Spring is a Season in Florida



 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 like they do up north - seasonally. They just do it more quietly.

I know exactly what season it is by what's happening in my landscape right now. The earliest native trees and shrubs have already started to bloom. The red buckeye (Aesculus pavia), in fact has already finished and is no longer adorned with its deep red tubular flowers. My flatwoods plum (Prunus umbellata) and two downy serviceberries (Amelanchier arborea) are currently in bloom. Its a time I've been looking forward to since last early spring and I've not been disappointed. These 1 year older plants are flowering much more profusely this time around. In my landscape, the earliest spring bloomers will soon give rise to the next wave - the native azaleas, hawthorns, silverbells, and viburnums will follow in the next several weeks. Then I'll get to see if my fringe tree (Chionanthus virginicus) is mature enough to produce flowers or if I'm going to have to wait another year.

Native plant landscapes provide us the anticipation that seasonality brings. I can tick off from a list of anticipatory events what time of year it is by watching what plants are in bloom. It's just that you have to surround yourself with the plants that are supposed to be here and divest yourself of all the exotics that aren't.  I look forward to each year and the passing of the seasons present in my new landscape. You just have to do that with native plants. There is no sense griping about missing the seasons here when all of that burden to witness and experience them lies within your scope of responsibility and not Florida's.

Comments

  1. Mary-IVTMarch 4, 2021 at 10:13 PM

    Cultured? Every area is cultured. While I love Florida, I also love the changing seasons and the subtleties of each season where I grew up in Missouri.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jackie MalinowskaMarch 8, 2021 at 8:54 AM

    Enjoyed reading this. I try to plant Florida Natives plants and trees whenever I can

    ReplyDelete

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