Florida Friendly Plant Workshops

 

Learn how to transform your property into a beautiful oasis for people and wildlife that will not only conserve precious water resources and reduce pollution but may also save you time and money. Additional workshops in Hardee and DeSoto counties are now being planned.

  • Saturday, September 8, 2007 from 8:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. at South Florida Community College, 2968 US 17 N in Bowling Green

  • Saturday, October 13, 2007 from 8:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. at South Florida Community College, 2251 NE Turner Ave in Arcadia

These workshops are free and no registration is required. Updates to these workshops will be posted on this page of this website (www.CHNEP.org). Information from this site is also available as a PDF file and in a press release. As a thank you for participating, each person who attends (while supplies last) will receive lunch and a free native plant at the end of the workshop as well as many other informative and useful items.

 

If PowerPoint presentations are available, they are linked to the topic or speaker. (If you don't have PowerPoint software, you can download the free software PowerPoint Viewer. Follow the link then search for "Powerpoint Viewer 2003.")

 

Each session will be offered at two different times using two rooms if the number of participants exceeds the capacity of the meeting room. The speakers will be at both workshops unless otherwise indicated.

 

8:00 Registration begins

8:30 Program starts, Welcome

8:45 Florida Yards & Neighborhoods Program

9:15 Neighbor-to-Neighbor Florida-friendly landscaping video

9:45 Break with short demonstrations on mulching, planting, planning your yard on-line and guided tour

10:15 Panel of plant experts

  • John Sibley, All Native Plant Center

  • Charlie Foster, Deluxe Trees & Shrubs

  • Brooks Armstrong, Pine Lily Nursery

  • Lorna Ransom, DeSoto County Parks & Recreation

  • Jackson Mosley, Paynes Creek Historic State Park

11:15 Landscape design

  • Hardee: Laurel Schiller, co-owner of Florida Native Plants nursery in Sarasota. Among other things, she is vice-president of the Florida Native Nursery Association and the chair of the State Education Committee for the Association.

  • DeSoto: William F. Bissett, ASLA, landscape architect. He is one of the founders of The Natives in Davenport and a member of the Florida Native Plant Society and the Association of Florida Native Nurseries

Florida Native Plant Image Contest winners will announced at the workshop in October.

Deadline to submit entries is October 6.

Noon Lunch will be provided free while supplies last, plant sale, talk one-on-one with an expert

  • Lunch on September 8 is sponsored by Sun State Landscaping.

  • Lunch on October 13 is sponsored by Peace River/Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority.

12:45 Your choice: Guide to site analysis of lot or acreage

1:30 Break (see 9:45 break)

2:00 Your choice: Pest management or pond management

2:45 As a gift for attending, each person may take one of the select plants.

These workshops are offered free because of the cooperation and generosity of many groups, including:

  • Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program,

  • the Peace River Basin Board of the Southwest Florida Water Management District,

  • Sun State Landscaping (providing lunch on September 8),

  • Peace River/Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority (sponsoring lunch on October 13),

  • South Florida Community College as well as

  • Pine Lily Nursery, Deluxe Trees and Shrubs, DeSoto County Parks and Recreation, the guest speakers, and many others.

Please encourage your friends and neighbors to attend.

 

Maran Brainard Hilgendorf, Communications Manager, mhilgendorf@swfrpc.org, Phone extension 240

Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program

1926 Victoria Ave, Fort Myers FL 33901, www.CharlotteHarborNEP.org

239/338-2556, Toll Free 866/835-5785, Fax 239/338-2560

Working together to protect the natural environment from Venice to Bonita Springs to Winter Haven

 

CHNEP has initiated workshops in Hardee and DeSoto counties because they currently do not have county staff dedicated to a program such as Florida Yards and Neighborhoods. If you live in Charlotte County, Lee County, Manatee County, Polk County, Sarasota County, please follow the links provided to learn more about the workshops offered in these counties.

Thanks to all who made prior workshops held in DeSoto and Hardee counties such great successes.

  • June 1, 2005 in Arcadia (46 participants)

  • June 15, 2005 in Wauchula (20 participants)

  • June 29, 2005 in Arcadia (46 participants)

  • November 5, 2005 in Arcadia (100 participants)

  • February 13, 2006 in Bowling Green (50 participants)

  • January 27, 2007 in Bowling Green (45 participants)

  • February 3, 2007 in Arcadia (90 participants), Florida Native Plant Writing Contest winners were announced

Florida Native Plant Writing Contest ~ Florida Native Plant Writing Contest Entries

Landscape design presentations given at the January 27 and February 3, 2007 workshops are available as PowerPoint presentations.

The presentation slides used by each speaker are available by clicking on the name of each presenter. If you don't have PowerPoint software, you can download the free software PowerPoint Viewer. (Follow the link then search for "Powerpoint Viewer 2003.")

  • Hardee workshop: William F. Bissett, ASLA, landscape architect. He is one of the founders of The Natives in Davenport and a member of the Florida Native Plant Society and the Association of Florida Native Nurseries.

  • DeSoto workshop: Tom Heitzman, owner of Sweetbay Nursery in Parrish: He has designed and implemented numerous award winning native plant landscapes and is a member of the Florida Native Plant Society and the Association of Florida Native Nurseries.

  • Demonstration of an online interactive landscape design program (www.FloridaYards.org)