out birds, butterflies and butterfly caterpillars.
Signs posted all over helped to identify
plants and wildlife supported by the plants.
We walked all around the house and then
got a chance to talk to owner Buffie Judd.
Buffie has been a gardener all her life, always
loved plants. She also really loves butterflies.
Years ago, she began visiting a butterfly
attraction and planting everything they
recommended. Unfortunately, they recommended
mostly non-native plants. Soon she
had overgrown Sweet Almond, Firespike,
Shrimp Plants and more, all nonnative
and none doing much to
increase the butterfly population.
She was paying a lot of
money to keep these plants
under control. The financial
turning point came when the
landscape service suggested that
all the pine needles, made available
by the large pine trees on the
property, had to be raked up, removed
and replaced with purchased
organic mulch. Buffie
decided that just didn’t make
sense and put her foot down.
The pine needles were staying.
Around the same time, she
learned about Meadowbeauty
Nursery, a FANN member native
nursery in Lake Worth providing plants
and landscaping, and called them. “The regular
guys just didn’t know anything.” Meadowbeauty
was a whole different deal. They
introduced her to native plants that were
naturally adapted to the free pine needle
mulch. The new plants also did a much better
job of attracting, and keeping, butterflies
in her yard, as well as migrating birds.
Buffie developed a relationship with
Meadowbeauty that over the years, has resulted
in a complete transformation of the
landscape and a personal evolution for Buffie.
“Before, I gardened more for the look of it,”
she said. Her thinking shifted and values
deepened as she saw that how it looked mattered
much less than what it did. She joined
FNPS and other organizations, watched what
the plants did and got hooked. “The more natives
I had, the more I wanted.” Buffie explained
that “normal gardening” no longer
seems like enough for her. “I’m not a ornamental
gardener anymore, I’m really about
habitat and wildlife. When I see companies
spraying whole hedges, I just think ‘wipe out.’
Buffie’s mailbox is planted in a hedge of Golden Beach Creeper,
Ernodea littoralis. This relatively “shaped” hedge sends a
“planted on purpose” signal to passersby, and contrasts well
with the more informal mixed planting behind it.
22 | GUIDE FOR REAL FLORIDA GARDENERS FALL 2018 FANN/Florida Association of Native Nurseries