Shelby Radcliffe on Designing with Florida Natives (#53)

About this episode

Shelby Radcliffe discusses designing with native plants in Florida and shares insights from her gardening experiences.

This month, Shelby Radcliffe of Emergent Gardens joined me on The Plantastic Podcast to share about designing with natives in Florida. She talked about the formative lessons she took from internships at Wave Hill and the US National Arboretum, including why the first year in any new garden should be spent mostly observing. Shelby showed how roadside wildflowers and overlooked field plants can become the most exciting things in a designed garden. She also digs into her favorite underused grasses and sedges for the Southeast. And if you've ever wrestled with how to balance a client's aesthetic preferences with ecological function, Shelby's approach of leading with education, positivity, and great examples is worth hearing. Enjoy the show!

People in this episode

Host: Jared Barnes

Guest: Shelby Radcliffe

Topics covered

• designing with natives
• Florida gardening
• ecological function
• roadside wildflowers
• underused grasses
• client preferences

Keywords

• Florida natives
• gardening
• ecological design
• wildflowers
• grasses
• sedges
• client education

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Emergent Gardens, Wave Hill, US National Arboretum

Places: Florida, Southeast

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• Tim Boland on Lessons from Polly Hill Arboretum (#52) · April 5, 2026 · 1h 22m
• Shaun McCoshum on Natural Habitats and Wildlife Gardening (#51) · March 19, 2026 · 1h 11m
• Dr. Allan Armitage on Common-Sense Gardening (#50) · February 7, 2026 · 1h 14m
• Rachel Lindsay on Regenerative Design (#49) · January 6, 2026 · 1h 7m
• John Little on Caring for Gardens and Gardeners (#48) · December 7, 2025 · 1h 22m