I have read quite a few chapters now in the Douglas W. Tallamy book, Bringing Nature Home and I'll have to agree with Linda Lamb, this is just the BEST book! Just the first couple of chapters will wake up even those of us who THOUGHT we were aware of nature and ecosystems. Ha. I have definitely drunk the coolaid!! Americans are particularly bad about wanting those useless LAWNS! Money, chemicals, sweat.....all for lovely expanses of grass that supports very little that helps the local ecosystem. Just adding natives to your landscape can be of immense help to butterflies, birds and other wildlife in your area.
I have found some great websites for those of us wanting to know what native plants to put in for blooms in summer. http://georgianatives.net/ is done by Mike Strickland who created a site exactly like I was looking for! He posts by the month and also provides lots of links to other sites.
As he posts on his homepage: "The pictures are changed each month to help with field identification during the current month. This month there are 478 images, covering 233 plants."
We corresponded a bit via email, and he's a really nice guy! Visit his site if you want to see current blooming natives. He also works with the Georgia Plant Society's forum, answering ID questions and giving all of us the benefit of his experience.
http://www.gnps.org/phpBB/ is the Georgia Native Plant Society's page. Coastal Wildscapes of course is a great resource for those of us on the coast. And, the truly wonderful place to go SEE a lot of these is http://www.coastscapes.org/CoastScapes.html at 715 Bay State in Brunswick. This is the UGA Marine Extension site. Terrific resources and beautifully planted demonstration site.
