The Flowering Tree Man: Edwin A. Menninger

 by Karinluise Calasant

Looking at the Florida landscape today, it’s hard to imagine that until the1930s, flowering trees were a curiosity. People would come from miles around just to admire one in bloom!

 There were a few flowering royal poincianas (Delonix regia) between Stuart and Miami, a few jacarandas (J. mimosifolia) around Avon Park and St. Petersburg, and some native southern magnolias (M. grandiflora) in north Florida. But otherwise, flowering trees were almost nonexistent. A newspaperman who lived in Stuart changed all of that.

Known worldwide as “The Flowering Tree Man,” Edwin A. Menninger (1896-1995) became a leading, self-made horticulturist and a specialist on ornamental plants for the tropics and subtropics. He also wrote many books and articles on flowering trees and vines. The son of Dr. Charles F. Menninger, a long-time physician in Topeka, Kansas and founder of the Menninger Foundation, Ed was the middle brother of the renowned Menninger brothers, and the only one not to become physician.

An unfortunate accident during the winter of 1914-1915 forced Ed to abandon chemistry as his life’s work. While serving as an instructor in a laboratory at Washburn University in Topeka, Ed suffered a severe injury that resulted in the loss of his right eye and left hand. Because he was interested in writing, Ed decided to enter the field of journalism. After graduating from Washburn in 1916, he enrolled in Columbia University's Pulitzer School of Journalism. Two years later, he accepted a job as editorial assistant at the New York Tribune.

The Florida land boom of the early 1920s induced Ed to resign his job in New York and move to West Palm Beach. He worked at the Post-Times for a year before moving to Stuart to start a weekly newspaper.

The Stuart News, which he sold in 1957, is still being published today as a daily newspaper. While publishing his newspaper, Menninger also began a substantial printing business that still serves the local area. He retired from this in 1967.

Ed became seriously interested in horticulture while landscaping his home near the St. Lucie River in Stuart. His fascination with flowering trees began when his wife, Patsy, remarked, “If you are going to grow trees, at least grow some with flowers!”

“When I first came to Florida,” explained Ed, “all I saw was green! To anyone from the north settling down to life in Florida in those days ... an endless sameness of green surroundings all the year, made life for many intolerable.” So he decided to do something about that “awful greenness.” He set out to make Florida more beautiful than Ponce de Leon found it.

His backyard nursery would eventually offer more than 200 kinds of tropical and sub-tropical flowering trees. He grew, tested and evaluated hundreds of kinds of exotic plants largely known to him only from literature. To get started, he wrote to every supervisor of parks in a tropical city of 25,000 people or more asking for seeds of flowering trees that grew there. He received not a single reply.

Ed felt that this was no way to treat a newspaperman! He then applied to the Department of State and secured a list of all American Consuls in tropical lands. He asked that his requests for seeds be forwarded to “some flora-goof, botanist or what-have-you who will send me some seed."

Soon, seeds began arriving from all over the tropics. Some were as big as hand grenades while others were tiny and powder-like. His nursery grew from one flower pot to 15,000 containers sitting around the yard.

He offered his seedlings for sale and opened his garden to the public on weekends, gave talks at garden clubs and introduced people to the wonders of flowering trees. During World War II, he organized bus trips for soldiers from nearby camps so that they could see the exotic trees.  They, in turn, sent Ed seeds of tropical trees found on South Pacific islands where they were fighting.

Year after year, from Ed's varied sources, more than 500 kinds of tree seeds arrived and found a germinating spot in the propagating shed. He used wooden Coke boxes made for 24 bottles each.  Each "compartment" was strung with lampwick through the bottom and into gallon cans of water beneath.  These Coke boxes were placed in a large, glass-topped box heated by an electric cable to keep the seeds and seedlings warm.

Ed shared his tremendous collection of seeds with the United States Department of Agriculture Plant Introduction Station in Coconut Grove, Florida.  The scientists there became more interested in flowering trees for Florida. This was how he met and cultivated a long-lasting friendship with the world-renowned botanist, Dr. David Fairchild.

Soon Ed's backyard nursery contained an enormous stock of young trees, and became more than could be maintained as a private operation. The inventory was eventually sold in 1958 to a commercial flower grower in the area. Ed also began writing articles and books about tropical flowering trees.

In 1957, the American Horticultural Council (that later merged with the American Horticultural Society) awarded Ed a citation honoring him for introducing a number of flowering tropical trees.  In 1958, Fairchild Botanical Garden awarded him its highest honor: the Thomas Barbour Medal.

In April, 1964, Florida State University in Tallahassee awarded Ed an honorary Doctor of Science degree. The citation reads in part, “Our American landscape has been enriched by the more than 100,000 flowering trees that you have grown from seed and distributed to homeowners throughout the country.”

Even though a horrific car accident in 1966 resulted in nearly two years of hospitalization and damaged his remaining eye so badly he could no longer enjoy the colors of the flowering trees around him, Dr. Menninger refused to be daunted. While he could no longer read his notes, he could still use a typewriter. He continued to write and receive prestigious awards up until his death in 1995.

 You can find Dr. Menninger's books, including Fantastic Trees and Flowering Trees of the World for Tropics and Warm Climates on Alibris, eBay, Amazon and other Internet sites.

© 2014 Karinluise Calasant

Originally published in Florida Gardening, Feb / Mar 2014. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.