Apalachicola Flower Shops

Apalachicola FL News

Aug 25, 2017

Searching far and wide for blooming wildflowers

A few days later, several of us Georgia Botanical Society members braved heat and biting bugs to explore the flora of the Apalachicola National Forest in the Florida panhandle. For several of us, it was a chance to see an array of subtropical wildflowers, including several species of wild orchids.Perhaps the biggest surprise, though, came when we had to cross a small ditch in a boggy meadow. Growing in it was an abundance of carnivorous Venus flytrap plants, which originally were found only in a few coastal bogs in North Carolina. How they got to the Florida bog is open to speculation.Next day, we were back in Georgia to explore a longleaf pine/wiregrass forest on Greenwood Plantation, an old quail hunting estate near Thomasville. As our leader Wilson Baker explained, the longleaf/wiregrass ecosystem is one of the world’s most diverse natural environments, nurturing hundreds of plant species in just one acre.IN THE SKY: From David Dundee, Tellus Science Museum astronomer: The moon will be first quarter on Tuesday. Venus rises in the east two hours before dawn. Jupiter is low in the west just after sunset. Saturn is high in the east just at dusk and will appear near the moon on Wednesday night. (MyAJC)

Mar 9, 2017

CELEBRATE OUTDOORS: Panama City resolves to protect wildflowers

Eleanor Dietrich of the Panhandle Wildflower Alliance recommends State 65 in Liberty County through the Apalachicola National Forest.“It is one of the best wildflower roads in the country,” she said.Along that drive, people can see classic Florida wildflowers like tickseed, but also some more unusual varieties like the trumpet pitcher plant and the rose pitcher plant.Learn more about wildflowers throughout the region and state at www.flawildflowers.org. (The News Herald)

May 20, 2015

Flowers, fried okra, and the lusty month of May

December” (Much Ado about Nothing I.i.191-92). The adage “as welcome as Flowers in May” had become proverbial by the 17th century, and even Apalachicolans celebrate the season with a tour of homes and our resplendent gardens (May 1-2 this year).Ancient Romans clearly shared this romantic vision of the month, as they named it for Maia, goddess of growth; they sacrificed to her every May 1, and began and ended her month with festivals of flowering. The Floralia, running from April 28 through May 3, celebrated the goddess Flora, spirit of blooming, fertility, and youthfulness. In the 3rd century B.C. the state erected a temple to her near the Circus Maximus, the huge Roman chariot-racing track. Besides events in the Circus and other athletic competitions, the week’s festivities featured events orchestrated for the plebeian class, including racy theatrical skits (with nudity!), women of low repute performing as gladiators, and maidens frolicking through the streets adorned with garlands and colorful dresses. Picture the scene (or watch it on YouTube) in Lerner and Loewe’s Camelot, where Julie Andrews sings of “The Lusty Month of May,” blissfully proclaiming it the “gorgeous holiday when every maiden prays that her lad will be a cad!” Later in the month the Romans sponsored a fair for marketing flowers, especially roses (Latin rosae, which gives us ROSary, originally a garden of roses and later the colorful stringed beads... (Apalachicola Times)