January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | No meeting in December
COVID Social Isolation
2021 Meetings were held on Zoom. If recordings were successful they are on our YouTube channel. May through the end of 2021 - Meetings were held at Big Cypress Recreation Center and on Zoom.
December - no meeting, holiday
November 26, 2021
Kim Heise, Water Color Artist Specializing in Florida Native Plants
Kim is a watercolor artist who focuses on the flora and fauna of Florida. She paints the relationships between Florida native plants and animals through watercolor illustration. Her work is a celebration of the beauty of Florida species.
She is from South Florida and lives and works in Palm Beach County.
She recently collaborated doing 14 illustrations with Miami nonprofit Bound by Beauty. The project is about making native plants accessible and exciting by highlighting the natives that are all around us. These plants are also special because they are butterfly hosts, plants like Fogfruit and Wireweed. The collaboration will culminate in an art show, prints, plant id cards, school field trips, and other educational activities.
Kim received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from Florida Atlantic University in 2014 and has transitioned to full-time artist this year after working for the past 10 years as a teacher.
October 22, 2021
Rich Ackerman: Florida Native Orchids
Florida's ghost orchid is well known among plant lovers, but it's just one of the state's ninety-nine native orchid species. Although less eye-catching than commercially grown tropical orchids, some native orchids can provide an interesting element to your garden. Rich Ackerman is the past president of The Fort Lauderdale Orchid Society and lectures extensively on Florida’s native orchids. In 2018, he started collecting seed "in the wild" from Broward County Encyclia tampensis (Florida butterfly orchid) and started growing them via their partnership with Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. From these, seedlings resulted and Mr. Ackerman will share some of the native orchid seeds with us.
Unfortunately, the recording of this meeting is not available.
September 24, 2021
Stacy Matrazo: Florida Native Edible Plants in Your Back Yard
Stacey Matrazzo joined the Florida Wildflower Foundation in 2015 as its program manager. Before that, she worked for the Foundation for several years as a contractor. She is the co-author of Native Plants for Florida Gardens, (Link to FNPS Amazon Smile) which she wrote with botanist/restoration ecologist Nancy Bissett. She is an environmental educator with a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies and a master's degree in liberal studies from Rollins College, where she is also an adjunct professor. A native Floridian and certified Florida Master Naturalist, Stacey spends much of her free time kayaking, hiking, birding, and photographing Florida’s amazing natural environments.
At the meeting, we plan to have a tasting of refreshments made from Florida Natives.
Unfortunately, the recording of this meeting is not available.
Summer Hiatus - June, July, August
May 28, 2021
Growing the Market for Florida Native Plants
Timothee 
Sallin talked about OUTSIDE, a sustainable landscape collaborative.
http://outsidecollab.com/2020-videos/
Goals include:
- Promote a statewide collaboration around sustainable landscape practices.
- Increase nursery supply of Floria native and Florida resilient plants.
- Grow industry competencies in sustainable landscape maintenance.
- Support local governments to evaluate landscape codes for effectiveness.
- Collaborate with state agencies to encourage green infrastructure projects.
- Quantify economic impacts and ecosystem services.
- Partner with the development community to implement sustainable landscapes holistically.
- Work with existing developments and HOA's to retrofit sustainable landscapes holistically.
- Develop a holistic sustainable approach to the landscape transaction from design to implementation to maintenance.
- Educate communities to expand perceptions of what landscapes can provide.
Timothee Sallin is Co-CEO of IMG Enterprises. A diversified, family-owned Florida agri-business with operations in citrus, environmental horticulture, ecosystem restoration and landscape. Timothee is passionate about promoting sustainable agricultural and landscape practices as well as innovation in technology and organizational leadership.
Timothee is a board member of 1000 Friends of Florida, a non-profit organization dedicated to saving special places and building better communities. A graduate of New College of the University of South Florida, Timothee earned a degree in Economics and International Studies. Timothee is also a graduate of the University of Florida’s Wedgworth Leadership Institute for Agriculture and Natural Resources.
IMG Enterprises believes that through our sustainable connection to the environment we can transform the world exponentially.
April 23, 2021
Plant Fluorescence: Discover the Glowing World that Surrounds Us
Courtney Whitcher received her Bachelor of Science from the University of Michigan in 2018 and is now a second-year Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Ph.D. student at Florida State University.
She is broadly interested in the evolution of visual and auditory signals in anuran communication and sexual selection. Her current project examines the evolution of biofluorescence in frogs.
She has also created a citizen science project and educational resource related to her Ph.D. research called Finding Fluorescence (https://findingfluorescence.wixsite.com/home).
Her talk will cover her study of the glowing world that surrounds us and how you can illuminate the unseen in your own backyard.
March 26, 2021
Message from President Sue
For those who tried to access our 26 March 2021 FNPS meeting at 1:30 PM, we were having technical difficulties. We apologize for any inconvenience. Stacey Matrazzo has graciously offered to reschedule her presentation "Native Plants for Florida Gardens” at a later date. We will keep you posted as to when her presentation is scheduled.
February 26, 2021
Florida Manatees, Brittany Scharf, Hernando County Extension Agent
Florida manatee (present in Kings Bay and Crystal River NWR year-round, but highest aggregation November – March = approx. 600 manatees vs. summer months = approx. 30 manatees).
January 22, 2021
Native Plants and Florida Friendly Principles
Jackie Rolly
She is the Restoration Chair at Oakland Nature Preserve and a Lead Master Naturalist Instructor.
Jackie Rolly has been a member of the Florida Native Plant Society (FNPS), Tarflower Chapter since 1997. She retired from government service in 2006 and served as FNPS vice president of admin from late 2009 to 2014. Jackie also served as secretary for the Tarflower Chapter from May 2007 to May 2015. Her work over the past ten years in ecosystem restoration at the Oakland Nature Preserve continues to provide knowledge on native plant communities and the wildlife that depends on them. Jackie is a certified Florida Master Naturalist from the University of Florida (UF/IFAS) and is lead instructor in Orange County. She was recently awarded the Florida Wilderness Society Citizen Conservation Award and was recognized by Sierra Club of Central Florida for environmental leadership.
Download Minutes January 22 in word format. Officer Election Results
