Florida Green Roof Wildflowers and Native Plants

Florida Green Roof Wildflowers, Breaking Ground Green Roof

Looking back over some of the Breaking Ground Green Roof (Jacksonville) photographs, I came across this lovely wildflower shot.  Wildflowers on the roof! Gaillardia, Echinacea, Rudbeckia & much more...

Top Ten Florida Green Roof Plants, Salvia lyrata, Lyreleaf Sage

You can not find a better green roof plant than Lyreleaf Sage, Salvia lyrata.  I love to see this very special native wildflower growing across rooftops.

Top Ten Green Roof Plants, Lyreleaf Sage, Salvia lyrata, evergreen beauty

Her evergreen foliage offers an exquisite blend of deep greens, purples and burgundy with leaves laying flat against the ground and flower stems extending vertically to about 18 inches (45 cm).  Note the lyre shaped leaf form.

Foilage - Top Ten Green Roof Plants, Lyreleaf Sage, Salvia lyrata, evergreen beauty

Flowers generally are a deep ocean blue but I have seen the occasional white colored flower populations.

Top Ten Green Roof Plants, Lyreleaf Sage, Salvia lyrata, evergreen beauty

Lyreleaf sage's ability to thoroughly cover open soil media keeps weeds at bay throughout the year.  A mature population of Salvia lyrata can provide a dense, luxurious appearance.

Florida Green Roof Plants, Lyreleaf Sage, Salvia lyrata, thick plantings

Lyreleaf sage transplants easily.  If you can not find the plant in a nursery then it is usually readily found in backyards and alongside the roadside in front of most vacant lots here in the southeast.  Just make sure that when transplanting you are not transferring root-knot nematodes from the ground up to your roof project (though the pests usually can not survive the temperatures on a roof).

Top Ten Green Roof Florida  Plants, Lyreleaf Sage, Salvia lyrata, burgundy and green

This special plant will provide you with many surprises.  She will be green most of the winter when other plants have that sleepy brown appearance and provides masses of bee and other pollinator attracting blooms when most other flowers are still just thinking about blossoming.

Top Ten Green Roof Plants, Lyreleaf Sage, Salvia lyrata, evergreen ground cover

Check out our previous posts about this special plant.  Read the Seeds for Green Roof Post about her also!  Planting this extremely hardy and drought tolerant species will pay off in big green roof successes.

Florida Green Roofs, Six Must Have Living Roof Plants

Enjoy the photos of six of my favorite drought, salt, heat, cold and hurricane tolerant green roof plant species!  See more photos of additional plants on the Green Roof Wildflower website.  Wildflowers on #greenroofs are totally awesome.

Florida Green Roof plant, Coral Bean, Erythrina herbacea
Drought, salt and heat tolerant.  Hummingbird plant.

Florida Green Roof plant, Prickly Pear Cactus, Opuntia humifusa
Very drought tolerant, great coastal green roof plant for habitat and pollinators

Florida Green Roof plant, Fleabane, Erigeron app.
Tolerates wet and dry soils, wind and heat tolerant, excellent pollinator plant

Florida Green Roof plant, Blanketflower, Gaillardia puchella
Amazing hardy green roof plant, tolerating salt, wind, heat and other environmental challenges

Florida Green Roof plant, Purple Coneflower, Echinacea purpurea
Hardy, drought tolerant green roof plant that pollinators LOVE!

Florida Green Roof plant, Black Eye Susan, Rudbeckia hirta
Stunning rooftop bloomer that will flower all summer and call pollinators for miles around