FNPS Conference features FANN panel session on Challenges & Opportunities in the Native Plant Industry

Four FANN members are panelists for the "Challenges & Opportunities in the Native Plant Industry" session at the Florida Native Plant Society's upcoming online conference, Saturday, April 29, 2023. Panelists, clockwise from upper left: Jenny Evans, FANN President & SCCF Adult Ed Director, Dan Perkins, Perkins Direct Step, Heather Blake, Natural Treasures, and Bruce Turley, president of the Native Plant Horticulture Foundation and past prez of FANN.

Florida’s Native Plant Industry: Challenges & Opportunities
FNPS Conference Panel Session ONLINE – registration required
11:00am, Saturday, April 29, 2023

In the past 42 years, the Florida Native Plant Society and its like-minded allies have done an amazing job in creating public awareness of native plants and their importance in our lives. This tireless advocacy has contributed mightily to what we see today: more native plants being grown than ever before, demand for the plants at an all time high, and more native plants in landscapes around us. But still … there has not been enough progress, fast enough, to satisfy those who see and comprehend the many environmental problems our plants solve. Too many people still have to drive two hours to get their hands on the plants they want. The need for native plants is critical and yet availability remains limited.

What drives the supply of native plants and what constrains it?

Why does your landscape company say they can’t find the plants?

Why aren’t the plants at your local garden center or box store?

Why aren’t growers of non-native plants growing more native plants?

What is happening to expand access to native plants? What could happen?

What are the threats, and opportunities, that face this tiny but vital industry?

FANN members will answer these questions and more in this live-streaming moderated discussion. Collectively, the panel represents nearly 130 years of professional experience growing and selling native plants. Each panel member operates in a slightly different space in this niche industry, including Dan Perkins as a large wholesale grower of palms, Bruce Turley’s experience with Wilcox Nursery & Landscape, an urban garden & landscape center, Heather Blake’s Natural Treasures Farm & Nursery, a rural farm supporting pop-up sales and FANN President Jenny Evan’s association experience and history with the SCCF Native Landcapes & Garden Center, a nonprofit supplying plants as part of their mission to protect local ecosystems.

FNPS conference registration is required to view the panel session.

FANN is a sponsor of the conference, as our FANN members Landert Landscape Design and Sweet Bay Nursery.

FNPS represents some 6000+ native plant enthusiasts throughout the state of Florida. The following is a snapshot of an article about the FANN panel which appeared in the society’s Palmetto magazine.