Longleaf pine, dahoon holly, live oak, laurel oak, southern magnolia, cabbage palm, fiddlewood, white stopper, red bay, loblolly bay, swamp bay, red cedar, slash pine, american hornbeam, sycamore, sweet gum, red maple, red buckeye, green ash, pop ash, swamp dogwood, black tupelo, bald cypress, pond cypress, river birch, royal palm, silver buttonwood, spanish stopper, yellow poplar, sweet acacia, willow, common hackberry, sugarberry.

The poplar may or may not make it, the buckeye's are out of zone but surviving though not growing much. They have already broke dormancy, and one of the two is fully leafed out. They go dormant in mid summer.

Who else is growing a lot of native trees that they love?

Gary

We have fiddlewood, silver buttonwood, simpson's stopper, dahoon holly, and jamaica caper at this time. For shrubs I have hamelia patens and senna ligustrina. I've been trying to add one or two natives each year since I've been here.

I really like the shape of the caper, and moved it last year to a sunnier spot. I'm hoping for a lot more than the three or four blooms it had last year.

A friend who grew up in Cortez (fishing village) said I needed to keep the buttonwood out of sight since it is a favorite wood for smoking mullet. Maybe I can plant more and have a "cash crop"??

When the nursery delivered last fall's trees, the nurserywoman asked to collect seeds from the senna. It surprised me since I had bought it from her a couple years prior. Apparently she hadn't saved any seeds since she wasn't sure how it was going to perform. After she saw ours, she decided she wanted to grow more. Maybe I'll get a discount this year??

Kat - just how thorny is the acacia and how large is it going to be?

It's much easier to choose and plant now that we have sun in the backyard. The we helped the neighbor remove the Cuban Laurel, small ficus and Brazilian pepper. Now, for the bischofia... :-)

Terri

Although some folks say it's been invasive for them it has not for me although I can see it's tendencies to throw shoots from the bottom of the bush (tree?). It's been a super nice hedge between my neighbor and me because it's skinny, dense and tall.

I'd love to have more native trees but there is not enough yard. At our previous house I planted Simpson stopper and hamelia patens and native coffee to add to the live oaks (2).

So far I have paradise tree, false mastic, willow bustic, satinleaf, firebush, marlberry, white stopper, lancewood, myrsine, strangler fig, wild lime, wild coffee, redbay, swampbay, sweetbay, red mulberry, hackberry, red maple, bald cypress, pond cypress, slash pine, dahoon holly, inkberry, florida privet, live oak, water oak, laural oak, pop ash, buttonbush, carolina willow, water hickory, scrub hickory, virginia willow, pond apple, cinnamon bark, pigeon plum, persimmon...

There's probably more, but that's all I can think of at the moment... Maybe you can add a few of those to your landscape....

Tell me a little about the marlberry. I was considering it when I put in the stopper, but the nursery didn't have it then. They do now, and if it doesn't seem to get too large, I may have a place for it.

Thanks,
Terri

Gary

Are you using natives to create a formal garden or trying to re-create a natural appearance? I've been trying to stay strict about using what you would typically find in our local hammocks. Strolling through a tropical hammock full of satinleaf and firebush with a sabal and oak overstory is an awesome sight. My creation on our property is only a couple of years in the making. I'm hoping to have some canopy developing after this growing season.

Most of my plants were grown from seeds and cuttings. If you lived closer I'd gladly share some.

For shrubs: wild coffe (toasted this winter), firespike (purple, toasted now), firebush (dwarf and regular), firecracker, dwarf viburnum(I think)

I am thinking in adding a few small trees. I saw a white flowering Dogwood and Fringe tree in Lowes but I am not sure how good they are for this zone. Would they flower and do ok here?
Thanks

Guadua, mine is more natural than formal, mostly edging my property and filling in stuff friendly to wildlife wherever possible. Some of which a great visually. Many of my plants also need a couple years to get some size. My maples and some oaks are getting nice, some maples around 30', some oaks over 15'. The sweet gum is going to be a juggernaut, and it's fall color is amazing, burgundy purple. The river birch tree will be amazing when it gets bigger. My tupelos aren't doing much, but I really want them on my property.

Fruit trees take all areas that get enough drainage.

Gary

Most of the trees on our property are small at the moment. Only the original pines have some size to them. My largest and fastest growers are my ficus aurea (20ft) and red mulberry (15ft), but the red maples seem to be quick too. I planted a sideroxylon foetidissimum (mastic tree) at the end of last summer, which has doubled in size (12ft).

So far my efforts have brought new wildlife. I had never seen a hummingbird in my yard before. They show up in little flocks buzzing the flowers ever since I planted a dozen or more firebush.

guadua: Certainly lots of mine aren't native to my exact area, but are native to within 100 miles, so I'm going to try some I find valuable. It's great that you're getting hummers, I get one now and then, but only a few times a year do I notice it. I've done better at attracting birds which like berries, like catbirds, mockingbirds and cardinals. Stoppers are great for them, like spanish, simpson and white. Also my female fiddlewood has berries that they love. Unfortunately, they also like my mulberries.

Gary

http://www.mailordernatives.com/servlet/StoreFront

I cultivate Ilex opacas, vomitoria, vomitoria pendula, decidua (yellow berry;) oaks: live, overcap, white, turkey, bluff,and post; magnolias: virginia, macrophylla ssp. ashei,pyramidata, and grandiflora; Torreya taxifolia; native persimmon; cypress; cornus florida ('Gulf Coast' and 'Welch's Junior Miss' (both red flowered;) Chionanthus virginicus ;Sassafras Pines: longleaf, slash, sand, spruce; Maples: red, florida sugar; red and white buckeyes; shag and pignut hickories. There are others that escape my memory at the moment.

Love natives that feed wildlife. Ilex opacas feed lots of buzzing bees in early spring; the buckeyes feed the hummingbird; oaks and hickories feed the three squirrels (grey, flying, and fox.)

Carol

Gary

bald cypress, fringe tree (I think it is the native one but I am not sure), maple, redbud.

@Guadua, I love the sweetbay, but does it need a wet or low-lying area (this does not fit the description of my yard)?

@Jetstream, LOVE the GatorOaks!