p ebruary, 19 20 
31 
(Above) Tall pines draped 
with Spanish moss and 
pillared with the brilliant 
flame vine surround the 
home of Charles Tiedtke, 
Esq., at Orlando 
(Left) Truly tropical in set¬ 
ting are some of the smaller 
gardens in Florida. This 
one suggests some of the 
backyard possibilities of the 
South 
Madagascar periwinkle, the blue 
flowering plumbago, the alla- 
manda, with its yellow and violet 
flowers, the datura (brugman- 
chias), the acalypha (mosaica), 
the buddleia, the white and pur¬ 
ple bauhinias, phyllanthus, jas¬ 
mine (gelsemium ) and poinciana. 
The cocos palm and the sago 
palm are everywhere and lend a 
tropic enchantment to tlie land¬ 
scape. Many clusters of bamboo 
are used in corners. 
Old-Time Flowers 
Perhaps we might 
I better visualize the 
I many attractions of 
Florida if we take 
an imaginary trip 
through some of its 
most prominent towns 
and look at the gar¬ 
dens on the way. We 
find that the finest 
gardens often have a 
singularly old - fash¬ 
ioned air, in spite of 
the exotic note intro¬ 
duced by tropic vege¬ 
tation. This is be¬ 
cause the favorite 
flowers, other than 
those of native origin, 
seem to be such sim¬ 
ple old - time blos¬ 
soms as pansies, 
phlox, morning glories 
and roses. We often 
find great gardens de¬ 
voted entirely to va¬ 
riegated beds of pan¬ 
sies, while morning 
glories are employed 
as an almost complete 
covering for rows 
upon rows of hedges. 
Pink and white azaleas and 
white and blue hydrangeas are 
frec|uently used as shrubs for 
mass effect. 
The Florida climate is al)Out 
the same everywhere, except that 
the East Coast is rather lower 
than the ^^’est Coast or the inter¬ 
ior. We have already said that 
almost anything will grow in the 
Florida climate, but this is not 
true of the Florida soil. The 
entire peninsula seems 
to be made up of a 
huge bed of sand over 
a coral foundation; 
therefore the cultiva¬ 
tion of a real garden 
is something of a 
problem and a great 
deal of an expense. 
Practically nothing 
will grow in the aver¬ 
age Florida soil e.x- 
cept the native trees 
and shrubs, live oaks, 
palmettos and so 
forth, and very thin 
grass. Therefore loam 
must be imported to 
enrich the sand. Al¬ 
though this calls for 
a considerable outlay 
of money the results 
are always worth it. 
The Trees 
In another part of the Hardy gardens at Augtista one sees many flowers which are features 
in the North, such as tulips, narcissi, gaillardia, clove pinks and, edging the beds, box borders 
I'hose who plant a 
garden consider them¬ 
selves ver}^ lucky if 
they have a grove of 
live oaks to begin 
with, festooned with 
long Spanish moss, 
for a background or 
feature. Oranges are 
( Cont. on page 6o ) 
