About

This is not a typical ongoing blog with chit chat.   I have a collection of write-ups of varying length on the history of horticulture in Florida, and wish to make them available to PBSC Horticulture students, and to anyone interested.

In large part, this is not original research, but rather a synthesis of  readily available books,  old articles, and material from the Interet.   For the book-length references, see the source list below.     It is derived, yet the only place I know of where an overview comes together.

Although this is not meant to be a discussion, comments are welcome, and new info or correction via comment or by e-mail is a big help.

Enjoy the good old days!

(The good old days were not that good.  Note how most of our heros suffered tragedies, calamaties, setbacks, roberies, and even murder.  These individuals and their families were tough!   One or two even got into a ittle mischief of their own.)

Krome: Died in middle age

Mead:  Daughter died, brother died

Nehrling: Daughters died, first wife died, severe setback by freezing 1917, foreclosed, lost his Caladiums, hurricane

Perrine:  Arsenic poisoning, cholera, murdered

Reasoners:   Pliny died at 25, Pliny Jr. killed at 15, nursery vandalized, devastated by The Depression

Simpson:  Malaria,  wife died, daughter died, run out of town after an affair (perhaps more than once),  first wife died, quarrels,  hurricane, cataracts, robbery

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Main Sources

Additional sources will appear in posts, as relevant.

Carter, K. E.  Henry Perrine, Plant Pioneer of the Florida Frontier.   70 pp. Tailored Tours Publ., Lake Buena Vista, FL.  1998.  [Written at pre-teen level, yet with much info and good illustrations.]

Fairchild, D. The World Was My Garden. Travels of a Plant Explorer.  xiv + 494 pp.  Scribners.  NY and other cities. 1938. Reprinted 1982 by Banyan Books for Fairchild Tropical Gardens.

Hastings, J. R.  The Reasoner Brothers, Florida’s Pioneer Nurserymen.  Privately published. 1977? [See also Pinardi below.]

Jackson, F. R. Pioneer of Tropical Landscape Architecture.  William Lyman Phillips in Florida.  xxi + 274 pp.  Univ. Press of FL. 1997.

Mead, T. L.    Theodore L. Mead, Naturalist, Entomologist and Plantsman: An Autobiography.  Yearbook American Amaryllis Society 2: 11-22.  1935.  [Rollins College Mead Photo Gallery  is at http://lib.rollins.edu/olin/oldsite/archives/meadgallery.htm%5D

Nehrling, H. The Plant World in Florida.  Collected and edited by A. and E. Kay. xviii + 304 pp.  MacMillan, NY. 1933. [A manual based on collected manuscripts.]  See also Read below.

Pinardi, N. J. The Plant Pioneers. The Story of the Reasoner Family, Pioneer Florida Horticulturists, and Their Nursery.  215 pp. Rainbow Press. Torrington, CT.  1980. [Based on family interviews, esp. Julia Reasoner Hastings.  See also Hastings above.]

Read, R. Nehrling’s Early Florida Gardens. Abridged and edited by R. W. Read.  xxiv + 248 pp.  Univ. Press of FL. 2001.  [Based on Nehrling’s  1944 “My Garden in Florida.]

_______. Nehrling’s Plants, People, and Places in Early Florida.  xvii +  262 pp. Univ. Press of FL. 2001 [Anthology of articles.]

Reasoner, P.  Report on the Condition of Tropical and Semi-Tropical Fruits in the United States.   USDA Division of Pomology. Bull. 1. 1887.

Rothra, E. O. Florida’s Pioneer Naturalist. The Life of Charles Torrey Simpson.  iv + 232 pp.  Univ. Press of FL. 1995.

Simpson, C. T. Ornamental Gardening in Florida. xiii +  198 pp.  Published by CTS. 1916. [Practical guide and plant manual.  Available as free download.]

_______.  In Lower Florida Wilds.   552 pp. (paperback reprint).  64 illustrations and 2 maps. G. P. Putnam’s Sons. London. 1920.  [Available as a free download.]

Swanson, H. Countdown for Agriculture in Orange County, Florida. Designer’s Press, Orlando.  x + 338 pp.  1975. [Goldmine for the Orlando-Apopka-Zellwood area.]

Internet:

Florida Memory.   State Library and Archives of Florida. https://www.floridamemory.com/

Keys with Squire Temple Pent:  http://www.floridakeys.com/marathon/history.htm

History of Farming in the Keys http://www.keyshistory.org/farming.html

TL Mead as Entomologist http://images.peabody.yale.edu/lepsoc/jls/2010s/2015/2015-69-1-001.pdf

Misc. info and photos on Nehrling: www.nehrlinggardens.org

Krome history Proc. FSHS 1998 online:  http://fshs.org/proceedings-o/1998-vol-111/294-295%20(CAMPBELL).pdf