It's Good to Have Friends

Cockspur Haw - Crataegus crus-galli

Flyr's Nemesis - Brickellia cordifolia

Over the nearly 35 years that I have been actively promoting native plants and landscaping with them in Florida, I have come to love a great many species that are not, or were not, propagated routinely in the trade. Species, like the two pictured above, that to me are exceptional native plants with exceptional wildlife value often don't have the demand that other species have and they are largely ignored, therefore, by the growers who have to make a living growing plants that they can actually sell. Whether it's widgets or native plants, the concept of supply and demand comes into play.
Because of this, I started growing some of these myself. With a checklist in hand of those species I most wanted to add to my own landscape, I would keep an eye out for them as I traveled and hiked throughout the state. Slowly, but surely, I found many of them in seed and I then collected a little for my experimentation. 
Collecting seed on state and private lands requires permission. It is not something one should do without it. You also should NEVER collect more than a small percentage of what is present, just enough for your own use, and never with the idea of selling the extra. It should go without saying that digging plants from the wild is the worst travesty unless those plants are in imminent danger from a development project AND you have the permission of the property owner.
Over the years, I have experimented with the seed of a great many wildflowers. Some have now come into cultivation, but many are still not widely grown. That was the start of my small hobby nursery that I named, Hawthorn Hill Native Wildflowers. I began collecting the seed from my own plants and grew them up a bit so that others with similar interests to mine could also add them to their landscapes.
What has made the biggest difference to my landscaping are friends. There is no way to minimize the power of forming a network with like-minded people. As a transplant from the Midwest, the difference Florida posed to me was almost overwhelming - new plants and new growing conditions. Frankly, I had no clue what should grow here or what my possibilities were. As many who move to a new place, I tried things that had been familiar to me in the places I had moved from - Wisconsin, Iowa and Kentucky. None worked. Even species that were listed as "native to Florida", like butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) and purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) failed in my landscapes in short order. I had not yet learned the "local landscape" and I was purchasing seed from out-of-state sources. I soon realized that I needed a different paradigm if I was to succeed.
Books are important resources - and I must believe that as I've written six, but personal experiences and the guidance of friends are much more valuable. I ferreted out what were considered local experts and I asked them to mentor me a bit. I went to native plant nurseries within a rather large radius of my home and I asked hundreds of questions. These early trips were not for the purpose of purchasing plants, though I always came home with something. Most importantly, I joined the local chapter of my Native Plant Society and I went to their monthly educational meetings as well as their field trips. Seeing plants in their natural habitat is absolutely necessary if you are to understand their needs in a home landscape.
Too many of us, and I have been guilty of this myself, want to start planting before we have a decent foundation of knowledge and information. It is not about planting every species that we find interesting or that we happen to come across at a nursery - native or otherwise. We need to know what we are trying to accomplish before we can actually accomplish it - and that takes time to educate ourselves before we race forward.
Friends have taught me a great deal over the years and I like to think that I have paid forward some of that as I became able to educate others. They have also helped me in my quest to find special plants (at least special to me) for my landscape. Friends have routinely brought me seed of something I've wanted to grow and they've given or traded plants to me that I've been on the lookout for.  A few days ago, I got a call from a friend that was at a native plant sale 100 miles away, informing me that there were some plants for sale that I might be interested in. I most definitely was. After multiple back-and-forth calls to describe the plants of each vendor she visited, I ended up with a beautiful specimen of the one haw that's eluded me for more than 5 years - a cockspur haw (Crataegus crus-galli), plus a bumelia that has also eluded me for a great many years (Sideroxylon lanuginosa) and a single Flyr's nemesis (Brickellia cordifolia); a species that I once propagated, but had lost over time.
So many of my landscape plants have back stories with ties to friends and that gives them special meaning. Form a network with friends who share your interest in nature. It will be the single-most important puzzle piece to the landscape you are trying to complete.