This garden’s plant palette draws
primarily on that of north central Florida’s native plant
communities and their associations. Its diverse but
unified areas include a River Birch grove (above at eleven
o’clock ), a prairie scrub meadow (one o’clock), an
agricultural area, an allee of Ironwood (Ostrya virginiana) and
Musclewood (Carpinus caroliniana) and native woodland shrubs (such as the native
azalea (Rhododendron austrinum --
five o’clock), and
wildflowers. Native plants are used in innovative ways,
for example, the Coral Honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens -- seven
o’clock) is used as a front hedge, and the front
yard’s ground cover alternates seasonally between the
blossoms and green of over 6000 ipheion bulbs Spring Star
Flower (Ipheion uniflorum, from South America -- six o’clock) and
the pink flowering Sunshine mimosa (Mimosa strigalosa --
a Florida native).
However, this emphasis on plants should
not obscure the garden’s other functions. The
shrubs and trees, for example, have been chosen and placed so
as to allow light in the winter and shade in the summer.
And, as can be seen from the plan, this is also very much
a stroll garden.
