Category: Did You Know?

Rare & Unusual Tropical Trees & Plants, Flowering, Fruit, Native, Palm, Bamboo, Heliconia, Hummingbird, Butterfly

Tropical Bonsai

When you hear the word ‘Bonsai’, you usually think of temperate zone conifers, Japanese maples, and other assorted deciduous trees.  However, in South Florida, ‘Bonsai’ takes on a whole new connotation.  The choices for plant material are almost endless.  There are our natives to choose from, such as the Stoppers, Lignum-vitae, or Christmasberry to name…
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December 10, 2017 0

Florida Citrus Takes a Licking, But Not From Greening

For a number of years now, Florida citrus has been pummeled by disease. Citrus canker appeared first, only to be supplanted by a newer scourge, citrus greening. Orange production alone cratered from a peak of 244 million 90-lb. boxes in 1997-98 to 68.36 million (or 68.75 million, depending upon the source) in 2016-17. But for…
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October 14, 2017 0

Lessons Learned from Irma – Postscript

As a follow-up to last week’s article, Richard Lyons’ Nursery would like to make a couple of additional recommendations in the wake of Hurricane Irma: As to palms, plant more. As to Ficus benjamina, plant fewer. Palms appear to have weathered Irma quite well in comparison to broadleaf trees. The explanation in most cases is…
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October 7, 2017 0

Lessons Learned from Irma

Just about everyone in southeastern Florida was able to breathe a sigh of relief after Hurricane Irma left the area. Its 11th-hour course change allowed us to escape a devastating direct hit, and our homes were largely left intact. However, many of our trees suffered greatly, even though officially they were battered by ‘only’ tropical…
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September 30, 2017 0

Don’t Delay Hurricane Preparation

We’re already well into the 2017 hurricane season, and so far southern Florida has been spared. But recent reassessments by the various tropical weather monitoring entities have led them to predict a higher probability of storm activity than they originally foresaw. Consequently, if you still have some preparations to make, we at Richard Lyons’ Nursery…
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August 12, 2017 0