Shady Lady Horticultural Services

About Shady Lady Horticultural Services

On Holmes Beach, the evening belongs to the Gulf: people drift to the sand to watch the sun sink, the sky goes peach and violet, and the breeze carries salt across every garden on the island. Behind the beach houses, along the canals and out toward the mangroves on the bay side, plants live a hard and beautiful life of sun, sand and spray. Shady Lady Horticultural Services tends that island greenery with a plant-lover's eye, pruning, replanting and coaxing gardens to flourish in conditions that would wilt the faint-hearted. Palms, hibiscus, coontie and salt-loving groundcovers each ask for something different, and reading those needs is the craft. As the sun slips below the horizon, the gardens left in its glow look as much at home on Anna Maria Island as the pelicans gliding past.