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Steve at a Florida Native Plant Society conference with one of his Simpson Stopper, Myrcianthes fragrans, selections. Steve Riefler a FANN favorite CONTINUED FROM PAGE 44 lar native plants grown in containers. “Steve is definitely a plantsman, a grower, and he taught me a lot,” says David. In the early 1980s, when they needed to grow 50,000 cypress trees, Steve climbed 30 feet up to shake seeds out of the air, not waiting for them to fall to the ground, where they could be quickly parasitized and within hours, no good to plant. Nancy and Bill Bissett, of The Natives, learned about Steve at the very first conference of the Florida Native Plant Society, on the Rollins College campus in 1981. Some time later, they began collecting seed together. Nancy also remembers Steve climbing into the tops of Bald Cypress trees, knocking off seeds that fell onto plastic sheets they had spread below. Nancy collected the seed on the ground, and because it was all gummy from resin, wore her old clothes for the messy chore. They 50 FANN Wholesale Native Plant & Service Directory | Fall 2017 - 2018 FANN PHOTO


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