Our Generation Florida

By Ginny Stibolt

Have you ever ended up with a pot bound plant?  If so, it probably didn’t live very long.  How can you increase the chances of survival? Read More »

By Ginny Stibolt

What would the Florida landscape be without our palm trees?  Oh those gracefully curved trunks and topknots of fronds are mainstays of any tropical setting.  Palms don’t develop wood like other trees, which produce a new layer of wood each year to form annual rings.  Palm trunks are more like a grass with bundles of woody tissue throughout.  This arrangement is quite flexible making palms an excellent choice for wind-tolerant landscaping. Read More »

By Ginny Stibolt

The “environment” is not something that is separate from us. We are all participants in it. Our actions, life styles, consumption are all part of the mix. We won’t make much progress if we just talk about it or if we fund yet another study about the environment. No matter how much we pay for it, talk is cheap. There are many lifestyle changes that we may make, which will reduce our footprints on Florida, but one of the most important is to create some habitat as part of our landscaping. Read More »

By Ginny Stibolt
Gardening in containers provides Florida’s gardeners with myriad choices of what to plant and where to position those plants. Containers provide a way to have plants in a small area, a spot with troublesome soil, or on pavement. You can feature your showiest plants in an entryway, on a porch, or on a balcony. When the flowering stops, move the containers to make way for the next set of showy plants. Read More »

By Ginny Stibolt

Sunflowers grow well in Florida’s climate. In fact many gardeners plant two crops—one in early spring and another in late summer. Beach sunflower crawl on the ground, Russian mammoths grow to 12 feet tall, and wild sunflowers fall somewhere in between. All are wonderful, easy-to-grow additions to your butterfly garden. Provide them with moderately rich soil and good moisture to get them started, but once they get going, watch out! Read More »

By Ginny Stibolt

Despite the appearance of aimless fluttering here and there, female butterflies are frantically searching for the right host plants where they can lay their eggs. They can smell and they have sensors on their feet to “taste” each plant’s surface. The males are searching for the females by sensing their pheromones. Many butterflies have only a few days to accomplish their mission. Sometimes storms or winds carry them far away, and then there are the predators - birds, lizards, and other insects. Read More »