Iresine Or Achyranthes

Iresine Or Achyranthes are well-known plants with highly colored leaves, much grown at the north for bedding. They do fairly well here in good soil, especially when they are irrigated, but they are subject to root knot.

Iris

Iris do better in the cooler part of the state than in the lower end. Pleas states that they succeed at Chipley. There is a fine lot, probably J. hexagona, at Cocoanut Grove.

Jacobinia

The species of this and allied genera are in a sad muddle and names are all mixed up. J. magnified is probably the old Justicia carnea. J. velutina is much like it but the leaves are velvety. The plant sold by the name of J. coccinea in Florida is not that. I haven't the literature to straighten out the tangle of the family Acanthaceae. There are several plants cultivated in Florida belonging to this family that I can not name.

Jatropha Multifida

Jatropha Multifida is a fine plant with palmate, dissected leaves, oat something like these of a rose Geranium, and cymes of vivid, coral-like crimson flowers. J. curcas, French Physic Nut, is a soft-wooded plant, sometimes almost tree-like, which has ornamental foliage. The fruit is very poisonous.

Justicia

The books are so much at sea about this genus that I cannot do anything with it.

Lantanas

Lantanas are bedded out in the north to some extent and are perfectly at home in Florida, at least throughout the lower half of it. There is a considerable range of color, white, yellow, orange, pink, purple and red, with various combinations of these. They are at their best in good pine land in full sunshine if well fertilized.

Leonotis Leonurus

Leonotis Leonurus has loose whorls of orange scarlet, tubular flowers in long spikes, is a quick grower and blooms at intervals throughout the year. It is quite hardy and is one of our most desirable plants.

Lilium

Nehrling, who has had large experience with bulbous plants in Florida, does not report favorably on most of the species, and those with which he has succeeded require such careful treatment that it is doubtful if they will ever become popular with us. He recommends L. henryi, bearing orange yellow flowers, as one of the best for Florida. He has also found some of the funnel-flowered lilies which flourish with proper treatment, such as L. neilgherrense, L. sulphureum and L. nepalense. He recommends that a bed three feet wide be dug, that old logs be put in the bottom and the rest filled with muck, leaf mold, cow manure and charcoal. It should be kept well watered.

Maranta

Closely allied to Calathea and requiring the same treatment.

Musa

Besides the fruiting species a number of strictly ornamental ones are in cultivation in the north. I have tried most of them here repeatedly and nearly all have failed. M. rhodochlamys is a fine, upright grower and does well, so do M. martini and M. gilletii. M. ensete, the great Abyssinian Banana, has entirely failed in repeated trials. The same is true of M. rosacea, M. sumatrana, M. vittata, M. superba, M. coccinea and M. textilis. Like all other bananas the ornamental species need rich soil, heat and moisture.

Nipa Fruticans

I have planted a number of seeds of this superb plant, which closely resembles a palm, in my brackish swamp but it would require all the police on the New York force to keep the land crabs from destroying the young plants. I put stakes closely around them but they climbed up and got over, I made them higher but they tunnelled under like Andersonville prisoners. I put barrels with both heads knocked out over them, thinking that if they didn't see the plants they wouldn't be tempted but I learned that a land crab doesn't need temptation to lead him into evil: they tunnelled under and came up inside just the same. I have two plants left for which I have hope but not confidence. This plant ought to do well in low ground in lower Florida that is free from crabs and it is certainly a superb ornamental.

Oxalis

There are a number of species in this genus and some of them are quite ornamental. Several of them ought to do well in the cooler part of the state but they have not entirely succeeded with me. Those that grow well are shy bloomers.

Panax

Ornamental leaved plants, sometimes half shrubby, a number of which do well in the warmer part of Florida. They generally have delicate, often cut leaves, sometimes like those of ferns. P. aureum has leaves with yellow and greenish markings; P. victoriae is marked with green and white; P. plumatum and P. excelsum have fern-like foliage. They are all tender and, I think, do better with shelter and a little shade.

Pandanus, Screw Pine

I write the name Pandanus with a good deal of satisfaction for the genus is a superb one and completely at home in the more tropical part of the state. This is especially true of the limestone region of Dade County. They are all natives of the tropics, mostly the Malay Archipelago. They have long, folded leaves which are generally spinose, and they are arranged along the stems in spirals. P. baptisti forms immense clusters and has long spineless leaves which are elegantly striped with yellowish. I have in my back yard a plant fifteen feet high and thirty feet across that has never had any fertilizer or care, this in ordinary pine land. It resembles a gigantic clump of ribbon grass. P. sanderi does finely here and holds its coloring better than P. veitchi. P. candelabrum, the striped variety, is fine but tender. P. odoratissimus has slender, recurved leaves and fragrant flowers. P. utilis forms such a trunk that it is tree-like and makes one of the most striking plants we grow, its immense heads of seed being seven or eight inches in diameter. P. pacificus has beautiful broad, bright green leaves and is a superb plant but being one of the tenderest things we cultivate, it is almost impossible to winter it here in the open. There are several others in my collection, all of which do well.