often have little or no access to traditional sources of capital.

Because the foundation’s volunteer base is currently located primarily in Florida, the loan program is limited to Florida-based native plant businesses for now. We would love to hear from small businesses in South Georgia, though, so give us a shout. We might be able to stretch that far.

Florida Kiva Loan Program

Can a small loan help your native plant nursery? Or a nursery you’d like to have in your community?

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

By Foundation | November 25, 2022

DIG MEADOWS? EDUCATION OPPORTUNITY

Thu, 18 Aug 2022 00:13:00 GMT

Thanks in part to a retired native nurseryman, who wishes to honor the memory of his daughter, and support from The Teazey Foundation, we were pleased to support ten students and emerging professionals interested in the native plant horticulture profession with full event registration for Wild Meadow Magic , a professional education and networking event hosted by our Florida native plant industry partner, Florida Association of Native Nurseries (FANN) , on Thursday & Friday, Oct. 6-7, 2022, in and the Panama City region of Florida.

ORIGINAL OPPORTUNITY announcement for students & emerging professionals

Participate in five field trips to public and private natural areas with experienced professionals working in native plant horticulture, restoration and landscape design.

Improve your knowledge of native northwest Florida plant species and natural habitats, learn to identify and use these plants in restoration, enhance your ability to work within the native plant industry, expand future career opportunities and develop your professional network.

We are please to underwrite all registration fees, including meals and socials, for selected applicants. Evening Native Plant Café featuring a conversation with Carol Denhof of The Longleaf Alliance .

Housing & transport on your own at this time. We are pursuing potential additional, more economical housing options, including dorm-like cabins, and will advise if these become available.

LIMITED to 10 students or emerging professionals, first-come, first-serve or until Sept. 6.

ELIGIBILITY

STUDENTS – under 35, part- or full-time college or high school students, minimum age 16.

EMERGING PROFESSIONALS – under 35, working in horticulture, landscape or restoration.

KEY DATES

Sept. 6 – application process ends

Sept. 16 – selected applicants notified

Share this opportunity with others

Dig Meadows? Educational Opportunity

By Foundation | August 17, 2022

Applications were due no later than Sept. 5, 2022, for registration sponsorship for students and emerging professionals for October educational event hosted by FANN in Florida Panhandle.

THIS EVENT IS OVER

Wild Meadow Magic – Fall 2022

Longleaf Pine Forest, USGS

The lovely bud, so young, so fair

called off by earthly doom.

just came to show how sweet a flower

in paradise could bloom.

JF in memory of RF

GO NATIVE: THE BEEMANS, NATIVE PLANT GROWERS & INNOVATORS

Fri, 10 Jun 2022 23:54:00 GMT

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

Host Mitzy Sosa interviews Steve Beeman, owner of Beemats, the inventors of a patented floating wetlands system for managing nutrients in waterways. Steve has been growing and innovating with native plants for decades, and is a founding member of the Florida Association of Native Nurseries (FANN). His son Forest runs Beemans Nursery, which specializes in aquatic and shoreline plants, and grows plants for Beemats and other customers. This family-owned business in East Central Florida is well respected for the owners’ knowledge and experience in planting challenging ecosystems. Steve offers a lot of good advice for what you need to know and do. Don’t forget to make a few mistakes and learn from them!

ABOUT OUR PODCAST

Go Native: the Business of Native Plants interviews seasoned native plant business owners and experts to help others learn from their successes and failures.

Find monthly episodes wherever you find your podcasts , here on our blog or at https://rss.com/podcasts/gonative

Now listen to Episode 4 or read the transcript below to learn more. Go native!

TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODE 4

Host: Mitzy Sosa

Mitzy Sosa 00:02

Hello and welcome back to another episode of Go Native, the Business of Native Plants. I am Mitzy Sosa, your host. On today’s episode we are talking to Steve Beeman of Beemats Floating Wetlands. Steve has worked with native Florida plant communities for 39 years. As a biologist with Florida environmental agencies he studied and regulated impacts to wetland habitats in East Central Florida. Then, in 1978, he founded Ecoshores, a company that built and planted over 2500 acres of native wetland and upland forest. Steve is also a founding member of the Florida Association of Environmental Professionals and the Association of Florida Native Nurseries (now FANN ). He is here today to tell us the ins and outs of those stories and what he’s up to today. All right, so we’re gonna get right to it. So I like for us to start with a quick, simple introduction. Tell us about yourself, who you are and what you do.

Steve Beeman 01:16

Okay, I’m Steve Beeman. I started a company in 1974 called Ecoshores. I went to college in Hawaii. I got a job working for the state for four years. And then I started this company called Ecoshores and we planted native shorelines. When my son Forest got out of college, with his degree in Environmental Horticulture from Texas A&M, we started Beeman’s Nursery in 2000. And in 2009, we started this company for planting and growing floating wetlands for water treatment. In the last several years, Forest has taken over the nursery. He owns Beeman’s Nursery, and I’m running Beemats, the floating wetlands company. So he produces all the plants for me for the Beemats, and we put them out and maintain them. And most of our clients are municipalities, counties, although there are some private development companies and some homeowners associations that use them for water cleanup as well.

So that’s pretty much where we are. We’re constantly tweaking our system. When we first started the nursery 20 years ago, we wanted to have floating wetlands growing in ponds to take up nutrients and keep the ponds clean without worrying about the water levels in the pond. That was our issue, when planting shorelines, is that water levels made our work uncertain. We didn’t know whether we would have a drought or whether we would have a flood that impacted the health of the plants growing on the shoreline. We didn’t realize until we started floating wetlands, just how good they were at actually taking up nutrients. Because it’s like growing hydroponically except that you’re not. If you’re growing tomatoes, hydroponically, you add nutrients to your to your mixture. When you’re growing hydroponically in a stormwater pond, the nutrients are there and they’re actually your target. The idea is to harvest those nutrients out of the water so that you don’t have a food source for algae and hydrilla, duckweed and other nuisance plants. And every stormwater pond in the state eventually ends up in a creek or a stream or a ditch that goes ultimately to a big lake or estuary. The bottom line is, we need to keep as much of that nutrient load out of the estuary as possible. And the way we do that is by reducing it at its source, which is stormwater and treated wastewater.

Mitzy Sosa 03:57

And that has connections to the algal blooms.

Steve Beeman 04:01

Oh 100%, yeah, yeah, 100%. That’s the causative factor, nitrogen and phosphorus primarily, but there are other constituents, but primarily those two and we throw nitrogen on our agricultural fields. We use phosphate fertilizers. And those two are the main culprits. And you know, we spray our yards to get the grass green and landscapes, golf courses, all that contributes in some way.

Mitzy Sosa 04:34

Could you tell me a little bit more about the nursery and the Beeman’s Nursery business?

Steve Beeman 04:41

We’re in New Smyrna Beach. It’s a 20-acre nursery. Forest runs Beeman’s Nursery and we grow almost exclusively native plants. We grow some plants that are not native, that we have, you know, people’s demand for that. In floating wetlands, everything we use, pretty much, is a native plant. And when we sell these to places like the Carolinas or Iowa or wherever we encourage them to use their native plants for the nutrient uptake in their area. We just did a bunch in Virginia last summer where we used Virginia plant stock, brought it to Florida, grew it out in our nursery, and took it back to Virginia to plant it. And those are doing well, those wetlands are doing well.

Mitzy Sosa 05:36

And just to recap, Steve is running his Beemats business, his son is in charge of running Beeman’s Nursery and Beeman’s Nursery makes the plants that eventually go into Steve’s Beemats. But it’s incredibly cool to have, you know, the different native plants of these different places that people are getting them to be grown specifically for them. But it does sound a little bit complicated.

Steve Beeman 06:07

Yeah, it would be better if it were grown there. We did a project also on the other side of the Chesapeake Bay in Delaware, where we planted a salt marsh area. And those plants were grown at a nursery across the bay in New Jersey. And so they imported the plants, they brought the plants over. We brought the islands up and planted with those plants from the local source.

Mitzy Sosa 06:37

It’s amazing. So Steve, could you take us back and tell me about the beginning of everything. Tell me about Ecoshores, and you know, what got you into the native plant industry? Was this something that you were introduced to in college or did you just always have a passion for natives?

Steve Beeman 06:54

Actually, no. My master’s degree’s research was on hammerhead sharks. Had nothing to do with plants.

When I moved to Florida, I actually moved here hoping to have an interview at Mote Marine Lab in Sarasota, working on sharks. But there was a recession going on when I moved here in 1974. So I took a job working for the state as a biologist, what became the agency that eventually became DEP. And as a field biologist, I was moved to Volusia County and Seminole counties. And so I worked for the state for four years. And my main function was biological assessments and permitting for any damage to wetlands. And that was brand new at the time. So it was like the laws had just been changed from it’s okay to go out and dredge and fill wetlands to now it’s not okay, you gotta get a permit.

So it was kind of like the Wild West back then. But people wanted to put seawalls up all along the estuaries. And I kept trying to tell them that if they just planted native shoreline intertidal plants, there were two or three major advantages. The number one major advantage is, you don’t need a permit from us, from this agency. You just do it. Number two advantage is a sloping shoreline. So it attenuates wave energy, it doesn’t reflect it. And the third thing is that you create a nursery for fish and other marine animals. So you’re gonna have a productive shoreline that, you know, fishing next to is going to be a lot more fun.

And I had people say, well, that sounds fine. Who does this? You know, who can I call to do this? And I couldn’t find anybody. So I said, Well, I’m gonna just quit and do it. So I took the leap and started doing vegetated shorelines. First one I ever did was in Daytona Beach for a banker right across from the Chart House. And then it went from there. We started planting estuarine shorelines. And that branched out into freshwater lake shorelines.

And that was were we caught the attention of the golf course industry for doing not only wetlands, but also uplands that were impacted by development for the golf course. They didn’t want to grow grass on them, they didn’t want to fertilize them. You know, they just wanted a place out of play that kind of blended into the natural environment. And to their credit, they put a lot of effort into it. They started a program called the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary program in the golf industry. And so we got into that field in a big way. We started doing acres and acres of native habitats. Every time a golf course was built, we got to do, you know, native habitats. It was their cheapest alternative because they didn’t have to maintain it after it was done, it was just finished. And we planted plants that didn’t need any care. You just left them alone, they became wildlife habitat right in the middle of the golf course. So that worked well until about 2006, 2007, when the economy crashed, and all the golf courses that were being built, stopped. All of the golf courses that were on the drawing board came off the drawing board. And we lost about 80% of our business in those two years.

Fortunately for us, we had a huge mitigation project that came on board over in The Villages, which was a 600-acre wetland project. And that kept us afloat. And we also started then working on the floating wetlands in a big way. And then we started doing that, we got the patent for our system in 2009. And then we started slowly building that up and doing a lot of research because, frankly, we didn’t know at all what these things were capable of. And so we got involved with Clemson University, we got involved with Dr. Wanielista at UCF and Harvey Harper, Dr. Harper at his company in Orlando, ERD, he was doing consulting work for Patrick Air Force Base. So we got these studies all going at the same time. And through that, the State of Florida, DEP, adopted best management practices for stormwater. And they actually listed us in there as one of the approved BMPs for stormwater development. Of course, back then it didn’t matter because nobody was building anything. There was no development going on. And most of our early clients were cities who had to meet TMDL [total maximum daily load] requirements laid down by EPA. So we started doing that. And now, actually, there’s some development happening. And we have a couple of decent sized projects that are going in that are actually privately funded. But still, local governments continue to be a big part of our of our project.

Mitzy Sosa 12:18

Well, it sounds like you really set the stage for a couple of things there. Is there anything that you wish you had known before you embarked on what this journey has become?

Steve Beeman 12:28

Well, I’ve been blessed as I’ve moved through this process from the very beginning, from the very beginning. I moved to Florida expecting to work for sharks. I got a job working for the state in plants. I saw an opportunity on shorelines, I just took it and I had no idea what I was doing, but it all fell into place. And then when a big golf course company wanted to buy that company, I saw it as an opportunity to expand, but that turned out to be a bad choice.

Mitzy Sosa 13:03

And that was Ecoshores, the company that you sold.

Steve Beeman 13:07

They eventually folded. So Forest and I started this nursery. And then we kind of were dabbling with floating wetlands for years. I mean, 20 years before we actually got the patent. And so each step of this has just worked out. And it’s like Edison’s statement that he figured out a whole bunch of ways to make a light bulb that didn’t work. That’s sort of what we did. We’ve learned by our mistakes. That’s one thing, I guess, if you’re going to tell people in the nursery business, don’t be afraid of making mistakes. Don’t be afraid of trying stuff. That’s how you learn. We learned a lot of hard lessons. But we we recognize them for the lessons that they were. For example, we had crop insurance at one time. Hurricane Francis came through Daytona Beach in 2004, And just acres of water, our nursery flooded us out completely. And we lost about a half million dollars worth of plants, put in a claim to our crop insurance company and they paid us $50,000. We learned right there that crop insurance is not worth having. So we don’t have it anymore. But it’s a lesson that we learned. We just said okay, fine. We picked up, we had some plants that didn’t get destroyed. We started over and same thing after the crash in 2007. We knew we had literally a million plants where we were planning on a big year when that thing happened. And we basically had to pare down to Forest and me and my daughter Colette, who was running the office at the time, and the secretary, and we did everything. We just didn’t put anything else in the ground. Our goal was just to sell what we had. And so we advertised, we loaded trucks, we drove trucks. And we just made it through those two or three years until the big reclamation project happened at The Villages. I mean, you know, they say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and that’s pretty much true.

Mitzy Sosa 15:16

Those are definitely wise words right there. Do you think that there is a common mistake that most new native plant growers make at the beginning? Is something that they should avoid?

Steve Beeman 15:27

Um, no, well … I think as far as native nurseries go, I was part of the very first native association. We met over at Green Images in David Drylie’s garage at the time. It is easy for native plant people to become tunnel vision, and say that the only good plant is a native plant. And if you don’t grow and sell and plant native plants, you’re making a big mistake. Well, that’s true, to some degree. However, you have to be prepared to give your clients what they want. And you have to be prepared to take advantage of plants that are otherwise innocuous — in other words, they don’t spread by seed, so they don’t naturalize in Florida, but they’re good plants, to do a specific job that you can’t do with a native plant.

Mitzy Sosa 16:22

Okay, some really, really great points that I feel like they’re very much to the work that you do, very niche, like you say. So what are some of the first things that someone who is a younger person that’s trying to get into the plant grower business should ask herself or himself before starting? Should they be asking themselves like how hard they’re willing to work, or how many years they have to wait till they turn profit or, or anything like that?

Steve Beeman 16:52

Well, growing plants is satisfying, but it’s expensive.

First of all, you have to have real estate, you have to have property. You have to invest in infrastructure. You have to have a reliable way to grow the plants you want to sell, without other weeds infecting them and turning them into useless green stuff.

So all that is expensive, you have to be careful that you first of all, you have to actually start with something. And that something normally is a piece of property, piece of land, it could be an acre, it could be 1000 acres, whatever it is, you have to start with that. So if you don’t have that, you shouldn’t start a nursery. The second now, you need real estate, and you need to, you need to spend the money. And do it right, to get your irrigation system set up.

First of all, test the water that you’re going to use for irrigation. We found out almost a year after we were here and operating, that our plants were not growing the way we thought they should. We had the water tested and the pH here was off the charts high. And we found out that in order to get the pH down to a point that the plants could then take up the the fertilizer, the nitrogen and phosphorus and the fertilizer we’re putting on them, we had to inject sulfuric acid into the water. That’s a very expensive proposition. So we now have a big acid injection system for this nursery so we can use less fertilizer. And that’s always been our goal. I mean, before we were throwing fertilizer out and it did not go to our plants. It went into our little storage pond here and grew algae. And so that’s or primary importance. How good is your water? Can it be used just the way it is for irrigation? Can you collect rainwater in a cistern and use that, but I’ll tell you right now that the very best water for plants to grow in is rainfall. And so during the rainy season, just take advantage of it because it’s going to be great, that’s the best water ever. But, when you don’t have rainy season, either figure out a way to put it in a pond and store that rainwater and then use it for irrigation. Or in which case you have to line it, you have to line it with plastic or concrete because otherwise you’re gonna get all the other stuff through the sidewall.

The other thing is once you to know how to grow plants, establish a market. In fact, you should establish the market first. Go out there and ask people, what do you need? What do you want? From talking to other nurseries and other landscapers and to contractors, what is in high demand? And what do people have a hard time getting? And then figure out why did they have a hard time getting it? You know, is it because nobody is growing it? It is it because it’s a pain to grow? So, if that’s the case, can you figure out a way to grow it effectively, and sell it for a reasonable price?

And that’s the bottom line. Because you have people all the time who say, Well, I put, you know, $5 into growing this plant just to sell it for eight or nine. Well, the market is at six. Can you do it for six? You got to cut down your cost of growing it down to three. So that’s, that’s really important that you look at all those production costs. So you know, what you’re doing as far as soil and fertilizer and people.

Mitzy Sosa 20:33

Those are amazing points that I think a lot of people are going to learn a lot from. Over the years, have you seen any changes that would make it easier or harder to become a native plant grower?

Steve Beeman 20:45

Well, it’s just like in farming, there are a whole lot of big organizations that have taken over the bulk of plant growing. Same thing in farming, where you have these multinational corporations growing all of our corn and wheat and rice, instead of the family farmer. So I think that, that in and of itself, is something you have to overcome. Because they’re doing it on a scale, that makes it really, really hard to compete pricewise. So you have to compete with availability of hard to find plants, or a niche of plants that they’re not doing because it’s not worth their time. Or something like that. You have to you have to think about where your place is in the big picture. And don’t try to compete with the huge growers, because you can’t. I would caution against looking for and taking money from investors, because then, you owe them. Caution against taking money from banks or mortgages, unless you’re sure that the return is worth it. You know, can you make enough money off of growing those plants that you can pay off the mortgage? I know, I listened to people tell me things. And I thought, well, that’s good advice. And I didn’t follow it. I still made the mistakes. And anybody will. You know, the thing is to not be afraid of mistakes. You know, understand them for what they are. They’re lessons of how not to make a light bulb.

Mitzy Sosa 22:29

And that’s the big idea. So, basically, mistakes are a good thing to make when you’re starting, and they are great ways to learn what to do, what not to do, what works and what doesn’t. Okay, Steve, so one of the last questions that I have for you is a question that I’ve been asking all of the people that, that we’ve had the pleasure of interviewing. And in the spirit of talking about learning and teaching, and if you could design a native plant grower program, what would you make sure it included?

Steve Beeman 23:05

The very first thing is a real good working knowledge of the native plants in your area. When I moved to Tallahassee, and was given this job, they took us out with biologists into the field for three days. And basically showed us every plant on the state’s wetland indicator list and told us how to identify them and all that. What saved me, I mean, it’s three days, three days to learn all this. What saved me was I took a camera and every plant, I took a picture of everything they said. And I took notes and I had a list of what they were showing us in order. So I took notes. And then I went home at night and studied it and put it together and made a little booklet. Here’s the plan. And so when I went out in the field, later, I could refer back to my notes and say, you know, yeah, this is this, and that’s how I learned it.

But it would have been much better to have a semester or a year long class that teaches you. First of all, start with the plants from the uplands. And then the plants from the mid areas and then the plants from the wetlands. And in each case, there are subcategories. Like, in the wetlands, there are some plants that are underwater all the time, some plants that are emergent, but still need to be in the water all the time. Other plants that are emergent, but go dry every once in a while. And you work your way up.

Once you have a real good working knowledge of how all that works, now when you start your company, you can … Say somebody says, Well, I’ve got this place over on the beachside, it’s not on the dunes, but it’s behind the dunes, so it gets salt spray. But it’s kind of in a little low spot, so it does get rain and it soaks in there, but it’s salty. What do you got that works? You’ll know. You have to know those environments. And that’s what makes the difference. That’s what people come for. They come for your plants. They also come for your knowledge of how to use those plants. And once you plant them or they plant them, they’re not going to just die because you put them in the wrong place.

Mitzy Sosa 25:32

And nobody, nobody wants dead plants. All right, and that is what we have for you today. Thank you so much, Steve. You can find more on Steve and his floating wetlands at Beemats.com. Again, thank you so much, Steve. We’ll see you around next time.

Steve Beeman

All right. Bye.

Mitzy Sosa

And as always, stay tuned for more podcasts coming your way. You can visit our website at nativeplanthort.org

Thank you so much for listening, and I’ll see you next time.

GO NATIVE: THE BEEMANS, NATIVE PLANT GROWERS & INNOVATORS

By Foundation | June 10, 2022

Steve Beeman’s son Forest at Beeman’s Nursery booth at the very first Native Plant Show held in Florida.

Podcast interview with Steve Beeman, owner of Beemats Floating Wetlands™ in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Steve’s son Forest operates Beeman’s Nursery.

Interviewee: Steve Beeman, owner, Beemats Floating Wetlands ™

GO NATIVE: JANE THOMPSON, NATIVE PLANT GROWER

Fri, 27 May 2022 21:54:00 GMT

Podcast interview with Jane Thompson, owner of Indian Trails Native Nursery in Lake Worth, Florida.

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

Jane Thompson is the owner and operator of Indian Trails Native Nursery , a one-stop shop for Florida native plants in Lake Worth, the western end of Palm Beach County in South Florida. Jane supplies wholesale plants to landscapers and retailers, sells retail to the the local gardening public, and designs and installs native landscapes. She often advertises for the nursery that “ We do it all: grow, design, deliver, install. ” But “we” is often just Jane, a one-woman native plant whirwind. In the late 1990s, Jane became a career switcher, leaving a salaried job as a techie in the media industry for the … wild and unknown future of the native plant grower. Her love of nature and can-do attitude has served her, and her community, well, as Indian Trails Native Nursery continues to thrive under her care.

ABOUT OUR PODCAST

Go Native: the Business of Native Plants interviews seasoned native plant business owners and experts to help others learn from their successes and failures.

Find monthly episodes wherever you find your podcasts , here on our blog or at https://rss.com/podcasts/gonative

Now listen to Episode 3 or read the transcript below to learn more. Go native!

EPISODE 3

TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODE 3

HOST: Mitzy Sosa

Interviewee: Jane Thompson, owner, Indian Trails Native Nursery

Mitzy Sosa 00:03

Hello and welcome back to Go Native: the Business of Native Plants. My name is Mitzy Sosa, and I am your host, and I am so happy to be back with another episode. This time we’re going to travel to the south of Florida. We are talking to … go ahead:

Jane Thompson 00:19

Hi, my name is Jane Thompson. I own Indian Trails Native Nursery in West Palm Beach.

Mitzy Sosa 00:24

That’s right. Jane Thompson, Owner of Indian Trails Native Nursery in Lake Worth, Florida. Indian Trails Native Nursery is a certified minority business enterprise that grows, designs, delivers and installs Florida native plants for sustainable landscaping. The nursery serves both wholesale and retail customers. But Jane is always on the go. But she’s stopping today to speak to us. So thank you, Jane. We’ll get started by you telling us about the first native plant business just started and how it started.

Jane Thompson 00:59

So in 1998, I purchased Indian Trails Native Nursery from a man named Michael Zaffke, who started the business in 1986. At that time, the nursery was thriving with a thriving business and through hard work and dedication, we continue in his footsteps by focusing on much of the same plant species that he did: the grasses, the ground covers, wildflowers, shrubs, trees and some aquatics. At that time, I had just had my first child and wanted to leave my then white collar job. I was in tech support with Tribune Company and wanting to be with my son. So I left that job, took my retirement money and purchased this nursery which was right next door to my house, so that I could then be with my child. Little did I know the hard work that would be ahead of me, emphasizes hard, very hard work.

Mitzy Sosa 02:00

What plants did you start growing at the beginning? Were you mostly growing wildflowers or something else?

Jane Thompson 02:06

No, it was, it was a combination of all of those, but really, in order to supply the demand for landscapers, it’s important to have kind of a distributed palette. So like for example, the grasses: cordgrass, muhlygrass, Fakahatchee grass, groundcovers would be things like sunshine mimosa, twinflower, wildflowers, just the whole assortment of wildflowers, shrubs, many different shrubs, coffee, caper, privet, etc, etc. Trees, so that when a landscaper comes in to purchase, they don’t just have one type of thing that they’re buying for the landscape that they want to install, they have everything that you would need to put in a landscape with the different tiers. Trees being the tallest tier, shrubs the second tier, then the grasses and ground covers, etc.

Mitzy Sosa 03:01

Did you find it hard to manage the needs, like the dirt, for so many different plants?

Jane Thompson 03:07

That’s a really, really good question. And yes, first of all, we don’t call it dirt, we call it soil. If you call it dirt to Atlas Peat & Soil, who is our local soil provider, they’ll smack you on the hand and say it’s not dirt, it’s soil.

Mitzy Sosa 03:26

You’re giving away how much of a green horn I am in the industry.

Jane Thompson 03:29

I used to call it dirt too, until I was reprimanded. So to answer the question, so I’m in west Lake Worth. And I have a very hard time, and I’ve tried, growing scrub material. The majority of what I grow is pine flatwood material and coastal upland or maritime hammock type species. For some reason, it just seems to work here with the couple of different soil mixtures that I use and with my watering rotation. I’m sure if I tried a little harder with those scrub materials and put them off in a spot where they wouldn’t get any water, that would be another story but my focus is primarily on and it seems to work seamlessly, so I’m going with that is pine flatwood species and coastal hammock species. And it makes sense too, because most of the landscapes that you do, and some people will disagree, when you landscape around a house, it’s all fill. So coastal maritime hammock species thrive in that kind of environment. But everyone, not everyone, but there’s a drainage requirement by the Lake Worth Drainage District, in many of the homes that are built, where there’s a swale sort of outside of that mound that you have your house up on. And that’s where the pine flatwood species work best, is down where it may have a high water table or may have seasonal flooding.

Mitzy Sosa 04:57

And what has kept you going? What do you wish you knew when you started?

Jane Thompson 05:02

Well, what I know now that I wish I knew was that there are cyclical economic downturns that you must be prepared for. That, I will tell you it took me completely by surprise. Had I had a business degree, certainly I probably would have been able to weather that better. We barely made it through. But we did, and Indian Trails is thriving today. In fact, I can’t keep enough product on the shelf. So that , in and of itself is one of the most important things if you’re getting into a business long term, you’ve got to be prepared for those downturns. Another thing that was surprising for me about the business, this farming business in Florida, I grew up in New England, and my mother’s family had a farm for generations. And as I think back, they closed down in the winter. And so they had a seasonal business there too. So farming is, in essence, a seasonal business. So that was surprising for me, in terms of the money flow, you have the seasons though through the years they have changed. But back 10 years ago, I’ve been doing this for 22 years and 10 years ago, summertime, if you didn’t have enough cash to carry you through, you were struggling, so you’d have to tighten your belt. But then when the season picked up again, you’d have to work like the dickens to get that extra money to carry you through the off season. So that was something that I wasn’t aware of and learned about. However, through the years, I don’t know why it’s changed, but I don’t at Indian Trails have that seasonal ebb and flow anymore. The summers are just as busy as the winters. So I just wanted to touch on that.

Mitzy Sosa 06:50

Let’s also touch a little bit more on what are some of the most rewarding things, in your opinion, of owning the nursery.

Jane Thompson 06:57

The reward? Gee, what are the rewards …The most rewarding thing, I guess, would be my old job, as a tech support person in a white collar industry at the Tribune newspaper was dog eat dog, you know, people climbing the ladder, always had to be politically aware of things happening. I hated that. When I joined this Florida Association of Native Nurseries , there was none of that. Everybody welcomed me in with open arms, because we all shared the same mission that we wanted to try to get these natives out there in the marketplace to provide more sustainable landscaping options than the typical tropical plants. So the rewards were just the social aspect of it and peer camaraderie. I can also say that that living on this farm is just really, really peaceful.

Mitzy Sosa 07:57

So I live in a more urban area here in South Florida and driving into your nursery, I see beautiful open land. Is it a benefit to have that much open space? How was that? How has that played a part in having space for your children to grow up?

08:14

Yeah, the funny thing about that is, my kids hate to be outside. Here we bought all this land to raise our kids on, and when I was young, I was out in the woods exploring, so I wanted that for them as well. So buying out here, I thought they would just be all over the woods, in the cypress head, everywhere. But they turned out to be techies and nerds, so, unfortunately. I think what will happen is, they’re now 21 and 22, I think as they age, I think they’ll come back around to it, being exposed to that as they grew up, and the peaceful nature of that. Because when they do come visit, they’ve since grown up and moved out. When they do come visit, they do revel in the peaceful atmosphere out here. And as far as the space required for the nursery, when I bought the nursery in ’98, Michael had two sites, he had quite the thing going on. He had a five acre lot in a different field in a different part of town. And then they had this 10 acre site outfitted and it was it was really booming back there before that recession. So what what happened though, was then when that recession hit, I had to scale back to five acres and diversify. So, I leased out two portions. It’s 10 acres, two separate five acre parcels, so I leased out the north five acres to two different people for income to come in, because of that recession. I still say, it was important because we couldn’t keep up the quality, plants were not selling. They were just declining in the pot, going to pot, so I donated a considerable amount of them to a project that the City of Lake Worth was doing called Snook Islands, for a project that they were doing, because they ran out of money. So rather than just put ’em on the burn pile, I said look, just take these, put them in this project, I don’t want anything, just. And so I donated much of the material that was declining through that recession and scaled back and tried to focus on quality. And I still do that today. I’m still operating just on five acres, so I’m completely scaled back and focusing on quality and it’s doing, it’s working out very well.

Mitzy Sosa 10:30

Yeah, everyone I’m interviewing has had to adapt as a result of that recession. There really isn’t a handbook that you can give someone because who knows what will happen like this pandemic? How does someone plan for it?

Jane Thompson 10:46

Yeah, well, the pandemic actually has been good for business. I know that’s a horrible thing to say, because it’s a horrible thing that’s happening to so many people that are losing their lives and becoming very severely ill. But, but it’s actually caused people to just stop and take a break and, or they’re forced to, because they’re forced to lock down and they look at their surroundings, their own environment. And I, and I think that too, it’s causing them to need to have more nature. And I mean, we’ve seen studies and research that shows that immersing in nature is really therapeutic. And I think a lot of people are reaching out for that. I can’t keep enough wildflowers on the benches, people are calling for wildflowers because they can create these little butterfly gardens in their backyard for them and their their kids and them to just get outside and get out of the house and do something in nature and just feel connected to the earth, so.

Mitzy Sosa 11:39

So I just graduated from Florida Atlantic University, and I did some research there with native plants and, and green spaces. So I was working with the public health office within the university. So what you’re saying about people benefiting from green open spaces was a thing that we wanted to push for a lot during, during the pandemic, and really just for any, any students that that are on campus to have a space to, you know, connect to earth, as you say. I think we really did see people connect to the outside a lot more during this pandemic, just never go outside. So do you think that as people become more aware of the benefits of native plants, green spaces, do you think we will be moving towards landscapes that look more natural?

Jane Thompson 12:33

That question — because I just had a very disturbing experience with a customer. Okay, so we have what they call snowbirds. Folks that live up north and then they come down here and they go back and forth. But the pandemic has forced them to stay. And so they’re, they’re doing different things. So I had this one client who called and who was recommended by her neighbor. And when they contacted me, we had a few different meetings about the landscaping that they would like to have in their very large lot in a planned unit development. Now typically, those planned unit developments have very sterile non-native landscaping, and that is pruned, regularly boxed. Very neat, very tidy, but they asked for something more natural and different than what everyone else has in their yard. So, I planned this, we removed several areas of their lawn and put in landscape beds. And they hired me because they wanted to not only have something different than their neighbors, but they wanted to attract birds, butterflies and such. So all these Florida native plants in these different beds, removing a considerable amount of sod, and all of a sudden here come the rabbits. The rabbits are eating up the plants that we have installed in their landscaping. The woman was beside herself and practically trembling at the thought of these rabbits. And I said it brings joy to my heart to see that these rabbits have something to eat, because there isn’t a whole lot for them to be eating around here. And I said why is it so bad that you have the rabbits, and she said because they’ll be sleeping in the grass. I didn’t know how to respond to that. I just didn’t know how to respond to that. So I, actually she was so angry and adamant about these rabbits and wildlife eating her plants. I was just at a loss for words. Like, I didn’t even know how to educate this woman because she just couldn’t, she couldn’t fathom the idea that the butterflies and worms were going to be eating her Chapman’s Senna that I installed for her. So long story short, the only, the only saving grace was I agreed to, at my cost, replace eight of the plants that were being devoured the most with eight of her choosing. And I did that yesterday, and I’m gonna go trap those rabbits and rehome them in my woods.

Mitzy Sosa 14:56

It’s crazy that people want butterflies and other wildlife but don’t realize that they need to eat the plants. That is how ecosystems work.

Jane Thompson 15:08

Educating … I have a hard time educating some of the people that I deal with that are like this woman, I don’t know how to turn them around. So I could use some lessons on that.

Mitzy Sosa 15:26

So what is the most common mistake that you think native plant growers make, something that might hold them back?

Jane Thompson 15:32

I’m not aware of well, maybe for me, it’s being able to turn people like that around. Maybe that’s a common mistake of mine. Because it’s so much easier when folks come in, and they share the same mission. And they are just really, really ready to change their landscaping from non-native to native, or at least change part of it. But I’m not I’m not really aware of any common mistake or changes that I’ve seen over the years involving running a farm. All I know is that maybe, well, I can’t imagine anybody going into farming would not realize it’s gonna be hard work. All I have to say is you just must be prepared for the hard work, the dedication, perseverance, and the commitment and to be prepared to tighten your belt when times are tough and work like the dickens when times are good.

Mitzy Sosa 16:22

So definitely a lot of hard work. What changes have you seen over the years that make it easier or harder to become a native plant grower? And are there tools or resources that make it easier?

Jane Thompson 16:35

Not tools like a rake and a shovel, you’re talking about tools like advertising tools and using technology? I guess getting at making sure that you have a brand and getting your brand out there. I use these because they’re readily available and practically free, so I host my website for under $10 a month on Vistaprint. It’s very inexpensive, and I only get three pages. But it works extremely well. I asked people periodically how they found me and it’s either word of mouth, or they’ve found me on Google or, and if they found me on Google, most of the times, it’s because of the way that Vistaprint my, my website to be spidered, or I don’t know what the terms are anymore, it’s been years. But the search engines find me because Vistaprint has hooks in it the way that it would allow for people to find me, I have had people calling me saying hey, I saw your website, we can recommend some changes to make it better. And I’m like, I don’t need any changes. Because it works just fine. I get many, many, many, many people finding me that way. So. So that’s one moment. And then Facebook, I will take photographs of the posts on the benches, and post them on Facebook and boost the post. And I can boost the posts across however many miles I want, nationally or locally. So that works very, very well. I get a lot of post engagements that way. I will also boost at my cost, I’ll see certain like about the monarchs that there was an article that came up showing how the monarchs are becoming further and extinct. Different articles that I feel are really, really important for our industry, so I’ll boost those posts at my cost via Facebook, the mechanic there. So there’s those two, and then the search engine FANN, and the Institute of Regional Conservation. They have some really good search engines with some really good information. FANN offering you know members across the state and plants that are provided by those members and their advertising. But the Institute for regional conservation is really, really, really instrumental. I actually have links to their site from my website. And when you list a plant on their website, at least for South Florida, they’re trying to move more towards Central Florida but but their primary database includes South Florida species, you can get a really, really good set of information about different plants through IRC. So the Internet over the years, obviously, is instrumental in reaching customers and disseminating the information that we’re trying to disseminate about native plants.

Mitzy Sosa 19:38

And that education about native plants is very valuable. So I’m going to bring us back to kind of just wrap up here. I have one last question for you. And it’s gonna help us wrap up what we’ve been talking about for the last 20 minutes. If you could design a beginning native plant grower program, what would you make sure it included?

Jane Thompson 20:04

I don’t know. If I could design a beginning of native plant grower program. Definitely, you know, I think some of the things that I’ve learned through the years, I took this course, it was a landscape technician course through FNGLA. And I learned a lot about, I mean, you’re talking beginner beginner. I learned a lot about the importance of botanical names versus common names, the different characteristics of a plant and how to recognize the different characteristics of a plant to determine the family. I don’t know that that’s very necessary or not, but you know, it’s good scientific information and makes you knowledgeable. I think that program for beginner involving those basic business knowledge about the economic cycles, that’s important. And things that really hit us hard, the seasonal ebbs and flows, being involved in the best management practices because of our water quality and how important it is to keep our water water quality fixed the water quality from the phosphorus runoff. Again, I think that propagation techniques are very, very important. There are still a couple of species that I can’t figure out 22 years later, and I can’t figure it out. Marlberry just can’t do it. I can’t figure it out. And then I guess just making sure that they that these beginners are aware if these beginners are truly interested in growing Florida native plants, that they are aware of like minded groups like the Florida Native Plant Society , Florida Association of Native Nurseries, Institute for Regional Conservation, because those are resources that they can use to further increase their knowledge about natives and where to get them.

Mitzy Sosa 21:54

And where to get them, that is very important indeed. All right, folks, that is all we have for you today. Jane Thompson, thank you so much for joining us. It has been a great load of fun, and I feel like we’ve learned so much already from you. If you want to take a road trip down to Lake Worth, Florida, you can stop by and visit Indian Trails Native Nursery and meet Jane Thompson yourself. Remember to keep an eye out for even more podcasts coming your way. We will have Dave Chiappini joining us in the future and also Steve Beeman to come talk about some of his Beemats. You can head on over to nativeplanthort.org and learn even more about the Native Plant Horticulture Foundation and about some educational opportunities so you can learn even more about native plants. To find your nearest native plant nursery and get your own natives, you can visit the Florida Association of Native Nurseries website at FANN.org. Thank you everyone for listening and see you next time.

GO NATIVE: JANE THOMPSON, NATIVE PLANT GROWER

By Foundation | May 27, 2022

Jane in her nursery, loading Florida native coontie, Zamia integrifolia, a native cycad.

GO NATIVE: JERRY FRITZ, NATIVE TREE GROWER

Wed, 06 Apr 2022 12:40:00 GMT

Interview with former native tree grower, Jerry Fritz, in West Palm Beach, Florida.

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

Jerry Fritz is the former owner and founder of SUNCO, a wholesale tree growing operation, with a mostly native inventory except for a few cold-hardy palms. Jerry was in the Florida native plant industry for 30+ years and remains an active member and volunteer with the Florida Association of Native Nurseries (FANN), our industry partner in Florida. FANN is a trade association serving businesses that grow, sell and plant native plants. Jerry is also a founding member of our foundation’s inaugural board of directors. He shares a little of his experience and spoiler alert — is ready and willing to serve as a mentor to anyone getting into the business.

About our podcast

Go Native: the Business of Native Plants interviews seasoned native plant business owners and experts to help others learn from their successes and failures.

Find monthly episodes wherever you find your podcasts , here on our blog or at https://rss.com/podcasts/gonative

Now listen to Episode 2 or read the transcript below to learn more. Go native!

EPISODE 2

TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODE 2

HOST: Mitzy Sosa

Interviewee: Jerry Fritz, former native tree grower

Mitzy Sosa 00:00

Hello, and welcome to today’s podcast. I am your host Mitzy Sosa. Today we’re going to go on a journey, to find out the most important things to know before starting a native nursery. We have with us today … drumroll please: [drumroll sound] Jerry Fritz. Hello, Jerry. Happy Monday.

Jerry Fritz 00:23

Yeah, right. I’m retired. Every day is Friday.

Mitzy Sosa 00:37

We are so excited to have you here today with us, Jerry, I’d like for you to get started by giving us an introduction. Tell us who you are and what you do, how you got started in this business.

Jerry Fritz 00:50

Okay, my name is Jerry Fritz and I started Sunco in 1982. Started out as a maintenance company. And then I got involved. I own some property in South Florida. So I started planting trees and the maintenance business sort of evolved into a nursery business. And I did a lot of landscaping down in South Florida and I had a cousin who lived in North Florida. And I seen there was a need for a lot of three gallon material. So he owned a lot of land. So I said, Hey, just give me one acre. And all I want to do is grow three gallon shrubs. So he said okay. I said, you’ll make more off this one acre, then you will off the other 40 acres of hay that you have and less — it won’t be as much work.

So we started that and we did okay on that. But I, I I wanted to get bigger. So I spent my summers in that area. So I bought 20 acres of land and started a nursery on it and all containers, all drip irrigation. At that time, you know, the, the top of the line, the most technical and had everything. So I grew that and only grew native trees. And then I joined a native plant society. And at that point, I met a lot of people that at that time, it was Association of Florida Native Nurseries. So I joined that, and became a member and met a lot of people who are friends today.

And anyway, so about five years ago, none of my children wanted to get involved in the business. So I see no reason to keep beating a dead horse. So I said, you know, I can handle it. So I sold off my nursery, the one in South Florida and the one in North Florida. So I’m retired, but I still believe in the industry. I still believe in native plants. So you know, I’m doing anything I can to help you know further the industry and get young people.

Mitzy Sosa 02:39

So was this something you studied in school? Was it [a] interest you developed much later on?

Jerry Fritz 02:47

I went back to school and got my degree in ornamental horticulture, which I did at night after working 12 hours a day in a sweat and then going home and then studying for four hours. But I already had the core. All I had to do was take the core, because I already had a degree in sociology, so.

I got that and I got a, I went and took a test to become a arborist, internationally certified arborist and I got that so and I was real proud of that because I was Florida 101 was my number. And now they’re in the 30 and 40,000. So I was real proud of that but, and I, then I got my pest control license, I became a certified pest operator. I took another test and I passed the state exam on that, which I guess I’m good at taking tests. But anyway, so I had that. So I was able to treat trees. Being the arborist, I could treat them, I could take them down or whatever, so.

And that’s basically what I did, mostly landscaping in South Florida and I sold trees to landscape contractors. So that’s pretty much how I got into this. I didn’t get started till I was 30-32 years old. I was a regional manager for a company that was in the southeastern United States. So I moved Arkansas, Mississippi, Georgia, North Florida, so I enjoyed working for that. But that job just never … I just didn’t like it anymore. So I had a chance to get in the industry. So that’s how I got into this job or network, so.

Mitzy Sosa 04:13

I also noticed that you kind of just started growing trees from the beginning or focused on the three gallon.

Jerry Fritz 04:20

Three gallon. Well here, I had a three acres in South Florida which is hard to believe that we had it in town, but it I grew up palms to start with and then at that point I went and started the three gallon native plants in North Florida. So I still had this nursery which I grew the palms mostly to plant in Palm Beach. That’s where I did a lot of work for the rich people over there, who were, believe it or not, were very kind and nice.

Mitzy Sosa 04:50

Was there anything that kind of pushed you to just focus on the trees?

Jerry Fritz 04:56

Yeah, um I don’t know. I did a lot of hunting. And when I’d go to the woods all the time, and you know, I was always looking up, I was not so much looking down. So I, I don’t know, really, focus, I just had a, I don’t know, being when I became an arborist, it was all trees. So I guess I just, you know, kind of slanted towards that. And I never really thought about it till you just asked me that question. I kind of, you know, there’s no way that we could compete with, you know, corporations that had 100 acres. So we tried to grow some of the stuff that nobody else grew. You know, that was still native plant, and sometimes for restoration work. But a lot of the architects were coming on board about native plants, so they were spec’ing some and we might have been the only one who grew it, so. I’m glad I did.

Mitzy Sosa 05:49

I think the world is very happy that you decided to focus on growing trees. I have heard before that it’s usually a good idea to stick to growing one thing and supplying that to the market instead of trying to grow everything at once. Do you think that’s that’s the way to go?

Jerry Fritz 06:09

I agree with that. At one time, we tried to grow everything. And then you know, no matter what you did try to grow, you never had what the customer wanted. So we sort of started, you know, getting rid of items. So we got down to about ten different trees that we grew, and we just tried to grow them better and not try to grow everything because you can’t grow everything, so.

Mitzy Sosa 06:29

Right. Well, apart from you know, getting a heads up of like, don’t try to grow everything. What are other things you wish you would have known or had been given a heads up before you started in the native plant industry ?

Jerry Fritz 06:43

Well, in the nursery business, one thing, you know, with my former job, I worked five days a week. Well, in the nursery business, it’s seven and a half days a week, you’re never off, and you never ever get caught up. There’s always something to do. So you always feel like if you do something on the weekends, you’re guilty, because this had to be done or this should have been done. So I would say that was probably something that I didn’t anticipate, as much hands on as I did. But after a while, you just learned well, I can take care of that Monday – if it wasn’t, you know, water, irrigation problem.

Mitzy Sosa 07:20

And what were some of the really rewarding things that made all that grunt work worth it.

Jerry Fritz 07:29

Watching television and talking about how they’re cutting down the forest in Argentina and Brazil, and here I am planting trees back. Not at the rate they’re cutting them down, but at least I am doing something good for the environment, I’m doing something that’s going to help the future, planting trees. That’s a good thing. So, I always felt that I was doing something good instead of dumping chemicals down the river type of business, so.

Mitzy Sosa 07:56

Right, and that’s one of the beautiful things about this industry is that while we see all of the environmental impacts that we’re having, as we keep growing in population, our native plant growers are still trying to do something to, to help that. So switching gears a little bit, apart from the stuff that we have mentioned already. Are there some details that you think new nursery owners oversee [overlook], when they’re starting out? And what are some mistakes that they should avoid coming in ?

Jerry Fritz 08:29

Oh, I would think maybe being not having enough money to start with, because you’re going to go through periods where you’re not selling anything, and you still have a payroll, you still have you know, electric bills, you still have everything, insurance, everything like that. So I’m saying you should be well funded.

I don’t know that I would say, I wouldn’t try to start out real big, I would try to start out sort of small, get a feeling for it. And then once I felt that I really liked this type of industry and I liked what I was doing. And then maybe I had a little history of sales, I would know, if I wanted to get bigger than I knew that I could grow easier planting the right things and having the experience to take care of it at times. So I’d say don’t try to start out big and don’t try to grow everything. Just try to concentrate on a smaller network and develop good customer relationships. That’s an important thing.

And another thing, not just because I belong to FANN and I belong to the Native Plant Horticulture Foundation, but it’s good to be connected in this business. I mean, it is important.

The lady that just bought the nursery from the gentleman that I sold it to. She has a career in marketing, which scared me, because I’m going, you need to know something about trees, but I’ve been helping her out. But anyway, she has done things with marketing that I never have come up with. I mean she has got a good thing going, so I’m saying marketing was something that I was probably light on and at the time when I got in this business there was no Facebook, there was no you know, there was just the PlantFinder, that was the only way you can advertise. But now, with everything else, I would say you’d have to have, you know, a good background in marketing because you can grow the best product, but if you can’t sell it, you’re not gonna make any money.

Mitzy Sosa 10:15

That’s the cold hard truth, folks, you heard it here first. Well, what about the role the Internet has played on the native plant industry, or the interest of homeowners or individuals designing their own native landscapes or even just having some native plants in their backyard? Do you think that’s going to increase as we get the Internet involved and I don’t know, eventually become a little bit more mainstream.

Jerry Fritz 10:47

I see it. There’s no way that it cannot. I mean, it seems like you know, everybody’s on Facebook, and everybody’s, you know, streaming this, and everybody’s researching plants and I mean, like, sometimes I cannot remember the name of a plant, that I get older now that I knew the name of, but I can really quickly find the name of it. And before, you had to go to the library, you know, and look it up to get to find out the name. So I would say, with all the internet sources, that it is nothing but going to help more people discover native plants, more people to get in the business.

The only thing disheartening, when I went to school, there was, there was some, I call them children because I was much older then, but there was people in the class, young people that were just taking it because they thought it was a easy class. So that kind of concerned me. And but there was some of ’em that were really dedicated, and I have met some since then that have graduated, and they are really, I’m impressed that makes me feel good that you know, I’m not the only one carrying the torch.

And I am not the only one carrying the torch. There’s a lot of us in this state that, that you know, will do anything to help anybody succeed, so. That’s one thing about being connected. People aren’t afraid to help you if you got a problem. I could call anybody at FANN and say, hey, look, I got this problem. Oh, I had that problem a year ago. Here’s what I did. You know, and they don’t. They’re very helpful. So it’s good to belong to organizations.

Mitzy Sosa 12:17

It’s always good to surround yourself with like minded people for sure. If you were talking to some of those young students that that you saw, and they were deciding to start their own nursery. What are some of the skills that you think they need to have under their belt to be successful once they open their their nursery ?

Jerry Fritz 12:39

Well, I think you have to have some knowledge of, well, horticulture. I mean, it doesn’t have to be, you don’t have to have a PhD in it, but you should have some knowledge, you should have a little bit of background and know what you’re getting into. I mean, if you got a degree in ecology and then all of a sudden you want to open a nursery, that doesn’t mean you really have a background in horticulture. It doesn’t mean you do not, but it means you’ve accessed it.

So I’m just saying to get started, you would, you really got to have a desire, I mean, to plant things that help the environment. I think that would be a big thing.

And the big thing is, plant the right thing. And I always told people, Hey, what should I plant? What should I plant in my nursery? What should I plant in my nursery? I go, well, I’ll tell you the best advice I can give you, you go through my nursery and you see what I planted, and you plant something else. Because these ain’t solid.

A thing, too, is that I’ve had three downturns in this business. And I mean, it broke a lot of customers. I mean, growers, I mean that were not big growers, but smaller growers, you know, that we’re starting with a couple acres maybe and the industry hit where there was no building, nobody were buying plants. And I mean, I went through three of ’em. And I mean it’s just like. I was, I had everything paid for, which is one thing that I would do, I didn’t borrow a lot of money. So I didn’t have, you know, the notes that I had to pay, but those downturns were something. So, if you’re going to get into the business, you need to be aware that it ain’t all going to be, it’s not all going to be peaches and cream, there are going to be some times and it’s you know, and right now, building is good. So I always say tough times don’t last tough people do. So that’d be my advice. I mean, you’re going to have to be strong enough to put up through the tough times or you should maybe should seek another line of work.

Mitzy Sosa 14:33

That’s a harsh but true point. What about the, the training or the communication skills that it takes to manage some employees or just have them there to help you ?

Jerry Fritz 14:45

Well, employees are very important. Maybe when you start out small you’re not going to have a lot of employees you might be the only employee or your relative does that helps you out but you got to have good employees.

I know when I worked, part of my job description to myself and not to anybody else was, I just didn’t tell the employee what to do. I taught them what to do. Why do we, you know why we’re doing this? No. Well, the reason we’re doing this … So as we were working, I was teaching them so they were learning horticulture, whether they knew it or not. So if they were a good employee, pretty soon, they would know as much as well, almost as much as you did. And they learned it that way from the ground up, they didn’t learn it from books, textbooks, videos, they learned it. Well, just the way I did learn it.

When I went back to school to get my degree, I’d already done it all, I had already done everything wrong. So I knew the right way to do it after that , but starting from the ground.

But employees is probably the most important part, keeping them, making their job fun, making their job interesting. You know, it’s not just going out there and digging holes, or planting trees or stepping up plants, it’s, you know, there’s a reason we do everything, and this is why and it seemed to always work with me, to teach them where they were learning something that just wasn’t boring. So that’s about all I got in that category.

Mitzy Sosa 16:14

And while you were teaching your employees everything that you knew, what were some of the ways that you made sure that you were still learning as much as you could about anything.

Jerry Fritz 16:24

Well, every year FANN would have a native plant show, and they always had classes there. So even when I went there, there were classes that you know, I thought I knew somethin’ about it and then when I’d go to the class, I would learn more. Same way with the native plant society. I mean, I just, I would leave there, thinking how dumb I was, when I went there, and how smart I am when I left, but you got to have unique places to go learn, and you need to be able to find those places. And again, that’s where the internet might help to learn. But a lot of times, it’s still hands on and then do like I do, do it wrong for about three times and find out well, if that’s not working, no matter how many times I tried it, so let’s try something different. So that worked.

Mitzy Sosa 17:08

You have brought up some really, really amazing points. So, I want to make sure that we get everything that we can, condensed in our last question here. I know, you have spent all this time listening to us. And now we’re reaching the end. But, Jerry, if you were to be in charge of designing your very own “how to start a nursery” course that included different modules of different topics to learn before you are ready to go, what are some of the key topics that you would make sure were covered in that course ?

Jerry Fritz 17:40

Well, I know this sounds funny coming from me and speaking to you, but I think you would need a good ability to work with the Internet. When we first started, one of the classes that I changed in my major to get, I took some statistics off, but I I said I don’t know anything about computers. So I got a chance to get to take a class introduction to computer. So one of the first things that I’m going to say to you now is you do have to have some computer access, some computer ability, to know how to use a computer. And not so much for getting on the Internet, but making spreadsheets, I mean keeping track of your sales, keeping track of your labor, keeping track of interest, keeping track of insurance, so you need to have some ability to use a computer.

The next thing is you need to have, again, I would go back and say you need some way to sell your product. How can you get your name and your material out there where it can be easily viewed, and if viewed then maybe sold. So you’d have to have that.

You’d have to have some information on soils and fertilizers. That was one of my first classes I took was soils and fertilizers. And at that point, I knew why I had taken chemistry because there was a lot of chemistry and that was very important. So you need to know some of that.

You need to know something about, a little bit about photosynthesis. Like you know, why can’t I plant this tree under, in the shade? Why? Why do I want to plant the rose north and south or east or west, depending on the sun. So you need a little bit of that but basically

What else would I doing? I would, something to do with finance and economics you need. You’re not just growing plants, you are running a business. You really need to know economics and financing. Like you need to know how can I borrow money cheap if I need to borrow money? How can I do this? How can I work with dealers, equipment dealers — you need to know a little bit about that.

So that would be some of the things that I could think of.

Mitzy Sosa 17:51

We have reached the end of our time here Jerry but it has been so amazing to have you here and to listen to your story. And as well as all of the advice that you have for anyone that is trying to pursue their own native plant nursery.

Jerry Fritz 20:06

I thank you very much and I hope I help somehow but I mean, I’m the kind of person if somebody calls me I don’t mind mentoring. This lady that bought the nursery from the man I sold it to, who ran into the ground, she is doing her best to bring it back. And it’s you know, that nursery is in Live Oak, which is, I live in, well actually, I live in Lake Worth and Madison, Florida. So I’m in Lake Worth now. But uh, I mean, I stop by there, I call up and say, “I can stop by for an hour if you got any questions.” And like, a simple thing is, how do I get the trees on a trailer? Well, which, she put ’em on and she just put ’em on there. She put ’em on and she stood them up. So no, you got to lay them down so they don’t catch the wind and you got to put a tarp over ’em. Oh, like, uh, you know, just simple things. So anyway, I’m here to help any way I can, so.

Mitzy Sosa 20:59

Apparently! Thank you so much.

Jerry Fritz 21:01

Thank you. Alright, don’t be laughing [laughter].

Mitzy Sosa 21:09

Ay ay ay! And that was Jerry Fritz. Thank you so much for listening to our podcast. Don’t forget to visit our website at nativeplanthort.org where you can find even more information and keep an eye out for even more interviews coming your way. We will get to interview other nursery owners like Dara Dobson, Roger Triplett, Nancy Bissett, and many more. Thank you so much and enjoy the rest of your day.

Go Native: Jerry Fritz, Native Tree Grower

By Foundation | April 6, 2022

Jerry Fritz, always showing his native plant love.

FALL 2021 UF REAL FLORIDA LANDSCAPES DESIGN CHALLENGE

Wed, 23 Mar 2022 19:52:00 GMT

The University of Florida College of Design, Construction and Planning (UFDCP) has been assisting the U.S. National Forest Service with research on landscape strategies to restore the freshwater spring ecosystems of the Ocala National Forest . Florida’s springs are unique, important natural habitat, and a window into the health of the state’s groundwater. Spring water flow has declined as has water quality, and increased recreational demands are creating other environmental problems.

For the 2021 Planting Design Studio, UFDCP chose Alexander Springs , a popular swimming hole in the forest, as the site for the class native planting project. Students worked in teams to develop conceptual master plans and then individually on planting plans for the entry drive, parking lot and spring approach where people enter the water. FANN member native plant professionals volunteered to join students on their site visit, provide two native plant nursery tours, review preliminary plans in person and consult with faculty, students and forest service staff at a final presentation of twenty different planting designs.

Fifteen students submitted for competitive jurying. Judges selected Ashley Pike’s parking lot design as the first place winner.

The judges were very impressed with the habitat appropriateness and diversity of the plant selections as well as the beautifully executed plan documentation. The plan considers the needs of insects and birds and for someone new to native plants, demonstrates a surprising understanding of the natural habitat and the plants that belong there.

Ashley’s design emphasizes spaces for families to explore and enjoy nature both before and after visiting the spring. This supports an experience that from arrival through departure, is ecologically inspired and informed. Small walking paths, picnic and playground areas are all designed to expose visitors to elements of the natural sandhill and scrub habitats that surround the spring. Natural playground elements are in keeping with this national forest setting.

A Florida native herself, Ashley hails from Lake Mary, Florida, where she loves spending time in the great outdoors – many summer family vacations are spent at national parks. A big art fan, she also enjoys visiting museum and art festivals.

The scale of the Alexander Springs project initially seemed overwhelming, but she enjoyed working with her team to address the main sections (entry, parking, spring approach). This was her first experience with native plants but, she says, a very enjoyable experience. She really appreciated the opportunity to work on a place of real significance and an interdisciplinary project that involved ecologists, archeologist, hydrologists and landscape experts.

Ashley is on track to graduate with her bachelors degree in landscape architecture in spring 2024. She discovered the field of landscape architecture during the process of applying to colleges and looking through their catalogs. She “did a little googling” and decided to try it [landscape architecture.] After just a few classes, Ashley was convinced that the program’s combination of art and science would be a good use of her skills. Ultimately, though, she would like to not get stuck inside an office [drawing plans on a computer.] She wants to get out, meet people and be part of an ecological community where she can serve both people and nature.

Foundation and FANN volunteers are so grateful to have the opportunity to meet and encourage the Ashley Pikes of this world, and her fellow students. Very close runner ups with high quality plans as well, were, in order, Sal Stephens ‘ entry drive design and Sierra Palmer ‘s design for the approach to the spring. The University of Florida is producing some great future landscape architects who will, with your help and ours, be using a lot more native plants.

Since 2018, the Native Plant Horticulture Foundation has partnered with UFDCP and FANN to enhance native plant education through their Planting Design Studio course required of all students majoring in landscape architecture. The foundation connects faculty and students with experienced native plant professionals who review and advise on student plant selections for the class project, consulting during site visits and on preliminary plans. Students usually visit at least one native plant nursery as well. Students have the option of submitting their final work for jurying and award by a panel of native plant experts.

FALL 2021 UF REAL FLORIDA LANDSCAPES DESIGN CHALLENGE

By Foundation | March 23, 2022

Ashley Pike, an undergraduate student in landscape architecture at the University of Florida in Gainesville, designed an enhancement of the Ocala National Forest Alexander Springs parking area. To create a seamless experience upon arrival and departure, Ashley added planted pathways and play areas that expose families to plants of the surrounding sandhill and scrub ecosystems.

Before this project, I had just been exposed to Florida-friendly landscaping™ principles. Native plants were the “better option when possible” was all I knew. It really helped, being forced to look at native options and dive into it. It’s really cool to see that natives connect to a place. [Now] I definitely know that good planting design really depends on location and context.

Ashley Pike, Fall 2021 University of Florida Real Florida Landscapes Design Challenge First Place Award Winner

Ashley’s plan.

“Home run!! … If I could, I would give this submission a nearly perfect score!”

One of many enthusiastic comments from the judges, all active professionals in the native plant industry

GO NATIVE; CARL BATES INDIGENOUS PLANTS

Wed, 02 Mar 2022 17:18:00 GMT

Interview with wholesale native plant grower, Carl Bates, in Loxahatchee, Florida

ABOUT THIS EPISODE

Carl is the owner of Carl Bates Indigenous Plants, a wholesale nursery which supplies native plants in liners and other small container sizes to other wholesale nurseries, retail plant nurseries, and landscape and restoration projects throughout Central and South Florida. Carl has learned to endure the cyclical ups and downs of the horticulture industry and how to supply very large projects form multiple sources. Carl shares what he has learned about what to grow and when to grow it, and why he still loves getting up every day to drive to the next nursery.

Carl has been in the native plant industry for a long time. He was the founding president, in 1986, of the Association of Native Nurseries, later renamed Florida Association of Native Nurseries, FANN , our industry partner in Florida. FANN is a trade association serving businesses that grow, sell and plant native plants.

About our podcast

Go Native: the Business of Native Plants interviews seasoned native plant business owners and experts to help others learn from their successes and failures.

Find monthly episodes wherever you find your podcasts , here on our blog or at https://rss.com/podcasts/gonative

Now listen to Episode 1 or read the transcript below to learn more. Go native!

EPISODE 1

TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODE 1

HOST: Mitzy Sosa

Interviewee: Carl Bates, Carl Bates Indigenous Plants

Mitzy Sosa 00:02

Hello, and welcome back to Go Native: the Business of Native Plants. I am Mitzy Sosa, your host. I am so excited to have you back here today for our first episode. My goal is to make sure to record the experiences and insights of seasoned native plant growers to educate and inspire newcomers to the industry. So we’re going to start our journey, our first podcast talking to Carl Bates. Carl Bates is the Owner of Carl Bates Indigenous Plants in Loxahatchee, Florida. Carl has been around since the very beginning of the native plant industry [in Florida]. You could say that he saw the writing on the wall when so many others did not. In the 1980s, he started his business called Plants for Tomorrow and later opened what he has now, Carl Bates Indigenous Plants. We’re going to hear today his journey and how that happened, and share some tips that only an insider would know. Let’s jump right in. Hello, Carl. Thank you so much for making the time to be with us here today. We are so excited to hear more from you and learn about your journey with native plants. So right now, I know that you primarily grow native grasses and beach plants. But I wanted to take a couple of steps back and ask you about your first native plant related business [that] you started. And what made you start it.

Carl Bates 01:38

We got into growing trees for the phosphate mines for reclamation. At the time, Palm Beach County was starting to implement regulations requiring a certain percentage of native, so we kind of switched our production from exotic to almost exclusively native over the next couple of years. I started in the seed business in 1975, selling exotic seed, and sold the seed all over the state, primarily for foliage production and landscape production. And then it was kind of the next step, we started growing some seed in liners, two-inch pots, for sale to the industry.

Mitzy Sosa 02:30

Oh, that’s interesting. So your beginning was growing the seeds and the liners ?

Carl Bates 02:36

Yeah, we sold seed for the first four years, primarily exotic plants for landscape and foliage industry. And then kind of the next step was to start sowing the seed in small pots and selling the liners, two inch pots, to the industry. People that didn’t want to grow their own seed, you know, we would start them for them and grow them, you know, up to a small plant, which they could then step up into one gallon or three gallon pots and continue to step up as necessary.

Mitzy Sosa 03:11

That’s a smart, smart business plan right there. How big was your nursery at the time? I read that you had Plants for Tomorrow that you started in the 1980s. But then you came back into the industry can you can you walk us through that journey ?

Carl Bates 03:26

Yeah, Plants for Tomorrow, we took it public and that was kind of a big problem. So, Plants for Tomorrow ended up going out of business and I ended up starting over a third time, or second time. And, you know, I started Carl Bates Indigenous Plants in 1998. And grew almost exclusively natives. At one time we had about 25 acres under production, growing about 400 different species, up to seven gallon pots, liners, six inch pots, one gallon, three gallon, seven gallon is what we primarily sold and again, primarily to the industry. We were doing some mitigation installation, some, you know, restoration installation, but the lion’s share of our business has always been the nursery business.

Mitzy Sosa 04:23

Okay. And going public refers to a private company’s Initial Public Offering, otherwise known as IPO, changing, and it now becomes a publicly traded and owned entity. Let’s talk about that a little bit more. Clearly, there were some surprises in that business, in your first business, going public didn’t work out. Apart from that, was there anything else right at the beginning when you first started? Was there anything else that really surprised you about the business, some like big “Ah ha” moments that you just started to realize that you would want to tell any new people that they should pay attention to.

Carl Bates 05:08

Just taking seed and sowing it and growing it … It’s just fascinating to me how you can take a seed and turn it into dollar bills. It’s just fascinating business.

Mitzy Sosa 05:23

So, right to really taking the time to appreciate getting to do this for a living.

Carl Bates 05:30

Yeah. 1985 or so we, we, we switched almost exclusively native I was, I was really into it. And I really enjoyed learning about the natives. And I used to spend my weekends driving to Central Florida and then working my way back, just looking for any seed that happened to be being produced at the time. I didn’t know exactly, I never had a plan as to what I was going to collect. At some point I did. But in the beginning, I just, you know, I would drive. I would leave early in the morning, get to my furthest point at daylight and start looking for seed. I had a friend of mine that had a boat. And they would go fishing every weekend. And one weekend, he says, ‘Why don’t you take off this weekend, Carl,’ because I used to work seven days a week. And he says, ‘Why don’t you take off this weekend and go fishing with us?’ And I said, ‘You know what? As far as I’m concerned, I’m fishing every day. Why would I want to go aggravate myself with a rod and reel?’ That was my fishing, and so and producing plants. Again, it’s just fascinating to me. How you can do that. Make money at it.

Mitzy Sosa 06:51

It’s an amazing thing to do, yes. Did you develop the interest of natives or even just for plants in nature from the very beginning, like from a very young age? Or did you go to school and have formal horticulture training or any of that.

Carl Bates 07:06

I actually went to school for accounting. I just, I kind of fell into the seed business by accident. And, you know, I was doing tree service and one of the guys said, we can sell areca palm seed. So that’s what we did one year, the first year and then found come to find out you could sell a whole lot of other different kinds of seeds, too. So like I said, we did that for four years. And then we just kind of took the next step to start sowing the seeds and growing it a little bit.

Mitzy Sosa 07:37

So it’s very good to hear that you from the very beginning had a lot of connections that kind of helped you find a place within the industry. I also know that you’re one of the founders of the Florida Association of Native Nurseries, FANN. How in the world did you manage to organize a bunch of independent-minded plant people to get together ?

Carl Bates 07:59

Well, as I told you, I, I was in the the foliage and landscape industry, you know, when I started. And I happened to be a member of the Palm Beach wholesale group, I was one of the board of directors for Palm Beach wholesalers wholesale group, which was a conglomerate of different nurseries and organizations, you know, with member nurseries that put out a booklet with their products, you know, similar to the FANN magazine now. And I was a member of the native plant society early on. I think I think I was a founding member of Palm Beach County Chapter. And I said we need something like this for the native plants, to promote the native plants. Because a lot of nurseries at the time, were growing native plants like gumbo limbo and buttonwood, silver buttonwood, mahogany, you know, cocoplum, and didn’t even know they were native. So, you know, it was it was just an effort to try to organize the guys that did specialize in native plants and help market their plants to the business.

Mitzy Sosa 09:20

So you really did see, like we said, the writing on the wall from the very beginning, before people even knew what they were doing.

Carl Bates 09:28

Kind of, yeah. Well, I knew there was a loose conglomerate of native plants [growers] and there was no real source for where to find natives. A lot of counties and cities were implementing ordinances that required a certain percentage of native plants. And it was an effort to try to educate some of these other growers that may be growing a whole lot of natives and didn’t even know it, and as well as market exclusively native plants.

Mitzy Sosa 10:03

Well, it has definitely developed into a really amazing thing to see now. But, of course, there’s still a lot of work to be done, even within, you know, the education of making sure that growers know what they are growing and what’s native and what’s not. And trying to push those native species to be the ones that are, are used the most. Is there some things like really specific things like even just talking about seed that you know, now that you’ve been in the business that you wish somebody would have told you, from the very beginning.

Carl Bates 10:36

I spent, you know, thirty years trying to find different things as far as seed germination, try the things to speed up germination on slow germinating plants. And you know, the universities have done some research on Lignum vitae germination and on coontie germination and those were enlightening, to say the least. And I’m still doing experiments, to try to speed up or increase germination on specific seeds. There’s some I have still haven’t mastered and one of them is mastic. I wish I could grow mastic. It’s a beautiful tree, but I can’t get more than maybe 10% germination. So I am still trying to get better germination out of that particular plant.

Mitzy Sosa 11:27

Clearly, there’s still more research to be done to learn about natives and and more work.

Carl Bates 11:34

It was never work for me. It was always a passion to grow the stuff so I mean, I just I still can’t wait to get up in the morning. I just, I love it. I just love it. I’m 70 years old, I still, I still make all my deliveries. I’ve been to Sarasota and back this morning. Gainesville and Ocala yesterday. I’m going to Miami tomorrow. I’m trying to remember where I was Monday. Monday, I was in Tampa. Like I said, I can’t wait to get up in the morning. And I just love it.

Mitzy Sosa 12:08

And how do you manage driving around to all those places and delivering your orders?

Carl Bates 12:12

I got a little companion that goes with me and keeps me company, my Chihauhua. He’s a rescue from Puerto Rico and he goes with me everywhere. We just, we have a ball. I’ll get an order from, you know, I do a lot in South and Central Florida. I’ll get an order from the Fort Myers area, and maybe a minimal order. And what I’ll do is, I’ll text eight or ten other people over that way and tell them I’m coming that way. And I usually manage to fill the truck up every time, you know, for stuff to go that direction. This morning’s delivery was small, it was a 400 and somethin’ plant order. And I had another order come through for 5000 liners. So it more than made the trip worth it.

Mitzy Sosa 13:05

Alright, so the picture I now have in my head is you with 5000 liners. So talk to me a little bit more about that. How do you maintain those plants? But, I’m also guessing that you have different species and all these species has different propagation cycles. How do you maintain all of that in your nursery?

Carl Bates 13:24

I had put together kind of a manual of when to harvest, you know what, what you could harvest this month, what was available, or pretty much knew where it was available. And I was in the process of putting down germination techniques. And you know, that kind of information. And unfortunately, when we moved our nursery, my son, I think, threw the through the information away, so I have to start all over again. A lot of it’s in my head, but I don’t have it on paper anywhere.

Mitzy Sosa 13:54

Oh, no. I hope that you can get that back onto paper because that sounds like such an amazing and smart way to keep track of all of your plants. And I know that I, boy, you’ve basically told us that there is nothing in your job that you do not like and that you can’t wait to get up in the morning to do your job. But is there any parts that you could tell us that you think other people would find difficult about what you do ?

Carl Bates 14:22

Not really. I’ve got my grandson working with me right now. He complains that all I ever do is given grunt work. And I’ve told him “Welcome to the nursery business, because it’s all grunt work.” It’s all grunt work. There ain’t nothing really glorious, you know, you know, taking seed, planting seed, weeding, pulling weeds, you know, lugging them on the truck. It’s all grunt work, stuff like that. He just doesn’t have the passion I guess, yet. Hopefully he’ll find it.

Mitzy Sosa 14:55

All of your passion, some of it must rub off onto him. We need, we need it to. But, you know, sort of along those lines, what are some questions that you would tell someone that’s about to start a nursery to really ask themselves before they fully launch into it, so they know that they will be okay and successful in what they want to achieve.

Carl Bates 15:21

I’d tell anybody, you know, starting out coming out of coming out of school, starting out in life, find something that you have a passion about, because you’ll never work a day in your life. And I’m serious about that. You know, I mean, so many people find themselves in dead end jobs or jobs they hate, and I just couldn’t have gone through life like that, I couldn’t do it. You’ll just be so much happier. And you’ll be more successful, if you find something you love.

Mitzy Sosa 15:53

Those are some very smart words that I really needed to hear. Do you think that now it’s easier to start a native nursery with, say advancements in technology or anything like that ?

Carl Bates 16:05

One thing that’s changed the whole business is the internet, and availability to information. You know, the fact that you can post anything on the internet, and it’ll be there for modernity. And I find myself looking up a lot of stuff and being, you know, fascinated with the information that is available on the internet. It’s changed everything really, changed the whole ballgame. Again, for anybody starting out and if you have a passion, in this business, in this nursery business, you need to specialize in a few items. And then expand your plant palette after you become established in those items. When I started back over again, here, five and a half years ago, I started with two species, Spartina patens and Spartina bakeri. And I built a reputation for those two. At the time, there was nobody on the East Coast growing Spartina patens. There’s lots of growers that grow Spartina bakeri. But we still manage to sell about 200,000 of each every year between our liners and four-inch and one-gallon production. And a lot of the stuff that I sell, I’ve got a grower in Fort Pierce, I sold him 10,000 bakeri liners. I bought back 8500 of them in one-gallon for an order. And that’s only because he didn’t have … I needed, 10,000 for an order for one-gallon. And he only had 8500. So I had to find 1500 somewhere else. The second order he placed was for 10,000 liners, I bought probably over 6000 of those back. And then the third order he placed was for 15,000 and I probably bought half of those back, as one-gallons. And he’s out now. I just shipped him some liners just Monday. So I end up buying back a lot of these liners. I end up buying it back in one-gallon just to keep my customers happy.

Mitzy Sosa 18:08

Do you tend to keep all of that in stock?

Carl Bates 18:11

Not always. But most of the time I can. I have a network of growers, I can buy liners from, that I can buy back larger containers if I get an order for them. And people call me I mean, you know people call me for Spartina bakeri and patens because they know I got it. And nobody, nobody can grow everything. And I try to tell a couple of guys that, but they still try. You’re better off growing large numbers of a few species than you are growing a lot of species with only a few numbers. Because, you can always find small numbers of plants here and there. It’s the big jobs that you want to target and wholesale to. There was a job in Jacksonville just recently that had 8000 viburnum, three-gallon Viburnum obovatum. You know, some of these jobs, nobody even grows that many. You got to put together two or three sources. And you can command a little higher price too, because you do have the quantity. A lot of people don’t realize the numbers that are, you know, that are produced and sold every year. I mean, of course I do business all over South and Central Florida, like I said. And some of the numbers are just astronomical. I’ve got one job I’m looking at right now in Palm Beach County, it’s got crazy numbers on it. And it’s just one job. It’s numbers that nobody in their right mind would speculate on. You know, 7-8000 one-gallon button bush. I grow a lot of one-gallon buttonbush, but I would never speculate on that many.

Mitzy Sosa 19:59

So clearly there is demand for natives. So why do you think that there is some pushback against them?

Carl Bates 20:08

When I was first starting out, you know, all these, like I said, all these counties and cities were starting their native plant ordinances. And there was a lot of pushback from the, from the general landscape nurseries. The guy who was head of the FNGA swore up and down, you know, he would never grow any natives. He was 125% of his production was natives, and he didn’t even know it. But he was so adamant about this, about the counties requiring natives that, you know, he was just pushing back. There’s, there’s so much, so much business out there, there’s plenty of business for the guys that want to grow exotics, and there’s plenty of business for the guys that want to grow natives. The fact that they require 50% or better sometimes, of natives, just works in, you know, in your favor. You know, produce what you can produce well, what you can grow well. We had a nursery in Fort Pierce had a problem with salt in the water. It wasn’t very high salt, but we couldn’t grow pond or bald cypress with that water. You know, produce what you can and what you do well at. Pick a couple of plants. You need some bread and butter plants. Okay. When I started again, in ’98, one of my bread and butter plants was Fakahatchee. I mean, I grew Fakahatchee and seagrape. I still grow Fakahatchee and dwarf Fakahatchee. It probably be could be considered one of my bread and butter plants. We sell everything we can produce in Fakahatchee liners and everything we can produce in dwarf Fakahatchee liners. We also sell about 10,000 one-gallon, regular Fakahatchee a year and probably two or three thousand dwarf Fakahatchee in one-gallon, per year. But have, have a plan and have to produce only a few species get good at them. Then build your plant palette from there. Don’t try to grow everything. It’s just, nobody, nobody can do it. Nobody can grow everything.

Mitzy Sosa 22:25

Alright, so there’s a couple of things that I’m hearing. First, some passion. You need it in there. Two, and this one may be hard for some of you. Talk to people. Build a network. Know who you can go to. Know who you can depend on. Three, do some research. What seeds can you get your hands on? What grows really well where you are? Four, find something that you are really good at growing, and just sell it. Don’t try to grow everything, because it sounds really, really hard. Is [sic] there any tools that you would recommend for people to use to to figure out these things ?

Carl Bates 23:02

No, you know, you need to build your clientele. You know, you can do … there’s PlantAnt, which has pretty much overtaken PlantFinder. I used to call the PlantFinder the Bible of the nursery industry. For years, I referred to it as the bible of the nursery industry. For plant availability as well as plant pricing. You know, you go in there and you find out what the prices are, and you decide whether or not you can grow it for that and you try to pick the middle of the road. As far as prices, don’t go too cheap, don’t go too expensive, and you’ll succeed. Have availability, is probably more important than pricing, within reason. But having the availability for people that have large landscape, commercial landscape jobs, you know. Everybody and their brother has got cocoplum, and some of them are cheap as the dickens. $3 or $4 for three-gallons. But there there are other cocoplums, but that’s mostly red tip. Green tip, hardly anybody grows. Horizontal, very few people grow it. And both of those are in demand. Just one example. One other thing I would teach is, when the market is glutted with a certain item, that’s the time to start production. The thing is that when the market is glutted, when you’re sitting there looking at 5000 one-gallon muhly and you can’t can’t give them away — that’s the time to start to seed. Because nobody else is producing them when they’re already stuck with, you know, a big quantity. And the market goes through these undulations of market glut, then nothing available. It is predictable as the weather and that’s, that’s kind of a rule I live by and was able to build my nursery by. When the market’s glutted, start production. Because nobody else is, literally.

Mitzy Sosa 25:05

And just like that we have learned so much from you already, and we are so thankful. And there is Carl Bates for you. Please stick around to listen to more of our interviews with more seasoned native plant growers, continue to learn with me and subscribe right now to Go native, the business of native plants. New episodes every month. And be sure to visit our website, NativePlantHort.org, to learn more and support us. We’ll catch you next time.

Go Native: Carl Bates Indigenous Plants

By Foundation | March 2, 2022

Spartina patens, one of Carl’s “bread and butter” plants.
Photo by Dana Filippini, National Park Service, public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

FALL 2021 FIU REAL FLORIDA LANDSCAPES DESIGN CHALLENGE

Fri, 18 Feb 2022 21:25:00 GMT

In 2021, we had the opportunity to work in “the Magic City,” Miami, with landscape architecture students at Florida International University (FIU). As part of their graduate design course, the students developed all native planting designs for areas on campus. Miami-Dade County is home to some of the most unusual Florida native plants, including plants of the pine rockland and tropical hardwood hammock ecosystems unique to southeast Florida. The students were able to visit a native plant nursery and talk to native plant professionals to learn what is involved in selecting, sourcing and maintaining native plants. One student’s plan stood out.

“ This beautiful design considers all the benefits of a native, sustainable landscape and pays keen attention to traffic circulation. It feels welcoming and user friendly …” These are just two of many positive comments from the half dozen Florida native plant growers and landscape experts from Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Naples, who evaluated student submissions and selected Mitzi Napoles ’ plan as the final winner.

Mitzi focused on the potential for outdoor classroom experiences for faculty and students, and chose plants, pathways and seating structures accordingly. Her planting design is inspired by the existing architecture onsite, the interaction of students with the space, and her analysis of foot traffic and key moments. The plan clearly separates space for both humans and for plants and animals, specifically pollinators. Shrubs, trees and groundcovers work as walls and create designated spaces for interaction. Seating structures are large enough to support outdoor lectures. The circulation reflects the linear elements of the site’s built structures, and supports foot traffic with walking paths through and within the gardens.

Born and raised in Mexico City, Mexico, Mitzi moved to Miami in 2006. Coming from a city where pollution is a big problem, she grew up with an eco-friendly mindset and the desire to integrate sustainability into daily life. Always interested in architecture and urban planning, it wasn’t until Mitzi came to FIU that she learned about the field of landscape architecture . She now feels that she is finally on the right path for making a real change in the way that nature is incorporated into urban design.

As the mother of a 9 year-old little boy (“my main inspiration in everything I do”), Mitzi knows how to get things done. She works full time as a branding manager and graphic designer, is enrolled as a full-time student in the masters program at FIU, and has never let the pandemic stop her. She hopes to graduate in the summer of 2024 and would like to be involved in the creation of public spaces, green infrastructure and eventually, helping to transfer knowledge to future generations. We can’t wait for the transformations Mitzi will bring to our world.

Shout out to adjunct professor and landscape designer Bryce Donner , who helped us extend our Real Florida Design Challenge program to Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, where the landscape architecture program focuses on design, planning and management of tropical and subtropical regions. FIU attracts students from around the world and we so appreciate the opportunity to help these future landscape leaders develop a deeper understanding of native plants and how to use them.

Our Florida native plant industry partner, FANN , recruited their professional members from South Florida to volunteer, consulting on campus with students during the conceptual design process and then painstakingly evaluating final plant selections. Feedback from professionals that have been working with native plants every day, in a variety of settings, for years, can help jumpstart a career with native plants.

Fall 2021 FIU Real Florida Landscapes Design Challenge

By Foundation | February 18, 2022

Before this project, I was unaware of the importance of the type of plant chosen and where it is placed in a design. Very few people know how important native plants are, and the connection these plants have with the environment and wildlife. I know now. And I am without question inspired and motivated to keep learning, and to share and apply my native plant knowledge in my future projects.

Mitzi A. Napoles, Fall 2021 FIU Real Florida Design Challenge Award Winner

Mitzi Napoles, a graduate student in landscape architecture at Florida International University in Miami, designed 100% native plantings for the campus that support people and pollinators.

Learning about plants is a lifelong process. Spend time outdoors. Diversity is good, even if today, no one knows how to maintain it.

A few stand-out generaL RECOMMENDATIONS from Among many detailed plan- and site-specific comments made by thE FIU COMPETITION judges.

GO NATIVE: THE BUSINESS OF NATIVE PLANTS

Tue, 01 Feb 2022 23:28:00 GMT

a new podcast for those curious about starting a career or business with native plants

with host Mitzy Sosa

About our podcast

Go Native is the first podcast to focus exclusively on what it takes to make it in the native plant industry, what is involved in running a native plant business and the many different pathways to begin growing and planting natives for a living and life.

Interviews are recorded and edited by our incredibly talented host, Mitzy Sosa , a recent graduate of Florida Atlantic University – Go Owls!

Big thanks and shout out to musician Clive Romney for creating the music used in our podcast, “ Success that works both ways. ”

Find monthly episodes wherever you find your podcasts , here on our blog or at https://rss.com/podcasts/gonative/

Now listen to our trailer or read the transcript below to learn more. Go native!

Episode 0/trailer

Transcript of Episode 0/trailer

HOST: Mitzy Sosa

Speakers heard in this episode :

Carl Bates – Carl Bates Indigenous Plants
Mallory Babjak – Wise Hands Native Nursery
Jane Thompson – Indian Trails Native Nursery

Mitzy Sosa 00:02

Hello and welcome to Go Native: The Business of Native Plants, a podcast by the Native Plant Horticulture Foundation, and also a place where we stop by native nurseries and the home of native plant industry experts, retailers, environmental restoration and landscape pros, all to gain insights into building a successful business or a career with native plants. My name is Mitzy Sosa and I am your host. As a recent environmental biology graduate, I have a lot of questions, whether it’s about life, but also about owning a native nursery. How did they get started? What were the big obstacles and surprises ?

Carl Bates 00:43

Welcome to the nursery business because it’s all grunt work. You know, they need the passion. They have to love what they do. And secondly, they need to investigate what they want to grow, okay, and the feasibility of those sales.

Mitzy Sosa 00:57

and what the rewards have been …

Mallory Babjak 00:58

It’s been amazing, I’ve gained so much practical knowledge about what it actually means to use native plants and to propagate native plants, both from the real work of it and also get people really interested and really excited in native plants and their value.

Mitzy Sosa 01:15

What has been successful and what has failed and most importantly, what would people advise someone interested in getting into this industry?

Jane Thompson 01:25

First of all, we don’t call it dirt, we call it soil. If you call it dirt to our local soil provider, they’ll smack you on the hand and say it’s not dirt, it’s soil.

Mitzy Sosa 01:35

And clearly there is much to learn from the answers to those questions. So come learn with me! Subscribe right now to Go Native: The Business of Native Plants. New episodes every month and be sure to visit our website nativeplanthort dot O R G to learn more and support us … and we’ll see you soon.

Go Native: the Business of Native Plants

By Foundation | February 1, 2022

BRINGING NATIVE PLANTS TO AN URBAN DOWNTOWN

Mon, 31 Jan 2022 19:04:00 GMT

Women-owned native plant nursery starts up on a former used car lot in Central Florida

Auto sale and repair shops dominate the East Main Street district in downtown Lakeland, Florida. But a different type of business has transformed one former car lot into an urban green oasis. Visitors stop after spotting the large monarch butterfly mural on the front face of a small building and then enter through a dense trellis of skyblue clustervine and coral honeysuckle. Sprawling live oaks provide canopy and pollinators fly about, visiting Florida native plants waiting for their new homes. “ The Nectary ” is a perfect name for this women-owned urban nursery deliberately located in the heart of town.

Michelle Sylvester and Kathryn Adeney, owners of The Nectary, both have backgrounds in environmental sciences and became involved with native plants in ways common to others in the field. With a growing interest in native plants for her newly purchased home, Michelle started going to Florida Native Plant Society (FNPS) events with her husband (so he could help carry native plants back to the car).

Along with becoming active with her community through FNPS, she was also seeing more and more stories coming out through various news sources about the importance of native plants. “ But here in Lakeland, I’d have to drive a minimum of 45 minutes to find any native plants. I began thinking about opening a nursery to make natives more accessible in my community – so that we don’t have to settle for what’s available at Home Depot. ”

Simultaneously, Kathryn was also figuring out how to incorporate native plants into her own yard after learning about them while living on the other side of the United States. “ When I was in Seattle for graduate school… I experienced nature shock instead of culture shock – unlike in my home state of Florida, no one in Washington prized the lawn. Wildflowers are valued in Washington [state]. Working with native plants is valued. Irrigation isn’t often used. I was influenced by my neighbors and learned from them. My aesthetics shifted. ” So when she moved back to Florida, Kathryn was determined to apply the values she learned on the West Coast. But she found herself running into the same issue Michelle was facing – she had to drive far (with four kids in tow) to access a variety of natives. “ I felt like I had to throw my hands up and choose what was available, or go through great effort to put natives in my yard. ”

When Michelle and Kathryn finally crossed paths, they saw an opportunity. Michelle’s dream of opening a nursery was still just a dream because she wasn’t confident in the logistical, business side of operation. But this was Kathryn’s strong suit. “ Her strengths are my weaknesses, her weaknesses are my strengths ,” Michelle said. Kathryn added: “ We were at a good time in our lives to take a little risk… so we decided that the Lakeland downtown farmers’ market would be a low risk entry point. ”

So, Saturday mornings at 8:00 am, Kathryn and Michelle were bringing in wildflowers, native grasses in bloom, and other eye-catching, native Florida flora to the market. The positive response from the community was overwhelming. “ People kept showing up saying, ‘we were waiting for this.’ We were able to connect with others and teach them what native plants even were , ” Kathryn said. The market quickly became too small a footprint, and the duo started looking for larger spaces – with an set-in-stone decision that the space had to be urban so that it was accessible. “ The zoning board kept saying we needed to look farther out where zoning for agriculture was” Michelle recounted, “ and we kept saying NO – we want to be an urban nursery, an accessible nursery. ”

In their search, they found that old, used car lots presented some pretty optimal key features: zoning, a big outdoor space, a small building and a central location. Kathryn, with a big smile on her face, clearly remembered finding the property for her and Michelle’s young business. “ Everything fell into place when we found this spot. Most of the property owners, when we told them what we were doing, would say ‘You want to do WHAT ? ’ But our current landlord quickly said, ‘ Sure! ‘ And so we just … did it, basically. We took a leap and set up shop. ”

The property was barren when they first moved in. The ground was compacted and weeds popped up through the dirt and concrete. When they started bringing in plants, there was a pronounced effect on the nature of the space – the “dead” lot transformed into an urban oasis for wildlife and pollinators. Local Lakeland residents have come to know the nursery as a secret garden amongst the car dealerships and surprisingly, a quiet place to escape and watch butterflies, bees, and flowers sway in the breeze.

The contrast between neighboring lots and theirs makes it that much easier to educate customers about the benefits of natives in the landscape. Kathryn noted that “ It’s easier to say ‘look, your neighbors might not be doing what you’re doing, but look at how much of an impact you can have on your little slice of land’ while pointing out that at our nursery, newly arrived plants still in pots are already providing ecosystem services. ” Michelle added, “ We encourage people to start small – take one plant out, and put one native in – so it’s not overwhelming. Then after doing that a couple times, maybe don’t fertilize… don’t water this zone of your yard. See what happens. Pay attention. What’s growing well? What’s reseeding? ”

Kathryn also brought up a common thought many Floridians share: admitting that she grew up thinking that Florida doesn’t have seasons. “ I always yearned to live where there were fall colors. I learned, watching native plants and natural ecosystems more closely, that we do have seasonal variances. But many people garden with these non-natives that always look a certain way. You can come to appreciate Florida’s seasons by watching native plant cycles. ”

Michelle and Kathryn are doing more than encouraging landscaping with natives. They want people to get outside in their yards and use their senses to see, touch and hear. They understand that it’s difficult for homeowners to translate what they might see in natural ecosystems into their yards and believe that education can bridge the gap. “ People come to their taste level with what they’ve been exposed to ” Kathryn explained, “ and people come to us with pictures of landscapes and say that’s what they want. ” The more native landscapes there are that serve as examples, the more people can see natives as beautiful alternatives to the generic plant palette in the area.

Despite expected hurdles and the impact of COVID-19, the duo has been happy with The Nectary’s progress, and they hope that more small, native urban nurseries pop up around Florida. “ Everyone should be able to live within 30 minutes of a native plant selection for sale .” Kathryn noted, “ and if someone wants to start their own business, you have to go into it being flexible. We have to have a great relationship to be in this together. And we’re so thankful we have each other, and trust each other. It’s not a one man… or in our case, a one woman show. ”

Kathryn and Michelle are great examples of “ career switchers ,” in this case, following their passion to create a new business that makes native plants more available to their community. If you’re a potential career switcher, get in touch with us and let us know of your interest. We’re interested in you, and connecting you with the people and expertise you’ll need to succeed, whether it’s working for yourself or someone else.

Bringing native plants to an urban downtown

By Isabella Guttuso | January 31, 2022

Kathryn Adeney (left) and Michelle Sylvester (right), owners of their retail native plant nursery, The Nectary, stand under the entrance — an arbor covered in skyblue clustervine. Kathryn (left) holds blazing star and Michelle (right) holds goldenrod.

LEFT: A monarch mural grabs the attention of passersby. RIGHT: A butterfly’s eye view through the wildflowers in the nursery.

LEFT: A view over diverse collections of native plants at the nursery. RIGHT: Michelle weeds some blooming Blazing Stars

LEFT: Kathryn picks out a potted Scorpion’s Tail for a customer. RIGHT: A Gulf Fritillary rests on a Silver Buttonwood.

LEFT: Blazing Star and Goldenrod in bloom. RIGHT: Michelle and Kathryn help a regular customer of The Nectary.

Live Oaks protect the array of shade loving natives for sale at The Nectary.

Michelle (left) and Kathryn (right) hold the work of local artist Kate Dolamore .

In addition to native plant sales, The Nectary also offers a boutique shop featuring seeds, artwork, and other accessories related to native Florida.

Kathryn and Michelle in their nursery.

THE PA IN THE PARK

Fri, 04 Jun 2021 20:04:00 GMT

Balancing a Career as a Physicians Assistant and Native Plant Landscape Designer

Jacksonville, Florida’s Native Park was established by the Avondale Garden Circle in 1923 to provide a public example of the resiliency that plants indigenous to North Florida have – even when challenged with droughts, freezes, heat, humidity and hurricanes. Unfortunately, over time, a lack of maintenance led to a tangled mess of exotic and aggressive plants throughout the park. So in 2010, the Ixia Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society (FNPS ) adopted the park as part of the city’s Friends of the Park program to restore the grounds for its original purpose.

If you’ve ever driven by Native Park while visiting Jacksonville’s Riverside Avondale Historic District, you may have seen Nick Freeman weeding beds, pruning shrubs or chatting with a park visitor. Freeman, a physician’s assistant in the Jacksonville area, became active with the Ixia Chapter FNPS while studying at the University of Florida. Over the past couple of years, he has volunteered with the chapter at Native Park and other events, where he quickly grew an appreciation for the beneficial qualities of native plants in landscapes. It was then that he began considering how he could play a greater role in educating his community about native Florida. “ I asked myself one day at the office; if I died today, would I be satisfied with the work that I’m doing ? ” Nick paused, recounting that important moment. “ Maybe … but I had a feeling that there was something more meaningful. There was a feeling inside me that I couldn’t let go, so I followed it. I knew I wanted to do what I could in protecting Florida. ”

That critical reflection transformed into a native plant landscaping service called Wacca Pilatka , which translates to “where the cows cross.” This was the Native American name for the land on which the original city of Jacksonville was established. Starting slow, Freeman picked up a couple projects in the Riverdale neighborhood. Now, just over a year later, he is amazed at how Wacca Pilatka has grown and the opportunities offered to him. One of Nick’s recently completed projects is Native Park #2; an expansion of the original Native Park to a lot across the street – the same park where he began his journey with native plants.

As we walked through the newly planted Native Park #2, I asked Nick how he balances design and installation of native landscapes with his career as a physician’s assistant. He chuckled, smiling down at one of the Bee Balm plants he installed. “ It’s pretty crazy … I do shift work in urgent care, so I’m usually working three days in a row, and then the rest of the week I’m working on these landscape projects. Ideally, I want to scale back as a PA and work half and half, and hopefully hire employees for Wacca Pilatka. ” Nick likes the balance between both careers, and doesn’t see himself dropping one for the other. And he doesn’t just stop with design and install; education is incredibly important to him. So much so, that you can find him at the Jacksonville farmers’ market, where he sets up simply to have conversations with people about native plants, and explain how these plants can fit into any kind of landscape a homeowner might desire.

Before leaving Native Park to head over to one of his client’s yard’s, we walked one more lap, talking about various plants that call the park home. Nick mentioned how growing up, he’d help his dad with traditional landscape maintenance work that had nothing to do with natives. The most important lessons came from the deep dive he took with the native plant society and his own personal study and practice at Native Park. Today, he still continues to do maintenance there; even pulling weeds and picking up debris here and there while answering my interview questions.

“ So essentially, this park right here has been your classroom. ” I stated. Freeman paused for a second, looked at me and said, “ Yeah … you know, you’re right. ” With a smile, I congratulated him. Here he was; standing in the place where he first started working and understanding indigenous Florida plants – and only a couple years later he was expanding the park across the street.

[ This is the second story in a series about native plant professionals written by our inaugural native plant journalist, Isabella Guttuso . By sharing diverse, younger perspectives, we hope to spark conversations about the many ways we can bring more native plants to the urban landscape and just as important, more professionals into the industry to serve the growing demand for landscape sustainability.]

The PA in the Park

By Isabella Guttuso | June 4, 2021

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
– Mary Oliver, award-winning American poet

Well, you might consider a native plant landscaping career. Work outside and save the world. Without more professionals who know how to use and maintain native plants in the landscape, we can’t achieve sustainability in our communities. Expose yourself to the opportunities by joining your local native plant society. Start part-time and maybe even stay part-time. Nick Freeman, a physician’s assistant at his other “day job,” shows how it’s done.

LEFT: Nick Freeman stands in Native Park #2. RIGHT: Wacca Pilatka’s yard sign in a bed of coontie

Nick pulls weeds from a patch of native wiregrass.

LEFT: Tickseed catches the evening light. RIGHT: Nick stands by a large Adam’s needle planted in Native Park #1.

Nick Freeman with one of his clients, Jennifer Wolfe. Freeman designed a native median between Wolfe’s property and her neighbor’s. She hopes the native garden, and the free little library she installed with native plant information, inspires her neighbors and the broader community to plant more Florida native plants. Freeman is working with Wolfe to convert her entire property to a native landscape.

Nick inspecting Simpson stopper surrounded by cabbage palms

A pathway through Native Park

FLORIDA NATIVES AND THE "ART OF SPACE"

Thu, 01 Apr 2021 18:18:00 GMT

Debra Yates and Benjamin Burle bring native plants into upscale South Florida landscapes

The 1945 historic cottage is home to the award-winning design practice and painting studio of Debra Yates and Benjamin Burle, a mother-son duo who are leaders in designing sophisticated, stylish and sustainable landscapes with a focus on native plants. Their O street cottage is just one example of many coastal landscapes they have transformed in the South Florida region.

Although they only recently became a part of the Lake Worth community, Debra and her son Ben have strong roots in South Florida. Debra is a 4th generation Key West “ Conch,” and Ben was born in Coconut Grove, Miami. “ Ben grew up in a house in South Miami that was in Casa Vogue, Metropolitan Home, Southern Accents and other design publications. Our friend Roberto Burle Marx, who Ben was named after, would come to the house. Ben lived in this very interesting, funky space and grew up in this world [of design] … a nd he also happens to have very good taste! Which is personal, you don’t learn that in school , ” says Debra. When Ben was studying at Florida International University, Debra was designing landscapes in Key West. When he graduated, they saw an opportunity to design interior and exterior spaces as a team, and so decided to work together.

Debra and Ben, who consider their work “the art of space,” have a specific process which focuses first on gathering the historical and ecological context of the places they are working with. “ When we first receive a project, we study a radius around the site. We try to find natural areas in close proximity where we can study and gather insight from the way the native plants interact , ¨ Ben explains. “ For a recent project on Palm Beach, we were inspired by the Snook Islands Natural Area. We were able to use plants almost entirely native to this county, many of them plants identified in that natural area. Debra added, “ and what we have to do is have more projects like the one in Palm Beach… using natives in sophisticated settings, accentuating the right things, designing the hardscape to complement and support these plants. ”

INTERVIEW ABOUT DESIGN PROCESS

Debra, Ben and I sat on the back porch of their cottage studio, chatting back and forth about their background and the Palm Beach seaside garden. The topic flowed into a deep dive about their methods for design. The following is that conversation:

After chatting on the back deck, Ben took me on a tour of their cottage landscape, pointing out varying natives and their special qualities. Iconic South Florida non-natives, like Bougainvillea and Monstera, also dotted the landscape, but natives took center stage. Even the terracotta pots featured native plants endemic to South Florida.

But what made the O Street cottage such a unique example of design with native Florida in mind, was the bold use of architectural elements that only elevated the sophistication of the plant choices.

[ This is the first story in a series about the next generation of native plant professionals. By sharing diverse, younger perspectives, we hope to spark conversations about the many ways we can bring more native plants to the urban landscape and just as important, more professionals into the industry to serve the growing demand for landscape sustainability.]

Florida Natives and the “Art of Space”

By Isabella Guttuso | April 1, 2021

A couple blocks from downtown Lake Worth, Florida, in the Parrot Cove neighborhood, quaint cottages and Spanish-style homes line the historic streets. On O street, one such cottage’s bold landscape stands out from the rest.

Native plants south florida style

Yates Burle Studio’s Lake Worth cottage.

LEFT: Debra Yates and Benjamin Burle at their Lake Worth Cottage. RIGHT: Sabal Palm, Florida Thatch Palm, Giant Leather Fern and Golden Creeper frame a pathway curving around the cottage’s back bedroom.

Yates Burle Studio’s design approach spans across both the interior and exterior. They believe the inside view out to the landscape is just as important as the spaces they create outside.

The Palm Beach seaside garden, which features a palette of native wind and salt tolerant plants. The bottom right photo shows the landscape prior to redesign. Images Courtesy of Yates Burle Studio.

Isabella – “So, you mentioned you have a specific method for selecting plants at nurseries. Can you explain that a bit more?”

Debra – “Most landscape architects will have someone select the “perfect” trees for their projects- but when we go to select trees, we choose the most imperfect trees we can find. These mimic the forms of trees in nature. We lean trees when we install them… and when a tree is craned into place and settled in – it suddenly looks like it has already been there. That’s an art form Ben and I share. It makes our work very different, because we see it as art.”

Isabella – “That truly is different… you’re considering gestures that are so minute, yet make such an impact. However, your intentional consideration of the details doesn’t just end with the aesthetics… you also pay attention to addressing biodiversity. It’s really the best of both worlds. Beauty and biodiversity don’t have to compete. You don’t choose one or the other. So then the landscape isn’t just beautiful for humans, it’s also intriguing for wildlife.”

Ben – “Right, for example.. we let trees grow into their natural form. So no pruning or trimming in a restrictive manner, so that we get to see the natural process of the tree take shape. So often, our native trees and landscapes are disturbed by traditional maintenance regimens, and there’s no rest time for any type of bird to make a nest and lay… flowers or berries get cut and bagged for trash or the plant is pruned before it can even produce flowers…”

Isabella – “So on one hand, you’re talking about very specific design choices or manipulation…. like tilting trees when planting them. Then at the same time, once the tree is established, you let it be without manipulation. It’s an interesting balance between artistic gesture and plant self-regulation.”

Debra – “And a lot of it is knowing how to put things in the right places. Overall, it just makes the space feel better, it just does – because it’s in harmony with nature.”

Ben – “It’s also definitely a disconnect with people and plants too. Like with thatch palms – we tell our clients and others not to trim the palms, not to cut down the seeds – because then you are robbing the plant of providing its ecosystem service for birds, butterflies and bees…. which a lot of people don’t realize is something native palms provide. They think that they just need small milkweed shrubs, but butterflies like palms too!”

Thatch Palms are a staple plant in Yates Burle Studio’s designs. Not only are the white berries beautiful accents in the landscape, but they provide food for birds and other wildlife.

Debra – “The disconnect is especially apparent in Florida. Many don’t realize that the tropical palms they associate with Florida aren’t native… but the Sabal Palm, which many people don’t like, is. One of the reasons I moved here was because of Bryant Park… the Sabal Palms there are magical and inspiring, since we like to do projects where we use trees as sculpture in large spaces.”

Ben – “This is why knowledge about local ecosystems but also the history of landscapes and design to a region is so important. I’m always curious about the history of places. Artificial turf grass, date palms and hedges are really popular now in Palm Beach, but it wasn’t that way historically. When you look at old photographs of landscapes from Palm Beach, you see it was much more wild and natural in its infancy than today… even with the high class houses.”

Debra – “And we feel that the importance of a tree is equal to that of an architectural feature. They go hand in hand.”

Ben shows the berries and bark of a Rough Strongbark tree – a Florida state-listed endangered plant.

Agave decipiens, known commonly as False Sisal, is a Florida native Agave which is featured in pots in multiple places at the cottage studio.

The Seven Year Apple shrub’s flower, fruit and glossy leaves.1 xzcasa

The O Street Cottage’s backyard oasis.

NATIVE PLANT INDUSTRY EDUCATION

Fri, 05 Mar 2021 20:28:00 GMT

The Covid pandemic brought in-person education events to a halt in 2020. Our Florida industry partner, FANN, had been delivering all of their continuing education for green industry professionals in person. FANN had long wanted to develop online education but lacked the capacity to do it. Together, we developed an approach for moving existing continuing education classes to online formats that meet state standards for attendee engagement and content comprehension.

To help FANN make the shift to online, we engaged an intern, Mitzy Sosa , to work with somewhat technology-averse growers and assist them in delivering their content remotely via computer. Mitzy’s enthusiasm for native plants – she’s been growing them at her apartment and on her college campus with her research professor – combined with her cheerful patience and willingness to dig into technical problems, has made this a successful endeavor. Mitzy is a biology student at Florida Atlantic University, graduating in 2021 with a bachelors in biology and an environmental science certificate.

In addition to developing online continuing education classes, Mitzy is helping us capture the expertise and insights of seasoned native plant professionals through remote recorded interviews. Many native plant nursery, landscape and restoration experts are pioneers who had to figure out on their own how to propagate speces, how to grow them to expected quality standards, use them successfully in landscaping and restoration projects and sell them to skeptical customers. While many native plant professionals have formal educations, they are also graduates of the “School of Hard Knocks,” learning from costly business mistakes, failures and successes. Mitzy is working to bring their valuable lessons learned to the next generation in easily accessed digital formats.

Native Plant Industry Education

By admin | March 5, 2021

Mitzy conducting a Zoom interview with Roger Triplett, Green Seasons Nursery owner and past president of FANN, a trade association serving Florida’s native plant industry.

OUR FIRST NATIVE PLAN JOURNALIST

Fri, 05 Mar 2021 18:30:00 GMT

An important part of our mission is reaching the next generation of native plant growers and landscape professionals and the clients they will serve. To create more demand for native plants and native plant professionals, and to inspire young people to consider careers and business ventures with native plants, we’ve launched our Native Plant Journalism Initiative, which engages young people to help us tell the stories of native plants and the people behind the plants. Our hope is that fresh, diverse perspectives in both subject matter and how to present it will help us reach new audiences and generations.

In the summer of 2020, we hired our first remote, student intern journalist, Isabella Guttuso, whom we had met originally as a winner of our Real Florida Landcape Design Challenge in 2019 . Isabella’s excellent communication skills and fine photography background , along with her deep enthusiasm for native plants, made her an easy choice for our first efforts in story telling. Together we developed a wish list of story ideas – more than we could possibly cover – and with CDC guidance for safety during the Covid pandemic, Isabella traveled across the state of Florida to interview, in the open air, mostly young nursery and design professionals. She also conducted interviews via Zoom and telephone.

Among Isabella’s stories are the start-up of an urban native plant outlet on an old used car lot in Central Florida, the use of native plants by architectural designers in sophisticated settings in South Florida, one artist’s quest to design a landscape using a process that honors interspecies (plants-pollinators) collaboration and the advancement of smart technology to aid in the selection and use of native plants for ecological landscapes. We will share Isabella’s stories on our blog and in our social media, and in publications distributed by our Florida industry partner, FANN.

Isabella will complete her graduate degree in landscape architecture, from the University of Florida, in 2022. We are confident that she will make a native plant impact everywhere she goes.

With your support, we hope to continue this program and to specifically target our recruitment of student journalists from diverse, under-represented communities, so that we can help make native plants, and careers with native plants, desirable and accessible for all.

Our First Native Plant Journalist

By admin | March 5, 2021

Artist Evan Galbicka shows his art installation that maps the grounds and pollinator flight paths he used for organizing a landscape incorporating native plants at PULP Arts in Gainesville, Florida.

Burle Yates Studio owners Debra Yates and Benjamin Burle, designers of sophisticated interiors and exteriors in South Florida. This mother and son team use native plants in new ways, creating innovative landscapes that provide habitat, sustainability and an avant garde look.

FALL 2020 REAL FLORIDA DESIGN CHALLENGE

Fri, 05 Mar 2021 16:00:00 GMT

The Covid pandemic resulted in several changes to our Real Florida Design Challenge program. Faculty selected an on-campus site for design, a historic memorial to alumni and students lost in World Wars 1 and 11. Instead of consulting in person at a pin-ups event, our volunteers had to engage with students via a three-hour Zoom meeting. Despite all the challenges of this year, the students “rose above” and judges proclaimed the 2020 submittals the very best yet.

Michael Hutchinson ‘s garden designs are a spirited display of Florida’s most iconic native plant communities: swamp forests, hydric hammocks, scrub forests and beach dunes. Michael envisions the gardens as a representation of the university’s commitment to providing higher education for the state’s diverse population, with a united goal to rise above in academic pursuit. Visitors to the gardens would be reminded of the many different places across the state called “home” by members of the “Gator Nation.” The gardens would also showcase the wide-ranging diversity that makes Florida an internationally significant hub of ecology, education and advancement.

The 2020 submissions were of such high quality that it took our volunteer judges, including professional landscape architects and experienced native landscape installers, a while to decide on first, second and runner up placements. The judges finally agreed that Michael’s submission was both beautiful and technically a superior project, and exceptionally well researched. One judge’s comments: “‘ Wow’ is an appropriate expression of excitement this design brings to consideration. The symbolism of the water features as Florida springs complimenting the associated plant communities is simply a work of art. ”

Michael’s family moved from suburban Chicago to Merritt Island, Florida, when he was ten years old, and the two environments were quite different. Michael always liked building and designing things, and when it came time for college, he started as an architecture major. But in his sophomore year he switched to landscape architecture and knew immediately that it was the right choice for him. Michael likes that landscape architecture involves more than buildings; it’s making experiences that feel very special and unique. He hopes to graduate in 2022. Because a career in landscape architecture can go in many different directions, he is excited about the opportunities ahead, and considering a graduate degree in urban planning.

We awarded second place to Joseph Brisco .

Fall 2020 Real Florida Design Challenge

By admin | March 5, 2021

Most of us [students] don’t have the experience of seeing the plants in person, seeing how they perform in the landscape, really knowing what they look like and what they need. Looking plants up online and reading about them is not enough. We need to see more installed landscapes. It would be nice to have class visits to [plant] nurseries and demonstration gardens, and have more hands-on opportunities with native plants.

Michael Hutchinson, Fall 2020 Real Florida Design Challenge Award Winner

Michael Hutchinson designed an all native up date for the landscape surrounding the University of Florida’s Century Tower, a 157-foot tall carillon tower in the center of the Gainesville, Florida, campus.

Michael Hutchinson drew inspiration from Florida’s native plant communities for his design, entitled The Gator Nation Garden at Century Tower.

FALL 2019 REAL FLORIDA DESIGN CHALLENGE

Fri, 05 Mar 2021 15:09:00 GMT

Isabella Guttuso ‘s design for a 100-year old Spanish style office building received accolades from 14 different judges, including experienced landscape architects and native landscape installers. The design uses Florida native plants that function visually in a manner similar to species used in Spanish gardens and yet are appropriate for the East Central Florida coastal location. Several judges commented on the creativity and inspiration in the design. In selecting this plan over several other worthy submittals, the judges noted that Isabella presented an exceptionally strong plant palette and that her design had an excellent chance of meeting stated landscape goals over time.

A Florida native from Delray Beach, Isabella grew up close to the ocean and enjoyed hiking outdoors. But in heavily urbanized South Florida, she did not have easy access to the region’s natural variety of native ecosystems. It wasn’t until Isabella moved to Gainesville for college and began exploring the abundant and more easily accessed natural areas that she began to truly love her home state. Now she spends every spare minute exploring preserves and trails, discovering native plants and sharing her discoveries on social media. Isabella enjoys seeing how native plants naturally grow in the wild and pulling that knowledge back into her design work.

Isabella started her college career with a scholarship supporting her photography work and studies. In her sophomore year, Isabella said “no” when she was first asked if she had ever heard of landscape architecture. When she realized it offered an opportunity to blend her interests in art and science, she began taking elective classes in horticulture and landscape design. She also worked part-time with a local landscape architecture firm specializing in the use of native plants, an experience that gave her insight into “what works” vs. what just “looks good.”

Isabella received her Bachelors in Fine Art in 2019 and has worked as a freelance photographer since 2013. She is pursuing a Masters in landscape architecture and expects to graduate in 2022.

The Fall 2019 challenge also recognized runner up Eliza Breder .

Fall 2019 Real Florida Design Challenge

We need to sell the beauty and resiliency of Real Florida. It’s an easy out to use known palettes that keep getting repeated. I want to know and include native plants that will work and support the ecosystem.

By admin | March 5, 2021

Isabella A. Guttuso, Fall 2019 Real Florida Design Challenge Award Winner

Isabella Guttuso’s all native plan for the courtyard entry to the 1900 Building, an office complex in downtown Melbourne, Florida.

SPRING 2019 REAL FLORIDA DESIGN CHALLENGE

Fri, 05 Mar 2021 13:09:00 GMT

Andrew Davidson seemed to understand the context of an urban office building and the reality of daily use and infrequent landscape maintenance. He presented the simplest plan, with the fewest species, but his plan is affordable, buildable and maintainable. Unlike most other plans submitted, Andrew’s landscape will have a strong presence 365 days a year. With a few adjustments, it could be readily implemented and be an excellent example of how native plants can be successfully used in an urban setting. His design was selected by a team of seven judges, including professional landscape architects and experienced native landscape installers throughout Florida. Judges gave Andrew’s plan high marks for simplicity, ease of maintenance, year-round interest and sustainability.

A resident of St. Johns, Florida, Andrew graduated from the University of Florida in 2020 with a degree in landscape architecture. As a student, he completed internships with a landscape architecture firm, design firm and engineering firm, all in Florida.

Spring 2019 Real Florida Design Challenge

By admin | March 5, 2021

The more I learn about the profession, the more my desire grows like wildfire. Landscape architecture is the keystone discipline that enables the innovative and sound designs of the future. My goal is to always educate the public about the benefits of native plants as well as to promote the use of native plants in design.

Andrew Davidson, Spring 2019 Real Florida Design Challenge Award Winner

Andrew Davidson’s all native plan for the courtyard entry to the 1900 Building, an office complex in downtown Melbourne, Florida.

HELPING FUTURE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS DEVELOP NATIVE PLANT SELECTION SKILLS

Mon, 22 Feb 2021 22:23:00 GMT

Landscape architects design community parks and playgrounds, public gardens, institutional campuses, golf courses, shopping centers, roadsides and streetscapes, common areas in residential developments, resorts, theme parks, residential landscapes and all sorts of special function landscapes (e.g., stormwater ponds). They also get involved in restoration and land use planning.

Bottomline — landscape architects have a big influence on what gets planted and represent a huge opportunity for restoring native plants to our communities. But students of landscape architecture often have limited opportunities to learn about native plants.

Since 2018, the Native Plant Horticulture Foundation (“Foundation”) has partnered with the University of Florida (UF) Department of Landscape Architecture to help students gain practical knowledge and awareness about the selection and use of native plants. The Foundation organizes an annual Real Florida Design Challenge program, a component of the Planting Design Studio class taken by both undergraduate and graduate landscape architecture students. This competition is based on a prior Real Florida Landscapes Design Competition developed by our Florida parter, FANN (Florida Assoc. of Native Nurseries), run from 2013-2017.

The Real Florida Design Challenge requires the use of 100% Florida native plants as defined on FANN’s website or the Atlas of Florida Plants , an authoritative botanical reference for the state’s flora. Evaluation criteria include aesthetics, creativity, right plant/right place, use of regionally specific plants, diversity of plants, support for wildlife including pollinators, and landscape sustainability, including practical maintenance needs and selection of plants based on their eventual mature size.

The Foundation partners with FANN to recruit native landscape professionals who serve as volunteer consultants to students during their research and design process or as judges reviewing final plans submitted for competitive jurying. Databases and books offer great ideas and inspiration, but real installations and maintenance are where the proverbial “rubber meets the road.” Conversations with professionals who have years of experience using native plants in a variety of settings and contexts enable students to gain practical insight that might otherwise take years to develop.

For the challenge, students develop a conceptual plan with planting schedule, narrative and illustrative artwork. They conduct a site visit, collect soil samples and record site measurements and other design constraints. Whenever possible, they visit a nearby native plant nursery. FANN volunteers review interim designs and offer tips on plan selections, availability, sizes, spacing and maintenance. Students can then revise their plans before submitting them for competitive jurying by a panel of professional landscape architects and native landscape designers and installers.

Each year, the foundation and FANN have the opportunity to work with 15-20 students. We have been really thrilled with the interest and response shown by students. Long term, we hope to add capacity to track students as they begin their careers and put their new native plant skills to work.

Helping Future Landscape Architects Develop Native Plant Selection Skills

By admin | February 22, 2021

Landscape architect Larry Teague, Zamia Design, discusses plan with student.

Christian Brewer shows off his all native plan. Christian told us that as a child, he used to run through the fields of a local native plant nursery. The nursery owner was a big proponent of using native plant communities as a model for sustainable landscape design. When Christian went off to college, he discovered that the nursery owner was the author of one of his textbooks.

Student plans are presented for review in a “Pin Ups” event at the school. FANN professionals volunteer to review the plans in progress and suggest revisions in plant selections.

Native Plant Horticulture Foundation

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FALL 2019 REAL FLORIDA DESIGN CHALLENGE

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HELPING FUTURE LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS DEVELOP NATIVE PLANT SELECTION SKILLS

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FALL 2021 UF REAL FLORIDA LANDSCAPES DESIGN CHALLENGE

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