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Attendees loved the wildflower meadow installed by Green Seasons Nursery, Oak Sponsor of the Native Plant Show.Enjoy some scenes from our show, where dozens of volunteers, 21 sponsors, 47 exhibitors, ~ 280+ attendees and two dozen product & service providers were a FANN-tastic team.
Illicium floridanum ‘Miss Scarlett’ a beautiful Florida native cultivar originally discovered by Larry Alsobrook in Hawthorne, Florida. Patented by Jim Fleming of Tropic Traditions and branded by Southern Living Magazine.
The Native Plant Show features a mix of species and companies serving both the landscape and restoration markets. Beautiful ornamental quality native plants were exhibited by growers like our Magnolia sponsor Tropic Traditions Nursery, who exhibited the lovely blooming red anise cultivar shown above, while other companies promoted their restoration expertise and specialized plants.
Mike Sobba, manages Martin County Farms native plant nursery for Aquatic Vegetation Control. Here, with a grass used for restoration.
This year’s theme “See native plants in a new way” must have really motivated our exhibitors, who really stepped up their displays this year. Here we see Pine Sponsor Green Isle Gardens Nursery’s display contrasting what bees see when they fly over the typical non-native landscape.
FANN+friends group shot with Chad Crawford, host and producer of the new reality TV series, Flip My Florida Yard.
THANK YOU Show Team Volunteers: Nancy Bissett, Sharon Dolan, Jenny Evans, Jerry Fritz, Martha Ann Glenn, Terry Godts, Tom Heitzman, Chris Holly, Craig Huegel, Alyssa Lavoro, Eddie McKeithen, Annie Schiller, Troy Springer, Roger Triplett, Bruce Turley and Christopher Waltz.
Landscape professionals check out a corner of SCCF’s South Florida landscape demonstration.
SCCF Team in front of Williams Wildflowers plant wall. L-R: Jonathan Stechschulte, Jenny Evans, Becca Grotrian, Rachel Turner and Sue Ramos.
Jenny Evans and Becca Grotrian of SCCF at the registration desk. They take “service with a smile” to a whole other level.
On top of everything else, the SCCF Native Landscapes & Garden Center Team staffed registration, sold FANN swag and cashiered plant sales, and did it with genuine smiles that never faded, even after multiple 12 hour days.
Stardust Farm’s big Swamp Chestnut Oak (Quercus michauxii) enchanted everyone.
After move-in, exhibitors and volunteers gathered at Woody’s River Roo on the Manatee River. Thank you, Vicki Triplett, for arrangements.
Setting up a show like this is a huge effort and we are so grateful to our volunteers: Eddie McKeithen, Jerry Fritz, Troy Springer, John Sibley, Chris Holly, Bruce Turley, Brent & Sharon Dolan, Steve Tuton and our student helpers (Wayne, Zach, Gabe, Amanda, Shannon). Thanks, Great Southern Equipment, for the use of your beautiful loader. Thanks McKeithen Growers, Springer Environmental Services, Sandhill Growers and All Native Garden Center for the many hours of free — and the best — labor to get the job done quickly and safely. Move-in, set up and move-out went smoothly thanks to you!
FANN’s “Show Experience” volunteers (Alyssa Lavoro, Annie Schiller, Christopher Waltz, Spence Guerin, Jenny Evans, Bruce Turley, Troy Springer, Richard Beaupre) pulled off several fun, memorable displays and activities, including a beautiful lounge, a photo opp plant wall and multiple engaging, educational and entertaining displays for garden, landscape and restoration.
Mason jar chandelier filled with native wildflowers, courtesy of SCCF and Williams Wildflowers.
Thank you Sarasota Architectural Salvage for the many fantastic seating, signage and decor items from “Old Florida,” Big Earth Landscape Supply for beautiful pots and concrete benches, Williams Wildflowers for the arrangements and “wildflower wall,” Bill and Kitty Burton for stitching up that canvas wall, Spence Guerin for photo opp artwork and other assistance, Christopher Waltz for the side-by-side comparison of sustainability in the landscape and the lack thereof, Creative Garden Structures for the wooden arbor, bench and pollinator houses and Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation for chandelier & other materials. Thanks Crawford Entertainment for our sneak peak at the all-native episode of Flip My Florida Yard.
Side by side house facades send a message: when it comes to sustainability, what you plant, matters. Designed, built and installed by Christopher Waltz, native plant champion.
Attendees flocked to CEU classes to get practical tips on using native plants.
Go Gators! UF environmental horticulture graduate students Amanda Morgan and Crystal Conner helped us out at the show.
FANN’s t-shirts were a hit, thanks to our Experience Team’s great design work.
Need a “Keep Calm & Plant Natives” shirt? Available online, along with I Love Native Plants t-shirts.
Thanks to our wonderful instructors: A.D. Ali, Bill Bissett, Nancy Bissett, Stephen Brown, Gabe Campbell, John Conroy, Zak Gezon, Gail Hansen, Craig Huegel, Michelle Keyser, Hayk Khachatryan, Jen Marvin, Lloyd Singleton, Steve Turnipseed, Sandra Wilson and Terry Zinn.
Thanks Bruce Turley, Raymond Powell and all of the Native Plant Horticulture Foundation sponsored student volunteers for managing our classes.
The rest of our great team of student helpers, from L-R: Wayne Baker, Shannon Collins, Gayandrial “Ivy” Henderson, Gabe Campbell and Zach Zeller.
One of several tables at the Thursday social at Motorworks, a great venue arranged for us by Chris Holly, who also set up the beautiful native plant centerpieces. From L-R: Volunteer Raymond Powell, Instructor Steve Turnipseed, new FANN member and About Native Yards owner Robert Meale, Wilcox Nursery & Landscape owner Bruce Turley, and student volunteer Zach Zeller. Everyone enjoyed a few brews under the big oak.
See this year’s Central Florida, North Florida and South Florida winning landscape designs. Awards were presented Friday but the designs were admired both days. Big thanks to Craig Huegel, Design Competition Chair, and our judges Jeff Caster, George Fogg, Kristin and Stephen Pategas, Scott Redmon and Meg Whitmer, plus the University of Florida, where the Plant Studio course is turning out a wonderful new generation of landscape architects completely in tune with their natural environment.
This year’s award-winning landscape plans were much admired.
Craig Huegel with 2017 Real Florida Landscapes Design Competition award winners, from L-R: Ivy Henderson accepting on behalf of Bryan Pepper, Andrea England and Matthew McFall.
Public plant sale outside, organized by our conservation partner Florida Native Plant Society.
FANN is so grateful to our conservation partner Florida Native Plant Society for their work in advocating for our plants and inspiring citizens everywhere with their passion for our plants. Despite exhaustion from their own recent super successful spring plant sale, the Serenoa Chapter Florida Native Plant Society (FNPS) and other FNPS volunteers organized, labeled, shlepped and sold plants for 20+ hours and donated the profits to FANN. Thank you Tom Heitzman, Nancy West, Jenny Welch, Kaity Storer, Richard Andrews, Carolann Cahill, Margaret Dahl, Donna Estevez, Heather Hill, Na’aleiani Inocencio, Cathy Page, J.R. Reiner, Erica Timmerman and Leah Wilcox, and our student volunteers. Native plant people are the best!
Many FANN members donated plants to the sale and to Manatee County, and many members purchased plants left over from the sale. Bruce Turley took home a whole hammock ecosystem. Thank you!
MEGA THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS
No event of this magnitude is possible without a big investment of hard cash by people who believe in the cause and want to see it succeed. FANN is a small association with big dreams we cannot begin to achieve without the continued support of our members, partners and board of directors. FANN is eternally gratefully to our sponsors:
Our Mighty Oaks
Green Seasons Nursery
Native Plant Horticulture Foundation
Our New Magnolia
Tropic Traditions Nursery
Our Forest of Pines
AgriStarts
Brightman Logan
Flatwood Natives Nursery
Florida Wildflower Foundation
Green Isle Gardens Nursery
Maple Street Natives Nursery
McKeithen Growers
Sandhill Native Growers & Environmental Services
Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation
Southeast Soils Peat Company
The Natives
Wildflower Seed & Plant Growers Association
Friends of the Show
Audubon of Florida
Steve Hill of Organic Products Company
Jim Quinn, Horticultural Alliance
J.R. Reiner of Reliable Peat
Christopher Waltz
Coffee for the 8:00am Classes
Betrock Information Systems
Horticultural Alliance
Many thanks also to our very hardworking staff, Executive Director Cammie Donaldson and Administrative Assistant Emma Haselow, whose many long hours cannot be fully compensated but are fully appreciated.
Finally, a big thank you to the many product and service providers who helped us pull off another FANNtastic Native Plant Show:
bCreative Printing & Design
Betrock Information Systems (donated, FANN member)
Big Earth Landscape Supply (donated, FANN member)
Bradenton Area Convention Center
CC AV
Crawford Entertainment
Creative Garden Structures (donated, FANN member)
Crystal Hutcheson Graphic Design Services
Doug Ingram & Sons Nursery (donated, FANN member)
Flamingo Printing
Great Southern Equipment (donated, FANN member)
Hampton Inn Ellenton
Jesse Durko Nursery (donated, FANN member)
LocalDirective
Manatee Apparel
Milan Catering
Mix’d Greens Environmental (donated, FANN member)
NeonCRM
Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation (donated, FANN member)
Sarasota Architectural Salvage (donated use of materials plus donated 20% of proceeds of any materials sold to Native Plant Horticulture Foundation)
Silent Native Nursery (donated, FANN member)
Southern Eagle Printing
Spectrum
Super 8 Ellenton
The Plant List (donated)
U.S. Tents
5th Annual Native Plant Show held April 20-21, 2017, Bradenton Area Convention Center in Palmetto.
EVENT MISSION: Deliver education and information for industry professionals in a venue that inspires innovation, promotes relationship building and business success, and enhances the visibility and strength of the native plant industry. Our focus is on the selection and use of native plants for landscape and restoration.