A newly published study of lupines in Florida names three new species, all of which are endemic. The rigorous, exhaustive study also raises the rank of one variety to the species level, a move that may help conservation efforts to protect the species.

Barclay Place at Heathrow in Lake Mary is a small, gated community with aging landscaping. A group of garden enthusiasts within the community, including author Kimberly Whittington, organized to update the entrance landscaping with Florida native plants at the foundation.

Cuplet Fern held our chapter’s first-ever seed bomb making class on September 2nd at the IFAS auditorium in Sanford.

This summer, Miami University student Adam Behring joined Cuplet Fern to explore native plants on Sanford’s RiverWalk. He shares his experience and the guide he created here.

This article shares the first-hand experience of Sara Motahari, one of the students involved in a collaborative class project imagining the organization’s structural futures with Cuplet Fern leadership hosted by Dr. Chelsea LeNoble at UCF.

Cuplet Fern had gained approval to conduct its first native plant rescue at the site. The team members recognized the importance of rescuing the bluecurls, and they photographed the plants; documented their location and habitat; and moved them into pots, noting the date, time and weather as part of the rescue mission. By carefully preserving some of the plants, Cuplet Fern could do something never done before: Submit the first voucher specimens of Trichostema in Seminole County to herbarium collections.

Cuplet Fern’s Cali Adams shares her account of a recent Cuplet Fern hike through Ed Yarborough as part of our FNPS Conference Sanford Days.

In March 2022, 16 Cuplet Fern Chapter volunteers planted 450 pots containing at least 28 species (649 plants) that the team rescued from certain death: here’s an update from the restoration site one year later.

Earlier this year, I had the idea to host a plant swap event; I recalled my experience from a previous plant swap with another group of gardeners a few years ago, and I wanted to recreate the fun we had and share it with our members!

Like many nature lovers and environmentalists, I have struggled for years to learn what I can do to educate myself, friends, and family on how to be better stewards of the earth. I have joined nature organizations and signed petitions that I hope end up in the hands of my congressman, expressing the urgency of regulations to curb climate change, etc. But it was a collaboration with my local FNPS chapter and my HOA that led me to know some slight, but real progress and change was being made.

Lukas Nursery, a fourth-generation nursery in our direct service region, contacted us early in 2022 seeking native plant advice and educational collaboration. They also recently became Florida Association of Native Nurseries (FANN) partners, confirming their interest in and commitment to selling Florida native plants.

Duke Energy has awarded Cuplet Fern a nature grant of $11,000 for the inception of a brand new conservation and education program line at Lyonia Environmental Center in Deltona. The grant allows Cuplet Fern to expand an ongoing plant rescue initiative focused on the conservation of imperiled scrub and sandhill plant species facing development.

Looking for holiday gifts for the native plant or wild Florida enthusiasts in your life? Cuplet Fern has gathered a few recommendations of local artists with work you can support. (Featured image by Veronica Steiner)

Cuplet Fern member Dorothy Caldwell shares her thoughts on ways we can support migrating monarchs in our region.

Read a few words from FNPS and Cuplet Fern’s Mark Kateli on his vision for FNPS and advocating for native plants across the state.

Check out a few exciting moth sightings in Seminole and Volusia County from our own Cuplet Fern team members.