Wilcox Nursery

Wilcox Nursery is the first place I bought Florida native plants, and after visiting a handful of other Florida natives nurseries, though they are all good and some very good, I seem to have developed an attachment to Wilcox's. Maybe its the staff; much knowledge, especially Bruce Turley, who unfortunately, I missed today. I took this picture today on a small detour from the airport to Wildwood. This is the sort of old-fashioned nursery I love....And they have a tremendous selection of natives that they stock in quantities sufficient to do large plantings!

Not exclusively native, they had beautiful 3 gallon Monstera deliciosa, (or whatever) and one will grow at the base of a Live Oak and hopefully appress its large dissected leaves to the trunk. Did acquire 4 native taxa: Chrysopsis floridiana, Palafoxia integrifolia, Liatris gracilis, and Piloblephis rigida. I don't even know one of these plants, the Palafoxia. I know from the label that its an annual with pink flowers that is an important nectar and food plant for certain butterflies. On-line research tells me farther that Its a composite whose range is limited to Florida and Georgia, it prefers sandy soils, and requires little water. It is an interesting experience to discover, in a retail nursery, a plant whose genus I have never encountered. And exciting! Time to go home and see the neglected garden!