Going native

We have all heard the mantra of the “green” movement — reduce, reuse, recycle.

We recycle our plastic and glass containers and we buy fuel-efficient cars. We lower our thermostats and turn off the faucet when we are brushing our teeth. There are lots of ways to promote the saving of natural resources.

The Florida Native Plant Society, which hosts its conference in Maitland this week, wants us to add one more thing to our list — plant the right plant in the right place.

Save water – plant a native

“Native plants have been well-established here over eons, and they are more adaptive to our area,” said Mike Mingea, Winter Springs city arborist and a former executive director of the Plant Society.

Once they are established in the landscape, Mingea said natives need little or no fertilizing, require less maintenance, are resistant to local insects and are typically more drought tolerant, which means less watering.

Impending water shortages have most municipalities in Central Florida looking for ways to cut back on water usage for residential and commercial properties. In Winter Springs, Mingea has helped establish a policy requiring new development to include more native plants in their landscape plans.

“New development must have at least 50 percent Florida natives,” Mingea said. “Anybody that lives in the area and plans on growing landscaping vegetation should be concerned about water conservation.”

Conference promotes education

But how do you tell a native from any other plant you find in a retail nursery? Providing to its members an understanding of identifying, buying and planting the right plant in the right place is the part of the educational mission of the Native Plant Society, a 30-year-old, scientifically based, not-for-profit conservation organization with 39 chapters throughout the state. Members of the society can attend meetings and go on field trips where they can learn how identify native plants in their environment and to use them in their home landscapes.

The biggest event each year for the society, the 31st annual conference, comes to the Maitland this week and is hosted by Seminole, Lake County, Osceola County and Orange County chapters.

The theme of this year’s conference is “Patios, Preserves and Public Spaces: Making Connections” and features keynote presentations by noted author, designer and horticulturalist Rick Darke talking on “Livable Florida: Native by Design,” and Rutherford H. Platt, Senior Fellow at the Institute for Sustainable Cities, City University of New York, on “Blooming Cities: Restoring Nature in Urban America.”

Also available at the conference are field trips to more than 20 Central Florida locations led by botanists and local plant specialists, highlighting native plant communities, native trees, shrubs and wildflowers; native plant sales with locally grown trees, shrubs and wildflowers throughout the event; vendors; workshops and social events with author book signings each evening.

Heart of the society

Deborah Green, a water efficiency consultant, an author, a teacher and a member of the Cuplet Fern Chapter in Seminole County, has spent years slowly converting her Longwood home to native landscaping.

“I think it must be 90 percent native,” she said. Green lives in the The Springs, a 30-year-old community established around Sanlando Springs and the Little Wekiva River. While the community is governed by covenants, Green said her efforts to go natural with her landscaping has not met with much resistance by the homeowners association.

“In recent years, with the statewide effort to promote Florida-friendly landscaping, I’ve felt more relaxed about it,” Green said of her landscape conversion.

Green has been active in the society for more than 22 years, serving most of that time as a chapter representative and attending most of the conferences, which are held in a different area of the state each year. She encourages non-members to attend the conference to learn more about what the society has to offer.

“The conference is the heart of the society,” Green said. “If you have any interest in converting your yard to be more wildlife-friendly, there are good talks on that, and it’s a great place to buy native plants.”

Learn more

The 31st Annual Conference of the Florida Native Plant Society is Thursday through Sunday, May, 19-22, at the Sheraton Orlando North in Maitland. For more information on the conference, visit www.fnps.org. You can also find information about meeting times and location for the Orange and Seminole chapters of the society.