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Posted by Mary on 16:40:20 07/27/09
In Reply to: Re: a warbler in my yard posted by Brian Rapoza
This is in response to your posting on the TAS birdboard. What I did was plant two wild tamarinds (Lysiloma latisiliquum) in the back, northeast corner of my yard. I also planted lots of stoppers, including:
Simpson s stoppers (Myrcianthes fragrans)
White stoppers (Eugenia axillaries)
Torchwood (Amyris elemifera)
Wild coffees (Psychotria nervosa, Psychotria ligustrifolia, Psychotria sulzneri)
Black ironwood (Krugiodendron ferreum)
Inkwood (Exothea paniculata)
Red stopper (Eugenia rhombea)
Red-berry stopper (Eugenia confuse)
Satinleaf (Chrysophyllum oliviforme)
Jamaica caper (Capparis cynophallophora)
Gumbo-limbo (Bursera simaruba)
I bought many of the plants as 1 to 3-gallon size from Plant Creations Nursery (www.plantcreations.com) and a few at the TAS plant sales. I work at Fairchild, so I also bought some of the plants at our plant sales (www.fairchildgarden.org ) I feel that it is important to buy small plants, like I did. They get established much faster and end up outgrowing a plant that was planted as a larger plant within a couple years, anyway. I find that large plants grown in containers are often potbound and their roots never get established in the landscape. They are weakly rooted and blow over easily! NATIVE PLANTS ARE VERY FAST GROWING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don t let anyone convince you otherwise. I did fertilize my plants for the first couple of years with 6-6-6, but nothing since. No water once they are established and no fertilizer after a couple years. The wild tamarinds are very fast growing and get large! Birds (including the beautiful Painted Buntings) love my hammock. I hang a bird feeder in a small tree on the outside edge of the hammock where I can watch the activity.
There is a wonderful book, published by the Florida Native Plant Society. It is Planning and Planting A Native Plant Yard .
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