Please inform your neighbor that he basically has two choices for your area: St. Augustine or Bahia, unless he wants Bermuda, which no one does. Zoysia does not do well in FL, plus it is very slow-growing, so unless he's having it sodded, he'll wait years for it to fill it -- IF it ever does, because it's not resistant to anything that kills grass around here.

Many people from up north miss their zoysia and try to plant it down here, but it just doesn't work. I understand the St. Augustine is a thirsty grass and Bahia has those horrible seed heads, but unless you live in extreme N. FL, where centipede is an option, you're sort of stuck with those two.

Plus, you are not in Central Florida. You are in SW Florida, and I believe Sarasota is now 9b, so that makes zoysia even less viable. Even if it's the southern edge of 9a, it's not Central Florida. Tell your neighbor to do his homework before he wastes so much money on a bad choice for turf.

Hey dirtyg.... Just wondering why you think I don't know where I live?
Unless I don't remember moving recently, I'm pretty close to the exact center of the State... right in the vicinity of the "n" in the word Orlando on this map.

Sorry, BW. I read your name wrong. I thought your ID said Sarasota. Blonde seniior moment. I still don't think Zoysia will do well there, but it does grow very slowly, so you won't have to worry about it for awhile.

I was born and raised in Orlando and zoysia will die in the summer. Your neighbor will have a yard of dirt that will be taken over by weeds. Followed by the time honored if its green mow it and thats your lawn.

I showed my neighbor all the negative factors of zoysia, so he's now convinced it's not the right choice. I also looked at the three main varieties of St. Augie, and we're going to put in Palmetto if we can find it locally.

• "Followed by the time honored if its green mow it and thats your lawn."

I had a gorgeous St. Augustine lawn when I first moved in my house in North Port. Then we had a 3-year drought (1998-2000), and since our water was insanely expensive, I never watered, so that was where I ended up, except for under the oak trees in the back, where I had Bitter Blue St. Aug. that just won't die. It also won't grow in sun, so where the lawn met the sun outside the shade of the oaks, it always died.

He was surprisingly reasonable. Glad it worked out. :)