Have you ever looked outside at your sunbaked patch of sandy soil in your yard and wondered why keeping turfgrass green fells like a full-time job?

In Tampa and unincorporated Hillsborough County, urban development often leaves us with compacted, nutrient-poor Florida-soil. When you combine that with the intense heat radiating off concrete driveways, it creates a harsh microclimate that mimics a desert.

The standard approach thrown into urban landscapes is a mix of subtropical plants like Hibiscus, Crotons, Cordyline, Arboricola, and thirsty turfgrasses. While beautiful, these species evolved in environments with consistent moisture, rich soil, and high humidity. Forcing them to grow in those conditions means they require constant irrigation and soil amendments just to survive.

When drought hits Hillsborough County, homeowners find themselves trapped in an expensive battle against nature and dump hundreds of gallons of water onto plants that simply aren’t built for these conditions.

But what if you stopped fighting the system and started working with it?

Meet the Florida Sandhills:

When most Floridians hear the word Sandhill, their minds immediately think of Sandhill Cranes. But long before these birds claimed our neighborhoods, the name “Sandhill” belonged to something else entirely. It is a magnificent, endangered natural community of plants that share the exact same native home.

If you travel through west-central Florida, you will run right into this beautiful native community. Think of the Sandhill as Florida’s version of an open, sunny savanna. It is defined by wide-open spaces, towering pine trees and a ground covered in colorful wildflowers and waving ornamental grasses.

This ecosystem is the master of Florida’s extreme weather. These plants don’t just tolerate the heat, they are built for it! Because they grew up in our native, nutrient-poor sands, they developed deep, massive root systems that dive far into the ground to hunt for water. By inviting a Florida sandhill-theme into your yard, you are using a local design that naturally thrives on a hot concrete jungle with barely any water.

Sandhill Theme Plant Options:

Here are different options you can choose from, for each layer of your yard:

The Top Layer:

• Southern Red Oak (Quercus falcata) – Large shade option for spacious yards featuring deeply lobed leaves provide shade and texture.
• Turkey Oak (Quercus laevis) – A smaller native oak tree with deeply lobed leaves that turn a bright red in the fall.
• Longleaf Pine (Pinus palustris) – A tall, slender native pine that provides high, dappled light and drops free pine-straw mulch. Reaches a height of 60 – 125 feet.
• Sand Pine (Pinus clausa) – Much smaller Pine option for homeowners with not much space.
• Chickasaw Plum (Prunus angustifolia) – A small tree that explodes with clouds of fragrant white flowers in early spring.
• Flatwoods Plum (Prunus umbellata) – Forms a small, neat, rounded tree also with spring fragrant flowers and purple fruits for birds.
• Winged-Elm (Ulmus alata) – Fast growing native tree with unique “wings” along its branches, excellent wind resistance during tropical season.

The Middle Layer:

• Simpson Stopper (Myrcianthes fragrans) – A dense shrub with smooth colorful bark, fragrant white flowers, and red berries for local birds.
• Staggerbush (Lynonia fruticosa) – Forms a highly structural, twisting small tree, or large shrub, in the spring it blooms clusters of fragrant, white bell-shaped flowers.
• Lopsided Indiangrass (Sorghastrum secundum) – A clump-forming native bunchgrass that sits at 2–3 feet tall before shooting up dramatic, 6-foot golden seed stalks
• Coontie (Zamia integrifolia) – A slow-growing native cycad that forms a perfect, formal mound of deep green, fern-like leaves.
• Dwarf Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria ‘Schillings Holly’) – Grows naturally into a tight, dense green ball. It looks exactly like formal boxwood but thrives in dry sand with minimal trimming.
• Garberia (Garberia heterophylla) – This medium-sized native shrub has distinct grayish-green foliage and is crowned with beautiful, fuzzy pinkish-purple flower clusters in late autumn, providing unique late-season color.
• Gallberry (Ilex glabra) – An evergreen native holly that forms a dense, upright mound of glossy leaves and produces small black berries for songbirds.
• Dwarf Huckleberry (Gaylussacia dumosa) – A compact woody shrub with glossy leaves, dangling white spring flowers, and small black fruits for songbirds.
• Hairy Laurel (Kalmia hirsuta) – A low-growing sandhill specialist that thrives in open sand, producing striking, fuzzy pinkish-purple flowers in the summer.

The Ground Layer:

• Silkgrass (Pityopsis graminifolia) – Perennial wildflower; features silvery, grass-like blades and sunny yellow summer blooms.
• Narrow-leaf Ironweed (Vernonia angustifolia) – Tough late-summer bloomer; features needle-like foliage and intense, deep purple flowers.
• Sandhill Milkweed (Asclepias humistrata) – Flat, sprawling native groundcover; showcases purple-veined leaves and pale lavender flowers. Serves as a critical larval host plant for Monarch and Queen butterflies.
• Blanket Flower (Gaillardia pulchella) – A mounding wildflower with red-and-yellow blooms that thrives in hot sand.
• Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) – A native wildflower that yields continuous golden-yellow petals and deep brown centers all summer long.
• Wiregrass (Aristida stricta) – A fine-textured, bright green bunchgrass that mimics modern ornamental grasses without ever needing fertilizer.
• Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) – Tidy, upright clump-former; explodes with vibrant orange butterfly-hosting blossoms.
• Southern Jointweed (Polygonella polygama) – Small, needle-leafed mounds; feathery white-and-pink flowers from late summer to mid fall.

Click here for a comprehensive list of suppliers and native plants for Hillsborough County.

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If you have any questions, please contact UF/IFAS Extension Hillsborough County at 813-744-5519 or email hillsmg@mail.ufl.edu.

The University of Florida is an Equal Opportunity Institution.

Title Photo: By Gagemo – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=92096418

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