Trading grass for wildflowers: How a UCF professor is using landscaping advice to help save the bees

ORLANDO, Fla. — Wildflowers can be seen on roadsides and even some Florida license plates. Now, a biologist at the University of Central Florida wants native wildflowers to be part of your Florida landscaping.

Nash Turley launched a nationwide program from here in from Central Florida. His app “Lawns to Wildflowers” shows people how to replace their lawns with native wildflowers.

“If you’re struggling about what plants to get, there’s a wildflower guide,” he said.

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The advantages to the flowers, he said, are less mowing, less expensive watering, fewer fertilizers and pesticides running off into lakes. But he said the main goal of these wildflowers is to attract pollinators like bees, moths and butterflies.

“I think if we could get a thousand people in the Orlando area to create wildflower plots that would be incredible,” Turley said.

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