Palm Beach County FlArchives Biographies.....Delavan, Fred M. ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/flfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Nancy Rayburn http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00025.html#0006128 July 22, 2012, 9:44 pm Source: The Lewis Publishing Co., Vol.II pg. 241-3 1923 Author: The History of Florida: Past & Present DELAVAN, FRED M., proprietor of Delavan Lodge and Nursery, rare plants only, of his own hybridization, is one of the men of West Palm Beach who, influenced by the natural conditions in this "garden spot of the world," have given free rein to natural inclinations and decided talents and developed a business unique of its kind, and remarkable in every way. He was born at Hillsdale, Michigan, and was educated in its grammar and high schools. Going to New York City as youth, he was employed there in an establishment dealing in paints and artists’ supplies and materials. In this way he became thrown in with artists, and finally went into business for himself as a dealer in rare prints, rare paintings, rare rugs and antiques of all kinds. During his career in this business he became one of the best-known dealers, and an expert of unquestioned authority, especially with reference to rare prints, although his knowledge and experience extended to various other branches of the fine arts. At first engaged in this business at Chicago, he expanded it and was located on Fifth Avenue, New York City, when he felt a need for rest and recuperation, and to secure it came to South Florida in 1908. Prior to coming to this region Mr. DELAVAN had been very well pleased with the results of his endeavors, and had intended to remain in his chosen calling, but he became so impressed with the country down here in every way that he decided to make it his permanent home. Selecting West Palm Beach as the scene of his future operations, he bought fifteen acres of land on what is now the 1600 block of South Olive Street and extending from that street to the shoreline of Lake Worth. It is very characteristic of the man that he should have developed, amid his new surroundings, as artistic a business, in its way, as his old one. Here he began to develop what has become a tropical nursery of genuine distinction, growing only rare plants, all of which are of his own hybridization. Practically all of his stock comes from seedlings. Here Mr. DELAVAN from a small beginning has hybridized and propagated rare plants and trees that are native to European countries, to Japan, Egypt and Africa, producing in his nursery botanical growths that are not found anywhere else in the United States. One of his principal productions, and one that is peculiar to this nursery as he has produced it himself, is the bougainvillea carmine, of a deep rich, red color, entirely different from the purple bougainvillea that is common in South Florida. Its blooming season covers the period from October to May. This magnificent vine is difficult of propagation and will never become common. Mr. DELAVAN has the only allspice tree in this country. Another rare specimen is the lang-lang tree of Japanese origin, which produces a flower of rare odor, from which perfume is made. He also has the Egyptian henna tree, with both white and red blossoms. A particularly beautiful and rare specimen is his calodendron tree, one of the finest of its kind, coming from the Cape of Good Hope. He has also the seedling white hibiscus, an egg fruit tree, a cinnamon tree, cordia tree, a jacaronda tree with fern leaf and a bloom of rare beauty, and numerous others. Mr. DELAVAN ships his own seedling crotons all over the world, for there is a ready clientele for all of his remarkable plants as soon as they are ready, and outside of the commercial avenues through which these find an outlet this tropical garden spot is known to botanists and scientists everywhere, including those connected with the Government service. It is difficult for mere words in any way to do justice to the loveliness and exotic charm of Delavan Lodge. Mr. DELAVAN has written of his home in beautifully poetic lines, and by permission extracts are made from his article in order to render justice to one of the most remarkable, as well as charming, spots in this wonderful region of the tropics. In this article Mr. DELAVAN is referring to the charm of a midsummer morning at Delavan Lodge, and continues: "One of the beauties of a midsummer morning is seen in the outline of the vegetation silhouetted against the brightening sky. Standing on my veranda and looking out I see continually varied and broken line all around me. To the south immediately in front of the house is a group of some thirty species of palms, among which two coconuts, taller the rest, toss up their wonderfully plumelike leaves with infinite grace and beauty. Just a bit eastward and at some little distance a lofty water tower in an adjoining place, its roof made of red tiles, is a striking object as seen above the forest. To the southeast and just across the lawn a giant East Indian bamboo stands close against the hammock and throws its great feathery plumes far above it. "Further east, almost between me and the spot where the sun will rise, is a wonderful tree, a young Myrobalan of the East Indies. It reaches well above the general outline of the forest, and it's long, wandlike branches are well clothed with the most delicate, slender, pinnate foliage. These leaves are pale green below, sometimes almost silvery and dark green above, and among the mass of them all the intermediate tints are shown. The whole is as delicate and graceful as a bamboo, but it is unlike any bamboo I ever saw. To the northeast is a solid stemmed Oriental bamboo some thirty feet high, which is beginning to rise above the general line of the hammock. The name of this splendid plant is in dispute, but the species has been sent out as Dendrocalamus strictus and it will reach a height of fifty feet and even more. Its large stems are crooked at the ground and curve strongly outward until at their ends they are horizontal; their foliage is almost massive, yet it is wonderfully graceful. Around the lawn and in the near foreground a Century plant sends up this great flower stem with candelabra-like branches, just now in full bloom, making a most striking figure against the sky. Near it is a group of palms, a Cuban royal and one from the Porto Rico, an African oil palm, two species of California Fan palms, a Chamerops from South Europe, the Wine palm of India, and an immense-leaved Sabal from South America. "Beyond and to the left of this group are three tall pine trees with finely rounded heads, the "Three Graces," and up one of them an American woodbine has climbed to the very tip top. At night their great heads stand out as blots of darkness against the sky. To the west of the house a moonflower has covered a long stretch of fence, a patch of bananas and a large mango tree, and its great white blossoms gleam out like stars in the dawn. "Along the road which encircles the house there is a large Avocado tree on one side and an umbrella China tree on the other side, and the latter reaches its branches across until the two meet overhead, forming a grand arch. Near it a Dombeya has grown into an immense shrub, and in the winter this will be loaded with large, pendant heads of handsome pink blossoms. Further on a young, tropical almond tree has pushed its whorled horizontal branches across the road, and they are overlapping those of a big silk cotton from the West Indies forming another arch. To the left is a group of young pine trees, seven in number, the "Seven Sisters." Upon one of them a Stigmaphyllum, a charming vine bearing Orchid-like flowers, is climbing. Up another the great flowered Solanum wendlandi grows; on a third is a scarlet Bougain-villea; a fourth is enveloped by a Kudzu and up a fifth a young venusta is gay with gorgeous orange-scarlet tubular blossoms all through the late winter. Over the last of the sisters there sprawls a moon vine that has reached out along the ground and up some of the other trees and threatens to dispute with their occupants for possession. Here is a magnificent Ficus F. nymphaefolia, one of the most superb trees I have ever seen, with great, nearly round leaves, a foot-wide and thirteen inches long that look exactly as though they had just been varnished. Along the road are two species of Hamelia, one of them a native, both having reddish leaves and clusters of handsome orange-red flowers; there are Poincianas, Brunfelsias, Clerodendrons, and Catesbaeas, the latter with very long, yellow tubular blossoms, and all of these in glory of full-bloom. And this almost overpowering fragrance comes from a night blooming jasmine which is still exhaling its odor. Near the forks of the road is a clump of bananas, twenty-five feet across and nearly as high. This is one of the few ornamental species which do well for me, a more erect grower than the common fruiting species. "Around me on every side is a sea of vegetation, a varied and variegated panorama of fadeless green; and the sun, which has now risen above the hammock, lights it up with a wonderful effect. It is a scene of peace and harmony and beauty, a home in which a man may well be content to live, to enjoy nature and end his days." File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/fl/palmbeach/bios/delavan48bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/flfiles/ File size: 9.7 Kb