I am the horticulture extension agent in Lee County, southwest Florida. Contact me on most landscape issues including native plants, flowering trees, plant identification, and insect and disease problems. brownsh@leegov.com

Posts by Stephen Brown:

• Q and A: I have a gardenia bush that is steadily going downhill. How should I care for this plant to bring it back to health?
• Q and A: Can you shed some light on why our laurel oaks drop their leaves at different times?
• Fact Sheets: Norfolk Pine | Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension [pdf]
• Fact Sheets: Nematodes | Gold Mound Durante | Managing Nematodes | Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Fact Sheets | Native Plants of Southwest Florida | Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Fact Sheets: Lawns and Turfs | Anthacnose | Cerospora Leaf Spot | St Augustine Grass | Fairy Ring | Fertilization | Gray Leaf Spot | Nitrate Leaching | Rust | Pythium Root Rot | Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Fact Sheets: Invasive Plants | Air Potato | Brazilian Pepper | Japanese Climbing Fern | Two-Leaf Nightshade | Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Fact Sheets: Irrigation | Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Fact Sheets: Insecticides | Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Fact Sheets: Insects | Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension

• Fact Sheets: Hurricanes & Landscapes | Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Q and A: Palm damage or disease? Stephen Brown answers | Lee County Extension
• Q and A: Can you identify this shrub? Stephen Brown answers | Lee County Extension
• Fact Sheets: Herbs | African Iris | Torch Ginger | Peacock Plant | Siam Tulip | Spider Plant | Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Fact Sheets: Herbicides | Lawn | Ornamentals | Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Q and A: Differences between Sabal palms with and without cross hatching? Stephen Brown answers | Lee County Extension
• Fact Sheets: Hedges and Screens | Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Fact Sheets: Groundcovers | Creeping and Clumping Groundcovers | Perennial Peanut | Walkable Groundcovers | Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Fact Sheets: Gardening | Garden Calendar | Starting a Florida Garden | Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Fact Sheets: Fungi on Landscape Plants | Guava Root | Slime Mold | Rusts | Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension

• Fact Sheets: What's Blooming by the month | Lee County Extension | Stephen Brown
• Fact Sheets: Florida Friendly Landscaping | Lee County | Stephen Brown
• Fact Sheets: Fertilizers | Coron | Nitamin-NFusion | Nitrate Leaching | Turf Quality | Lee County Extension | Stephen Brown
• Fact Sheets: Plant Cold Protection and Recovery | Lee County | Stephen Brown
• Fact Sheets: Plant Diseases | Lee County Extension | Stephen Brown
• Fact Sheets: Citrus | Lee County | Stephen Brown
• Fact Sheets: Butterflies | Lee County Extension | Stephen Brown
• Fact Sheets: BMPs | BMP Green Industry Manual | Golf BMP | Lee County Extension | Stephen Brown
• Fact Sheets: Botany Handbook for Florida | Lee County Extension | Stephen Brown
• Q and A: Flowering tree for winter flowers? Stephen Brown answers | Lee County Extension

• Fact Sheet: Survey of Fertilizer Products in Lee County, Florida
• Fact Sheet: Survey of Insecticides Available for Homeowners in Lee County, Florida
• Fact Sheet: Insecticides and acaricides registered for use in early 2011 in landscape, nursery, greenhouse or field-grown ornamentals
• Fact Sheet: Survey of Fungicides Available for Homeowners in Lee County, Florida
• Fact Sheet: Survey of Herbicides Available for Homeowners in Lee County, Florida
• Fact Sheet: Flowering Trees for South Florida
• Fact Sheet: Anthracnose Disease of Ornamental Plants: A Pictorial
• Q and A: I don't know what disease accumulates on the leaves in the following picture. Would you please identify it and tell us what we should spray it with?
• Q and A: I read your comments about Gaillardia in the January and February issue of Florida Gardening magazine. Are you talking about buying the actual plants and planting them or do you mean starting them from seeds? I have had a good bit of luck harvesting the seeds from dead or spent heads in the summer, refrigerating them and then sowing them in the winter for a spring and summer bloom.
• Q and A: I have heard that there are 12 Florida native palms, but only two that are endemic to Florida. What are the names of these two palms?

• Fact Sheets: Ants | Crazy Ants | Carpenter Ants | imported Fire Ants on Lawns and Turf | Lee County Extension | Stephen Brown
• Fact Sheets: Annuals | Annual Flowers Bedding Plants | Gardening with Annuals in Florida | Lee County Extension | Stephen Brown
• Fact Sheets: Horticulture and Gardening Publications | Lee County Extension | Stephen Brown
• Q and A: I noticed mushrooms growing under my oak tree. They barely make it out of the ground and never get too big. In the end, they break open and expel a lot of black dust. What are they and will they hurt my tree?
• Fact Sheet: Beach Sunflower
• Plant Death by Water [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Washington Palms: Deadly wilt or Debilitating blight? [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Fort Myers Ornmental plants [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Changes in the Ecosystem by the Earleaf Acacia [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Fort Myers Backyard Garden [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension

• Do Plants Need Fertilizers? [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Ganoderma Development [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• How to Prune a Cabbage Palm [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Sansevieria/Snake Plant: Tough and Slow-Moving [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• How to Identify the Traveler's Palm from The White Bird of Paradise [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Red Mangroves: The Strangest Roots & Fruits [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Fall Flowering Trees [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Destruction Caused by the Agave Weevil to Spanish Bayonet - Yucca aloifolia [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Top 5 Palm Trees [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension | News-Press Gardening Tips
• How to grow Pineapple [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension | News-Press Gardening Tips

• Thorn Bugs [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Climbing Aster Symphyotricum carolinianus [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Flat topped Goldenrod | Euthamia carolinian [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Salt Bush | Baccharis Halimifolia [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Palmetto Weevils in Bismarck Palm [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Eastern Lubber Grasshopper Feeding on Crinum Lily [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Ficus Whitefly Attack in South Florida [Video] Stephen Brown | Doug Caldwell
• Effect of Soil Texture on the Decline of a Young Live Oak [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Resurrection Fern | Pleopeltis polypodioides [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Melaleuca Trees in South Florida [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension

• Swamp Lily | Crinum americanum [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Blanket Flower | Gaillarida pulchella [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Queen's Wreath | Petrea volubilis [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Chinese Wisteria | Wisteria Sinensis [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Red Silk Cotton Tree | Bombax ceiba [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension
• Cold Damage & Recovery of Latan Palms [Video] Stephen Brown | Lee County Extension