Gardening in South Florida has always meant learning by doing. Heat, humidity, storms, and soil conditions shape what can survive and how much care a landscape demands. At Vizcaya, these realities were not incidental—they were central to the way the gardens took shape.
Letters from James Deering’s archive reveal that building a garden in early twentieth-century Miami required careful observation and local knowledge. In one letter, Deering relays information gathered from a grower familiar with Dade County’s conditions. He notes which plants thrive among pine trees, which fruit varieties succeed—or fail—and how factors such as wind, fire, irrigation, and soil affect long-term growth. His correspondence reflects an ongoing effort to understand the land rather than impose a fixed vision upon it.
“HE SAYS THAT A MAN HAS RECENTLY COME TO MIAMI WHO PRETENDS TO BE A TREE EXPERT. I WILL TRY TO FIND OUT ABOUT HIM.”
Letter: July 26, 1914
From: [Assumed] James Deering, Vizcaya’s Owner
To: Paul Chalfin, Vizcaya’s Artistic Director, Miami
Reveal Transcript
… among the pines is growing about everything one could think of. Mr. Brown says his results are as good as anybody’s, and certainly it so appears. He is growing magnolias, camellias, and jessamines. He says that in all Dade County he knows of one successful grapevine. That is on the way to Fort Lauderdale and is a Scuppernong. He says that the avocado tree on my mother’s place which is now actually bearing fruit is the Mexican variety. Most avocado trees of the ordinary kind have finished fruiting long ago. He says that a man has recently come to Miami who pretends to be a tree expert. I will try to find out about him.
The only source of supply for muck is the Everglades and Miami River, South Fork and he does not know where in particular one should go to find it. It can be lightered down river. He thinks any time will do for the planting of trees or for the transplanting. He says it is certain many trees and almost all hammock trees can be successfully transplanted and the gumbo limbo will grow rankly anywhere.
He does not think we need fear forest fires from the inside, if we clean out dead matter. He thinks a stone fence, even a low one, will preclude all danger of fire coming in from the outside. He has no fear that our trees will be blown down by hurricane unless we thin them out very much. The slim tall trees are, most likely to suffer and they can be topped and made to grow stocky.
He believes that for fruit trees the best method of irrigation is to turn the water on the roots. He thinks the Colorado plan of channels with laterals would work well. You can make a hammock on pine land, i.e.; get a hammock growth.
Citrus fruit trees after they reach a certain growth, need no water. The best nursery for citrus fruits is that of Roberts, Homestead, Fla. , tropical fruits and general trees, Reasoner, of Onokee, is the best selection, Resoner is honest, sincere, and now works on scientific lines. He thinks bamboo and oleander, bougainvillia, hibiscus and screwpine would do well for screen hedges, and called my attention to the thorny hedge between Mr. Matheson’s place and my mothers. This I learn is the Clarissa; it is just the thing to put on the west end of the property next the railway tracks, and the highway. I believe the tramps come from the railway, and thefts from this direction are most probable.
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This letter reads less like casual correspondence and more like a working record of experimentation. The concerns Deering raises—how trees respond to storms, how much water they need, which species can be transplanted successfully—remain familiar to many who garden in South Florida today. Success depended not on certainty, but on adaptability and attention to place.
That same approach extended to flowers, particularly orchids. In another letter, Deering writes about his fondness for them and his expectation that they would grow directly on trees. Orchids, for him, were not meant solely for cutting or indoor display. Instead, he imagined them as part of the living landscape, offering pleasure to both himself and his guests while remaining rooted in conditions that supported their health.
“I, OF COURSE, EXPECTED TO HAVE [ORCHIDS] ON THE TREES FOR THE PLEASURE THEY WOULD GIVE ME AND GUESTS”
Letter: December 22, 1914
From: James Deering, Vizcaya’s Owner, New York
To: Paul Chalfin, Vizcaya’s Artistic Director, Miami
Reveal Transcript
Dear Mr. Chalfin:–
I have been looking over the drawing of the garden, but have no comments to make as yet. My idea about orchids was to have a place where they could be raised for the use of the house. I am very fond of them, and would like an ample supply if it is possible to have it. I, of course, expected to have them on the trees for the pleasure they would give me and guests, but not for plucking, except as it might be necessary to pluck them for their own good. I do not, of course, care particularly whether gardenias for the house and my friends come from the formal garden or a garden devoted to them, but as they are a delightful flower, I want plenty of them. We will not, of course, raise them at all unless we can do so without breeding white moths, which I think I understand do their chief injury to citrus fruit.
Regarding the carpet, I telegraphed you last night as follows:
“Please notify Sloan I will have carpet put down myself”
Having from you now all of the information necessary, I am sending to the Park Storage warehouse all the things in the house that are to be used in Florida, and am instructing them what things that they have are to go to you. Baylis will address the shipment of the 432 Fourth Avenue, but you can, of course, have it delivered wherever you please. I have given away one or two things in the warehouse. Certain other things will come to the garage and be given away. The little writing desk which I suggested I might give to somebody I am shipping to you, for it is a neat little thing and might well, as I think, go in some bedroom.
Yours sincerely,
[signed] JD
Mr. Paul Chalfin
432 Fourth Ave.,
New York, N.Y.
Allowing orchids to grow on trees reflects an understanding of South Florida’s environment. Elevated from the ground, orchids benefit from airflow, moisture, and filtered light—conditions that mirror how they grow in nature. Rather than controlling every aspect of their growth, this practice works with the climate, letting the landscape participate in their care.
Today, orchids growing on trees are a familiar sight throughout South Florida. Many residents attach orchids to trunks in their own yards, trusting the environment to do much of the work. What visitors see at Vizcaya is not an isolated historical choice, but part of a practice that continues across generations—one shaped by shared conditions and shared experience.
Seen together, these letters reveal gardens not as static designs, but as living systems shaped by trial, observation, and relationship to place. Orchids growing on trees quietly connect Vizcaya’s past to the present, reminding us that gardening in South Florida has always been a conversation between people, plants, and the land they share.
