There Were No Fences

Blanketflower - Gaillardia pulchella   Gaillardia aestivalis The world of taxonomy is often confusing - at least to those of us relatively new to it. Plants (and animals) often undergo name changes - at times for reasons that seem unnecessary or for no reason. We learn a name only to discover that someone has decreed the name to be in error and it gets changed to something new. I am forever learning new names for old plants and it often is difficult to make the switch without a great deal of effort.  Years ago, it was deemed that all of the dozens of species once placed in the genus Aster were no longer such. They were moved, in large part, to a new genus name, Symphyotrichum , which is much more difficult to spell. To make matters worse, a few of the former "Asters" were not moved to this new genus, but to several other new ones such as Erybia and Sericocarpus .  It's a never ending battle to stay on top of things sometimes. There are rigid rules that govern the naming o...

 As I sit and work in my landscape, I am reminded once again that Florida has seasons just like every other temperate location in the world. It's just that you have to be attuned to them. I pity all of the transplanted northerners that come to Florida and then bemoan the lack of seasons here. They just don't take the time to recognize them. They are subtle. We don't get walloped over the head with a baseball bat like they do up north; the south is more cultured than that. You don't see seasons in Florida if you stay inside your home, car and place of work and take a quick peek out the window once in a while. You also can't recognize it if the landscape you spend your time in is planted with non-native tropicals. After all, there is no need to time your flowering and leaf fall with a specific time of year if you evolved in an area where the growing conditions remain constant year round. Plants native to Florida, however, have not evolved that way. They do things just...