The Gardens of Florida [antikvár]

!I;;'' ;| it Iimmm,1,éEEÉi-'M i m'^ilt^ÉEk^^INTRODUCTIONIf the 16th century Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon had firststepped onto Florida's shores as we know them today, he would have found himself surrounded by a jungle of color, fragrance, and plants of such mythological proportion that he would have believed he had discovered not simply the land of the Fountain of Youth . . . but Eden itself: tall palms and taller pines flourishing in brilliant sunlight, canopies of vivid petals, aromatic blossoms, fantastically shaped leaves, monumental stalks, flower-laden branches, and at every turn, another wonder offering up its fruit, its shade, its sheer beauty.The pine scrubland that Ponce de Leon actually discovered, though yet to acquire this botanical luxuriance, bore a more primitive beautya kinetic tranquillity punctuated by the piercing drone of cicadas and scented with moldering pine straw. This decay produced an excellent top soil which enhanced the growth of the tall native slash pines, saw palmettos, and sabal palms. In the centuries to come, more exotic species of plant life would make their appearance on this Florida landscape, some a result of sheer accidentsuch as the first palms that blew ashore from a shipwreck off the coast of what would become Palm Beachand some the product of deliberate cultivation. The lush density of Miami's Coconut Grove, for example, was nurtured by that community's Caribbean settlers in the 1800s who arrived from their islands "with pockets full of seeds."Few useful and edible plants grew in the limestone soil of the Florida Keys when the first European settlers arrived there in the early 1800s. By the time John James Audubon visited Key West in 1832, however, that tiny pioneer town was already bustling with the commerce and activity stimulated by its population ofAT LEFT:The garden at Audubon House, Key West.Mangroves at Matheson Hammock Park, Miami.southern businessmen, European traders, shipwreck survivors, and adventure seekers from all over the worldEngland, Holland, Russia, Italy, Spain, Cuba, Canada, Scotland, France, and the East Indies. Many brought with them their knowledge of the functional and decorative gardens of their native countries.The first Key West gardens, naturally, were practical food-growing and shade-producing endeavors. Native plants such as sea grape and coco plum were cultivated, along with such newly introduced edible exotics as bananas, coconuts, limes, and tamarinds; ornamental exotics such as bougainvillea, lantana.