FLORIDA ,ST ATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
127 
years in plant growing in this State there 
may be some bits of experience perhaps 
profitable to study, and these we will at¬ 
tempt to recall. 
We began the practice of horticulture, 
ornamental as well as practical, on a loca¬ 
tion among the sand hills of the West 
Coast with full confidence in the fertile 
soil of that locality and its advantageous 
situation beyond the reach of frosts, 
knowing (?) that here our much prized 
‘‘tender things” of glass houses and hot 
beds would laugh Old Boreas to scorn. 
In December we planted geraniums, helio¬ 
tropes, fuchsias, etc., not exactly for 
shade but to have some shrubbery about 
the place while our trees, such as helian- 
thus, ricinus, hollyhocks, rubber trees, 
etc., were coming on to make the perma¬ 
nent shade desired. For our hedges we 
could have nothing finer than asters, mig¬ 
nonette, candytuft, etc.; true some prun¬ 
ing might be required but our new hedge 
shears were equal to that. 
In the way of bulbous plants we had 
brought with us a good variety of tu¬ 
berous-rooted begonias, cyclamen, gold- 
enbanded and other lilies, tigridias, dah¬ 
lias, etc., all of which would be useful at 
the shows in the fall. All these w&re du¬ 
ly planted and started on their mission 
of the desert. During the succeeding 
weeks, while these things were forming 
that sturdy groundwork so necessary to 
a permanent structure, we indulged our¬ 
selves in numerous tours through the 
hammocks so common to our part of the 
State. 
In February something went wrong, 
somebody had made a mistake. And our 
embryo shade trees, hedges, etc., were 
prostrate in the grip of an icy norther. 
What was to be done ? Back to the woods 
we went to figure it out. After all per¬ 
haps nature knew what she was about, so 
we began again, with material from the 
hammock. We planted our “boulevard” 
with live oaks, water oaks, magnolias, 
red bay, gums, cherry laurel and Ameri¬ 
can holly, all of which are in abundant 
supply. 
For the embowering of our cottage 
we brought out cross vines, yellow jessa¬ 
mines, smilax, coral honeysuckles, trum¬ 
pet creepers and others. For shrubbery 
for so high and dry a situation we selected 
varieties found in the higher soils, such 
as azaleas, andromedas, gray beard or 
fringe tree, dog wood, and from the mud 
we took the needle palm, which has suc¬ 
ceeded admirably. 
As thorough work when planting is 
more than half the battle, we dug large 
holes, used an abundance of first class 
muck well mixed with the sand, pressed 
the soil firmly about the roots and water¬ 
ed liberally, after which the trees and 
shrubs took care of themselves. 
All the varieties named have proven 
well adapted to our light dry soil. Con¬ 
trary to all advices we have found the 
live oak equal in growth to the water oak. 
Some other plants found in the sand 
hills effective for use about our homes 
are “Butterfly flowers,” belonging to the 
milk-weed family. We have found nu¬ 
merous shades of orange and lemon col¬ 
ored flowers. These have thick, fleshy 
roots and transplant readily. They bloom 
in spring and early summer and individ¬ 
ual flowers hold quite a long time. 
