Aster carolinianus

Climbing Aster is a perennial, flowering, vine-like shrub, that can be trained to grow up a trellis or can be trimmed to a more formal shape and lower height. It prefers average to wet soils and full sun to partial shade. In the late summer through winter, it is covered in small lavender aster flowers. It’s a pollinator favorite!

Sambucus canadensis

Elderberry is a fast-growing native shrub that offers beauty, food, and unmatched wildlife value. This versatile plant thrives in moist soils and adapts easily to sun or partial shade, reaching 6-20 feet to create a lush, pollinator-friendly hedge or specimen plant. In early summer, you'll enjoy massive clusters of fragrant white flowers that attract butterflies, followed by nutrient-rich dark purple berries perfect for homemade syrups and jams. As a cornerstone of the native wildlife garden, Elderberry is a favorite for songbirds and beneficial insects alike.

Phyla nodiflora

One of our favorite native plant “lawn alternatives,” Frogfruit is a low growing, perennial evergeen groundcover that grows in full sun to partial shade and in dry to moist soils. Frogfruit is highly salt-tolerant, fast growing, mow-able and lightly walk-able. It’s also an important host plant to the Phaon Crescent, White Peacock and Common Buckeye butterflies and is a nectar source pollinators including hummingbirds.

Canna flaccida

Golden Canna is a native, upright flowering wetland plant growing 2’ tall. This plant thrives in very moist to wet, soggy soil, and full submersion up to 6”. It has large, butter-yellow blooms that are highly attractive to hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees; it also serves as a vital larval host plant for the native Canna Skipper butterfly.

Acrostichum  danaeifolium

A majestic and prehistoric-looking native fern that makes a bold architectural statement in the landscape. It features large, upright, leathery fronds that can reach impressive heights of 6 to 12 feet. This robust fern thrives in full sun to deep shade and is particularly well-suited for wet areas, pond edges, or low spots in the garden. It is highly salt-tolerant and adds a lush, tropical texture to any damp or aquatic setting.

Acoelorrhaphe wrightii

Paurotis Palm is a Florida native palm that grows to be 15’-25’ tall and 8’-15’ wide. They grow best in full sun and moist to wet sandy soil. They can tolerate standing water, but they are surprisingly drought tolerant once they are established. They are very salt-tolerant, and their dense, multi-trunk growth habit provides cover for local wildlife.

Spartina patens

Saltmeadow Cordgrass is a perennial grass native to Florida's coasts that grows up to 3 feet tall in salt marshes and brackish wetlands. This hardy species features slender, wiry stems and narrow leaves that often form distinctive whorled patterns, creating dense clumps in the high marsh zone above the high-tide line. Highly valuable for Florida wildlife, it provides critical nesting habitat for saltmarsh sparrows, red-winged blackbirds, and boat-tailed grackles, while the seeds feed various shorebirds and waterfowl including mallards and pintails. The dense grass also offers protective cover for diamondback terrapins, marsh rabbits, and juvenile fish during high tide, while serving as foraging areas for great blue herons and snowy egrets. This salt-tolerant native grass plays a vital ecological role in Florida's coastal marsh systems, supporting both resident and migratory species.

Crinum americanum

Swamp Lily is a native perennial wetland plant that grows 2’-3’ tall and 1’-2’ wide. It does well in full sun to partial shade, with partial shade being ideal in the hot summer months in Florida. These plants thrive in very wet soil, mud, and pond muck, and can tolerate standing water up to 6”. They have strappy, dark green leaves and showy clusters of heavily fragrant, white, spider-shaped blooms. The flowers are highly attractive to bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds!

Viburnum obovatum

Walter's Viburnum is an evergreen shrub or small tree native to the southeastern United States that can reach up to 20’ tall but is commonly pruned as a hedge or screen. This densely branched species features fine-textured foliage and produces masses of small, fragrant white flower clusters in early spring, giving it its nickname "Florida snow," that attract butterflies and other pollinators. In fall, it develops dark blue berries that provide food for birds and wildlife. Thriving in zones 7-10, it adapts to various soil types and light conditions from full sun to partial shade, making it an excellent choice for native landscaping, wildlife gardens, and as a Florida-friendly alternative to boxwood hedges.

Sizing of cultivars:

‘Withlacoochee’ - 12’-15’

‘Select’ - 6’-8’

‘Densa’ - 4’-5’

‘Snow Fury’ - 5’-10’

aka Southern Bayberry

Myrica cerifera

Southern Bayberry is a go-to large shrub for tough conditions that require plants that can tolerate moist soils and full sun. It’s also highly adaptable to dry soils and partial shade. It is evergreen and best left untrimmed and allowed to get to its natural height of about 15’. Southern Bayberry makes a nice hedge, natural screen or buffer planting or a specimen shrub and it is an excellent wildlife attractor. The waxy berries on the female plants are a food source for birds, and also used to make traditional bayberry candles.