Committee Reports on Ornamentals
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Committee Reports on Ornamentals Mrs. Marian A. McAdow, Punta Gorda, Fla. Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: write, but my heart is so full of exactly Surely I may call you that after the what our good Dean Bailey so grandly gracious honor the Society last night con expressed to you in his address last night ferred upon me by making me their sec I need only say, don't forget the message ond vice-president, and by the warm he brought you; try to incorporate some and generous response they and those part of it into everything you do for outside the Society have made to my Florida, from this day forth. It takes call ior aid in developing the natural re drops of water to make the ocean, and sources the Great Father has hidden in your small part -and mine shall mean a the soil of Old Florida, to stimulate and greater and more wonderful world to develop in us His own godliness in leave behind us. searching for his most precious gift. While I left the other members of my When I was made chairman of the committee to prepare papers to read be Committee on Ornamentals, I assumed fore you, I brought with me from my my responsibility with great satisfaction, own garden, seeds of various plants and because I recognized therein my sovereign flowers which I shall be glad to give any power in being privileged to crack the one who asks for them. whip and make the rest of the committee Thanking you, dear friends, for your do the fancy acts — so I did not prepare attention, and the .Society for the distinc a paper for this meeting, and not being tive honor it conferred on a woman by an extemporaneous speaker, I am not able giving her one, so nearly the greatest it to talk what I might be able to has to convey, I leave you. ORNAMENTALS FOR WINTER Edith Louise Hubbard Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: was no article dealing explicitly with win It was becaus^ of my unquenchable en ter ornamentals, that I was told to write thusiasm, conspicuous ignorance, persist this paper, in order that I might learn. I ent questions, and finally my statement have not become an authority on the sub that in all the records of the Society there ject yet; on the other hand, I have not lost 185 186 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY my ardor, so it is with a strong and virile not try to make their homes duplicates belief that I wish to call your attention to . of the ones they left at the North, nor what I consider the greatest privilege of poor imitations of the still distant trop Florida's lovers of flowers and foliage— * ics. Science is telling us more and more the opportunity to give her message t>f that plant life is sensitive to pain and beauty, health and joy to the thousands discomfort verjr much as human beings who visit her every year. are. Is it not, then, a cruel thing to All these winter visitors come'here from take a helpless plant which -can not run the cold and weary north to be cheered away, and put it in a soil and climate and gladdened. Some are mere pleasure which it does not like, and-try to make seekers, but many are earnestly seeking, it do its little tricks of blooming and health as well. That Floridians should ripening fruit in spite of its homesick ever deprive them of 'the State's greatest heart? How much better it would be charms through carelessness or selfishness to have happy healthy plants giving us is a great shame. Yet how often people their best the year around. These we have said to me: "I went to Florida last could plant in such a way that passers- winter, and I was so-disappointed. They by may enjoy them. There should be call it the land of flowers, yet I saw almost unbroken spaces of lawn across which none, and nearly all the trees were as they can see to good advantage the well leafless as the ones I left behind me. In arranged borders or groups of trees stead of flowers in the gardens, there were and shrubs, placed so that the larger ones mostly shriveled leaves and mounds where make a background for the smaller ones. tender plants were being protected. Real Plants of contrasting types of foliage ly, I found it very depressing." They should be put together, for each will ac have my full sympathy, for I know how centuate the other. Care also should be ta disappointed I always am when I come ken t6\vkeep inharmonious colors apart. home and discover that the recently plant- ■ The taller plants in the foreground should ed trees are deciduous and that an un be of open growth or with tall trunks, so sightly amount of effort is being devoted that they will give vistas of more distant to making some sad, shivering plant of plants, which is nature's way of framing the tropics live through the winter, so that her landscapes. Palms are excellent for it can bloom in the summer when I am this purpose. Vines or thick shrubs away. about the house can furnish the privacy Two very excellent traits in human na and the air of mystery which makes a ture cause the barren winter gardens. home of refinement' seem desirable to They are.-the love of old associations the outsider. If, for summer, one must and the desire for discovery^nd adven have plants which are not attractive in ture—only they are carried too far. All winter, they should be put in out-of-the- will acknowledge Florida's loveliness way places, where their bareness will when her inhabitants learn to appre not detract from the general aspect of ciate Florida for Ker best self and do living green; for if they are really gor- ^ FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 187 geous summer bloomers? they will make work about which other planting will themselves sufficiently conspicuous in grow, only vigorous hardy varieties their season. No one cou,ld hide a should be chosen. Smaller plants or Royal Poinciana in full bloom. Oiore distant backgrounds can be al In beautifying one's grounds, the tered without leaving a distorted de great rulrof decoration applies as truly sign. as it does in placing the adornments on Many of our most reliable plants are a building, or a piece of furniture. One natives or so well known that they are must always decorate construction, and not considered worth placing in prom not construct decoration. Keeping this inent positions, yet to strangers they motto in mind one will be led to plant are quite as beautiful as many of the in such a way as to emphasize the rare plants which we grow only with realities and important features of one's difficulty. It is not easy to find in all place. The extent of the land can be the world a more glorious tree than indicated by hedges or banks of larger the magnolia grandiflora. Nor should trees and shrubs; or, if it is a 3mall we forget that our native pir^s make yard, by a border of flower beds against majestically picturesque specimens when the fence. The entrance should be em given room to develop; or, if they phasized by strong large trees or have already reached maturity in shrubs. A little gateway could have an crowded straightness, that their lofty arbor above it. A driveway may have trunks make splendid ^supports for the an avenue of palms to show its im tallest climbing vines. Our beautiful portance. Turns in the driveway or cabbage palmettoes will grow in any soil path should be marked by some prom and endure cold and even fire. The na inent trees or groups. The main en tive cedar should not be overlooked, nor trance to the house should be made no the gladsome wild plum, whose prodi ticeable by some conspicuous arrange gality of bloom is as rapturous as a ment of plants. Wherever dignity is bird's song. Above all we must place desired, symmetrical effects are surest— the 'orange—commercialized it may be, like pairs of compact shrubs or avenues yet still it has no rival as a winter- of trees of straight upward growth. blooming tree. I have heard more Repetition always gives emphasis. For praise given the sturdy Aggripina— this reason the most impressive effects that faithful little red rose which are gained by the use of many plants of scarcely stopped blooming for the big one variety. However interesting to a freeze in 1895—than for any of the botanist a place may be which has no fashionable new varieties. Yet few two plants alike, it can not make as people wpuld take the trouble even to lasting an impression upon the eye of imagine what constant pleasure an ever- the average observer as one which has blooming hedge of these roses would some special feature. For all these im give, nor how impressive it would be. portant positions, which are the frame Another rose which scarcely lets a day 188 FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY pass without flowers, even in the worst age winter with a little care. The seeds cold, is the dainty "Daily Pink" or should be planted in early October "Christmas Rose." The upright honey where they are to grow. Nasturtiums suckle—Lonicera . fragrantissima—is $ will bloom all winter with slight pro modest shrub whose highly-scented tection on frosty nights.