“I’m not your traditional designer,” said Teresa Lungo, Horticulture Specialist for the City of Plant City Parks & Recreation Department. “These are not the designs of your grandma and grandpa—they’re not symmetrical. It is asymmetrical and kind of wild. I use things normal designers wouldn’t. I like to use air plants, and moss, and different things. I’ve even used cotton that I’ve grown, and it makes it more interesting. I like to think outside the box. I don’t have a plan on paper or anything like that. I’m not that kind of a designer. I put it together freestyle.”
Lungo has been beautifying Plant City landscaping for six years. She grew up in Brandon, but spent four years in the Air Force at Charles McClellan Air Force Base in California and in Germany. She served the nation in civil engineering, however, Lungo has always been inclined to plants, flowers, and growing things. “I’m self-taught,” she said. “I’ve learned by trial and error.” Currently, Lungo is Florida-Friendly Landscaping certified, and will be taking classes to become Florida Nursery, Growers and Landscape Association certified.
Lungo moved back to Florida—to Plant City—in 2010. Her professional landscaping career began when she worked as a server at the historic Colonnade Restaurant in Tampa. She saw the floral designs there needed attention. From her personal knowledge, she gave the restaurant’s flowers TLC and enhanced and lengthened their beauty. Then she stepped up by bringing in buckets of flowers from her own garden and making arrangements. The owners loved Lungo’s work, and when she got out of her car, would ask her with anticipation what new things she had brought in that day. “That’s how I really started really getting into floral design.”
From that experience, Lungo moved on to Tiger Lily Water Gardens, an aquascape construction company, where she expanded her skills. As a hobby, she continues to design and build aquascape concepts like floating driftwood islands with flower beds inside. In 2018, the City of Plant City Parks Department hired her to work on general landscaping for parks. However, when new superintendent Wayne Meyer came in to the Parks & Recreation Department, “He changed a lot of things,” Lungo said. “He saw people that may be in the wrong place, and they just needed to be in the right place. He saw what I could do, and my attention to detail. I appreciate him that he saw that in me. It is very good leadership.” Meyer soon made Lungo a horticultural specialist. “I go above and beyond the call of duty,” she commented.
“I love nature,” Lungo said. “I love to have a position where I can enjoy what it has given us. I love to see things I’ve nurtured. “It’s very therapeutic.” She uses cuttings from thriving plants to propagate others. This yields healthy plants and cuts costs. Lungo will even use plants from her personal garden if she thinks they will add just the right touch to her designs.
“I will go to one of the growers we have and pick out plants that I like that I know that will look good there,” Lungo commented. “That’s how I do it, and it always works out. When you have this image in your mind of a design, then when you step back, and you see the way it’s developed, it’s very rewarding. I’m living vicariously through these gardens that I make.”