The Daily Gardener

Have you ever taken a class on gardening? If you're in the Calgary area, there's an excellent class taking place tonight from 7 to 9 PM It's part of the "Garden On" Lecture series. Tonight's focus is on herbs. If you're new to gardening, herbs make for wonderful starter plants. They are easy to grow, generally trouble-free, and versatile. They can be incorporated into almost any garden situation. Tonight's class will cover What makes an herb an herb Propagation Harvesting The class will be at the Acadia Recreation Complex in Calgary tonight at 7 PM. Brevities #OTD It's the birthday of Enid Annenberg Haupt, born today in 1906. The very woman the president of the New York Botanical Garden called, "The greatest patron American horticulture has ever known." Enid was one of eight children; her parents Sadie and Moses had one son and seven daughters. Her father was the founder of a large publishing empire. Enid followed in his footsteps was an heiress to the large family fortune. Enid's first marriage ended in divorce. Her second marriage to Ira Haupt launched her philanthropic activities and introduced her to the world of gardening. When they were engaged, Ira gave Enid a cymbidium orchid. At the time, cymbidium orchids were rare in the United States. Enid was immediately enthralled by it. She told Ira that for her wedding present from him, she would be very happy with a gift of 13 cymbidium orchids. She was set on learning how to grow them herself and propagate them on her own. In fact, the cultivar Cymbidium Enid Haupt was named in her honor. Enid found this ironic, since that particular orchid is known for its fertility. Enid could not have children of her own. However, she and Ira eventually adopted a little girl they named Pamela. Enid's brother, Walter, gave her a chance to be a publisher. Initially,Enid was terrified. Yet, Enid had proved she had many talents. She was a good writer. She loved to grow orchids. She had an impeccable sense of style. When it came to running a magazine, Enid felt she was over the tips of her skis. Walter insisted she give it a go. In 1953, Enid was put in charge of the magazine Seventeen. She ran the magazine until 1970. During her tenure, Seventeenmagazine was more popular than Glamour, and twice as popular as Mademoiselle. At one point, more than half of the teenage girls in the United States were reading Seventeenmagazine. When Enid died in 2005, she had donated more than $140 million to charities. Her favorite charities involved gardening. This is how Enid became known as "the fairy godmother of American horticulture" and "the patron saint of public gardens." One of Enid's largest gifts was to the New York Botanical Garden. Over her lifetime, Enid gave them over $34 million – $5 million of which was dedicated to the restoration of the stunning Victorian glass greenhouse now called the Enid Haupt Conservancy. Without Enid, the greenhouse would have been demolished. In 1993, Enid told the Times, "I must have a project.That should be my middle name; Project. I'm really and truly not happy without one." And it was in Enid Haupt, who said, "Nature is my religion. There is no life in cements and paint. " #OTD Today in 1995 Allison Hargraeves became the first woman to reach the top of Mount Everest unaided. When she got to the peak, Hargraeves planted a silk flower. #OTD On this day in 2013, Ohio State University's greenhouse smells like a mix of sauerkraut and dead fish. This scent was from the bloom of the corpse flower, the rare titan arum. The corpse flower is from Sumatra. Discovered in the late 1800s by an Italian botanist, there have been less than 200 blooms in the world since its discovery. In 1889, newspapers around the world were offering an account of the first recorded bloom at the Royal Gardens at Kew. Reports mentioned that it was hard to describe the appearance of the flower. That said, it reminded readers that many arums have a similar appearance; Calling to mind the jack-in-the-pulpit, the wild turnip, skunk cabbage, and the calla lily – all types of arums. In addition, many arums emit a repulsive odor. Finally, this week marks the beginning of National Public Gardens Week, which runs from today, May 13, through May 19. The kick off to this week begins today with National Public Gardens Day. This celebration started in 2009 as part of the effort to bring attention to the country's public gardens. You can be part of the celebration, by visiting a public garden in your area this week. Unearthed Words In 1982, on this day, Vassar College acquired the journals of John Burroughs. One of the countries leading naturalist Burroughs had kept a journal over the last 45 years of his life. The first entry in the first notebook happened on this day May 13, 1876. Burroughs writes about the Redstart; a medium sized bird known as a May warbler. Males are mostly black with bright orange patches on the sides, wings, and tail. Here's what it said: "Standing in the road over in the

Have you ever intuited the name of a plant? A few years ago, I traveled to San Diego. I was sitting on a bench outside the hotel and I spied the most amazing blossom - three bright orange petals and three blue petals - it looked like the head of a bird. My mind latched onto "bird of paradise," I looked it up on my phone and sure enough, it was just that. Brevities #OTD English author, translator, and Clerk to the Kitchen of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Leonard Mascall (died 1589) was buried at Buckinghamshire, in 1589. Mascall published a number of books; all were aimed at household management. In 1572 Mascall published, "A book of the Arte and Maner Howe to Plante and Graffe All Sortes of Trees."Along with cultivating fruit trees, this book was the first to refer to the secateurs or pruning knife. The word secatuers is taken from the Latin secare'to cut'. Mascall's last book was published a year after he died. Called "The Booke of Engines and Traps." In it, Mascall shared 34 traps and 9 Recipes for poison bates; most of which were dedicated to trapping mice. Mascall wrote about how to control slugs and snails - he described picking them off by hand early in the morning. #OTD It's the birthday of John Hope who lived during the Scottish enlightenment; he was a botanist , a famous professor, and founder of one of the leading botanical gardens in Europe, born on this day in 1725. Hope produced considerable work on plant classification and physiology. He was appointed to positions of the King's botanist for Scotland and superintendent of the Royal Garden in Edinburgh. At the time, Edinburgh was THE place to study medicine and all medical students had to take botany courses. Hope created a school for botanists after spinning off the materia medica (pharmacy) department of the school which allowed him to specialize exclusively on botany. Hope was a captivating instructor. He was one of the first two people to teach the Linnean system, he also taught the natural system. He was one of the first instructors to use big teaching diagrams or visual aids to teach his lectures. His students traveled from all over the world Europe, America, and India. Hope taught over 1,700 students during his tenure and they included the likes of James Edward Smith, founder and first President of the Linnaean Society, Charles Drayton and Benjamin Rush. A field botanist, Hope encouraged his students to go out an investigate the Flora of Scotland and he awarded a medal every year to the student who collected the best herbarium. With Hope's impressive resume came impressive wealth. By the time Hope died, he had amassed more than £12,000 which he left to his wife. #OTD It's the birthday of Alan Robertson Gemmell; a Professor of Biology at Keele University and a regular member of the panel on the BBC Radio program Gardeners' Question Time beginning in 1950 and co-hosting for some 30 years, Gemmel was born in 1913. When Gemmell was invited to appear on the Gardeners Question Time, Keele Univeristy allowed it provided the school would be mentioned in the credits and as long as Gemmell appeared during University time. Gemmell spoke with a calm, Scottish voice. In his obituary, it was said he could, persuade followers of Gardeners Question Time to plant, "the most vicious weed." An academic, Gemmel often disagreed with fellow panelists like Fred Loads or Bill Sowerbutts who offered more off-the-cuff or hearsay advice. It was Alan Gemmell who wrote in one of his columns, "One of the major loves of my life is the potato. In fact my colleagues on Gardener's Question Time sometimes referred to me as spud Gemmel, since not only do I enjoy devouring that delectable vegetable, I also enjoy devouring anything which has been written about it. #OTD This entire week, May 5 - May 11 is International Compost Awareness Week (ICAW). (ICAW) is the largest and most comprehensive education initiative of the compost industry. It is celebrated nationwide in Canada and in other countries each year during the first full week of May. Started in Canada in 1995, ICAW has continued to grow as the importance of composting and the long-term benefits from organics recycling. Each year, a theme is chosen. The theme for this year is Cool the Climate - Compost! #OTD This weekend is the 30th Anniversary of the Friend's School Plant Sale in Minneapolis/St. Paul. With more than 2,450 plant varieties — may be the largest plant sale in the U.S. It's a fund-raising event sponsored by theFriends School of Minnesota, a small Quaker K – 8 school in the Hamline-Midway area in Saint Paul. New Plants for 2019 include: Peony, Sweet Marjory: Neat and sweet pink cactus-style flowers with streaks of cream, green, and deep rose pink. Yellow fluff of stamens in the center. Slightly fragrant. Early to mid-season. French Hollyhock, Bibor Felho: Fuchsia with dark purple veins and halo surrounding a white center star. Blooms June–September. "Bibor Felho" is Hungarian for 'Purple Cloud.' Considered

Take two gardeners. They grow up learning to garden from the same person. They read the same books on gardening. They go to the same gardening workshops. They tour the same public gardens. Yet, their gardens will look different from each other. Unique. Gardens are art. They are personal. Remember that the next time you are trying to copy the look of another garden. The difference isn't just topographical... When it comes to your garden: yes, consider microclimates, plant varieties, soil, sun, and so forth. But also, make sure to add yourself to the list of variables. Brevities #OTD Today is the birthday of botanist Count Alexandre Henri Gabriel de Cassini born on this day in 1781. His second great grandfather was the famous Italian astronomer, Giovanni Domenico Cassini; he discovered Jupiter's Great Red Spot and the Cassini division in Saturn's rings. By the time Alexander was born, his family had married into French nobility (that's why he was born in Paris). Unfortunately, it was a bad time to go to France. Their Italian heritage and scientific work would not insulate the Cassini's from public resentment as the stage was set for the French Revolution. Cassini took a decidedly different path than his ancestors. He was the fifth generation in a family of star scholars, so Alexandre is often distinguished from the rest of his family as Cassini V. Cassini pursued the bar instead of the stars; as in the legal profession. As a lawyer, Cassini worked his way to the highest legal position in France in his time; "President of the Chamber." Like many folks, botany was his hobby; not his day job. It is quite notable that Cassini's botanical accomplishments took place in his off time. Cassini's heart belonged to the sunflower family (Asteraceae) and he focused pretty much exclusively on the Compositae. It was fitting then, that the genus Cassinia(the sunflower genus) was named in his honor by the botanist Robert Brown. Over two hundred years later, many of Cassini's detailed descriptions are still valid. Cassini married his cousin. At the age of fifty, Cassini died of cholera. His father outlived him by thirteen years. Alexandre Cassini was the last of his name; a punctuation mark on the wonderful Cassini legacy. #OTD On this day in 1807, Lewis and Clark returned a book that they had borrowed from Benjamin Smith and Barton to help them on their expedition. Before they had started their track, Meriwether Lewishad visited Bartonat his home. Upon leaving, he left with a copy of The History of Louisianaby Antoine le Page. Lewis memorialized the gesture in the flyleaf of the book. Here's what he wrote: "Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton was so obliging as to lend me this copy of Mons. le Page's History of Louisiana in June 1803. It has been since conveyed by me to the Pacific ocean through the interior of North America on my late tour thither and is now returned to its proprietor by his friends and obedient servant, Meriwether Lewis. Philadelphia, May 9, 1807." #OTD On this day in 1888 in Delaware, the Peach Blossom was voted in as the State Flower. Peach blossoms are a beautiful, deep pink color. The blooms appear very early in the year. Frost is always a concern. The fruit is botanically known as a drupe; It has a fleshy outer layer that covers a hard shell which contains a single seed. The decision to go with the peach blossom, was prompted by Delaware's reputation as the peach state. At the time, Delaware was known as the peach state and she boasted orchards containing more than 800,000 peach trees (Prunus persico, a native of China). Delaware's peach trees were introduced by the Spanish. By the 1600s, peaches were so plentiful, it was said that Delaware farmers fed them to their pigs. By 1875, Delaware was the country's top peach producer... until the yellows. The yellows was a blight that destroyed Delaware's orchards. In the late 1800s, Delaware was knocked from the top spot as a peach producer. Today, Delaware produces roughly 2,000,000 pounds of peaches every year. America's leading peach grower is the state of California, producing 950,000 tons annually. Unearthed Words #OTD It's the birthday of botanist Hewett Cottrell Watson, the father of British plant geography born today in 1804. Watson investigated the variability of British plant species across their ranges & compared the flora of Britain to the Azores. In recognition of his great contributions, the botanical society of the British Isles named their journal Watsonia. Beginning in 1834, Watson was one of the first botanists to research plant evolution. Watsons work also paved the way for a new science now known as ecology. When Darwin created his theory of evolution, he was standing on the shoulders of curious early evolutionists like Watson. Darwin's popularity and success overshadowed the folks like Watson who came before him. Yet, it's obvious that when Watson read Darwin's Origin, his reaction was one of wonder... and also self reflection. He spent his adult l

You know the saying bad things come in threes? The dishwasher stops working. You get in a car accident. Your credit card gets stolen. Well, when it comes to our plants; like us, they can be experiencing a constellation of problems as well. Yet, we often see plants as far less complex; minimizing their needs to a singular solution. "It just needs more sun." "Better drainage will do the trick." Instead of just trying one solution, consider that maybe multiple changes are needed. Brevities #OTD On this day in 1820, President James Monroe signed a bill granting "a tract of public land in the City of Washington, not exceeding five acres" for the America's botanic garden. Monroe genuinely liked the idea and he agreed to let them place the botanic garden on property adjacent to the Capitol on the west. Work was started to clear and drain the soggy land, and trees were planted. By 1827, Secretary of the Treasury Richard Rush circulated a letter to foreign dignitaries calling for, "all such trees and plants from other countries not heretofore known in the United States, as may give promise, under proper cultivation, of flourishing and becoming useful... ." The letter included detailed instructions for preparing seeds and plants for travel so that they couldbe propagated in the Botanic Garden. In 1856, Congress officially named the United States Botanic Garden and established regular funding to nurture its growth. #OTD It's the birthday of botanistEmil Christian Hansen, born today in 1842. Prior to Hansen, brewing was a volatileexperiment and batches could easily get infected with disease. Hansen forever changed the brewingindustry with his discovery of way to separate pure yeast cells from wild yeast cells. Hansen's method was created while he was working for the Carlsberg Laboratory. Carlsberg Labs did not patent the process. instead, they decided to publish it. They shared a detailed explanation so that brewers anywhere could build propagation equipment and use the method. Hansen named the yeast after the lab– Saccharomyces Carlsbergensis – and samples of Carlsberg No. 1 (as it was called) were sent to breweries around the world by request and free of charge. Within 5 years, most European breweries were using Carlsberg No. 1. By 1892, American breweries, Pabst, Schlitz and Anheuser-Busch, were manufacturing their beers with pure yeast strains. Hansen was a renaissance man. At various points in his life, he attempted careers an actor, a portrait artist, a teacher, an author, (he wrote under a pseudonym). And it was Emil Hansen who made the first Danish translation of Charles Darwin's Voyage of The Beagle. #OTD On this day in 1904 botanist Paul J. Kremer was born. Kremer spent his childhood on a farm in Ohio and he got his advanced degrees atOhio State getting his M.S. (1929) and Ph.D. (1931) degrees in plant physiology. At Ohio State he learned ofthe importance of the relationship between plants and water relations. After graduating, Dr. Kramer joined the faculty of Duke University. He taught at Duke his entire career until his retirement in 1974. Kremer served as the James B. Duke Professor of Botany. Kramer influenced the careers of more than 40 graduate students and authored more than 200 publications. Building on his studies at Ohio State, Kramer developed a leading research center on plant water relations and tree physiology. Kramer recognized the difficulty of studying environmental stresses on plants because the variables are so interconnected Light, temperature, and humidity being so interdependent that a change in one affects the others. This lead Kramer to establish a controlled-environment laboratory to study and quantify plant responses. He set up labs for this purpose atthe University of Wisconsin and at Duke and North Carolina State University. Kramer's efforts were part of a growing trend in curiosityabout theeffects of environmental stresses on plants - an ongoing concern as scientists study climate change. #OTD On this day in 2014, the Veggie Plant Growth System was activated on the International Space Station. "Veggie" was the first fresh food production system and it was developed by Orbital Technologies Corp. (ORBITEC) in Madison, Wisconsin, and tested at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.The purpose of Veggie is to provide a self-sufficient and sustainable food source for astronauts as well as a means of recreation and relaxation through therapeutic gardening. In 2018 one of the goals of the Veggie-3 experiment was to grow food for crew consumption. Crops tested included cabbage, lettuce, and mizuna. "I just wish the world was twice as big and half of it was still unexplored." "There are some four million different kinds of animals and plants in the world. Four million different solutions to the problems of staying alive." "I can't pretend that I got involved with filming the natural world fifty years ago because I had some great banner to carry about conservation - not at all, I always ha

Deep dives. Gardeners love to fall in love with particular plants. We can fall so hard, that we tune out other possibilities for our gardens. Then, in a fascinating twist, our deep dives can suddenly stop. As is often the case, those deep dives can be followed by a pivot. I started out as a shrub gardener. Then, I made a pivot to annuals and ornamentals and had nary a shrub in my garden. Then I was anti-annual. Then I moved into herbs and edibles. Now I'm a little bit of everything. Deep dives and pivots. Part of the process of growing a gardener. Brevities #OTD It's the birthday of the Dutch botanist Gerard van Swieten, born on this day in 1700. In 1740, Maria Theresa inherited the Habsburg Empire. When it came to medicine, Austria was about 200 years behind its European neighbors. Maria Theresa acted quickly, recruiting the best available medical experts to her court. Gerard van Swieten was one of the most important people she brought to Vienna. By May 1745, the Van Swieten family had sold all their belongings in the Netherlands and traveled to Vienna. Van Swieten laid the foundation for Austria's medical institutions. He totally reorganized the medical faculty of the University of Vienna; adding a botanical garden and a chemical laboratory, each headed by a professor. Swieten published, in Latin, five volumes on the writings of Boerhaave; the work influenced medical practice throughout Europe. It also contained the first description of episodic cluster headache. Swieten exchanged letters with Linnaeus on botanical matters for over a decade. He named his youngest daughter, Maria Theresia after the Empress, who was also her godmother. His son Godfried would become famous in his own right as Austrian ambassador and patron of great classical composers such as Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. One fascinating story about Swieten was his role in fighting superstition during the enlightenment, specifically with regard to vampires. In 1755 the Empress sent Swieten to Serbia to investigate. Swieten viewed the vampire myth as a "barbarism of ignorance" and his aim was to completely crush it. In 1768 "that all the fuss .... [comes from] vain fear, a superstitious credulity, a dark and eventful imagination, simplicity and ignorance among the people." Based on Swieten's report, Maria Theresa issue a decree that banned all traditional defences to vampires being put to the stakes, beheaded and burned. The genus of mahogany, Swietenia,was named after Swieten. #OTD in 1888, the first organizational meeting of the Rochester Parks Commission was held in Rochester, New York. They decided to invite the great American landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted to design a park system for the city. In fact, Rochester was the last municipal park system designed by the renowned Olmsted. Charles Sprague Sargent, the first director of Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum, called Rochester "a city in a forest." Trees have been a vital part of Rochester since the city's founding. It was essentially an impenetrable forest when the first settlers arrived. In early Rochester, trees were so plentiful that early settlers built roads from them. Rochester's Plank Road, now paved, is a nod to the road's original construction. #OTD On this day in 1901, the Fruit and Vegetable Committee reviewed 16 stocks of radish in Drill Hall as part of the Royal Horticultural Society's trial of salad plants at Chiswick. All of the radish were sown in a cold frame on March 7. Except on cold nights the lights were not put on the frames. 1. Early Gem ''. Veitch).-Ready for use April 29. Roots longish oval, scarlet, tipped with white. Foliage moderate. A very crisp and pleasant-flavored variety. 2. Ever Tender (R. Veitch).-Same as No. 3. 3. Gem (Barr).-Distinct from No. 1, being rounder, paler scarlet, but ready for use at the same time, and similar in foliage and flavor. 4. Krewson's Oblong Black (Masters).-Not true. Roots white. 5. Lily White (R. Veitch).-Ready for use April 30. Roots long, white. Foliage short and distinct. Crisp, and of very good flavor. 6. Mortlake Gem (Carter).-Ready for use April 29. Roots turnip-shaped, white, beautifully speckled and mottled with scarlet. Foliage very short. Crisp, and of good flavor. A very pretty variety. 7. Olive-shaped Extra Early Scarlet (J. Veitch). Ready for use April 26. Roots deep round or olive-shaped. Foliage short. Excellent in all respects, and one of the earliest and best. This variety is the same as "Deep Scarlet Olive-shaped," which received a F.C.C. April 21, 1897. 8. Olive-shaped Extra Early White (J. Veitch).-Ready for use April 26. A white form of No. 7, and equally good and early. (Syn.) "Forcing White Olive-shaped" and " First of All White," which received A.M. May 10, 1898. 9. Olive-shaped Jewel for use. April 29. , Roots oblong, deep scarlet. Foliage remarkably short. Crisp and of good flavor. (Syn.) "Olive-shaped Bright Red," which received A.M. May 5, 1896. This variety is also known as "Leafles

We are on the cusp of continuous warm nights. Warm soil temps will take a few more weeks. Recently, I had a gardener ask me about their hearty hibiscus that was planted last year. They were worried it wasn't coming back; they didn't see any sign of life yet. In Minnesota, gardeners often start to freak out a bit if they don't see signs of life during these first sunny days in May. But remember, warmer weather plants won't start to do their thing until soil temps warm up. The soil temp has about a 2-3 week lag on the night time air temp. We are still about a week away from warm nights - nights over 60 degrees. Warm soil will happen at the end of the month or the beginning of June. So, don't be alarmed if some of your summer perennials still seem dormant, that's because they are waiting for warmer soil temps to get going. Brevities #OTD On this day in 1742, Jean Senebier, a Swiss pastor and botanist, is born. Where would we be without Senebier? Still breathing... but not appreciating the role Senebier played in getting the world to realize that carbon dioxide is consumed by plants and in turn, plants produce oxygen as part of the process of photosynthesis. Senebier's work is important because he had learned the function of leaves: capturing carbon for food. Prior to Senebier, the purpose of leaves and what they did for plants and people was unknown. It was Jean Senebier who said, "Observation and experiment are two sisters who help each other." #OTD Today, in 1806, along the banks of Idaho's Clearwater River, Lewis and Clark discoverd the Nine-leaf lomatium, Lomatium triternatum. A species of flowering plant in the carrot family and known by the common name nineleaf biscuitroot, the nine-leaf lomatium is so-named because each leaf divides into three narrow leaflets that, in turn, divide into three more (triternatum, from the Latin, means "three times three"). Lewis and Clark collected many varieties of lomatiums which are found only west of the Mississippi River. Lomatiums are used by herbalists as a remedy for viral illnesses. In 2018, the NIH reported the case of a woman who had taken lomatium extract - marked LDM-100 - for the flu and ended up with a severe rash all over her body for a week. The title of the article, "Worse than the Disease? The Rash of Lomatium Dissectum" #OTD The naturalist and Alexander Von Humboldt died today in 1859, he was 89 years old. In 1806, Friedrich Georg Weitsch painted his portrait, in 1806, two years after he returned from his five-year research trip through Central and South America. Humboldt didn't go alone; he was accompanied bythe French botanist Aimé Bonplant in 1799. Weitsch painted a romantic, idealized vista of Ecuador as the setting for the painting. Humboldt had climbed the Chimborazo Mountain in Ecuador, believed at the time to be the highest mountain in the world, so perhaps Weitsch imaged Humboldt viewing the landscape from Chimborazo. Surrounded by a jungle paradise, a large palm leaves shade Humboldt's resting spot.In the painting, a very handsome Humboldt is seated on a large boulder, his top hat is resting upside down on the boulder behind him. Weitsch shows the 37-year-old Humboldt wearing a puffy shirt that would make Seinfeld proud, a pinkish-orange vest, and tan breeches. In his lap, he holds open the large leather-bound Flora he is working on and in his right hand he has a specimen of "Rhexia seciosa" (aka Meriania speciosa). A large barometer leans against the boulder in the lower left corner of the painting. It symbolized Humboldt's principle of measuring environmental data while collecting and describing plants. King Ferdinand was so pleased with the portrait (which he had hung in the Berlin Palace), that he ordered two more paintings to be made featuring Humboldt's time in the Americas. Humboldt was a polymath; he made contributions across many of the sciences. He made a safety lamp for miners. He discovered the Peru Current (aka the Humboldt Current). He believed South America and Africa had been joined together geographically at one time. He named the "torrid zone"; the area of the earth near the equator. Apropos the area he was exploring, torrid means hot, blistering, scorching. He went to Russia and it was there that he predicted the location of the first Russian diamond deposits. Humboldt was also a pragmatist. It was the Great Alexandre Von Humboldt who said "Spend for your table less than you can afford, for your house rent just what you can afford, and for your dress more than you can afford." Humboldt developed his own theory for the web of life. "The aims I strive for are an understanding of nature as a whole, proof of the working together of all the species of nature," "Everything is Interaction," he noted in his Mexican diary in 1803. #OTD After afive-year, £41 million restoration Temperate Housere-opened to the public on this day in 2018. The ironwork was stripped and repainted with many coats, 15,000 pains of glass were replaced, 69,00

Today is National Garden Meditation Day. Forget about your troubles Go to the garden (if you're not there already). Feel the breeze or the sprinkles. Smell the rain. Look at all the signs of life around you... all the shades of green emerging from the ground. Listen to the sound of spring. Garden time is restorative and resetting. Use #GardenMeditationDay today when you post on social media. Brevities #OTD Born on this day in 1863, Walter Elias Broadway; a kew gardener and authority on West Indian plants. Broadway was recognized by George V for his work in horticulture, although his career was shaded by bad blood with his supervisor John Hart and a drinking problem. In 1888, Kew sent Broadway to Trinidad and Tobago to take up the newly created role of Assistant Superintendent of the Royal Botanic Garden. Initially, everything seemed wonderful; the islands were a tropical plant-lovers paradise and there was already a botanic garden and herbarium in place. All Broadway needed to do was launch himself into learning everything he could about the tropical plants without a definitive reference to guide him. How hard could that be? Along the way, his eagerness to get plant id's from Kew and the British Museum, led him to go around his boss. It wasn't long before Hart required Broadway to funnel all of his collected specimens through him. Things deteriorated further when Hart ordered Broadway to devote his discretionary time to the garden - calling him in from his beloved field time and severely limiting his ability to collect new plant specimens. Broadway found other pursuits to bring him joy and satisfaction. He adored learning about the history of Trinidad. He found he loved to collect insect specimens. He helped found the Trinidad Field Naturalists' Club. Despite Hart's limitations, Walter Broadway truly mastered the art of plant collecting. Broadway took the chance to get away from the day to day with Hart when the curator of the Botanic Gardens in Grenada opened up. It was there, that he started collecting for private herbariums. It didn't make him rich, but it helped alleviate his frequent financial difficulties. Broadway spent over a decade in Grenada before heading to neighboring Tobago. By 1908, Hart had been forced to retire. Broadway resumed collecting with great zeal; he even sent mosses to Elisabeth Britton. By 1915, Broadway was transferred back to Trinidad. He continued exploring remote parts of the island to collect plants. Broadway retired in 1923 and he lived his final years in Trinidad - the island that had stolen his heart. His devotion to the natural world never waned and he was always on the lookout for new or interesting plants to sell to his private clientele. Although a flora of Trinidad and Tobago was published in 1928, Broadway was not a part of it. That said, much of the works cited references Broadway's collections - there was simply no disputing his collecting contributions. botanist Andrew Carr described Broadway as "an exceptionally fine man. Entirely unselfish in spirit, he was always ready to share his vast knowledge of the botany of the island with other interested persons. I shall never forget his joy at discovering a new species of moss in a drain in Oxford Street. He was regarded, and justifiably so, as a walking encyclopedia on the botany of these parts ... " Today, at the annual flower show of The Trinidad & Tobago, the Walter Elias Broadway Memorial Trophy is awarded for the best foliage plant exhibit. #OTD On this day in 1819, botanist and philanthropist Henry Shaw arrived in St. Louis. St. Louis had been founded over fifty years before Shaw's arrival, and the population by 1820 was just over 10,000 people. Shaw is commemorated on the St. Louis Walk of Fame with this epitaph: Henry Shaw, only 18 when he came to St. Louis, was one of the city's largest landowners by age 40. Working with leading botanists, he planned, funded and built the Missouri Botanical Garden, which opened in 1859. Shaw donated the land for Tower Grove Park and helped with its construction. He wrote botanical tracts, endowed Washington University's School of Botany, helped found the Missouri Historical Society, and gave the city a school and land for a hospital. Of Shaw's gifts, the Botanical Garden is best-known. Said as early as 1868 to have "no equal in the United States, and, indeed, few anywhere in the world." In addition to the Botanical Garden, Shaw built the Linnean House in 1882. It is the oldest continuously operated public greenhouse west of the Mississippi River and was originally designed to be an orangery; a place to overwinter citrus trees, palms and tree ferns. #OTD On this day in 2015, all Saks Fifth Avenue stores simultaneously revealed their month-long May spring theme of Glam Gardens and each store was transformed into a garden paradise. Beauty-themed garden installations flourished in windows and throughout the stores with floral themes in the Glam Gardens catalog and on saks.com. W

Ah May... the Month of Plant Sales. When I started gardening, I would Plant Sale away my Saturdays in May with my dear friend Judy. We would plan our way to a successful sale day, waking up while it was still dark out. Then we'd arrive at the church or the building where the sale was to be held, we'd set up our lawn chairs at the door, and we'd pat ourselves on the back for being first and second in line. Then, we'd wait another hour or two for the doors to open. All the while, sharing our dreams for our gardens, checking our wishlists for the unusual plants we might find at the sale; and figuring out which plants we'd discovered the previous year that we wanted more of and which we deemed not worthy of getting again. Brevities #OTD Today May 2, maybe the original April Fools Day. In Geoffrey Chaucer'sThe Nun's Priest's Tale a fox tricks a rooster on a day32 days after March - which would be May 2, but many took it to mean March 32 or April 1. Many scholars now think Chaucer actually did mean May 2 as the foolish day. I guess you could say, the joke's on us! #OTD Today is the last day of Ridvan. The Ridvan ("Rez-vän") Festival is a holiday celebrated by those of the Baha'i faith, commemorating the 12 days when their prophet and founder resided in a garden outside of Baghdad. He called the garden Ridvan which translates to paradise. Today, Ridvan is a festival of renewal and peace. It celebrates the beginnings of the Baha'i Faith and the first law of the religion was an admonition to humanity to cease all warfare. #OTD Today is the Annual White House Gardens Symposium. It's an all-day event focuses on the history and the role of the White House Gardens. There are expert speakers and panelists, as well as a lunch program - and a surprise take away. This year's symposium highlights the gardens of Beatrix Jones Farrand and Rachel "Bunny" Lambert Mellon, as well as the present-day White House Gardens. #OTD On this day in 1969, Jimi Hendrix performed at the Cobo Center in Detroit. It reminded me of a story about a succulent that ended up being named for Hendrix. In 1995, Mark Dodero, was listening to Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Child" while on a little botanizing trip in Mexico with fellow students Kim Marsden, and Scott and Brenda McMillan. They had stopped to investigate a mesa in the Colonel Peninsula, about 70 miles south of Ensenada. They group had made a new succulent discovery years earlier. Dodero thought he saw something about the terrain that made him think he might find another. He hiked up the mesa and came upon a little plant - a succulent - that he suspected was new. Years later, University of California, Santa Cruz professor Stephen McCabe, "rediscovered" the plant in the same area described by Dodero during his original discovery. In 2016, the plant, Dudleya hendrixii, or "Hendrix's live forever," in honor of Jimi Hendrix, was recognized in the California Botanical Society's publication, Madrono. Unearthed Words #OTD Today in1863 Stonewall Jackson was shot by his own men and I thought his life story contained many moving passages. In an article in the Washington Post called, Stonewall Jackson had a soft side, it was revealed that just before the start of the civil war, Jackson had developed a love for gardening. If you read any biographies on Jackson, his life was one tragedy after another. His father and sister died of typhoid when Jackson was two years old. His mother died when he was seven. By the age of seventeen, he had only one sister left from his immediate family. His first wife died after giving birth to his stillborn son. His first daughter with his second wife, Anna, died within a month of her birth. After all this personal loss and battling life-long mental and physical health problems, Jackson fell in love with gardening. It was, no doubt, a reprieve for Jackson. Jackson, who once wrote in a schoolbook, "A man of words and not of deeds is like a garden full of weeds", used botanist Robert Buist's book for guidance. It was Buist's "The Family Kitchen Gardener: Containing Plain and Accurate Descriptions of All the Different Species and Varieties of Culinary Vegetables, that became Jackson's gardening bible and he wrote little notes in the margins as he worked his way through the guide. In the WaPo article, it noted that After tomatoes, asparagus, watermelon, spinach and turnips was the one-word notation "plant." Jackson dearly loved his wife, Anna. In his garden, he planted and picked flowers for her. Ever the military man, his garden was ordered and neat. In the Spring and Summer of 1859, Jackson wrote letters to Anna who sick and in New York for treatment. He loved to refer to her with romantic names and he often wrote about the garden... Here's an example: "I was mistaken about [our] large garden fruit being peaches... It turns out to be apricots and I enclose one which I found on the ground today... just think, my little Dove has a tree full of them." In another letter, he wrote: "Our po

Happy May Day! Today, the tradition in France is to give a sprig of Lily of the Valley to loved ones. Originally from Japan, Lily of the Valley has long been considered lucky. It's sweet scent, belies it's high toxicity. Other names for Lily of the Valley include May Bells, Our Lady's Tears, and Mary's Tears. The French name, muguet, is a diminutive form mugue or muguete and means "musk". Brevities #OTD Today we celebrate the May 1st birthday of French BotanistAimee Antoinette Camus ("kah-MEW") in 1879. In terms of ranking among female scientists, Camus is second in authoring land plants - with a total of 677 species. It's especially impressive given that only 3% of land plants are authored by women! Best known for her study of orchids, Camus was the daughter of botanist and pharmacist Edmond Gustave Camus. Together, Camus and her father collected more than 50,000 specimens for their family herbarium. Her father sparked her passion for orchids and plant anatomy. More than that, he offered connections with some of the best French botanists of her day. She gave the name of Neohouzeaua ("Neo-who-zoh-ah")to a genus of seven tropical bamboo, in honor of the lifelong work that Jean Houzeau de Lehaie ("Who-zoh-do-lou-ay")had devoted to the understanding of the botany and propagation of bamboo in Europe and Africa. Camus also authored horticulture books to appeal to the masses and she was always forecasting the latest in botany. When plants arrived from the French colonies, she would attempt to calculate the economic value of the plants. She spent her entire professional career at the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris. To this day, Camus's monumental work remains the most comprehensive classification of the oak genus Quercus ("Qirkus"). Her book is simply called, The Oaks, and Camus wrote this in her introduction, "The oak forest that enabled our ancestors to fight against hunger, cold, darkness, that gave them shelter, weapons, construction materials, furniture, boats, means of transport, is today in part free from these obligations. Coal, iron, cement, concrete are all replacing wood; but the Oak with its qualities remains of great usefulness to man and its protection is of the utmost importance. Further, while industrial expansion has brought ugliness to so many places, is not the forest one of the last havens of beauty?" #OTD On this day in 1893, The Chicago World's Fair opened and drew in more than 27 million visitors. Frederick Law Olmsted, of Central Park fame, designed the Exposition's landscape. The vision for Chicago was to have it live up to its founding motto, "urbs in horto," or "City in a Garden". Flower Painter Augusta Dohlmann's work was displayed at the Fair. The Fair itself was a display of flora the likes of which the world had never seen. Designed by the inventor of the skyscraper, William LeBaron Jenney, the Horticultural building covered more than 4 acres of the fair grounds. There were eight different greenhouses at the Fair to help coordinate the elaborate schedule of flowers to be displayed over the Fair's six-month run. The various state buildings brought their own native flowers and fruits. The Midwest exhibit had a building made from corn-on-the-cob and Missouri created a St. Louis Bridge made entirely out of sugar cane. In the Agricultural Building, the Japanese exhibit included a garden. Denise Otis wrote in her book Grounds for Pleasure: "After Americans saw the Japanese garden ..., they became prized features on the estates of those who collected gardens in different styles." #OTD On this day in 1943, botanist Arthur Galston realizes that excessive use of a plant growth hormone causes catastrophic defoliation. Galston recognized that the effects of using the hormone could be harmful to humans and the environment. Nonetheless, the Army moved forward, using Galston's work to develop herbicides during war to destroy enemy crops and it would be shipped in steel drums marked with an orange stripe; inspiring in the common term for the herbicidal weapon: Agent Orange. Galstondecried the use of his early research saying:"I thought it was a misuse of science. Science is meant to improve the lot of mankind, not diminish it - and its use as a military weapon I thought was ill-advised." #OTD It's the birthday of Wolcott Andrews, a New York City landscape architect who lived in Wiscasset ("Wis-cass-it"), Maine. Andrews received a master's degree in landscape architecture from the Harvard School of Design in 1930. Andrews started out working with New York City's Parks Department. That experience afforded him the chance to partner with Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. in designing and constructing Fort Tryon Park in upper Manhattan, the site of the Cloisters. Andrews eventually became the senior landscape architect for the New York City Housing Authority for more than 20 years, retiring in 1966. A noted NYC landscape architect, Andrews was president of the New York chapter of the American Society of La

I realize you are very excited to get going in your own garden. But don't forget to schedule some time this spring to visit other gardens. The gardens of friends, neighbors, or public gardens can provide you with inspiration and teach you something new - even when you didn't think you'd learn anything. #BTW This entire week, April 27-May 4, is Historic Garden Week at Monticello ("MontiCHELLo") in Virginia . If you visit today, April 30, you can learn more about their flower and vegetable gardens. Brevities It's National Raisin Day. California is the biggest supplier of the sun-dried grapes. The California Associated Raisin Company (later known as Sun-Maid) was created with the idea for an ingenious co-op and the credit for this novel approach went to vineyardist, oilman, and attorney Henry H. Welsh. Welsh came up with the idea for a three-year grower contract, subject to a two-year renewal, binding the raisin grower to deliver all of his crop for a guaranteed price. Naturally low in fat, raisins contain healthy nutrients... unless you're eating the yogurt- or chocolate-covered raisins. In their natural state, they are good for humans, but not for dogs. Small quantities of grapes and raisins can cause renal failure in dogs. #OTD On this dayin 1789, Washington was sworn in as the first president of the United States. A gardening President, George Washington oversaw all aspects of the land at Mount Vernon. Washington had a personal copy of Batty Langley'sNew Principles of Gardening. Inspired by the 18th century author, Washington adopted a less formal, more naturalistic style for his gardens and he supervised a complete and total redesign of his Mount Vernon. On Mount Vernon's website, they review in detail the four gardens that make up Washington's landscape: the upper (formal) garden, the lower (kitchen) garden, the botanical (personal or experimental) garden, and the fruit garden and nursery. #OTD On this day in 1873, bryologist William Starling Sullivant died. Sullivant was born to the founding family of Franklinton, Ohio. His father, Lucas, was a surveyor and had named the town in honor of the recently deceased Benjamin Franklin. The settlement would become Columbus. In 1823, William Sullivant graduated from Yale College, his father would die in August of that same year. Sullivant took over his father's surveying business, and at the age of thirty, he began to study and catalog the plant life in Central Ohio. In 1840, he published his flora and then he started to hone in on his calling: mosses. Bryology is the study of mosses. The root, bryōs is a Greek verb meaning to swell. It's etymology of the word embryo. Bryology will be easier to remember if you think of the ability of moss to swell as it takes on water. As a distinguished bryologist, Sullivant not only studied and cataloged various mosses from across the United States, but also from as far away as Central America, South America, and from various islands in the Pacific Ocean. Mosses suited Sullivant's strengths; requiring patience and close observation, scrupulous accuracy, and discrimination. His first work, Musci Alleghanienses, was: "exquisitely prepared and mounted, and with letterpress of great perfection; ... It was not put on sale, but fifty copies were distributed with a free hand among bryologists and others who would appreciate it." In 1864, Sullivant published his magnum opus,Icones Muscorum. With 129 truly excellent illustrations and descriptions of the mosses indigenous to eastern North America, Icones Muscorumfixed Sulivant's reputation as the pre-eminent American bryologist of his time. In 1873, Sullivant contracted pneumonia - ironically, an illness where your lungs fill or swell with fluid - and he died on April 30, 1873. During the last four decades of his life, Sullivant exchanged letters with Asa Gray. It's no wonder, then, that he left his herbarium of some 18,000 moss specimens to Gray's beloved Harvard University. When Gray summoned his curator at Cambridge, Leo Lesquereux, to help Sullivant, he wrote to botanist John Torrey: "They will do up bryology at a great rate. Lesquereux says that the collection and library of Sullivant in muscology are magnifique, superbe,and the best he ever saw.'" On December 6, 1857, Gray wrote to Hooker, "A noble fellow is [William Starling] Sullivant, and deserves all you say of him and his works. The more you get to know of him, the better you will like him." In 1877, four years after Sullivant's death, Asa Gray wrote to Charles Darwin. Gray shared that Sullivant was his "dear old friend" and that, "[Sullivant] did for muscology in this country more than one man is likely ever to do again." The Sullivant Moss Society, which became the American Bryological and Lichenological Society, was founded in 1898 and was named for William Starling Sullivant. #OTD On this day in 1943, the noted botanist who became president of Huguenot College in South Africa and founded of the South African Association of

Merriam-Webster gives the following synonyms for the word perennial: abiding, enduring, perpetual, undying Those terms can give gardeners unrealistic expectations for their perennials. They're not eternal. They will eventually part ways with your garden. But, for as long as they can, your perennials will make a go of it. Returning to the garden after their season of die back and rest. Ready to grow. Ready for you to see them, and love them, all over again. Brevities #OTD It's the birthday of botanist who was a petite, fearless, and indefatigable person: Agnes Chase, bornon this day in 1869. Chase was anagrostologist—a studier of grass. A self-taught botanist, her first position was as an illustrator at the USDA's Bureau of Plant Industry in Washington, D.C. In this position, Chase worked as an assistant to the botanist Albert Spear Hitchcock. When Hitchcock applied for funding to go on expeditions, authorities approved the assignment for Hitchcock, but would not support Chase - saying the job should belong to "real research men." Undeterred, Chase raised her own funding to go on the expeditions. She cleverly partnered with missionaries in Latin America to arrange for accommodations with host families. She shrewdly observed, "The missionaries travel everywhere, and like botanists do it on as little money as possible. They gave me information that saved me much time and trouble." During a climb of one of the highest Mountains in Brazil, Chase returned to camp with a "skirt filled with plant specimens." One of her major works, the "First Book of Grasses," was translated into Spanish and Portuguese. It taught generations of Latin American botanists who recognized Chase's contributions long before their American counterparts. When Hitchcock retired, Chase was his backfill. When Chase reached retirement age, she ignored the rite of passage altogether and refused to be put out to pasture. She kept going to work - six days a week - overseeing the largest collection of grasses in the world in her office under the red towers at her beloved Smithsonian Institution. When Chase was 89, she became the eighth person to become an honorary fellow of the Smithsonian. A reporter covering the event said, Dr. Chase looked impatient, as if she were muttering to her self, "This may be well and good, but it isn't getting any grass classified, sonny." #OTD On this day in 1924 it was Cornelia Vanderbilt's wedding day. When the Vanderbilt heiress married British nobility, the diplomat John Cecil, the wedding flowers had been ordered from a florist in New York. However, the train to Asheville, North Carolina had been delayed and would not arrive in time. Biltmore's Floral Displays Manager Lizzie Borchers said that, "Biltmore's gardeners came to the rescue, clipping forsythia, tulips, dogwood, quince, and other flowers and wiring them together. They were quite large compositions, twiggy, open, and very beautiful." If you look up this lavish, classic roaring 20's wedding on social media, the pictures show that the bouquets held by the wedding party were indeed very large - they look to be about two feet in diameter! I'll share the images in our Facebook Group The Daily Gardener Community. In 2001, the Biltmore commemorated the 75th anniversary of the wedding with a month long celebration among 2,500 blooming roses during the month of June. #OTD On this day in 1980 Alfred Hitchcock died. On social media, you can see images of a very young Alfred Hitchcock in Italy, on the set of what many believed to be his first feature-length silent film, The Pleasure Garden (1925). He filmed an extravagant "Garden Party" scene in his 1950 film Stage Frightstaring Jane Wyman and Alastair Sim. Then in 1989, the first three reels of Alfred Hitchcock's 1923 silent film "The White Shadow" was discovered in Jack Murtagh's garden shed in Hastings, New Zealand. The film was long thought to be lost. It was Alfred Hitchcock who said, "Places' are the real stars of my films: the Psycho house, the house in Rebecca, the Covent Garden market in Frenzy" #OTD On this day in 2017 The New YorkTimes tweeted that the Brooklyn Botanic Garden cherry blossom festival was set for today and tomorrow, regardless of when nature [decided] to push play. #OTD On this day in 2017, Ron MacBain owner of The Plantsman floral shop in Tucson died - just a few days short of his 90th birthday. MacBain was a floral force majeure. One article I read about MacBain began simply, "Ron McBain did the flowers. It's a refrain heard more and more frequently in Tucson. Whether the event is an elegant party or a posh charity ball; whether the bouquet cost $25 and was sent to grandma on Mother's Day or cost $100..." After selling his shop of 25 years in 1999, MacBain turned his to Winterhaven - a home he shared with his longtime partner Gustavo Carrasco, who died in 2011. The garden at Winterhaven was a destination spot for photographers, painters and garden lovers. In a charming twist, when he could

How close are your earliest bloomers to your front door? Your crocus, snowdrops, iris, daffodils, tulips, forsythia, daphnes, and magnolias. When I redid my front garden last year, the designer had put all my earliest bloomers right near the front porch and walk. When I asked her reasoning, she reminded me of our long winters. Her advice was spot on: When spring finally arrives, it's much more pleasurable to have those earliest blooms where you can see them first thing. Brevities #OTD It's the birthday of Eugene Delacroix born on this day in 1798. Delacroix is widely considered as one of the last great history painters. A son of France, he received his artistic training in Paris and was a major figure among the French Romance painters of the 19th century. His striking 'A Vase of Flowers' (1833) shows a crystal vase filled mostly with dahlias. It is his earliest surviving flower painting. #OTD American physicist Charles Townes sat on a park bench on this day in 1951 and came up with the theory that would lead to the laser. He recalled, "I woke up early in the morning and sat in the park. It was a beautiful day and the flowers were blooming." #OTD It's the birthday of Irma Franzen-Heinrichsdorff, a German-born landscape architect. In 1913, she attended the Elmwood School of Gardening. In the 1980's she recounted the experience in ten handwritten pages. Here's an excerpt: At 10:15 we went outside and did the currently necessary work in the fruit, vegetable or flower garden. Every kind of vegetable was cultivated. Countless flowers were multiplied through seeds, cuttings, etc. to be sold in the spring or fall. The morning hours passed quickly. At 1 o'clock we stopped work. At 1:30 we had lunch, and at 2:30 we went back to work until 4:30. We then drank tea and at 7 o'clock we appeared in festive evening dress for dinner. In the summer we had the same hours of work except for an extra hour in our greenhouse from 7 to 8 o'clock to water and spray our thirsty plants. But I must add, even if it means praising ourselves, that we did not content ourselves with the times I indicated. We were often found in the garden at 6 o'clock if not at 5 o'clock or even earlier. Also in the evenings we preferred to be active outside. Miss Wheeler had never had students as eager as we were. #OTD John James Audubon was born in Haiti on this day in 1785. Audobon said, "A true conservationist…knows the world is not given by his fathers but borrowed from his children" A naturalist and a lover of birds, The Ottowa Daily Republic published a charming story about his burial. "John J. Audobon, the naturalist and bird lover, is buried in Trinity, cemetery. There has been erected over his grave an Iona cross; the arms of which are connected by a circular band of stone, making apertures of the four corners at the intersection. In one of these, (apertures) robins built a nest last month. This fell under the eye of a caretaker, who got a pole and dislodged the nest. The birds flew about disconsolately for a time, then went away. So far as any one knows, Audubon did not turn over in his grave, neither did any of the carved birds on the [cross] cry out." #OTD in 1822 visionary 19th century landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted is born. He was born to a prosperous family in Hartford, Connecticut. Aside from his legacy as a landscape architect, Olmsted dedicated his entire life to social reform. In many ways, his designs for public spaces played an important role in his social work. His vision for Central Park was an ordered oasis for all of the city's social classes; where everyone could come together and enjoy nature. Dubbed the Nation's Foremost Parkmaker, Olmsted designed Boston's Emerald Necklace, Forest Park in Springfield, Massachusetts and and Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge. Considered the father of American landscape architecture, he situated his design firm in Brookline and named it Fairsted - a likely nod to his family's ancestral home in England. In 1893 he helped design the Chicago World's Fair. It was Frederick Law Olmsted who said, "The enjoyment of scenery employs the mind without fatigue and yet exercises it; tranquilizes it and yet enlivens it." "The root of all my good work is an early respect for, regard and enjoyment of scenery." Unearthed Words Every April, one should read Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's words on Spring. This passage is from his "Kavanagh" written in 1849. It's a lovely reminder to appreciate spring's unfolding. "Ah, how wonderful is the advent of the Spring!—the great annual miracle…. which no force can stay, no violence restrain, like love, that wins its way and cannot be withstood by any human power, because itself is divine power. If Spring came but once in a century, instead of once a year, or burst forth with the sound of an earthquake, and not in silence, what wonder and expectation would there be in all hearts to behold the miraculous change!… We are like children who are astonished and delighted

Today I learned how botanists used to say "hello" to each other. In the 1800's and 1900's, a common way for botanists to introduce themselves, often from the other side of the world, was to send each other plant specimens as the foundation for developing a relationship. When it comes to friendship, plants are icebreakers, communicators, and binding ties all rolled into one. Brevities There are many delightful anniversaries today. Today is National Zucchini Bread Day. Zucchini was discovered in the Americas. Explorers brought it back to Europe where, in Italy, was called "zucchino". #OTD On this day in 1958, President Truman planted a sugar maple in New York in honor of Arbor Day. #OTD On this day in 1981, The Native Plant Society of Texas(NPSOT) was founded at Texas Women's University. #OTD On this day in 2007 Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota held its second Linnaeus Symposium. The event, titled "Linnaeus @ 300," honored the 300th anniversary of the birth of Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist for whom the Gustavus arboretum is named. #OTD On this day in 1852, botanist Marcus Jones was born. His mom loved plants and sent Marcus to gather fresh flowers every day to display on the family's mantle. This daily chore was the beginning of his passion for botany. He won national recognition for his work as a prominent botanist of the American West and in 1923 he sold his personal herbarium for $25,000 - an impressive amount at the time. His collection represents the largest archive of plants from Utah. Jones died in 1934 in San Bernardino, California. He was returning from a plant collecting trip to Lake Arrowhead at the age of 81 when his car was hit by another driver. Seatbelts had wouldn't be invented for another 25 years; Jones was ejected from his vehicle and died from a skull fracture. Jones columbine, Aquilegia jonesii, is named for Marcus Jones. It is rare and does not transplant well. Plants and seeds are sold by select nurseries. #OTD On this day in 1912, author and botanist Julia Francis McHugh Morton was born. A Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, Julia Morton was a popular expert and lecturer on plants and especially plant medicine and toxicity. Known as the poison-plant lady, Morton worked to education the public through letters and phone calls, lectures and posters designed for hospital emergency rooms. Among the many ER calls she received was one from a doctor in Scotland. A patient, back from a Jamaican holiday was gravely ill. Morton deduced that a noxious castor bean from a souvenir necklace had been ingested. Over the years Morton has been the subject of many newspaper articles. Clever headlines showcase Morton's expertise, "She gets to the root of problems" and "She leaves no leaf unturned". In 1988, the Miami News published an article about Morton's help with a murder case of a teen-age girl. The girl's car was found in the Dadeland Mall parking lot, after the girl had disappeared. Police brought Morton a half-Inch blade of grass that was stuck to the door handle of the car, and some pieces of leaves that were wedged inside the door. Morton Identified the grass as Giant Burma Reed. Then, she spread the leaves out in water and determined that they were the undeveloped leaflets of Spanish Needles. Morton's conclusion was that somewhere a short distance from the Dadeland Mall, (perhaps off Galloway Road near a nursery in a tall patch of Burma Reed) police might find the body of the girl. And, she predicted that there were two killers. Morton correctly assumed that one had wet hands and had left Burma Reed on the driver's door; while the other had closed the passenger door so quickly that it caught the Spanish Needles in the frame. The next morning, policemen found an area that matched Morton's description and solved their case. It was Julia Morton who said, "Plants are always up to something. So I don't take a vacation. I operate on solar energy. I can only stay indoors a certain length of time." Like Marcus E. Jones, Julia Morton died from injuries sustained in a car accident in 1996. She was 84. #OTD On this day in 1949, botanical illustrator Alice R. Tangerini was born. Tangerini was hired as a staff illustrator for the Department of Botany at the National Museum of Natural History by American botanist Lyman Bradford Smithin 1972. As of March 9, 2017, Tangerini remains the only botanical illustrator ever hired by the Smithsonian. In 2005, Tangerini lost sight in her right eye due to an injury, and she has diplopiadue to a subsequent surgery. She has received the "Distinguished Service Award" from Guild of Natural Science Illustrators and the "Excellence in Scientific Botanical Art" award from the American Society of Botanical Artists. Unearthed Words It's National Poem in Your Pocket Day. Today you can share the joy that poems bring by carrying one in your pocket and sharing it throughout the day with others. Here's a brief one from Agnes Falconercalled Windflowers. (Windflowers is

I recently had a gardener ask me about the first herb I'd ever grown. That would be chives. Chives, like many herbs, are so easy to grow. Plus, you get the cute purple puffball blossoms. I had a chef friend show me how she liked to cut off the flower. Then, she snipped a little triangle off of the bottom where the bloom comes together (like cutting paper to make a snowflake). By doing this, you basically get "chive-fetti" and you can easily sprinkle the little chive blossom over salads or dishes. Mic drop. Goat cheese and chive blossoms pair very well together. You can serve that at a party or just add it to an omelet. Very decorative. Very pretty. Something anyone can do. Brevities #OTD Today, Japan celebrates "Botany Day". Held annually on April 24, the celebration honors the Father of Japanese Botany, Tomitaro Makino, on his birthday. Makino was born in 1862. His dad was a successful brewer of the Japanese national drink, sake. Sadly, by the time he was six, his father, mother, and grandfather had died. He was raised by his grandmother. Makino became fascinated with plants as a boy. He loved to collect specimens. Every spare minute, until he became bedridden before his death, he would roam the countryside adding to his personal herbarium which would ultimately max out at over 400,000 specimens. (The University of Tokyo is now home to the Makino herbarium). Makino adopted Linnaean principles for naming his plants. In 1940, he published the Illustrated Flora of Japan - an exhaustive work that details more than 6,000 plants. (I ordered myself a first edition online from Abe Books for the fine price of $67.) The Makino Botanical Garden was built in his hometown of Kochi City after he died in 1957 at the age of 94. Tomitaro Makino, Japanese botanist said, "Plants can survive without humans; but humans can't survive without plants". #OTD Today is the birthday of french botanist Lucien Plantefol (1891-1983). He developed his owntheory to explain how leaves are arranged on the stems of plants. He served in the first World War. Modern chemical warfare began in his home country, France; on April 22, 1915 German soldiers attacked the French by using chlorine gas. Plantefol was wounded during the war, but he went on to serve his country by working on a team at a national defense laboratory that developed the gas mask. #OTD On this day in 2017, Botanist, Vancouver's highly acclaimed new restaurant inside the Fairmont Pacific Rimhotel, officially opened... they started their first day with breakfast service. Very on trend, the restaurant boasts pastel tones and loads of houseplants. Divided into quarters Botanist includes: a dining room, cocktail bar and lab, garden, and a champagne lounge. The champagne lounge is surrounded by glass and planters filled with greenery indigenous to British Columbia. The Garden invites guests to chill in a glass-walled space filled with greenery, a trellis and more than 50 different types of plant species that include rare fruit bushes, and edible species such as green tea camellia, cardamom and ginger. #OTD On this day Paul George Russell was born in 1889 inLiverpool, New York. His family moved to DC in 1902 and this became Russell's lifelong home. Russell received his advanced degrees fromGeorge Washington University. He got his first job atthe National Herbarium; Russell would end up working for the government as a botanist for 50 years. Early on, Russell went on collecting trips in northern Mexico with botanists Joseph Nelson Rose and Paul Carpenter Standley. In 1910, during a Mexico trip, the Verbena russellii - a woody flowering plant - was named for Paul George Russell. Later, he accompanied Rose to Argentenia where the Opuntia russellii - a type of prickly pear -was named for him. Back in the States, Russell was a vital part of the team dedicated to creating the living architecture Japanese cherries around the Washington Tidal Basin. As the consulting botanist, he oversaw the planting of all the cherry trees and he authored a 72-page USDA circular called "Oriental flowering cherries" in March 1934. It was Russell's most impressive work and it provided facts on cultivation and historical details about varieties of ornamental cherries grown in the United States, introducing visitors to the magnificent cherry trees growing around the tidal basin in Washington, D.C. A compiler of over 40,000 seed vials, Russell honed a unique and rare skill: he could identify plant species by seed alone. After retiring, he began working on a history of USDA seed collection. Sadly, he never finished this endeavor. Russell died at the age of 73 froma fatal heart attack April 3, 1963. The following day, April 4th, Russell had made plans with his daughter to see his beloved cherry blossom trees in bloom around the tidal basin. Unearthed Words Here's a little verse from Fisherman's Luck by Henry Van Dyke in 1899. "The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference b

There's a soldier's prayer that goes, "Stay with me, God. The night is dark, The night is cold: my little spark Of courage dies. The night is long; Be with me, God, and make me strong. Dark. Cold. Long. It's easy to get so excited about the first nice days of spring. "It was 80 degrees today!" "It's going to be above 70 all next week!" Well, hold your horses. You're forgetting about those nights. Remember? Dark. Cold. Long. No fun for tender transplants. Over in the FB group for listeners of the show, listener Denise Pugh shared an awesome Facebook Live session put on by one of the best: Lisa Mason Ziegler from The Gardener's Workshop. In the video, Lisa mentions the secret to successful transitioning of transplants from indoors to outdoors - the secret is consistent nighttime temps of 60 degrees or higher. She's got a ton of other sage pieces of wisdom as well for growing warm weather crops - so head on over to the Daily Gardener Community on Facebook and check out the replay. In the meantime, remember to curb your enthusiasm about those first lovely warm days of spring. Save the real celebration for the arrival of warm nights. Brevities #OTD On this day in 1863, botanist, physician and member of the U.S. House of Representatives, William Darlington died. Like eminent botanists John Bartram, Humphry Marshall, and William Baldwin, Darlington was born in Pennsylvania as a Quaker. A native of West Chester, he received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. As a student, Benjamin Barton, the author of the first American botany textbook, encouraged his interest in botany. After an appointment as a surgeon for an East India merchant, Darlington traveled to Calcutta. A year later, when he returned from India, he married Catharine Lacey, the daughter of a distinguished Revolutionary War General. An abiding counselor and partner to William, they would be together for forty years; having four sons and four daughters. Their oldest son Benjamin Smith Barton Darlington and their youngest son William Baldwin Darlington were both named in honor of fellow botanists. 1826 was a big year for Darlington. He organized and presided over the Chester County Cabinet of Natural Sciences and he published his first edition of "Florula Cestrica," his catalogue of plants in West Chester. An archivist, Darlington worked to preserve correspondence and documents of Humphry Marshall and John Bartram; he compiled them, along with illustrations of their homes, under the title of "Memorials of Bartram and Marshall." In 1853, the botanist John Torrey named a new and remarkable variety of pitcher-plant found in California for Darlington, calling it Darlingtonia Californica. He had been similarly honored but Augustin de Candolle who named a genus after him. Darlington's large herbarium and works were bequeathed to the Chester County Cabinet of Natural Science. He was buried in the Oaklands Cemetery, near West Chester. An epitaph in Latin is inscribed on his stone marker, written by Darlington some twenty years before his death: "Plantae Cestrienses, quas dilexit atque illustravit, super tumulum ejus semper floreant" or May the plants of Chester, which he loved and documented, forever blossom over his grave. And, Darlington's tombstone is crowned with a relief of Darlingtonia californica. #OTD It's the birthday of Thomas Grant Harbison born in 1862. Harbison was a self-taught in botanist earning advanced degrees including a PhD by correspondence - a fairly novel concept in the late 1800s. In 1886, Harbison and a friend created their own version of Survivor. They followed forest and mountain paths through Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. Cutting themselves off from civilization, they allowed themselves only five items for daily living: a wool en blanket, a rubber poncho, a tin bucket, a bag of wheat, and a tin of brown sugar. Their only other indulgence was a copy of Alphonso Wood's Manual of Botany to aid their study the plants. Harbison remembered that, in wartime, Caesar's soldiers ate wheat crushed and turned into a mush. This was their primary source of sustenance - which they would sweeten with the brown sugar and berries picked along the way. It was a formative event for Harbison. This survivalist experience helped Harbison develop his famed skill for finding any particular species in ways few other man could equal. Harbison was part of a corp of botanists hired by the Biltmore Herbarium - the famous Vanderbilt botanical garden at Asheville, North Carolina. As a plant collector for Biltmore, Harbison travelled throughout the United States - specifically searching for tree and shrub specimens. After leaving in 1903, Harbison was the only Biltmore collector who went on to work purely as a botanist. He brought attention to over 100 new or little known tree species as a field representative for Charles Sprague Sargent at Harvard's Arnold Arboretum. When Harbison came to Highlands, North Carolina

Children's book writer and illustrator Tasha Tudor (Books by this author) once said, It's exciting to see things coming up again, plants that you've had for 20 or 30 years. It's like seeing an old friend. This made me think of the old saying; Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other gold. Perennials are old friends. Gold friends. They are the best kind of garden friends. They may not be as flashy or exciting as the gardener's silver friends; annuals. But, they have staying power. Peony, daylily, hosta, iris, baptisia, catmint; these are just a handful of some of the longest lived perennials. Brevities #OTD Today is Earth day - a celebration that started in 1970. Next year will be the 50th anniversary. #OTD It's the birthday of August Wilhelm Eichler, (born April 22, 1839, Neukirchen, Hesse, Ger.—died March 2, 1887, Berlin). Eichler was a German botanist and he developed one of the first widely used natural systems of plant classification. Most importantly, it was the first classification system based on evolution. In addition, Eichler divided the plant kingdom into non-floral plants and floral plants. Eichler spent many years of his life working tirelessly as a private assistant to the naturalist Karl Friedrich Philipp von Martinus. Martinus had traveled to Brazil and collected over 20,000 specimens. He spent the final three decades of his life documenting his findings in a book called Flora Brasiliensiswhich Eichler helped edit. Generally speaking, a Flora is a book describing all plants from a set geographic area. When Martinus died in 1868, Eichler carried on the work of Flora Brasiliensisunassisted. It was a labor of love. After Eichler died, botanist Ignatius Urban continued on with the project until its completion. Today, Wilhelm Eichler Strasse (Street) in Dresden is named in his honor. Wilhelm Eichler who said, "The felling of the first tree is the beginning of human civilization. The felling of the last is his end." #OTD On this day in 1958 Gloria Galeano was born. Known as "The Queen of the Palms," Galeano was a Colombian botanistand agronomistand she devoted her entire career to studying and classifying the palm family. Apassionate teacher and researcher at the National University of Colombia, She classified more than 260 species of Palm in 45 wild genera. It's difficult to imagine, but at the beginning of the 1980s, Colombian palm taxonomy was almost non-existent. Thus, Galeano worked in concert with her partner Rodrigo Bernal to resolve this issue. After decades of fieldwork, they published their groundbreaking work Palmas de Colombia Field Guide; the most exhaustive Flora of Colombian Palms. Galeano never tired in her devotion to the subject of Palms, she was the author or co-author of some seventeen books, fifteen book chapters, sixty-eight scientific articles and ten electronic works, mostly on the palm as highlighted by the Institute of Natural Sciences. When Gloria Galeano first saw pictures of the newly discovered Sabinaria magnifica palm (named for her daughter, Sabina with Rodrigo Bernal), she described it as "the most beautiful of all Colombian palms." She was remembered for telling her students, "any project in which we would get involved, should be thrilling and make our blood boil" Galeano was well aware of the harvest impacts of Colombian plants and Neotropical palms, and she was a leading voice for conservation efforts for Columbian palms. In June of 2015, Galeano co-organized the World Palm Symposium. At the event, Galeano revealed that less than four percent of tropical dry forest remains in the Colombia Caribbean region. Galeano died in 2016. Today, her legacy lives on in the plans for the conservation and sustainable use of the native wax palm. Unearthed Words #OTD in 1775, William Bartram left Charleston, South Carolina on horseback to explore the Cherokee Nation near Franklin, North Carolina. In addition to his botanical discoveries, his journal describes traveling through a terrible storm during his journey, "It was now after noon; I approached a charming vale... Darkness gathers around, far distant thunder rolls over the trembling hills; ...all around is now still as death, ... a total inactivity and silence seems to pervade the earth; the birds afraid to utter a chirrup, ...nothing heard but the roaring of the approaching hurricane; ...now the lofty forests bend low beneath its fury,... the face of the earth is obscured by the deluge descending from the firmament, and I am deafened by the din of thunder; the tempestuous scene damps my spirits, and my horse sinks under me at the tremendous peals, as I hasten for the plain. I began to ascend the Jore Mountains, which I at length accomplished, and rested on the most elevated peak; from whence I beheld with rapture and astonishment, a sublimely awful scene of power and magnificence, a world of mountains piled upon mountains." Today's book recommendation The Kew Gardener's Guide to Growing House Plants:

Does your garden have a signature plant? If you can't decide, maybe it's time to let your garden do the talking. Complete the following sentence: My garden has the perfect spot to grow....(fill in the blank). For instance, you may have the perfect spot to grow anemone. I remember going to my friend Carmen's house in the spring. I came around the corner and stopped in my tracks when I saw her happy anemones - so cheerful, so vibrant,... and so demanding. Not everyone can grow anemones, but Carmen's garden had the perfect spot for them. And even though anemones are pretty ephemeral, I always think of them as her signature plant. Brevities #OTD Today is National Garlic Day - it is observed every year on April 19. Garlic, or stinking rose, is a member of the lily family. Onions, leeks, and shallots are also in the family. This time of year, wild garlic or ransoms, are returning to the woodlands, hedgerows, and riverbanks. Wild garlic is also called bear's garlic. Folklore says that bears are eating it after hibernation. If cows graze on wild garlic, it will taint the milk with garlic flavor. Garlic is a favorite foraged seasonal ingredient of top chefs. And it's not just a foundational ingredient for cooking - garlic is also used for medicinal purposes. Garlic has antibiotic properties, and it also helps reduce blood pressure and cholesterol. Herbalists recommend garlic as a remedy for colds. Gilroy, California is known as the Garlic Capital of the World. Will Rogers said this about Gilroy: "…the only place in America where you can marinate a steak just by hanging it out on a clothesline." Atlas Obscura wrote an article last year about Gilroy. They featured Gilroy's unique recipes for garlic ice cream saying, "The dessert divides ice-cream lovers." An online reviewer mediated the matter with this comment, "Actually the garlic ice cream is pretty good. But a little does go a long way." The Gilroy Garlic Festival is held every year in July. #OTD It's the birthday of E. Lucy Braun was born on April 19, 1889 in Cincinnati. The E stood for Emma, but she went by Lucy. In 1950, Braun was the first woman elected president of the Ecological Society of America. A quiet, bright, and dedicated field scientist, she worked as a botanist at the University of Cincinnati. Braun became interested in the outdoors as a child. Growing up on May Street in Cincinnati, her parents would take Lucy and her older sister, Annette, by horse-drawn streetcar to the woods in Rose Hill so they could spend time in the woods. The girls were taught to identify wildflowers. In turn, the girls helped gather specimens for their mother's herbarium. The girls both got PhD's - Lucy in botany, Annette in Zoology - and they never married. However, they lived together their entire lives, leaving their childhood May street for a home in Mount Washington. The sisters turned the upstairs into a laboratory and the gardens around the house into an outside laboratory. At the age of 80, Braun was still leading people on field trips in Ohio. Friends of Braun have recounted, "To be with her in the field was something. She made everything so real, so exciting she was just so knowledgeable." "She loved to be out in the field rain wouldn't stop her. She could walk forever." Lucy Braun said, "Only through close and reverent examination of nature can humans understand and protect its beauties and wonders." By the time she died, Emma had collected some 11,891 specimens for her own personal herbarium. This was the result of tremendous personal dedication; Braun drove over 65,000 miles during a 25 year quest throughout the eastern United States. Her heart belonged to the forests and her book, Deciduous Forests of Eastern North America, is still regarded as a definitive text. When asked about her time in the field, Braun would happily recount how she had managed to dodge moonshiners' stills in the hills of Kentucky; gathering up plant samples unseen by the botanists of her time. When she died of heart failure in March, 1971, at the age of 81, she was one of the top three ecologists In the United States. Her herbarium was acquired by the Smithsonian National Museum in Washington D.C. OTD In 1792, Naturalist Gilbert White wrote in his journal in Selborne, England: Redstart appears. Daffodils are gone: mountain-snow-drops, & hyacinths in bloom; the latter very fine: fritillaries going. Vast flood at Whitney in Oxfordshire, on the Windrush. Then, four years later in 1796: Sowed holly-hocks, columbines, & sweet Williams Unearthed Words #OTD It's Primrose Day. Primrose Day commemorates the death dateof Queen Victoria's favorite Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. His favorite flower was the Primrose. The name comes from the Latin primus meaning first rose. In 1889, London newspapers reported that, "They received, no fewer than 811 sets of verses from 'poets' who have attempted to carry off the small prize awarded for a Primrose poem. In 1884, when the competition started, only 77

Do you have pet names for your plants? Amy the Amaryllis. Jerry the geranium. Once I bought some dahlias at a private plant sale. Before I drove away, I rolled down the window to ask for the sellers name; they've been my "Doris" dahlias ever since. Doris and I have stayed in touch over the years, and I have to say; she's as lovely as the bloom on those dahlias. So whether they are called Howard or Bertie, Harry or Liz; if you've named your plants, you are not alone. The gesture of honoring a loved one or the little laugh evoked from a cleverly name to plant all add it to the joy of gardening. There's nothing wrong with that. Brevities #OTD On this day in 1855 Paul de Longpré (Books By This Author)was born. Known as the "King of Flowers", de Longpré painted exceptional portrayals of roses (his first love), and wildflowers (his second love). If you look at his work, you'll find somewhere in his composition his signature accent – a bumblebee. After exhibitions of his work on the East Coast, reviewers praised, "No one but a poet could paint as he does." "De Longpré has the rare gift of reading down to the heart of his loved flowers." De Longpré was raised in northern Paris. His father left the family early one - a hurt that de Longpré hid from reporters; telling them that his father was dead. De Longpré's family was artistic and he helped his mother financially by painting silk fans with his brother. (The fans were quite fashionable at the time). After marrying the delightful Josephine Estievenard, de Longpré was mentored by Francois Rivoire. Like Rivoire, de Longpré's mastery of watercolors are said to rival the richness of oil painting. When de Longpré lost his savings in a Paris bank crash, he immigrated with his wife and their children to the United States - ultimately calling Hollywood their home in 1900. At the time, Hollywood was a brand new development just west of Los Angeles - De Longpré built a lavish Mission Revival style villa and it quickly became the most famous estate on the boulevard. He bought an additional three blocks of property from socialite Daeida Wilcox Beveridgein exchange for three of his flora watercolors. On the property, de Longpré planted over 4000 rosebushes the muses for his work – and he turned the main level of his magnificent home into an art gallery. The place became a sensation; a hub for elites, as well as a tourist destination, with over 8,000 visitors a month. De Longpré's guests were greeted by a very courteous Japanese butler who would hand them a list of the paintings titles and prices. Pauls daily habit was to get up in the morning and pick flowers with his youngest daughter, Pauline, by his side. After creating more than 2,000 paintings, de Longpré died in 1911. Josephine and the girls sold the house and sadly agreed to a final exhibition of de Longpré's work, which included his masterpiece the Cherokee Rose. It was a Josephine's lifelong regret to part with these paintings. Thirteen years later, the architectural wonder of the de Longpré's villa and the lavish gardens were all destroyed to make room for commercial buildings and parking lots. #OTD On this day in 1734, Elsa Beate Bunga was born. She was a pistol. Married to the handsome Swedish Count Sven Bunga, Elsa was a passionate amateur botanist. At her Beataberga mountain estate, she had many large greenhouses. Bunga wrote a book called, "About the Nature of Grapevines", which brought her notoriety and authority. She even corresponded with fellow Swede Carl Linnaeus (who is almost 30 years older than her). Bunga also drew attention because of her way of dressing. Like the women of her time she wore a skirt, but she distinguished herself by dressing as a man from the waist up. When King Gustav III (1771 - 1792), inquired about a peculiarly dressed woman at the Royal Swedish opera, Bunge boldly replied, "Tell his Majesty that I am the daughter of statesman Fabian Reder and married to statesman Sven Bunga". Unearthed Words #OTD Maryland selected the Black-Eyed Susan as the State Flower. This was after much debate. The Baltimore Sun, among many others, was not in favor of the Black-Eyed Susan selection, writing dismissively: "Susan came to Maryland, not on the Ark or the Dove, but a migrant from the Midwest mixed in clover and hayseed." Before the plant received it's popular common name, there was a song by John Gay called Black-Eyed Susan - popular in British maritime novels. The song tells of a love story between Susan and her Sweet William. As the two say their final farewells before his departure on a long sea voyage, Susan had crying and had black circles around her eyes. Today, their stories continue; folklore sharing that Black-Eyed Susans and Sweet William share the same bloom time to celebrate their undying love for each other. Here are a few verses: All in the Downs the fleet was moor'd, The streamers waving to the wind When black-eyed Susan came on board; Oh! where shall I my true love find? Tell me, ye

William Cullen Bryant wrote, "There is no glory in star or blossom till looked upon by a loving eye; There is no fragrance in April breezes till breathed with joy as they wander by." That pretty much sums up what happens with the plants I've dubbed "double-takes". A double-take plant is the one you first ignore or blow off - but them something about them causes you to take another look; to appreciate what you didn't see the first time around. Until the first spring I saw Lungwort in bloom, I never looked at it with a loving eye. But then, that very first time I saw it in bloom, it about knocked me over. THAT BLOOM Bluey-purpley-pinky little delicate thing. It took my breath away; Pulmonaria making me need a Pulmonologist. I suddenly didn't mind the speckled foliage. And now? Now, I love it. It's a classic double-take plant. Brevities #OTD Buried on this day, 381 years ago, in the churchyard of St Mary at Lambeth, alongside his son; the gardener John Tradescant the elder. Today, the churchyard is the Garden Museum. #OTD in 2003 Horticulturist Graham Stuart Thomas (Books By This Author) died. He was 94. (3 April 1909 – 17 April 2003). GST was fundamentally a nursery man and he lived a life fully immersed in the garden. His passion was sparked at a young age by a special birthday present he was given when he turned six: a beautiful potted fuchsia. In 2003. his gardening outfit - including his pants, vest and shoes - as well as a variety of his tools (including plant markers and a watering can) were donated to the Garden Museum. GST was best known for his work with garden roses and his leadership of over 100 National Trust gardens. He wrote 19 books on gardening. Ever the purposeful perfectionist, he never wasted a moment. What do folks have to say about GST on social media? Here's a sampling: Pachysandra ground cover - A GST classic! My mom gave me a Graham Stuart Thomas for my first gardening book, so very special Our best selling plant of 2015? At number 1 (drum roll) - Eryngium Graham Stuart Thomas. Flower spike on yucca in border. GST used them as punctuation marks in design. Love being married to someone who knows what I mean when I say, "Bring me Graham Stuart Thomas" #OTD Physicianand botanist James McBride was born in Williamsburg County, South Carolina, in 1784. As a babe, he was left an orphan. With nothing to his name, he managed to get an education through what his Yale biography called "indefatigable industry and perseverance". Trained as a doctor, he spent his free time pursuing his passion: botany. He wrote papers to the Linnean Society and other scientific journals. His personal friend, Dr. Stephen Elliott, named the Macbridia pulcrafor McBride. He also dedicated the second volume of his Sketch of the Botany of South Carolina and Georgiato McBride's memory: "[James was] a gentleman who, uniting great sagacity to extensive and accurate botanical knowledge, has made the medical properties of our plants a subject of careful investigation. Profoundly skilled in his profession… he fell victim to the fatigues and exposure of an extensive [medical] practice. In the midst of a brilliant career, with prospects of increasing usefulness and extended reputation" James McBride died at the age of 33 trying to help stop an epidemic of yellow fever in Charleston, South Carolina on September 21, 1817. #OTD American botanist and plant collector Adolph Daniel Edward Elmer died. He was born in 1870 in Van Dyne, Wisconsin. Elmer got degrees from the Washington Agricultural College, and Stanford University. He collected plants in the Philippines from 1904 to 1927. Kew Gardens shared that in 1919 Elmer's notes stated " I ... collected [plant specimens] on the Bulusan ("Bah-loo-sahn") volcano which has recently become active and..may cause the total destruction of its vegetation." Elmer was editor of "Leaflets of Philippine Botany". In that publication, he documented more than 1,500 new species. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Adolph Elmer and his wife, Emma, ignored the pleas from their extended family to leave American-controlled Manila. Elmer was killed on April 17, 1942 after being captured by Japanese forces in the Battle of Bataan. His wife, Emma, survived both the battle and the Death March. She returned to the United States after the war. Unearthed Words #OTD Naturalist Gilbert White wrote in his Journal in Selborne, England on April 17, 1789 : Five gallons of french brandy from London. Cucumbers show fruit in bloom. Cuculus cuculat: the voice of the cuckoo is heard in Blackmoor woods. Sowed hollyhocks, columbines, snapdragons, stocks, mignonette, all from S. Lambeth, in a bed in the garden: also Sweet Williams, & Canterbury bells. Today's book recommendation Three Gardens: The Personal Odyssey of a Great Plantsman and Gardener Hardcover by Graham Stuart Thomas In this reprint of a 1983 book, venerable English horticulturist, painter, and writer Graham Stuart Thomas recounts his journey from his firs

"The sun was warm but the wind was chill. You know how it is with an April day." ~ Robert Frost April can be a challenging time in the garden. How many truly lovely Aprils does one get in a lifetime? I'd venture to say maybe five or six. Often, the gardens are too wet to get into; provided you could even get to them. Even with the rain, the snow hasn't completely melted away. It's too cold to turn the spigots on, so you'll have the thrill of trooping through the residue of a long winter: grit and grime, salt and mush. Until it dries up, there's really no sense going out. Content yourself with planning or growing seeds indoors. Unless you're having a once in a decade kind of April… then pinch yourself and get going. Brevities #OTD We've got a big birthday today: Sir Hans Sloane, (16 April 1660 – 11 January 1753), was an Irish physician, naturalist, and collector. He bequeathed his collection of 71,000 items to the British nation thus singlehandedly establishing the British Museum, the British Library and the Natural History Museum, London. How was his collection so large? First, he lived into his 90's and outlived many of his collecting friends. Second, when his friends passed away, they gave Hans Sloane their herbariums and other materials. He was a one man repository for horticultural knowledge. Fun fact: Sloane is credited with adding milk to cacaoto make drinking chocolate. There are many botanical birthdays today. Perhaps Hans Sloane has blessed this day. OTD Happy birthday to British botanist William Stearn (16 April 1911 – 9 May 2001). The author of "Botanical Latin"as well as the Dictionary of Plant Names for Gardeners, a popular guide to the Latin names of plants. He was mainly self-educated which was probably a by-product of being a librarian for the Royal Horticultural Society in London for almost 20 years. Highly esteemed, he is THE expert on over 400 plants that he named and described. #OTD American botanical illustrator Ellen "Nelly" Thayer Fisher was born today in 1847 (April 16, 1847 – October 15, 1911). The daughter of a doctor, she learned her craft from her brother Abbott. To make a living, she painted pictures for exhibition but she also gave "lessons by letter" to aspiring artists. Additionally, her paintings of flora and fauna were widely reproduced as chromolithographs by Boston publisher Louis Prang. #OTD Mary Gibson Henry died today in (1884 – April 1967). She was born to be a plants-woman. Her family's roots in horticulture went way back. Her great-grandfather, George Pepper, was a member of the first Council of the Pennsylvania Horticulture Society. She became an avid botanist and plant collector and also served as president of the American Horticultural Society. The daylily Hymenocallis henryae is named in her honor. In 1909, she married Dr John Norman Henry. She had a large backyard garden and greenhouses. She had a splendid kitchen garden, native rock plants, and orchards. Starting in 1929, she went on biannual plant collecting trips. On her first trip, she brought the family - 4 kids and her hubby. Not sure if she continued that, but over the next forty years, she went on over 200 botanical expeditions. And, she figured out that plant collecting wasn't for sissies, saying, "I soon learned that rare and beautiful plants can only be found in places that are difficult of access ... Often one has to shove one's self through or wriggle under briars, with awkward results to clothing and many and deep cuts and scratches ... Wading, usually barelegged, through countless rattlesnake-infested swamps adds immensely to the interest of the day's work." On this day in April, Mary died in North Carolina doing what she loved to do: collecting plants #OTD Born on 16 April 1886, Sir Edward Salisbury was the youngest of nine children. His passion for plants started as a child. On outings, Salisbury would collect flowers to grow in his own patch at home. Get this: He attached a label to each one, giving its Latin name. His brothers called his garden 'The Graveyard'. Typical brothers. One of the leading British botanists of the twentieth century, he was the director of Kew during the Second World War. He was not simply an expert on plants themselves, he was supremely interested in their natural habitat. He wrote many books - my favorite of all of his books is "Weeds & Aliens". In it, he goes for a walk in the countryside and discovers when he gets home that the cuffs of his wool trousers were full of seeds. He decides to try to grow them and is astounded to discover that he was able to grow more than 300 plants "comprising over 20 different species of weeds." It was Sir Edward Salisbury who said, "The double lily was and is a crime against God and man. He lived to be 92. Unearthed Words Aphra Behn, (Books By This Author), the first professional woman playwright in Britain, whose novel 'Oroonoko', played a crucial role in the development of English fiction, was buried in Westminster Abbey #OTD in 16

William Kent wrote: "A garden is to be a world unto itself, it had better make room for the darker shades of feeling as well as the sunny ones." I've usually think about my garden as my happy place. It's a natural mood changer for me. But I remember one time when I was out in the garden with feelings of a definite darker shade. I was very pregnant with John and I was wearing a hideous, striped, maternity tank top. It was super hot out and I looked like an absolute mess. I wasn't out there long before I realized my new neighbor kept trying to catch my attention; I didn't want to meet him looking such a fright. I kept my eyes down on my plants. But, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed he kept coming out of his house to stand on his deck - expecting me to acknowledge him. Finally, an older man joined him and, together, they approached the back fence. I walked over to say hello. Here it was my old principal from middle school and his son-in-law; my new neighbor. So much for my garden being a world unto itself. Brevities #OTD On This Day in 1823, botanist Allan Cunningham departs Bathurst to find an easier route to the Liverpool Plains. Born in Wimbledon, England, Cunningham came to Australia with tuberculosis and happily discovered Australia's climate helped him feel better. #OTD It's the birthday of George Harrison Shull who was born on this day in 1874. An American botanist, he is regarded as the "father of hybrid corn." #OTD, It's the birthday of Francis Hallé born today in 1938. He is a French botanist and biologist and his specialty is tropical rainforests and tree architecture. Atlas Obscura wrote an article about Halle called, "The Botanist Who Made Fantastical Sketches of Rain Forest Flora". It's true. Halle's work in his book, "The Atlas of Poetic Botany" is other worldly - possessing an almost Seussical charm. Of equatorial forests, Halle says they are full of magical allure and little marvels. Check out this passage from the Atlas Obscura piece, "On Robinson Crusoe Island, part of an archipelago off the coast of Chile, he found Gunnera peltata, which looks like a rhubarb plant so enormous that it dwarfs whoever stands below its wide, veined leaves. Analyzing it was a thrilling challenge. "Normally, a scalpel is used for dissecting plants," Hallé writes. "This time, I had to wield a meat cleaver!" A photo would convey the size and the "nest of ruby-red fibers," but the author eschews snapshots. "I cannot think of a better way to present it than with a drawing." #OTD It's the death day of Alexander Garden, of Charleston, South Carolina, who was a steady and delightful writer of letters to other eminent botanists of his day. The Gardenia flower is named for him. His letters provide a glimpse into his life; one of which is to John Bartram, the botanist: "Think that I am here, confined to the sandy streets of Charleston, where the ox, where the ass, and where man, as stupid as either, fill up the vacant space, while you range the green fields of Florida." Here's a letter he wrote to John Ellis : "I know that every letter which I receive not only revives the little botanic spark in my breast, but even increases its quantity and flaming force." When the Revolutionary War began, Garden sided with the British, even though he sympathized with the colonists. When the war was over, his property was confiscated and he had to leave South Carolina. After losing everything, he and his family went to live in London where he became vice-president of the Royal Society. He died of tuberculosis, at age 61, on this day in 1791. There's a sad little aside to the Alexander Garden biography: "He had a little granddaughter, named appropriately 'Gardenia.' Her father, Alexander, Garden's only son, joined Lee's legion against the British (so going against his father) and was never forgiven ; nor was the little girl, his granddaughter with the flower name, ever received into her Grandfather's house. Unearthed Words Here's a little known poem for today about springtime called "Nothing Perfect on Earth" by Francis Quarles Even as the soil (which April's gentle showers Have filled with sweetness and enriched with flowers) Rears up her sucking plants, still shooting forth The tender blossoms of her timely birth ; But if denied the beams of cheerly May, They hang their withered heads, and fade away. Today's book recommendation The Atlas of Poetic Botany by Francis Hallé This Atlas invites the reader to tour the farthest reaches of the rainforest in search of exotic―poetic―plant life. Guided in these botanical encounters by Francis Hallé, who has spent forty years in pursuit of the strange and beautiful plant specimens of the rainforest, the reader discovers a plant with just one solitary, monumental leaf; an invasive hyacinth; a tree that walks; a parasitic laurel; and a dancing vine. Further explorations reveal the Rafflesia arnoldii, the biggest flower in the world, with a crown of stamens and pistils the color of rotten meat th

I was looking at the cute brass plant labels on the Target website the other day - I was trying to find the link to that adorable garden tote I was telling you about and I thought about the evolution of a gardener when it comes to using plant tags. First you start out needing the labels - is that dill? What does basil look like again? Then you label only the newcomers or the look alike parsley or cilantro - who can tell without smell? Sometimes a new gardener will visit. Or you'll have people tour your garden. Folks appreciate knowing what they are looking at. Pretty soon, you realize you're labeling as a kindness to your garden guests. If you're like me, no matter how long you've been gardening, cute or clever plant labels are always a lovely find. Brevities #OTD Today is National Licorice Day. The botanical name for licorice means "sweet root" and in Dutch name, it's zoethout, ("Zoot-Howt") which means "sweet wood." The secret to the flavor (which is 50 times sweeter than sugar) is hidden in the very long roots and rhizomes of the plant. Thus, children who grew up chewing on licorice root would suck out the sweet sugars and spit out the pulp. The licorice plant is actually a perennial shrub in the legume or pea family. Don't confuse it with the annual trailing dusky licorice plant that gets popped in containers. The glycyrrhetinic acid in licorice causes the body to hold salt and water. Throughout history, armies would give licorice to soldiers and horses when water was in short supply. Licorice is used as a remedy for coughing - Hippocrates used it that way. It regulates digestion - Napoleon used it for tummy troubles. #OTD It's the birthday of Zina Pitcher (April 12, 1797, in Sandy Hill, New York – April 5, 1872, in Detroit). He managed to pack a lot of living and incredible relationships into his 75 year life. He established the Detroit public school system. He taught at West Point. He was Michigan's most prominent doctor and became a president of the American Medical Association He was mayor of Detroit; twice. He was a tireless member of the Board of Regents of the University of Michigan and was praised as the longest serving and hardest working of the 12 original regents. As regent, it was Pitcher's vision that made him an early advocate of acquiring John J. Audobon's"The Birds of America"for the U-M Library. An amateur botanist, Pitcher had discovered plant species, including a thistle - now called Pitcher's Thistle (Carduus Pitcheri or Cirsium Pitcheri) in his honor. The white-to-pale-pink flowering thistle is familiar to beachcombers throughout the Great Lakes. While he was a regent, his love of horticulture came in handy when it was time to hire professors. The name Asa Gray floated to the top of their list. Gray was mentored by the nation's top botanist: John Torrey. When Gray arrived in Michigan, his first stop was at Pitcher's home in Detroit. Accepting the job, Gray needed to push back his start date by one year to finish his studies in Europe. This would give the University time to get building facilities on campus. In the meantime, the regents asked Gray to buy books for the school while he was abroad. How fun! Gray shopped his bachelor buttons off; shipping over 3,700 books back to Ann Arbor. Sadly, when his year in Europe was over, Gray never made it to Michigan. Harvard stole him away. But his ties to the University and all those books he bought helped create the school library and a fine reputation to attract young scholars. Today, the street, Zina Pitcher Place in Ann Arbor is named in his honor OTD, 1810, Thomas Nuttal, just 24 years old, left Philadelphia by coach.He had recently immigrated from England, and Professor Benjamin Smith Barton of the University of Philadelphia wanted him to spend the next two years studying the flora of the Northwest. Given a salary of $8 per month plus expenses, Nuttal set about collecting and writing detailed accounts of the flora he discovered. By July 29, he jumped in a birch bark canoe with Aaron Greely, the deputy surveyor of the territory of Michigan, and they paddled to Mackinac Island arriving two weeks later on August 12. Nuttal spent several days on Mackinac - He was the first true botanist to explore at the flora of Michigan, and certainly of Mackinac Island. He documented about sixty species - about twenty were previously unknown. One the new Mackinac discoveries was the dwarf lake iris(Iris lucustris), which became the state wildflower of Michigan. Unearthed Words #OTD On this day in 1748 William Kent (Books By This Author)died. A pioneer of the English landscape garden, it was William Kent who said, Nature abhors a straight line. All gardening is landscape painting. Garden as though you will live forever. A garden is to be a world unto itself, it had better make room for the darker shades of feeling as well as the sunny ones. William Kent wrote a cute little ditty about the origin of the Inigo Jones gateway and how it came to be moved to C

How much do you care for your garden? Does your time and attention stay pretty constant throughout the season? If not, why not? What would your garden look like in August if you loved it then as much as you do now? What do you need to do to sustain a high level of care for your garden all season long? Fewer tomato or pepper plants? More raised beds? Getting regular garden time committed on the calendar? Removing high maintenance plants? Brevities #OTD Luther Burbank died today in 1926 (Books By This Author). His friend, Yogi Yogananda wroteAutobiography of a Yogi- a book many people find inspiring including Andrew Weil, George Harrison, and Steve Jobs - who read it annually. Yogananda later dedicated the entire book to "Luther Burbank, an American Saint", and he wrote about Luther's death, saying: In tears I thought, "Oh, I would gladly walk all the way from here to Santa Rosa for one more glimpse of him! Locking myself away from secretaries and visitors, I spent the next twenty-four hours in seclusion." #OTD Today we celebrate the birthday of a South African who had many botanical triumphs; Botanist Elsie Elizabeth Esterhuysen.She's been described as "the most outstanding collector ever of South African Flora", collecting 36,000 herbarium species. A botanist at the Bolus Herbarium in Cape Town, Elsie was beyond humble. She would never be publish the results of her work under her own name. There are 56 species and two genera named after her. The saying, "if you want to be immortal collect good herbarium specimens" is certainly reflected in Elsie Esterhuysen's botanical legacy. After Elsie died, over 200 people gathered at her memorial gathering - which featured three tributes from her botanical family. Botanist John Rourke recalled, "Elsie returned to Cape Town in 1938. It was here that her real career began when she joined the Bolus Herbarium (Figure 2) under another formidable woman. Dr Louisa Bolus. […] It's an astonishing fact that for the first 18 years of her employment she received no proper salary and was paid out of petty cash at a rate not much better than a laborer. She did not collect randomly; Elsie was above all an intelligent collector, seeking range extensions, local variants, or even new species, filling voids in the Bolus Herbarium's records, often returning months later to collect seeds or fruits that were of diagnostic importance. […] Always self-deprecating, one of her favorite comments was 'I'm only filling in gaps'." Botanist Peter Linder said, "She was what I thought a botanist was supposed to be. She was in the mountains every weekend, and came back with big black plastic bags full of plants, that she sorted and passed to Gert Syster to press. She was the one person who could put names on plants that defeated my attempts. And she had little time for academic niceties—for her the important things were plants in the mountains, their welfare, their relationships. She was immersed in plants and mountains." "Elsie taught me that each species has an essence, a character—that it liked some habitats but not others and that it flowered at a particular time. She was curious about the plants, not because they informed her about some theory or other, but she was interested in the plants themselves—she cared about them." Botanist Ted Oliver remembered, "Her mode of transport was the bicycle (we have her latest model here today). She rode to the University of Cape Town up that dreadful steep road every day for a lifetime, come sunshine or rain, heat or cold. Now one knows why she was so fit and could outstrip any poor unsuspecting younger botanist in the mountains! Every day she would come up and park her bicycle behind the Bolus Herbarium building and then often jump through the window in the preparation section rather than walk all the way around to the front door." A newspaper cutting found among her personal effects after her death showed a side of Elsie that none of her coworkers knew existed. It was from the local Kimberleynewspaper (undated) and reported on a Reading on life and works of Franz Schubertat a meeting of the Kimberley Philharmonic Society. The lecture was given by Miss E. Esterhuysen. It was preceded by another describing Burchell'stravels in South Africa during Schubert's time and was followed by "a delightful short program of the composer's music played as piano solos by Miss Esterhuysen". #OTDHappy birthday to the eminent Dutch botanist and geneticist born in Dordrecht John Paulus Lotsy (April 11, 1867), author of "Some Euphorbiaceae from Guatemala" (1895)." He spent two years from 1893 to 1895 at Johns Hopkins University and presented his entire Herberium to the Baltimore Women's College. The collection was started when Lotsy was a boy and Lotsy himself gathered every specimen personally. Before leaving for an appointment as botanist to the Dutch Botanical Gardens in Java(known as the Garden of the East), Lotsy gifted his entire herbarium - which contained about six thousa

Just when you thought you had winter beat… You thought wrong. Surprise. Unpredictable weather. Dicey temperatures. Gardeners need resilience. If Spring's arrival is dashing your hope, start to look for the survivors in your garden. In your neighborhood. In your city. On your social media feed. Every Spring - no matter the conditions, there are successes. Hardy Daffodils. Forsythia. Lungwart. Snowdrops. Magnolias. Look for the plants that survive and thrive despite the challenges of Spring. Plant more of those plants. Find joy in those plants. Improve your resiliency by mirroring the resilience of your garden. Brevities #OTD Born today in 1854, the extraordinary floral still life painter and teacher Mary Hiester Reid (Books By This Author). Born in Pennsylvania, Mary Augusta Hiester met George Reid(who was six years younger than her) at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts during school sketching trips. George later recalled that the trips were not only great for art's sake, but they also gave him the chance to be with, "the beautiful Mary Hiester on their expeditions". After that, they often worked together and that winter, Mary invited George to accompany her back home for a weekend of sketching on the Schuykill ("Sk-ooh-kill") River. Their fates were sealed together when they married in 1885. The Reids spent every summer from 1891 to 1916 at Onteora("Aunty Aura"), a private literary and artistic club founded by American artist Candace Wheeler in the Catskill Mountains near Tannersville, N.Y. They had a house and a studio, both designed on arts and crafts principles by George. They spent their time painting and teaching, their studio having accommodation for ten students, some of whom came from as far away as Toronto. "A self-adopted Canadian who loved Canada", Mary was very humble. In 1910, a reviewer wrote in The Globe, "Nothing can tempt her to talk about her pictures." Mary was one of the first women accepted into the Ontario Society of Artistsand the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Her painting, Hollyhocks, is a personal favorite. Reid was the preeminent female artist of Canada when she died. She was celebrated for her, "study and interpretation of Nature in those aspects that appealed most to her...glimpses of spring and autumn woodland, moonlit vistas, gorgeously colorful gardens, lovely skies, divinely tinted ends of evening, and the countless flowers of the fields…." In 1922, a year after her death, Reid was the first female to be featured with a solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of Toronto She willed her husband to her friend and rival - the younger painter and printmaker (24 years her junior) Mary Evelyn Wrinch. It's the birthday of landscape architect David Darrell. A semi-retired Harford County landscape architect. Darrell was born and raised in Claymont, Delaware, and was raised on his family's farm. Some of his commissions included the prayer garden at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, the Largo Animal Preserve in Prince George's County, and Little Lithuania Park near Hollins Market among others. He also designed courtyards and tennis courts. His wife Edna said "David came into my life in August 2006; I was looking for someone to create a new garden. I looked in the Yellow Pages and five people came to interview. There was something about him. He studied the plants with big, gentle hands, he trimmed and shaped them. He was hired on the spot." David Darrel died of brain cancer in 2015. Unearthed Words Here's a memorial poem for Mary Hiester Ried written by Canadian newspaperman and a native son of Scotland, Duncan Sutherland Macorquodale - reprinted in the 9th Volume of The Canadian Theosophist (Toronto) November 15, 1921 Vol 9. There's a reference to Wychwood; the Reid's house, Upland Cottage, was located in Wychwood Park - an artist's enclave of 60 homes tucked away in a private ravine setting atop the rolling wooded hills of the Davenport Ridge in Toronto. MARY HIESTER REID Obit. Oct. 4, 1921. Free from the thrall called life, Palette and brush laid down; Off with achievement's strife, Donned the immortal's crown; Yet hovers she near 'neath the Wychwoodtree, This, the roses she painted, tell to me. Knelt not to gods of dress, Knew naught of gossip's blight, Lived she to work and bless; This was her heart's delight. And the smile of welcome to all she gave, Would fashion a knight from the meanest slave. Why mourn we our loved, laid low? We also our time abide. Are they lost because they go? Nay! for they have not died. The body rests, but the soul is free To charm as of old with it's melody. Queen, both of roses and hearts, Her mortal course well run; Her's 'both the good and the better parts; Martha, and Mary, in one. Still reigns she here, while there her body lies. The good, the pure, the noble, never dies. Today's book recommendation The Garden Awakening: Designs to Nurture Our Land and Ourselves By Mary Reynolds An award-winning garden designer's practical how-to book with stories an

Today's thought is exactly that: How we think when we garden. Emerson wrote: Blame me not, laborious band, For the idle flowers I brought; Every aster in my hand Comes back laden with a thought. How wonderful our gardens are for thinking. Creatively. Therapeutically. Soulfully. Every bloom can be a vessel for an idea, a hurt, a solution. I had a fight with my daughter the other day. We were getting no where. Exasperated and just plain tired, I had her help me with the houseplants. In case you're wondering, we were spring cleaning all the greens - even the fake ones! There was no talk. No more disagreement. Just the plants and water and a little soap... and our thoughts. Before we knew it, we were ready to come together. Our welfare and happiness restored by the thoughts knit together in the company of plants. Brevities #OTD British botanist, author, pragmatist and survivor Phebe Lankester (Books By This Author) died today in 1900 and was born tomorrow in 1825. Born Phebe Pope, she married the naturalist Edwin Lankester who was a coroner and medical reformer. They had eleven children. When Phebe was 49, Edwin died; she had to keep producing work to take care of herself and her family. Phebe Lankaster wrote under a number of pseudonyms. Her books were published under the name Mrs. Lankester. She wrote a syndicated column under the signature "Penelope" for 20 years. Her energy and work brought friendships with the celebrities of her day: painters, actors, intellectuals, and writers. In 1895, the painter Herman Herkomer painted a wonderful portrait of Phoebe Lankester - her warmth and wit captured on the canvas. Her work appealed to the masses; she wrote in a friendly and conversational voice. And, she wrote about what she knew: plants, educating children about health, and being financially smart. Her books range from A Plain and Easy Account of the British Ferns (1859) to The National Thrift Reader (1880) It was the widowed Phebe Lankester who said, "Often the most thrifty persons are the most generous, because they can afford to be so." Phebe often partnered with illustrator James Sowerby and other members of the Sowerby family for illustrations in her books. She worked with James on her sweet, little book Wild Flowers Worth Notice; with 108 coloured figures from drawings by James E. Sowerby An advertisement for the book in 1861 noted that Mrs. Lankester herself says in her charming pre-face, "what flowers are not worth notice?" Reviewers were happy with Mrs. Lankester's selections calling them "the special delight of flower-gatherers, as for example, the sun-dew, the mistletoe, the bog pimpernel, the grass of Parnassus, flax, white water-lily, fly orchis, milk-wort, and germauder speedwell, etc. Lankester's pays sweet tributes to her favorite plants, incorporating brevities: folklore, quotes, poems and general Information. For example, in her preface, Lankester quotes Longfellow: Wondrous truths, and manifold as wondrous, God hath written in those stars above; But not less in the bright flowerets under us Stands the revelation of his love. She also quoted Wordsworth: Knowing that Nature never did betray The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege, Through all the years of this our life, to lead From joy to joy. One review said "Mrs. Lankaster writes so easily and naturally, that no deliberate effort seems to have been made. It is a little book, but teaches a great deal, and in so pleasant a way that to be wearied is impossible." This is in line with the last page of her book where Lancaster confesses she had thought about writing a book like this many times, but lacked the courage because she didn't want to offend. She wrote "Having now gone over the … collection of Wild Flowers, endeavoring to chronicle the chief attractions and virtues of each, I can but feel how little has been said when compared with all that remains unsaid, but felt." #OTD Happy Birthday today Joseph Trimble Rothrock (Books By This Author) born today in 1839. Plagued by sickness as a child, Rothrock felt the call of the great outdoors, "I just had to go to the woods. Throughout my entire life, I have sought the 'out of doors' as a refuge against impending physical ills." Rothrock went to Harvard and worked every day in the private herbarium of Asa Graywho visited Rothrock's hometown to collect botanical specimens. Of Dr. Gray, Rothrock said, "[He] was kindness personified, though a strict disciplinarian and a most merciless critic of a student's work. I owe more to him than to any other man, and I never think of him without veneration." He also studied geology under Louis Agassizwho became his friend. (Agassi's motto was, "study nature, not books") Rothrock suspended his studies at Harvard to fight in the Civil War. His right thigh and hand was wounded at Fredricksburg in 1862 (Burnside's fight), he shook hands with President Lincoln at an army hospital. Later in his life, in a photograph of Rothrock called "The old white pine and the

Have you given much thought to the layout or shape of your garden beds? Do they follow the natural lines and slopes of the landscape? Are they geometric? Long beds with corners? Maybe you've tried a circle garden. If you're just beginning - border beds - beds anchored by a backdrop (like a house or a fence) are the easiest to plan and execute. Often overlooked, one thing to consider in border beds is to add some stepping stones or even a small path along the back to provide access points that make tending your garden easier. Brevities #OTD In 1783: It's the birthday of Scottish author, garden designer, and botanist John Claudius Loudon.(Books By This Author)A massively popular and breathtakingly prolific writer on horticulture, John focused on serving the needs of the expanding middle class who wanted to have smaller gardens. 1838, Loudon wrote in his book call The Suburban Gardener and Villa Companion, "A suburban residence with a small portion of land attached will contain all that is essential to happiness." Loudon created and published a magazine called The Gardener's Magazine. It started out as quarterly. The first issue sold 4,000 copies. It soon became bi-monthly. Loudon used the platform to introduce a new landscape perspective which he called "gardenesque". Prior to Loudon, the prevailing landscape style of the was the "picturesque" view. In contrast with the big picture or natural perspective of the picturesque garden style, Loudon wanted to draw attention to individual specimens - isolating them by removing surrounding plants or by using geometrical beds. During Loudon's time, exotic plants were the rage and a controlled garden was the best way to feature specimen plants. Loudon's "Gardenesque style" or The Plant Collector's Garden with formal features and botanical variety was very popular with Victorian gardens. Loudon favored circular beds, of the type which can still be seen in the flower garden at Greenwich Park, because they show plants so well and because they are instantly 'recognizable' as the work of man. John Loudon said, "Any creation to be recognized as a work of art, must be such as can never be mistaken for a work of nature." Loudon invented the term "arboretum" - a garden of trees designed for scientific and educational purposes. He also had some thoughts about the value of public green spaces or "breathing zones" in cities. Loudon married writer Jane Webb. Jane was indispensable to him. After an attack of rheumatic fever in 1806, Loudon suffered from reduced mobility in his limbs. In 1825, his right arm had to be amputated at the shoulder without anesthesia. Around midnight on December 14, 1843, Loudon was dictating a book to his wife when he collapsed into her arms and died. The book was called, Self-instruction to Young Gardeners. Born #OTD April 8, 1892, America's sweetheart, Hollywood legend, and lover of trees, Mary Pickford born Gladys Marie Smith. Jump on twitter, search for "Mary Pickford Tree" and you'll see images of Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford planting a tree at their PickFair estate. #ArborDay Mary Pickford (Books By This Author)was the first to plant a tree, a Japanese cedar, in the Forest of Fame at the California Botanic Garden. Trivia/Folklore says that Mary Pickford used to eat Flowers - specifically roses. Thought that they'd make her beautiful and they did, Katie Melua sang a song called Mary Pickford which starts out, "Mary Pickford Used to eat roses Thinking they'd make her Beautiful, and they did- One supposes." Apparently Pickford did indeed use to eat roses to make herself look more beautiful. Mary Pickford reveals in her autobiography, Sunshine and Shadow, that as a young girl living in Toronto she would buy a single rose and eat the petals, believing the beauty, color and perfume would somehow get inside her. Pickford also gifted leading man John Gilberta bench for his garden. It was Mary Pickford who said, "I do not cry easily when seeing a picture, but after seeing [Charles Chaplin's] A Woman of Paris: A Drama of Fate (1923) I was all choked up - I wanted to go out in the garden and have it out by myself. Our cook felt the same way." #OTD in 1805, Hugo von Mohl was born.The greatest "botanist of his day", it said in one newspaper. A German botanist, he was the first to propose that new cells are formed by cell division. Mitosis was discovered by Hugo von Mohl. And, he discovered chloroplasts - describing them as discrete bodies within the green plant cell in 1837. In 1846 he described the sap in plant cells as, "the living substance of the cell" and created the word "protoplasm". Unearthed Words An April poem that puts all others in shadow; is the lyrical "April" by William Watson. (Books By This Author) England's onetime poet laureate, he began the poem with the unforgettably beautiful expression which, reminds us that April is the girlish daughter of springtime: "April, April, laugh your girlish laughter, then, the moment after, weep your gir

It's decision time in the garden. What will your projects be this year? Often, we have no idea if our dreams for our gardens will come true. Gardeners may dream bigger dreams than emperors, but we can often get stuck, too. We put plants in the wrong spot. We buy the wrong thing. We spend too much money. We over do. But, every now and then we get it completely right. I waited for years to put paths in around my front garden. Why did I wait so long. No reason really. But, once it was in, I knew it was the perfect thing my garden had been missing. Whatever you're dreaming of and planning for your garden this season, I hope you get it completely right. Brevities On this day in 1847, Birkenhead Park opened to "great rejoicing and festivity, and in the evening there was a gorgeous display of fire-works. The day at Birkenhead, and indeed partly at Liverpool, was observed as a holiday; and the workmen at the Birkenhead Docks, 2,000 in number, each received a day's wage. Later in the evening a ball and supper took place in the Dock warehouse" Designed by Joseph Paxton, Birkenhead was the first publicly funded civic park and inspired New York's Central Park. Clippings from the Liverpool Mercury during the month of April that year show that Birkenhead was quickly becoming a bustling port city and, mindful that the people of the community who were the "source of all wealth and power" would appreciate the "accommodation and recreation", the commons area, "overgrown with fern, and rough with prickly gorse [had] been converted into a magnificent park, beautifully laid out, and planted with every variety of shrubs and flowers". The prickly gorse mentioned in that clip, now considered noxious, is a yellow-flowered shrub and member of the pea family. The day of the grand opening, Lord Viscount Morpeth gave the commemorating speech gushing, "We have seen something this day beyond even the dreams of Venice. For instance, such an array of steamers as has today graced the Mersey, never could have been witnessed in Venice; and though perhaps a steamer may not be so picturesque an object as a gondola, I may yet remind you that… Venice never could have sent forth a message which in ten days might reach those harbors and roadsteads of the new world." In the first four days following the grand opening, the paper reported that a Mr. Cooper had crossed the river and visited Birkenhead park, and 58,000 persons had done the same. On April 23rd of this year, there will be a presentation hosted in conjunction with the Friends at Birkenhead Park. For over two years, plans have been developed to secure Birkenhead Park's listing as a World Heritage Site. The evening's presentations are intended to provide an opportunity to learn more about this process. Presenters include Professor Robert Lee of the University of Liverpool's Department of History. Happy Birthday today to the German botanist and early evolutionist Matthias Jakob Schleiden, (born April 5, 1804, Hamburg[Germany]—died June 23, 1881, Frankfurt am Main, Germany) Schleiden was also the cofounder (with Theodor Schwann) of the cell theory, Schleiden was the first person to recognize the importance of cells in plants. Later, speculated on the roll of the nucleus in cell division. Matthias Schleiden who said, "Youthful fancy lends to the rock, the tree, the flower, an animating genius, and in the thunder hears the voice of God. Then comes earnest science stripping Nature of that inspiring charm, and substituting the unvarying law of blind necessity." Unearthed Words The poet Algernon Swinburne was born on this day in 1837. In A Forsaken Garden, the poem describes a garden - or rather, "the ghost of a garden". Although the sun still shines and the rain still falls, the beds in the garden are blossomless. Now there is only brushwood and thorn. Branches and briars cover the paths. Even the weeds are dead. The wind is relentless. The sun burns. The only thing left is one gaunt bleak blossom of scentless breath. Here's the first five verses of A Forsaken Garden - In a coign of the cliff between lowland and highland, At the sea-down's edge between windward and lee, Walled round with rocks as an inland island, The ghost of a garden fronts the sea. A girdle of brushwood and thorn encloses The steep square slope of the blossomless bed Where the weeds that grew green from the graves of its roses Now lie dead. The fields fall southward, abrupt and broken, To the low last edge of the long lone land. If a step should sound or a word be spoken, Would a ghost not rise at the strange guest's hand? So long have the grey bare walks lain guestless, Through branches and briars if a man make way, He shall find no life but the sea-wind's, restless Night and day. The dense hard passage is blind and stifled That crawls by a track none turn to climb To the strait waste place that the years have rifled Of all but the thorns that are touched not of time. The thorns he spares when the rose is taken; The rocks are

Have you started to think about your garden in geographical terms? Aside from the zone you are gardening in, what are the micro-climates in your garden? Areas sheltered by trees, buildings or other structures may be warmer and ideal locations for less hardy plants. Low-lying areas may create boggy or marsh-like conditions - perfect for plants that like to have "wet feet". What is the composition of your soil; is it heavy and clayish? loamy or sandy? Is your soil acidic? Get to know your garden's topography and micro-climates; then situate (or relocate) plants accordingly. The more you know, the better your plants will grow. Brevities #OTD Botanist Alphonse Pyramus ("Peer-ah-mus") de Candolle ("Cundull") died on this day at the ripe age of 87 in Geneva in 1893 (28 October 1806 – 4 April 1893).Born the year Linneas died, he was the son of the Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle. His father's monumentous work, Prodromus, was an effort to characterize all of the plant families and establishing the basis for the science of botany. Alphonse and future generations of the Candolle family would finish Prodromusthrough extensive and detailed research. In 1855, Alphonse was awarded Linnean gold medal. The Candolle family are honored in the plant genera Candollea and Candolleodendron. The scientific journal, Candollea, is also named after the family. Candolle's ground-breaking book, Origin for Cultivated Plants begins, "It is a common saying, that the plants with which man has most to do, and which rendered him the greatest service, are those which botanists know the least." Candolle set about correcting that gap in understanding which had persisted for 50 years. In 1885, The Glasgow Heraldreminded readers, "At the commencement of the present century but little was known respecting the origin of our cultivated plants, and even up till the middle of the present not much progress had teen made in determining the original condition and habitat of the different species, Alexander von Humboldtin 1807 said : 'The origin, the first home of the plants most useful to man, and which have accompanied him from the remotest epochs, is a secret as impenetrable as the dwelling of all our domestic animals. We do not know what region produced spontaneously wheat, barley, oats, and rye. The plants which constitute the natural riches of all the inhabitants of the tropics the banana, the papaw, the manioc, and maize have never been found in a wild state. The potato presents the same phenomenon.'" In his magnum opus, Candolle attempted to record exhaustively and conclusively all that was known about each species using data from the expeditions of the time. For instance, the apple was vital to the lake dwellers of Lombardy, Savoy and Switzerland. Candolle wrote, "They always cut them length-ways and preserved them dried as a provision for the winter." That said, Candolle's work was not without criticism. One reviewer wrote in a piece called "Where do our crops come from", "Instead of an interesting and readable book he has given us a painfully formal catalogue, about as enticing as a stock and share list or the prices current at the Queen Victoria-street stores." Yet, Charles Darwin learned plant geography from Candolle, and said, "no one […] could have worked […] with more zeal and sagacity". Candolle named growing regions and came up with climate classifications. Gardeners use them today when we refer to growing zones. Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle is regarded as the father of geographical botany and Harvard botanist Asa Grayremarked, "De Candolle's great work closed one epoch in the history of the subject and [Sir Joseph] Hooker's name is the first that appears in the ensuing one." Alphonse devised the first code of botanical nomenclature - the International Code of Botanical Nomenclatureis its descendent. These laws ensure that no two species of plants have the same name. The botanical name is always given in Latin. Fun Fact: Like his fatherAugustin, public service was important to Alphonse de Candolle. After visiting England, Candolle introduced the use of postage stamps to Geneva. Geneva became the fourth country in the world to use postage stamps, after Great Britain, Zurich, and Brazil. #OTD On 4 Apr 1969 architect Alois Ludwig died.One of his works is the floral design on the Majolikahaus in Vienna - a gem for gardeners and lovers of Art Nouveau. A private residential building close to Naschmarkt, Ludwig adorned the front of the building with majolica tiles creating an intricate floral motif. It is an incredible sight and worth viewing whilst in Vienna, it is a few minutes walk from Kettenbrückengasse U-Bahn station. #OTD in 1901 in Nova Scotia, The Floral Emblem Act was passed, making the mayflower, ground laurel or trailing arbutus, the official flower of Nova Scotia.This is why the the mayflower is featured in the decorative ironwork outside of the Legislative Library. Check it out the next time you're in Nova Scotia. The

As I was preparing for today's show, I kept thinking about this quote from John Burrows: "... One's own landscape comes in time to be a sort of outlying part of himself; he has sowed himself broadcast upon it, and it reflects his own moods and feelings; he is sensitive to the verge of the horizon: cut those trees, he bleeds; mar those hills, and he suffers." Think about your own landscape. If it is an outlying part of yourself, what does is reflect about your mood and feelings? Controlled and manicured? Wild and wooly? Relaxed and comfortable? Unsure or confused? Where are you at today? Where were you a year ago? 5 years ago? 10 years ago? Where do you want to be this season? We are not static. As my youngest son said to me the first time he ate spaghetti sauce on his noodles, "People can change, Mom." We are not static… and our gardens aren't either. Brevities Naturalist, poet and philosopher John Burroughs (books by this author) was born on a dairy farm on this date in 1837. He was sent to the local school, where his desk was next to that of Erie Railroad Robber Baron, Jay Gould (the son of a nearby neighbor). When Burroughs struggled in school, Gould would bail him out. Called "John o' Birds" for hisspecial admiration for birds, Burroughs loved the natural world. One of the four vagabonds (a reference to an annual camping group that included Harvey Firestone, Henry Ford, and Teddy Roosevelt) Burroughs drove a Ford which was an annual present from Henry Ford. John Burroughs wrote about what he knew and loved best: the land around his homes in the Catskills of upstate New York. The area included a stream called "The Pepacton" - today it is known as the "East Branch of the Delaware River". Burroughs was great friends with Walt Whitman (Books by this author) whom he loved dearly. Of Whitman, Burroughs reflected: "[Meeting] Walt was the most important event of my life. I expanded under his influence, because of his fine liberality and humanity on all subjects." Here's a fun fact: Whitman gave Burroughs a little marketing advice on his first book, Wake-Robin. Burroughs recalled "It is difficult to hit upon suitable titles for books. I went to Walt with Wake-Robin and several other names written on paper. '"What does wake-robin mean?" he asked "It's a spring flower,' I replied. "Then that is exactly the name you want." Wake-robin is the common name for trillium. Trilliums are in the Lily Familyand they carpet the forest floor in springtime.. They have a single large, white, long-lasting flower that turns pink as it matures. During Burroughs time, The Tennessean and other newspapers advertised English Wake-Robin Pills Tho best Liver and Cathartic Pills in use. Price 25 cents per box. Here's the beginning of "Wake-Robin by John Burroughs" "Spring in our northern climate may fairly be said to extend from the middle of March to the middle of June… It is this period that marks the return of the birds…. Each stage of the advancing season gives prominence to certain species, as to certain flowers. The dandelion tells me when to look for the swallow, the dog-tooth violet when to expect the wood thrush, and when I have found the wake-robin in bloom I know the season is fairly inaugurated. With me this flower is associated, not merely with the awakening of Robin, for he has been awake some weeks, but with the universal awakening and rehabilitation of Nature." At the 100th anniversary of Burrough's birthday celebration was held at Hartwick College. Music was furnished by the college a cappella choir who sang Burrough's favorite song, "Lullaby" by Brahms. Supreme Court Justice Abraham Kellogg presented this tribute: "When the trees begin to leaf and the birds are here, the arbutus, laurel and wild flowers are blooming and nature is clothing herself with beauty and grandeur, turn ye to your library and in a restful attitude read 'Pepacton' and you will acquaint yourself as never before with John Burroughs, the scientist, the naturalist, the poet and the philosopher." Burroughs died at the age of 84 years - fourteen more than the biblical allotment of man. He was on his way back to the Catskills after undergoing abdominal surgery in California. Burroughs just wanted to see home one more time. Burroughs' nurse and biographer was with him as he made the trip by train. After a restless attempt at sleeping, he asked "How near home are we?" Told the train was crossing Ohio, Burroughs slumped back and passed away. The third woman to enroll at Berkely's medical school and the second woman to be professionally employed as a botanist in the US, the intrepid Kate Brandegee died on this day in 1920. After getting her MD at Berkley, she found starting a practice too daunting. Thankfully, Kate's passion for botany was ignited during med school. She had learned that plants were the primary sources of medicine, so she dropped the mantle of physician to pursue botany. Five years later, she was the curator of the San Francisco Academy of Sci

What are you curious about in your garden? What are you hoping to learn this season? You might be signed up for something you didn't plan to learn. Maybe you've always been a flower gardener, but then somehow you discover the joy of growing your own garlic. Last year, you grew your own tomatoes to great success. This season you may question why you even bothered. Maybe you didn't like pulling weeds for your mom and now she's gone and you suddenly want to have a garden of your own. Our gardens, are classrooms. And those classrooms are filled with many teachers or Upah Gurus. Upah Guru is the Hindu word for the teacher next to you at any moment. The Upah Gurus in your garden this year might be the seeds you just ordered, a mystery plant that you inherited, the hydrangea that refuses to flower, the rose that won't give up. One of the things that can happen to gardeners, is that we can focus on the teacher; not the teaching. What if this season, your mindset is simply to be a good student. You don't need to get straight A's in the garden - no one is putting that pressure on you but yourself. You're simply there to learn. To focus on the teaching. The teaching is what makes us better gardeners. Brevities Today we remember a phenomenal woman: Maria Sibylla Merian. She was born April 2, 1647. As a frame of reference, Isaac Newton was only a few years older than her. Unlike Newton, Merian's work was largely forgotten. However, over the past century, her work has made its way to us. Merian has the it factor. In 2011, Janet Dailey, a retired teacher and artist from Springfield, Illinois became so captivated by Merian's life story that she started a Kickstarter campaign to follow Merian's footsteps to the mecca of her best work - Surinam, in South America. In 2013, Merian's birthday was commemorated with a "Google Doodle". Merian would have delighted in our modern day effort to plant milkweed for the Monarchs.The concept that insects and plants are inextricably bound together was not lost on Merian. In her work, she carefully noted which caterpillars were specialists - meaning they ate only one kind of plant. (You can relate to that concept if your kid only wants to eat Mac and cheese; they aren't being picky - they're being specialists.) Before all this social media and high tech, drawings like Merian's were a holy grail for plant identification. One look at Merian's work and Linneas immediately knew it was brilliant. Merian helped classify nearly 100 different species long after she was gone from the earth. To this day, entomologists acknowledge that the accuracy in her art is so good they can identify many of her butterflies and moths right down to the species level! Between 1716 and 1717, during the last year of her life, Merian was visited multiple times by her friend, artist Georg Gsell - and his friend Peter the Great. Oh to be a fly on the wall for THAT meet up. Gsell ended up marrying Merian's youngest daughter, Dorothea Maria, and Peter the Great ended up with 256 Merian paintings. In fact, Peter the Great so loved these pieces that when Merian died shortly after his last visit, he immediately sent an agent to buy all of her remaining watercolors to bring them home to St. Petersburg. Here's a fun story for you. On the Maria Sibylla Merian Society website, the feature a video that shows writer Redmond O'Hanlon flipping through an original Merian folio (with gloveless hands!) Now O'Hanlon is a scholar and explorer himself. He is known for his journeys to some of the most remote jungles of the world. At one point in the video, he becomes speechless. Then, he just lets out this big sigh and says, "It's so simple. Without the slightest doubt, she is - she was the greatest painter of plants and insects who ever lived... I mean just between you and me, she's the greatest woman who ever lived. You can keep Catherine the Great.Maria Sybilla Merian is the real heroine of our civilized time." On this day in 1513, Juan Ponce de León claims new land for Spain. He names his discovery La Florida; in a nod to the Easter Season, which the Spaniards called Pascua Florida (Festival of Flowers). In 1819, the first successful agricultural journal, American Farmer, was published in Baltimore. Today, in 1711, Job Baster was born. Baster was one of the first Dutch nature researchers to use a microscope to look at flora and fauna. He wrote down his findings in a book. He also wrote an excellent translation of Philip Miller's work on horticulture. In 1758, Baster was given a beautiful property loaded trees and two large ponds. He called it Zonnehof (Sunshine Farms). As a new pond owner, Baster decided to try his hand at breeding Goldfish. A versatile scientist, Baster exchanged letters with leading biologists of his time and the first twelve fish arrive thanks to a contact in England. Unfortunately, all the goldfish die. The following year, Baster gets eighteen more fish. Two die, but the rest survive. Thirteen years later, Baster ow

It's the 1st of April - April Fools Day! April is derived from the word aperit- which means to open. Yet, every Prince fan, or northern gardener, knows that, sometimes it snows in April. So, April flowers should take heed; open at your own risk. Brevities April is National Pecan Month, Lawn and Garden Month, Fresh Celery Month, National Garden Month, Soy Foods Month, National Landscape Architecture Month, and National Safe Digging Month. Add 811 in your phone contacts. Save it under "Digging" In the notes, add a reminder to call at least three days before you dig. In 1851, a note was written to Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward (of Wardian case fame). The note was from Southwood Smith; an eminent English doctor, minister, and the father of sanitary reform (public health) in England. During his time, Southwood Smith was recognized as the originator of preventive medicine and he was constantly writing about health in ways the masses could easily understand and remember. He wrote numerous reports on cholera and he introduced the system of house-to-house visitation to prevent outbreaks. His obituary stated that Smith's work, "brought him much in contact with the poor, his penetrating and benevolent mind readily perceived how greatly physical suffering contributes to moral degradation." When Smith wrote to Ward on April 1, 1851, he was part of the successful effort to get the Window Tax repealed. Ever since 1696, England had imposed a tax based on, of all things,... wait for it...the number windows on a house. Crazy, right? On the plus side, the window tax was a no-brainer. Assessors just walked down the street and counted the windows on the house... and Bob's your uncle and there's your tax bill. But, then... the window tax story took a dark turn. Folks started bricking up their windows (nooo!)or building homes with fewer windows - simply to avoid the tax. No windows means no light... or ventilation. And, that created stuffy, sick living spaces. By the mid-1800's, doctors like Smith realized that the window tax had to go. So why would Smith (a doctor fighting the window tax) reach out to a plant guy like Ward? Well... it just so happened that Ward conducting experiments on the influence of light on plants and animals.Ward showed that light acted,"chemically on the blood of animals, and also on the sap of plants." Essentially, Ward was proving Smith's point: light was vital to health. Ward shared a story of how he had once grown two identical geraniums in different conditions - one in the light and the other in darkness. The geranium grown in dark, was stunted and sickly. It had a skinny thread-like stem and it was studded with pathetic excuses for leaves (that were no bigger than the head a pinhead). Smith realized that plants were enjoying better living conditions than the people. Like plants, people need light. Here's Smith's to-the-point note to Nathaniel Ward: My Dear Sir, If you should have recently made any additional observations on the influence of light in health or disease, I should be glad if you would favor me with it, as it may just now, perhaps, be turned to account with reference to the Repeal of the Window Duties. I am very faithfully yours, Southwood Smith It's the birthday of Peter Cundall (Books by this author). Born in 1927 - the big 92 this year. A Tasmanian gardener, Peter was the friendly host of the long-running TV showGardening Australia - one of the first shows committed to 100% organic practices and practical advice. Peter inspired both young and old to garden. In his epic "lemon tree episode," Peter got a little carried away and essentially finished pruning when the tree was little more than a stump. Thereafter, Cundallisation was synonymous for over-pruning. Peter learned to garden as a little boy. His first garden was a vegetable patch on top of an air raid shelter in Manchester, England. His family was impoverished. His father was an abusive alcoholic. Two of his siblings died of malnutrition. Through it all, the garden brought stability, nourishment, and reprieve. Of that time, Peter's recalls, "Lying in bed in the morning waiting for it to be light, so I could go out and get going in my garden. I used to think there was some gas given out by the soil that produced happiness." Unearthed Words In honor of Smith's note on the influence of light, here's a poem from Louis MacNeice (Books by this author), called Sunlight on the Garden. Louis wrote this poem in 1936, after his divorce from Mary Ezra and it is probably one of his best-known works. At the time, Louis lived at number 4, Keats Grove - just down the street from the romantic poet John Keats' impeccable white, Georgian villa (where Keats wrote his best-loved poems.) If you're ever in London, check out Keats House and gardens - it's a veritable time capsule. It has awesome reviews on Trip Advisor. Then, drive past Keats Grove Number 4 and peak at Louis MacNeice's home and front garden - it's still very charming. The poem contrasts lightn

The show will start Monday, April 1st. The show is called The Daily Gardener. The Daily Gardener is a weekday show (M-F) - weekends are for rest, family, fun, & gardening! Shows are between 5 - 10 minutes in length. The format for the show begins with a brief monologue followed by brevities: #OTD commemorating people, places, and events in horticulture #Readings of poems, quotes, journal entries, and other inspiring works #GardenBook recommendations to help you and your garden library grow #ToDo A Daily Garden Chore; improve your garden one actionable tip at a time #SomethingSweet; adding more joy to the pursuit of gardening There are a few easter eggs in the show for Still Growing listeners. I start the show with - "Hi there, everyone" and the show is made in (where else!) "lovely, Maple Grove, Minnesota". I'd love it if you would check it out and share it with your garden friends. I'd also like to invite you to join The Daily Gardener Facebook Group - just search for "The Daily Gardener Community" and request to join.