Gardeners Look For Replacement Plants

Nature has a way of correcting man's errors. Plant the wrong crop; it dies.

"This year, there were a lot of frozen palms," said Bobby Heffner, owner of the 35-acre Robbins Nursery in south Sebring. "We've been planting tropical shrubs in a semi-tropical environment. That worked for eight, nine years."

But this year, two freezes reminded Highlands County residents of their follies. Some yards lost every plant except the hardiest and woodiest, like azeleas and evergreen ixoras.

"Actually, that saved our bacon this spring," said Heffner. Actually, bacon wasn't the exact anatomical word he used, but it covered that general area.

On Wednesday morning, Lowe's and Robbins were busy with customers. They believed the last chance for frost was past, so they were selecting replacements for the brilliant but perishable red-orange croton and the purple long-leafed dracaena.

"I lost a coconut palm that I've had over the last two years," said Toni Ellison, who lives on a five-acre ranchette near Lake Placid. "And I had a crepe myrtle that was too young, and didn't make it." She was shopping at Robbins for a jacaranda, a known survivor of occasional mid-Florida freezes.

Heffner's recommendation: try the Indian hawthorn. The low shrub with tiny white flowers is both drought and frost resistant, it requires low maintenance, and it grows to a maximum of 30 inches high and 30 inches wide.

"Some people use it for ground cover," said Heffner.