186 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
my ardor, so it is with a strong and virile 
belief that I wish to call your attention to 
what I consider the greatest privilege of 
Florida’s lovers of flowers and foliage— 
the opportunity to give her message of 
beauty, health and joy to the thousands 
who visit her every year. 
All these winter visitors cofhe here from 
the cold and weary north to be cheered 
and gladdened. Some are mere pleasure 
seekers, but many are earnestly seeking 
health as well. That Floridians should 
ever deprive them of the State’s greatest 
charms through carelessness or selfishness 
is a great shame. Yet how often people 
have said to me: “I went to Florida last 
winter, and I was so disappointed. They 
call it the land of flowers, yet I saw almost* 
none, and nearly all the trees were as 
leafless as the ones I left behind me. In¬ 
stead of flowers in the gardens, there were 
mostly shriveled leaves and mounds where 
tender plants were being protected. Real¬ 
ly, I found it very depressing.” They 
have my full sympathy, for I know how 
disappointed I always am when I come 
home and discover that the recently plant¬ 
ed trees are deciduous and that an un¬ 
sightly amount of effort is being devoted 
to making some sad, shivering plant of 
the tropics live through the winter, so that 
it can bloom in the summer when I am 
away. 
Two very excellent traits in human na¬ 
ture cause the barren winter gardens. 
They are the love of old associations 
and the desire for discovery and adven¬ 
ture—only they are carried too far. All 
will acknowledge Florida’s loveliness 
when her inhabitants learn to appre¬ 
ciate Florida for her best self and do 
not try to make their homes duplicates 
of the ones they left at the North, nor 
poor imitations of the still distant trop¬ 
ics. Science is telling us more and more 
that plant life is sensitive to pain and 
discomfort very much as human beings 
are. Is it not, then, a cruel thing to 
take a helpless plant which can not run 
away, and put it in a soil and climate 
which it does not like, and try to make 
it do its little tricks of blooming and 
ripening fruit in spite of its homesick 
heart ? How much better it would be 
to have happy healthy plants giving us 
their best the year around. These we 
could plant in such a way that passers- 
by may enjoy them. There should be 
unbroken spaces of lawn across which 
they can see to good advantage the well 
arranged borders or groups of trees 
and shrubs, placed so that the larger ones 
make a background for the smaller ones. 
Plants of contrasting types of foliage 
should be put together, for each will ac¬ 
centuate the other. Care also should be ta¬ 
ken to keep inharmonious colors apart. 
The taller plants in the foreg*round should 
be of open growth or with tall trunks, so 
that they will give vistas of more distant 
plants, which is nature’s way of framing 
her landscapes. Palms are excellent for 
this purpose. Vines or thick shrubs 
about the house can furnish the privacy 
and the air of mystery which makes a 
home of refinement seem desirable to 
the outsider. If, for summer, one must 
have plants which are not attractive in 
winter, they should be put in out-of-the- 
way places, where their bareness will 
not detract from the general aspect of 
living green; for if they are really gor- 
