Native Plant Horticulture Foundation announces new Showcase Native Landscapes Program

To directly educate the public and drive increased demand for native landscaping, the Native Plant Horticulture Foundation determined in 2018 that it would be desirable to annually establish a highly visible, attractive and inspirational native landscape that demonstrates best practices in native landscape design, installation and maintenance. Other awards programs recognizing the use of native plants exist but many of the winning sites are not highly visible and do not persist due to lack of maintenance. The foundation board voted to focus on sites with significant visibility to the public, a desire to enhance public education and the ability to maintain the landscaping. The foundation wanted to attempt to acquire landscape with a competition open to professionals and students, and overseen by a panel of experienced landscape architects. The foundation would raise funds to provide site owners with:

Landscape design

Installation of plants and associated materials

Maintenance training and monitoring for the first year

Program management and promotion

Insurance, permitting or other necessary costs


The foundation expected to raise in excess of $25,000 for the 2018 program and had a donor willing to provide matching funds up to $12,000 as part of the 2018 program’s fundraising campaign.

For the 2018 site, the Foundation coordinated with the Bradenton Area Convention Center in Parrish, Florida, to consider revamping the entryway landscaping. The convention center has a maintenance contract, some existing native landscaping and is visited by tens of thousands of residents and tourists every year. No professionals submitted to the competition, perhaps due to insufficient advertising and lead time. Submittals were received from students, whose designs illustrated some good concepts but were not usable as is. The foundation contracted with the University of Florida’s College of Design, Construction and Planning landscape architecture faculty and students under the tutelage of Professor Mike Volks, to meld the best ideas into one coherent design with construction documents for installation. Unfortunately, upon consultation with installation experts, it was determined that the plans were not viable within budget available.

The foundation determined that while “showcase” landscapes are a worthy goal, it was not feasible to acquire design by competition and that fundraising for the installation might also be beyond the organization’s reach at this time.

The foundation has since decided to resume partnership with FANN on the Real Florida Landscapes Design Competition, with an added twist that an actual design site would be provided to contestants, thus enabling judges to evaluate multiple different designs solving the same site problems.