Welcome Home, Hummingbirds

Indian Pink Spigelia marilandica

We had our first sighting of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird on March 30th this year, a little later than usual. Folks in north Florida usually have the first arrivals from Central America on or about March 15th.  Two excellent plants that provide nectar in early spring are columbine and red buckeye. Both are native to north Florida and do best with some shade. Red buckeye is a small tree with spikes of red tubular flowers. Columbine is a graceful perennial wildflower that has a multitude of red and yellow bell-like flowers.

There are so many great hummingbird plants, it is hard to list just a few. Some wildflowers are red sage, firebush, Indian pink, red swamp mallow and ironweed. Be sure to research planting requirements; for instance, red swamp mallow prefers moist sites.

If you’ve got a sunny arbor or post, plant a coral honeysuckle vine. Give it a light pruning after each bloom period and it will continue to bloom throughout the season. Flowers do not have to be red. Hummers drink readily from silverbell flowers and blueberry flowers, like the Rufous Hummingbird pictured here in Janeen Langley’s yard feeding on native Elliott’s blueberry flowers.

Cupea hybrid ‘Vermillionaire’

Top non-native perennials are red pentas and just about any salvia, from the blue salvias to the maroon and red salvias. The cupheas such as cigarette plant or bat-faced cuphea are fabulous. Most of these will bloom all summer and fall. I also highly recommend planting cardinal guard up close to a window or porch. It blooms in late August until the first frost and is a hummingbird magnet during fall migration.

Most of these plants are planted just outside of our office and living room windows to bring the hummers up close where we can enjoy them. We have so many good hummingbird plants in our yard that we no longer use a hummingbird feeder to entice them.

In addition to plants, you can attract hummers by providing a feeder filled with 4 parts water to one-part sugar. Keep feeders clean and change the solution regularly.

Donna Legare is retired co-founder of Native Nurseries.

COVID-19 UPDATE

UPDATE (MARCH 27, 2020)

After the last e-mail update, we have received an influx of pickup/delivery orders along with encouraging messages and positive energy. Words cannot describe our gratitude for your support as we navigate through these challenging time. 

Like so many other businesses, we have decided to temporarily close our doors to the public and offer pickup and delivery ONLY for the safety of our staff and customers. Please understand that this decision was not easy to make, but we want to do the responsible thing for the greater good. 

We will still be at the nursery, taking care of plants, fulfilling orders, offering advice and doing everything we can to help you have access to gardening and bird watching. As we all know, connecting with nature can help us cope through stressful times and offer a sense of peace and normalcy.

We look forward to reopening full-service as soon as we can, but until then you can place orders via phone or email, follow our social media for garden inspiration and be on the lookout for more inventory updates on our website. Landscaping services will still operate as usual and our self-serve soil by the bucket will also be accessible. 

For Pickup & Delivery Orders: http://www.nativenurseries.com/pickup-delivery

We will do our best to fulfill your order in a timely manner. Please note that it may take some time for us to confirm your order as we are fulfilling them on a first-come, first-serve basis. We appreciate your understanding and everyone’s commitment to supporting our local businesses. 

_____________

UPDATE (MARCH 25th 2020)

New (temporary) Hours:
Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

At Native Nurseries, we are eager to greet springtime while staying conscious of the developing COVID-19 situation. We know our store is both a source of comfort and pleasure for our community and that many of you are home seeking therapeutic time in your gardens and landscapes. We want to help you do that, while keeping our staff and customers healthy.

The City of Tallahassee and Leon County officials have issued a shelter-in-place order starting Wednesday 3/25 at 11 p.m. Please note that we are open for outdoor shopping along with curbside pickup or delivery. All transactions will be done outside while in-store shopping will be closed. If there is something you need from inside our shop please ask for assistance and we will be happy to accommodate. 

When you visit our nursery we ask that you take extra precautions to ensure that our space remains safe and healthy:

• Practice social distancing by maintaining a minimum of 6 feet between yourself and others

• In an effort to keep crowds to a minimum, we would like to keep a max of 10 customers on the grounds at a time. Make your selections quickly so that others can also peruse. 

• Group plants in piles using our cardboard flats rather than carts

• Contactless payments are strongly encouraged. We would prefer not to take cash or checks at this time.

Pickup & Delivery 

During this time we will gladly make arrangements to provide you the wildflowers, herbs, veggies, birdseed and garden products you need with our pickup and delivery services. This is a great way to simply make your selections, pay over the phone and have us pull your order for you while limiting the amount of people on our grounds. You can browse our current inventory here. We will do our best to keep this updated regularly. 

Our landscape crew will still operate as usual. We will use best practices and maintain 6' distance from customer interactions. If you would like to schedule a consultation for a bird garden, butterfly garden or just need general maintenance, please don't hesitate to call.

All spring workshops will be canceled until further notice. Please note our protocols may change as we adapt to these evolving circumstances. 

We are honored to be included in such a resilient and thoughtful community, and we deeply appreciate your support as we continue our work of bringing people and nature together in their yards and gardens.

- Elizabeth and everyone at Native Nurseries

Spanish Moss: A Valuable Ecological Component of our Natural Plant Communities and Landscapes

My first experience with Spanish moss happened when I was a child visiting my aunt who lived on Old St. Augustine Road in Tallahassee. My family had driven all the way from New York. As we approached her driveway, we were awed by the giant live oaks draped with wispy gray strands that lined the old canopy road. We had fun playing in her large yard, virtually a fairy land with this strange gray ‘moss’ dripping from the tree branches. On the last day of our visit, we carefully wrapped some up in moist newspaper to carry home to hang in our cedar trees on Long Island. Spanish moss is native to areas of high humidity in the Southeast United States and needs 300 frost free days per year. It is most impressive on live oaks bordering wetlands. No wonder ours died.

These swallowtail kites used plenty of Spanish moss in their nest. Photo by Tara Tanaka.

Spanish moss is not a moss, nor is it Spanish. It is a native, perennial, epiphytic herb. It is in the Bromeliad family, kin to pineapples. An epiphyte, or air plant, grows upon trees for support and does not tap into the tree to collect resources. If you look closely at a strand, you will see tiny hairs that absorb mineral-rich water that runs down tree branches. Spanish moss makes its own food through photosynthesis and is not parasitic. It is a flowering plant; look carefully to find the small pale green flowers in spring and summer. The flowers form seeds with hairy sails that float on the wind and stick to tree branches. Who knew?

Ecologically it probably has more functions than are generally known. It is the main ingredient in a flying squirrel’s nest. I found this out in a surprising manner. I was showing a group of children a bird nest box. I could see some Spanish moss hanging out of the lower edge of the door to the house and I thought that perhaps a tufted titmouse had used this house. I opened the side door and, within seconds, out popped an equally surprised flying squirrel from the nest box hole. It scampered all the way to the top of the utility pole to which the box was mounted and glided to the cover of a nearby live oak. Meanwhile I jumped about two feet into the air, much to the delight of the children on the nature walk. Now whenever I see Spanish moss hanging from a bird nest box, I always knock first before opening the door.

Some birds, including yellow-throated warblers, northern parulas, and orchard orioles build their nests in clumps of Spanish moss. Other birds gather moss for nesting material.

Spanish moss provides cover for insects and small animals and at least one species of spider is known to occur only in Spanish moss. Several species of bats, including the Seminole bat, roost by day in clumps of Spanish moss. Zebra longwing butterflies roost on it overnight, several butterflies sharing the same garland of moss. I have witnessed this several times both at Native Nurseries and at my home. You just need to roam about at dusk during warmer weather. It helps if you have one of the zebra longwing’s host plants, yellow passion vine, rambling about the ground beneath your live oak or other trees.

Spanish moss is a valuable ecological component of our local plant communities. It is not bad for trees. There is no need to remove it. I encourage you to look more closely at it and appreciate its value and beauty. What would Tallahassee look like without its gray streamers and garlands draping from tree branches?