By Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp
What are some of the Florida landscape design trends popular for an outdoor renovation? We went to a Florida landscape designer for answers.
Floridians are no longer interested in one-and-done plants for their renovated landscapes. Rather, they look for plants with multiple seasons of beauty when renovating their landscapes.
That’s what award-winning, Florida landscape designer Teresa Watkins has found with her clients. “People began to understand that many native plants go dormant in winter,” said Watkins, owner of Sustainable Horticultural Environments, or SHE, in Orlando.
“Clients are more interested in plants with multiple seasons of interest, that are colorful and are low maintenance, said Watkins, voted a winner eight years in a row by Houzz for customer service in landscaping. “Almost always low maintenance.”
Other popular landscape design trends for Florida homes:
Site-appropriate plants
As people become more aware of their environment and specific growing conditions, they request plants that are more site appropriate, such as adapted to Florida’s sandy or clay soils, she said. Site condition also includes sunlight and water needs.
Watkins discourages selecting plants only for drought tolerance because that is an extreme condition. Better to plant for your area’s normal rainfall, winds and temperatures, she said.
Hot right now (no pun intended) are new tropical hibiscuses from the Hollywood Hibiscus series, with playful names like Gossip Queen, Trophy Wife, Rock Star, and Pop Star. “Hollywood Hibiscus stay at 3-feet tall and 3-feet wide and they bloom all year. They’ve been a great success,” she said.
Some of the dwarf butterfly bushes also are popular with property owners because of their long bloom period. They also attract butterflies and other pollinators.
Outdoor living
People are more interested in personal space in the landscape, where there’s intimacy with the garden. “They want fragrance, to be able to touch plants and experience the gardens more in whatever time frame they have. They are about enjoying a garden, not pruning it.
Outdoor kitchens are always a plus in the landscape. So is outdoor seating with low lighting, which creates a beautiful ambiance at night without affecting the sky. “With low lights you can see colors, shapes and textures of plants, and the stars in the sky,” said Watkins, whose Better Lawn and Gardens can be heard weekly on WFLA-AM 540.
Privacy
As people spend more time outdoors, they want privacy from neighbors and passersby. A couple of ways to get this privacy is with plants, such as those that form a seasonal or evergreen hedge, or a semi-privacy fence.
Select plants with multiple seasons of interest, such as flowers in spring, beautiful foliage in summer, fall color or fruit, and a form that looks good in the winter landscape.
Evergreen shrubs like arborvitae work well for a plant hedge. Shrubs can be mixed with panels of wood or metal to break up the look yet still have privacy.
Metal art
Privacy fencing doesn’t have to be 6-foot-tall wood boards. Rather, artful metal screening can be used. These can be purchased as free-standing panels, some with etchings or cutouts for design. Aluminum or painted metal are popular choices. One thing to be mindful of is the metal will be hot in the sun.
Low maintenance
Maintenance is more than pruning. Maintenance also is watering plants when needed, fertilizing, cleaning up fallen plant debris, monitoring for insects and diseases and possibly treating them.
Plants are living things and sometimes need a little TLC. Reduce worries by selecting plants marked as insect or disease resistant. Smart gardeners select plants based on their mature size, which eliminates the pruning task.
Landscape projects
Watkins said major landscape projects have slowed the last year or two. She has projects tied to the building of multimillion-dollar homes that have slowed because of the cost of materials.
Or people have held off planting trees they want until they can get a ditch dug or pool or other water feature installed in the next year or two, she said. “In three to five years, landscaping will bloom again.”
Get started on your own outdoor renovation
You don’t have to wait to have a beautiful landscape. Figure out what you want, and then start small. Incorporate some of the above Florida design trends to create the perfect look for an inviting home and backyard oasis. This is Florida. Welcome the neighbors – flamingos and herons even – to your tranquil and low-maintenance landscape.
Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp is an award-winning garden writer, editor, and speaker. Known as a hortiholic, she frequently says her eyes are too big for her yard. She blogs at hoosiergardener.com. One of Jo Ellen’s fondest memories of her Florida visits is the scent of gardenias in people’s yards.
