Bee City Gainesville—Gainesville Garden Club
Bee City native plant demonstration garden located at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Gainesville, 4225 NW 34th St, Gainesville, FL 32605
Bee City native plant demonstration garden located at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Gainesville, 4225 NW 34th St, Gainesville, FL 32605
The Florida Wildflower Foundation is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2025 Viva Florida Landscape Demonstration Garden grants.
Fall is the time to be looking for wildflowers throughout the state. Fall wildflowers are in full bloom, with the best places to find them being open areas without homes or businesses.
In cooler climates, fall is when “leaf peepers” hit the road to view red-, yellow- and orange-leaved trees. Here in Florida, fall color means wildflowers.
Instrumental in getting the Florida Wildflower Foundation off the ground, Anne Mackay continues to serve on the Foundation’s board, first serving on the Florida Wildflower Council board, then as board chair for the Florida Wildflower Foundation.
If you have ever walked a trail with a botanist to discover and name each flower you pass, you realize the importance of plant morphology in the taxonomic routine of plant identification.
More than 38,000 visitors have had the opportunity to become better acquainted with the beauty and benefit of Florida’s native wildflowers since the establishment of a wildflower demonstration garden at the Pinellas County UF/IFAS Extension in Largo.
Many Floridians become familiar with carpenter bees by accident. They may notice a hole that appears to have been drilled into unpainted wood around their homes with a sawdust pile beneath it.
Bumble bees are very efficient pollinators because they “buzz pollinate.” The bee grabs onto a flower and vibrates its flight muscles but not its wings. This causes the flower to release its pollen.
Dr. Loran Anderson is a professor emeritus in the department of biological science at Florida State University in Tallahassee. His research has focused on plant taxonomy and systematics in the Florida Panhandle and elsewhere.
In a first for Florida, a project to manage naturally occurring wildflowers – versus displays that have been planted – has been recognized for its success.
Central Florida gardeners have another location to see and explore native wildflowers and grasses. In 2017, a no-mow wildflower meadow was installed at the Orange County UF/IFAS Extension’s Exploration Gardens in Orlando, funded by the Viva Florida Landscape Demonstration Garden grant.