What do you get when you cross a pindo palm with a queen palm? A rare mule palm -- one of the most beautiful of all pinnate-leaved palms. Its extreme cold hardiness and fast growing habit are a result of both parents’ best traits (like the animal, the palm is…
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Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and what better way to welcome your guests than with a big fat pineapple. That’s right; scoot that dry cornucopia off your table and replace it with nature’s only edible bromeliad. After all, if the pineapple was good enough for the natives of Guadalupe…
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It’s not as creepy as you think. Some species of Florida bats hang out in Spanish moss, others in old dead trees or palm fronds (dead cabbage palms are a favorite place to roost). But as scary as that sounds, bats bring “boo-tiful” benefits to Sarasota and Manatee counties that…
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Native only to the Americas and nearby islands, agave (also known as a “century plant”) is a spiny, salt-tolerant, drought-resistant succulent that can take up to a hundred years to bloom in dry habitats. But grow it a humid climate (think Sarasota and Venice in southwest Florida), and you might…
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