As America prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, the Master Gardener Volunteers of Sarasota County are marking the occasion in the most fitting way they know how — with plants!

This July 4th, visitors to Twin Lakes Park will notice a fresh landscape surrounding our flagpole, thoughtfully planted in red, white, and blue to honor the semi-quincentennial. Every plant was chosen not just for its color, but for its performance in our Florida climate without irrigation, its value to local pollinators, and its alignment with Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ principles. Here’s a closer look at what’s going in the ground.

We’ll be upfront: the conversation about what to plant here wasn’t a short one. Native plants are always our first instinct, and we gave serious consideration to several Florida natives that fit the red, white, and blue palette beautifully.

For red, Tropical Sage (Salvia coccinea) and ‘Calusa’ Firebush (Hamelia patens) were both on the table — outstanding plants with strong pollinator value and deep roots in Florida’s ecology. For white, we looked at White Pineland Heliotrope and White Beach Morningglory. And for blue, Beach Mistflower (Ageratum maritimum) and Azure Blue Sage (Salvia azurea) were all serious contenders.

Ultimately, we decided to go a different direction — not because these natives aren’t worthy, but because they’re already well-represented and interpreted with signage elsewhere in our demonstration gardens at Twin Lakes Park. The plants we finally selected for the flagpole area were ones notably absent from our current gardens. This installation gave us the opportunity to expand what visitors can see, learn about, and take inspiration from. If you’d like to see those native alternatives up close, you won’t have to look far — just take a stroll through the rest of the gardens.

The boldest splash of red in the new garden comes from Firecracker Plant, a Mexican native that has found a very happy home in Southwest Florida. Its arching, grass-like stems cascade under the weight of dozens of small, tubular red flowers — making it look a bit like an ornamental bunch grass that decided to put on a fireworks show.

Despite its exotic origins, Firecracker Plant poses no invasive risk in Florida, which makes it a plant we can recommend with confidence. Once established, it requires almost no supplemental irrigation, thriving on rainfall alone — a cornerstone of Florida-Friendly gardening. And as a pollinator plant, it earns its keep many times over. Hummingbirds are irresistibly drawn to those red tubes, and butterflies make regular visits too. Ornamental, low-maintenance, and wildlife-friendly: it checks almost every box.

For the white component, we went with ‘Coconut Ice’ Bougainvillea — a variegated cultivar that stays low and ground hugging, making it perfect for the open, sunny exposure around the flagpole. Its variegated white leaves provide contrast essentially year-round, and unlike some of its thornier relatives, ‘Coconut Ice’ is a bit more forgiving to work around.

Bougainvillea are among the most Florida-Friendly plants we have available to us. Counterintuitively, the drier the conditions, the more they seem to bloom — excess irrigation actually suppresses flowering. That’s a plant that rewards the “plant it and leave it alone” approach, which is exactly what we want to model for our community.

While Bougainvillea isn’t the strongest pollinator plant in the lineup, it’s not without wildlife value. Skippers, swallowtails, and orchid bees will make their way to the blooms, adding movement and life to the garden. Native to the high elevations of South America, I have never seen seedlings much less seeds from any bougainvillea.

Blue might be the rarest color in the plant world — genuinely few species produce true blue flowers, and fewer still bloom reliably through most of the year. Plumbago (Plumbago auriculata) is one of them. We’ll be the first to admit it leans a little more sky blue than the deep navy we initially envisioned, but in a palette as specific as red, white, and blue, it was one of the best tools available to us.

What Plumbago lacks in color depth it more than makes up for in ecological value. It serves as a larval host plant for Cassius blues, and sphinx moths are frequent visitors as well. To add depth to the blue field — and a nod to the stars in the flag — we wove in Plumbago auriculata ‘Alba,’ the white-flowering form, throughout the planting.

Rounding out the blue is Blue Butterfly Bush (Rotheca myricoides, formerly known as Clerodendrum myricoides). The common name says it all: the blooms are shaped like small butterflies in flight, combining white and blue in each individual flower. Bumble bees are particularly fond of this one, and its layered color makes it a beautiful bridge between the plumbago and the rest of the palette.

Together, these plants tell a story that goes beyond patriotic color — they demonstrate what Florida-Friendly Landscaping™ looks like in practice: plants that thrive in our heat and rainfall patterns, support native and migratory wildlife, and require minimal inputs once they’re settled in.

Come see the garden in person at Twin Lakes Park (6600 Clark Road), and if you have questions about any of these plants, stop by and talk to one of our Master Gardener Volunteers. They’d love to help you bring a little red, white, and blue— and a lot of Florida-Friendly — into your own yard.