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Tabernaemontana (named for J. T. Tabernaemontanus of Heidelberg, physician and botanist; died 1590). Apocynaceae. Evergreen usually glabrous trees or shrubs, grown in the warmhouse.
Leaves opposite, thin or leathery: cymes rather branched, terminal or dichotomously arranged: fls. white or yellowish, small or rather large; calyx usually short, deeply or to the middle 5-lobed or -parted; corolla salver-shaped, tube cylindrical, lobes twisted; disk various; ovary with 2 distinct carpels: berries or follicles 2, globose, oblong, ovoid or recurved-reniform, smooth or 3-ribbed. —About 160 species, widely distributed throughout the tropics. See Gonioma for distinctions from that genus.
The East Indian rosebay, T. coronaria, is one of the best ornamental shrubs for subtropical gardens. This species and T. Camassi, referred in this work to Gonioma, nourish everywhere in Florida from Jacksonville southward. If they receive proper attention, tiny cuttings soon develop into dense, bushy plants 3 to 5 feet high, covered with deliciously scented flowers throughout the summer. Indeed the plants are so densely covered with buds and flowers that it is often difficult to find a sufficient supply of cuttings for propagation. T. coronaria has larger leaves than T. Camassi and the flowers are much like those of the double white oleander, while T. Camassi has solider and smaller blossoms. Both do well under the same treatment. In order to enjoy the beauty of the East Indian rosebay to its fullest extent, it must be planted in rich, sandy soil, not too wet and not too dry, and in places fully exposed to the sun. Only very strong pot-grown plants should be set out in the garden. This should be done during the rainy season. Avoid breaking the ball in transplanting. It is useless to transplant in November, the time when most evergreens and other plants are most successfully set out. The plants at this season have no time to become established before the first sharp frost comes, and a weakened tabernaemontana is usually killed outright by even a slight frost. Just before Christmas all the plants of this nature (bauhinias, cestrums; Poinciana regia, Tristania conferta, grevilleas, eucalypti, and so on) are banked about 18 inches to 2 feet high with dry sand, and they always come through without much damage. In April or even earlier, the banking is taken away and the plants cut back to sound wood. The tabernaemontanas look best in groups by themselves or in front of other glossy leaved evergreens.
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