The Daily Gardener

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Botanical History On This Day 1830 Marianne North, the Victorian Artist Who Painted the World's Flora, is born. 1843 Learning from History: Vermont's Snowy October Surprise 1875 Cora Older, the Horticulturist and author known as the Pink Lady, is born. 2014 Remembering Margaret Owen, the Snowdrop Queen Grow That Garden Library™ Read The Daily Gardener review of A Life in the Garden by Barbara Damrosch Buy the book on Amazon: A Life in the Garden by Barbara Damrosch Today's Botanic Spark 1874 Henry Arthur Bright shares musings on his October garden. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Botanical History On This Day 1796 William Casson, English botanist, seed merchant, and local historian, was born. 1854 Annie Lorrain Smith, British lichenologist and textbook author, was born. 1865 Neltje Blanchan, American scientific historian and nature writer, was born. 1905 Katharine Stewart wrote in her garden journal featured in A Garden in the Hills Grow That Garden Library™ Read The Daily Gardener review of A Life in the Garden By Bunny Williams Buy the book on Amazon: A Life in the Garden By Bunny Williams Today's Botanic Spark 1813 Ludwig Leichhardt, German explorer and naturalist, was born. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1801 William Henry Seward "Sue-erd", an American politician who served as United States Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869, is born. He was also featured in the book by Doris Kearns Goodwin called Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, in which she wrote about William as a naturalist. He loved his garden. This little passage offers so many insights into William as a nature lover. As a gardener and just to set this up, this is taking place during the civil war when there's a little break in the action for Seward, and he accompanies his wife Frances and their daughter, back to Auburn, New York, where they were planning to spend the summer. Seward accompanied Frances and Fanny back to Auburn, where they planned to spend the summer. For a few precious days, he entertained old friends, caught up on his reading, and tended his garden. The sole trying event was the decision to fell a favorite old poplar tree that had grown unsound. Frances could not bear to be present as it was cut, certain that she "should feel every stroke of the axe." Once it was over, however, she could relax in the beautiful garden she had sorely missed during her prolonged stay in Washington. Nearly sixty years old, with the vitality and appearance of a man half his age, Seward typically rose at 6 a.m. when first light slanted into the bedroom window of his twenty-room country home. Rising early allowed him time to complete his morning constitutional through his beloved garden before the breakfast bell was rung. Situated on better than five acres of land, the Seward mansion was surrounded by manicured lawns, elaborate gardens, and walking paths that wound beneath elms, mountain ash, evergreens, and fruit trees. Decades earlier, Seward had supervised the planting of every one of these trees, which now numbered in the hundreds. He had spent thousands of hours fertilizing and cultivating his flowering shrubs. With what he called 'a lover's interest," he inspected them daily. Then I love what Doris writes next because she's contrasting Seward with Abraham Lincoln in terms of their love of working outside. [Seward's] horticultural passion was in sharp contrast to Lincoln's lack of interest in planting trees or growing flowers at his Springfield home. Having spent his childhood laboring long hours on his father's struggling farm, Lincoln found little that was romantic or recreational about tilling the soil. When Seward "came into the table," his son Frederick recalled, "he would announce that the hyacinths were in bloom, or that the bluebirds had come, or whatever other change the morning had brought." 1809 Martha Ballard recorded her work as an herbalist and midwife. For 27 years, Martha kept a journal of her work as the town healer and midwife for Hallowell, Maine. Today Martha's marvelous journal gives us a glimpse into the plants that she regularly used and how she applied them medicinally. And as for how Martha sourced her plants, she raised them in her garden or foraged for them in the wild. As the village apothecary, Martha found her own ingredients and personally made all of her herbal remedies. Here's what the writer, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Wrote about Martha's work back in May of 1809. Martha's far more expansive record focused on the mundane work of gardening, the daily, incremental tasks that each season exacted. In May of 1809, she "sowed," "sett," "planted,' and "transplanted" in at least half dozen places, digging ground "west of the hous" on May 15 and starting squash, cucumbers, muskmelons and watermelons on "East side house" the same day. She planted "by the hogg pen" on May 16 and 18 on May 23 sowed string peas "in the end of my gardin," and on May 26, planted "south of the hous." The plots she defined by the three points of the compass were no doubt raised beds, rich with manure, used for starting seeds in cool weather. The garden proper had a fence, which Ephraim mended on May 12. Whether it included the plot near the "hogg pen," we do not know. All of these spots, managed by Martha, were distinct from the "field." which Jonathan plowed on May 15, and DeLafayette and Mr. Smith on May 27 and May 31. Martha's was an ordinary garden, a factory for food and medicine that incidentally provided nourishment to the soul. "I have workt in my gardin, she wrote on May 17, the possessive pronoun the only hint of the sense of ownership she felt in her work. The garden was hers, though her husband or son or the Hallowell and Augusta Bank owned the land. "I have squash & Cucumbers come up in the bed East side the house," she wrote on May 22. The garden was hers because she turned the soil, dropped the seeds, and each year recorded in her diary, as though it had never happened before, the recurring miracle of spring. 1899 Luigi Fenaroli, the

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1497 John Cabot, the Canadian Explorer, set sail from Bristol, England, on his ship, Matthew. He was looking for a route to the west, and he found it. He discovered parts of North America on behalf of Henry VII of England. And in case you're wondering why we're talking about John Cabot today, it's because of the climbing rose named in his honor. And it's also the rose that got me good. I got a thorn from a John Cabot rose in my knuckle and ended up having surgery to clean out the infection about three days later. It was quite an ordeal. I think my recovery took about eight months. So the John Cabot Rose - any rose - is not to be trifled with. 1519 Leonardo da Vinci, the mathematician, scientist, painter, and botanist, died. Leonardo once said, We know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot. He also wrote, The wisest and noblest teacher is nature itself. And if you're spending any time outdoors, we are learning new lessons in spring. Isn't that the truth? There's always some new development we've never encountered - and, of course, a few delights. Leonardo continued to study the flower of life, the Fibonacci sequence, which has fascinated them for centuries. You can see it in flowers. You can also see it in cell division. And if you've never seen Leonardo's drawings and sketches of flowers, you are missing a real treat, and I think they would make for an awesome wallpaper. Leonardo once wrote about how to make your own perfume. He wrote, To make a perfume, take some rose water and wash your hands in it, then take a lavender flower and rub it with your palms, and you will achieve the desired effect. That timeless rose-lavender combination is still a good one. I think about Leonardo every spring when I turn on my sprinkler system because of consistent watering. Gives such a massive boost to the garden. All of a sudden, it just comes alive. Leonardo said, Water is the driving force in nature. The power of water is incredible, and of course, we know that life on Earth is inextricably bound to water. Nothing grows; nothing lives without water. Leonardo was also a cat fan. He wrote, The smallest feline is a masterpiece. In 1517 Leonardo made a mechanical lion for the King of France. This lion was designed to walk toward the king and then drop flowers at his feet. Today you can grow a rose named after Leonardo da Vinci in your garden. It's a beautiful pink rose, very lush, very pleasing, with lots of lovely big green leaves to go with those gorgeous blooms. It was Leonardo da Vinci who wrote, Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple, or more direct than does nature because in her inventions, nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous. 1803 On this day, Napoleon and the United States inked a deal for the Louisiana Purchase and added 828,000 square miles of French territory to the United States for $27 million. This purchase impacted the Louis and Clark Expedition because they had to explore the area that was bought in addition to the entire Pacific Northwest. To get ready for this trip, Meriwether Lewis was sent to Philadelphia. While there, he worked with a botanist, a naturalist, and a physician named Benjamin Smith Barton. He was the expert in Philadelphia, so he tutored Meriwether Lewis to get him ready because Lewis did not know natural history or plants. So he needed to cram all this information to maximize what he saw and collected. Now, in addition to all of this homework, all of this studying about horticulture and botany and the natural world, Meriwether made one other purchase for $20. He bought himself a big, beautiful Newfoundland dog, and he named him Seaman. It's always nice to have a little dog with you while exploring. 1806 The garden writer John Abercrombie died. The previous day, John had fallen down some steps. He had broken his hip a few weeks earlier, and so this last fall is what did him in. John was a true character. He loved to drink tea. He was a vegetarian. He was Scottish, and he was a lifelong gardener. His most significant success was his book, Every Man His Own Garden. John would go on to write other books on gardening like The Garden Mushroom, The Complete Wall and Tree Pruner (1783), and The Gardener's Daily Assistant (1786), but none of them rose to the level of popularity as Every Man His Own Garden. John and his wife had 17 children, and they all died before him - with his last child dying about ten years before he died on this day in 1806. 1867 Thomas Hanbury bought a property in the French Riviera that he called La Mortola. In 1913, The Botanical Journal shared the story of Thomas and his brother Daniel, and it also described the moment that Thomas saw his property for the first time. It had been the dream of Thomas Hanbury from

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1772 Karl Friedrich von Gaertner, German botanist, is born. Karl Friedrich von Gaertner had a fantastic last name; Gaertner translates to mean gardener. Karl was a second-generation gardener. His dad was Joseph Gaertner, the great German botanist and horticulturist, so Karl essentially stepped in his father's footsteps. Karl's claim to fame was his work with hybrids with hybridizing plants. Along with other botanists, he laid the foundation for Gregor Mendel, who discovered the basic principles of heredity through his experiments with peas in his garden at the Augustinian monastery he lived in at Brno ("BURR-no") in the Czech Republic. 1890 Phebe Holder's poem, A Song of May, appeared in newspapers this month. In addition to her religious poems, Phebe wrote about the natural world. Gardeners delight in her poems for spring and fall. Phebe is a fabulous New England Victorian poet and gardener I love and admire. She loved the delicate plants of springtime and wrote a poem called A Song of May. What song hast thou, sweet May, for me, My listening ear what song for thee? A song of life from growing things, The life thy gentle presence brings; The tender light of budding spray. The blooming down on willow grey, The living green that earth overspreads, The creamy flowers on mossy beds. From blossoms pure with petals white As pressed from out the moonbeam's light. The fragrant lily of the vale, The violet's breath on passing gale: Anemones mid last year's*leaves, Arbutus sweet in trailing wreaths, From waving lights of forest glade The light ferns hiding neath the shade. A song of joy from wood and plain, From birds in old-time haunts again; The silvery laugh of tuneful rill O'er rocky bed, down craggy hill; Soft coming of warm dropping showers, The sighing wind in piney bowers; The music breathed by low-voiced waves, For listening, from ocean caves, A plaintive strain doth memory sing, A breathing of departed Spring: An unseen Presence in the home, A spirit voice-"The Master's come!". While hearts in tender sorrow wept O'er one beloved who silent slept, Who in the May-time long ago Passed the pearl gates of glory through. A grateful song, our God, to Thee For treasures of the earth and sea; For all the beauty Thou hast given; A dream to loving hearts, of heaven; A song of life, of joy, of love, Of trust, of faith in light adore This offering on thy shrine I lay; This song hast thou for me, sweet May. Phebe's A Song of May recalls the flowers of spring. In the second verse, she's touching on many great spring beauties: the Lily of the Valley, violets, anemones, The Mayflower (also known as the trailing arbutus), and then, of course, ferns. In May, fern fronds cover the woodlands and understories. All of these spring plants emerge very quickly once they get growing. The ground transforms from leaf-littered - brown, drab, and dreary - to excellent with beautiful little blossoms. 1822 Thomas Hoy, English gardener, horticulturist, and botanist, died. Thomas was a dedicated gardener and head gardener for the Duke of Northumberland for over four decades - so he worked with plants his entire life. Thomas was a fellow of the Linnaean Society and liked to show his work at various plant societies And outings. Thomas is remembered as an experienced botanist and a capable cultivator. He was very good at his job. In fact, he was so good that the botanist Robert Brown named a popular plant genus for Thomas Hoy. Can you guess what it is? Well, if you were thinking Hoya, you are correct. The Hoya is a beautiful way to be remembered and honored. I love Hoyas. I picked up a couple of variegated Hoyas over the winter, and I'm so excited to see what the flower looks like. Overall the Hoya is a gorgeous plant named for the intelligent, thoughtful, and dedicated gardener Thomas Hoy, who died on this day when he was 72. 1867 Ralph Waldo Emerson inscribed a copy of his book, May Day, to Sophie Thoreau, the devoted sister of Henry David Thoreau. May Day is a collection of Emerson's writing and poems and includes the line, "Why chidest thou the tardy spring?" from his May Day poem. Why chidest thou the tardy Spring? The hardy bunting does not chide; The blackbirds make the maples ring With social cheer and jubilee; The redwing flutes his o-ka-lee, The robins know the melting snow; The sparrow meek, prophetic-eyed, Her nest beside the snow-drift weaves, Secure the osier yet will hide Her callow brood in mantling leaves; And thou, by science all undone, Why only must thy reason fail To see the southing of the sun? In other words, why be upset that spring is late? Spring has everything in hand. Don't be angry about nature's timing. A library first shared this inscription with Ralph Waldo Emerson's beautiful handwriting. About a decade after receiving the book, So

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1766 John Mulso writes to his friend English naturalist, Gilbert White, in Selborne Gilbert White was born in 1720, So he was 46 when he received this letter from John. At the time. Gilbert had been keeping a journal about the goings on in his garden. Gilbert kept a journal for about three decades, and it was eventually published to the delight of readers everywhere. Today people still love reading through Gilbert White's notations, drawings, and comments. Gilbert had a knack for observing the natural world and describing in a relatable way all the goings on outdoors. Gilbert was very curious. He was also really personable. When John Mulso begins his letter with a comment on the garden, he finds a point of agreement. Vegetation thrives apace now, and I suppose you are quite intent on your new study. You will not perhaps relish a Prospect the worse when we force you to look up, as presume you will go with your eyes fixed on the ground most part of the summer. You will pass with country folks as a man always making sermons, while you are only considering a Weed. John makes a very astute observation - Gilbert liked gardening more than anything else on Earth. Gilbert was like many pastors or reverends of his time who also pursued their hobbies as naturalists or gardeners. During the growing season, it was coming for a naturalist parson to get distracted by their gardens. 1809 A retired Thomas Jefferson enjoyed spending most of his time in his garden. (Finally!) In the spring of this year. Thomas was no longer consumed with the duties of being president. We know that in the last year of his presidency, he spent many hours pining for his garden and accumulating plants from his friend Bernard McMann and other plantsmen. So in April of 1809, Thomas Jefferson was living his dream and his best life as a gardener. He wrote to his friend, Etienne Lemaire, on this day, I am constantly in my garden or farms. And am exclusively employed out of doors as I was within doors when I was at Washington. I find myself infinitely happier in my new mode of life. Isn't that an interesting observation? Comments like that may pass unnoticed, but this change in seasons, the warmer weather, and getting outdoors is powerful medicine. Spending time outdoors plays a role in our attitudes and our moods. We get more vitamin D we feel more energy. This time of year, we eat the fresh green offerings from our gardens, whether microgreens or asparagus. The rhubarb is popping. You can even eat some hosta leaves, little tiny rolled-up cigars, as they emerge from the Earth. You can cut and fry them up in a pan the same way you would asparagus. (If they're good enough for the deer, they're good enough for us.) They're pretty tasty. The key is to harvest them early - just like you would the fiddleheads. The joys of spring... 1851 George Herbert Engleheart, English pastor and plant breeder, was born. Like Gilbert White, George Herbert Engleheart was a gardener and a pastor. In 1889, George began breeding daffodils - some 700 varieties in his lifetime. Sadly many of them have been lost to time, but we know that some survived. Fans of 'Beersheba,' 'Lucifer,' or 'White Lady' owe a debt of gratitude to Reverend Engleheart. Engleheart spent every spare minute breeding, and his parishioners would often find a note tacked to the church door saying, "No service today, working with daffodils." Engleheart's charming note reminds me of the little notes that gardeners hang on their porches or somewhere on their front door saying something sweet, like, " in the garden." And if you don't have one of those signs, you can grab a little chalkboard and a little twine And make your own. 1905 On this day, David Fairchild, the great botanist, married Marian Graham Bell, the daughter of Alexander Graham Bell. Marian and David Fairchild had a long and happy marriage. When David went on his plant explorations, Marian would often accompany him. Together the couple had three children. David Fairchild is considered American botanical royalty for all his collecting and the sheer quantity of his plant introductions, including items like pistachios, mangoes, dates, soybeans, flowering cherries, and nectarines. Without David Fairchild, we would not have cherry trees blooming in Washington, DC. We also might not have kale at Trader Joe's. (David Fairchild is the man who brought kale to the United States.) David also got the avocado here as well. David Fairchild had a fair amount of luck in his life. He had a generous benefactor in a wealthy woman named Barbara Latham, who funded many of his adventures. Of course, by marrying Marian, David had access to the connections of his famous father-in-law. Today you can continue to learn about David Fairchild and see his legacy at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic G

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1575 Birth of Jakob Böhme, German original thinker. Jakob Böhme did a great deal of thinking and writing, not only about theology and Christianity but also about the natural world. Here's what Mary Oliver wrote about Böhme. I read Jacob Boehme and am caught in his shining web. Here are Desire and Will that should be (he says) as two arms at one task; in my life they are less cooperative. Will keeps sliding away down the hill to play when work is called for and Desire piously wants to labor when the best season of merriment is around me. Troublemakers both of them them. And another writer I admire and enjoy is Elizabeth Gilbert. Elizabeth wrote about Jakob Böhme in her book, The Signature of All Things. The title of her book is from something that Jakob Böhme had written. Jacob Boehme was a sixteenth-century cobbler from Germany who had mystical visions about plants. Many people considered him an early botanist. Alma's mother, on the other hand, had considered him a cesspool of residual medieval superstition. So there was considerable conflict of opinion surrounding Jacob Boehme. The old cobbler had believed in something he called the signature of all things"- namely, that God had hidden clues for humanity's betterment inside the design of every flower, leaf, fruit, and tree on earth. All the natural world was a divine code, Boehme claimed, containing proof of our Creator's love. 1766 Robert Bailey Thomas, founder, editor, and publisher of The Old Farmer's Almanac, is born. Robert made his first edition - his very first copy of The Old Farmer's Almanac -back in 1792. 1889 Paul George Russell, American botanist, is born. Paul George Russell was born in Liverpool, New York. He worked as a botanist for the United States government for over five decades. Paul George Russell went on collecting trips in Northern Mexico. He's remembered in the names of several different plants, including the Verbena russellii, a woody flowering plant that is very pretty. And he's also remembered in the naming of the Opuntia russellii, which is a type of prickly pear cactus. Now during his career, Paul George Russell could identify plants based on what their seeds looked like. One of the ways that he developed this skill is he compiled a seed bank of over 40,000 different types of sources. Today Paul George is most remembered for his work with cherry trees. He was a vital part of the team that was created to install the living architecture of Japanese cherry trees around the Washington Tidal Basin. Paul George Russell put together a little bulletin, a little USDA circular called Oriental Flowering Cherries, in March 1934. It was his most impressive work. His guide provided all kinds of facts and detailed information about the trees just when it was needed most. People were curious about the cherry trees and fell utterly in love with them once they saw them blooming in springtime. Paul George Russell passed away at the age of 73 after having a heart attack. On a poignant note, he was supposed to see his beloved cherry trees in bloom with his daughter. They had planned a trip to go to the tidal basin together. But unfortunately, that last visit never happened. So this year, when you see the cherry trees bloom, raise a trowel to Paul, George Russell, and remember him and his fine work. And if you can get your hands on a copy of that 72-page circular he created in 1934, that's a find. It's all still good information. 1841 Charles Sprague Sargent, American botanist, is born. He was the first director of Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum. Charles was known for being a little curmudgeonly. He was pretty stoic. One of my favorite stories about Charles was the day he went on an exploration of mountains. The botanist accompanying him could hardly contain himself when they stopped at a spot of singular beauty. The botanist was jumping around and shouting for joy, and he looked over at Charles Sprague Sargent and said something to the effect of "How can you stand there and say and do nothing amidst this incredible beauty?" That's one of my favorite stories and a glimpse into the personality of Charles Sprague Sargent. 1914 James M. Bates observed a deep violet patch of blooming flowers in an alfalfa field in Arcadia Valley County in Nebraska. James wrote about the experience in a publication called The American Botanist. The plant that James was writing about was Chorispora tenella, which is in the mustard family. It is known by several common names, including purple mustard, Musk mustard, or the cross flower - because it's a crucifer meaning the flowers are in a cross shape. Now the name Musk flower has to do with the fragrance, the smell;, on a website for Colorado wildflowers, the author wrote, I think they smell of Crayola crayons, warmed and melting in the

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1597 On this day, The Herbal, by the English herbalist John Gerard, was first published. Today the book is considered a plagiarization of Rembert Dodoens's herbal published over forty years earlier. In his book, John shared over 800 species of plants and gorgeous woodcut illustrations. His descriptions were simple and informative. For instance, in his description of Self-heal or Brownwort (Prunella Vulgaris), he wrote, There is not a better wound herb to be found. In other instances, his descriptions gave us a glimpse into life in the 17th century. Regarding Borage blossoms, which he called Boragewort, he wrote, Those of our time use the flowers in salads to exhilerate and make the mind glad. During his life, John was allowed to garden on land at Somerset House, and for a time, he served as the herbalist to King James. In 1578, John was the first person to record and describe the Snakeshead fritillary (Fritillaria meleagris "mel-ee-aye-gris") thought to be native to parts of Britain but not Scotland. Today John is remembered in the botanical genus Gerardia. Today, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust sells Christmas cards featuring John Gerard's woodcuts of Holly, Pears, and Mistletoe. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust cares for Shakespeare's family homes and shares the love of Shakespeare from his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon. Anyway, if you'd like to support a great organization and enjoy the John Gerard Christmas cards and gift wrap, head on over to https://shop.shakespeare.org.uk/. 1826 Birth of Sereno Watson, American botanist & curator of the Gray Herbarium at Harvard University in Boston. He's remembered for succeeding Asa Gray at the herbarium and continuing much of his work from 1873 until his death. A great master of botany in the American west, he also wrote Botany of California. Modern botany students easily identify Sereno for his extremely impressive beard. Sereno was admired and respected by his peers for his great attention to detail. For instance, in 1871, Sereno named a new plant genus Hesperochiron for two little wildflowers only found in the western part of the United States. Hespero means west, and Chiron is a nod to the Centaur and the first herbalist who taught humanity about the healing powers of plants. When Sereno named this genus, he rejected the classification of these plants as members of the snapdragon family. But, after dissecting them, Sereno was convinced they belonged with the gentians. This type of due diligence and careful study made Sereno Watson a great botanist. Today, Sereno is remembered with a very cool plant: the saw palmetto or the Serenoa repens palm. This small palm which only grows to 8-10 feet tall, is the only species in the genus Serenoa. 1833 Birth of Ellsworth Jerome Hill, Presbyterian minister, writer, and American botanist. When Ellsworth was only 20 years old, one of his knees stopped working. A doctor attempted to help him figure out a way to make a living and suggested he study botany. Ellsworth pursued the suggestion and crawled from his house to the orchard, where he would pick a few flowers and then crawl back to the house to identify them. The following year, Ellsworth was using canes to walk, and he moved to Mississippi, where the climate was warmer. After Ellsworth met and married a young woman named Milancy Leach, she became his daily helpmate. When Ellsworth felt especially lame or lacked strength, Milancy would step in and finish the work for him. When Ellsworth was 40, he somehow put his lameness behind him. In the back half of his life, he seemed to be better able to manage his physical challenges and cope with the symptoms. In a touching tribute to Ellsworth after his death, the great botanist and grass expert Agnes Chase wrote: Most of these collections were made while Ellsworth walked on crutches or with two canes. Ellsworth told me that he carried his vasculum over his shoulder and a camp stool with his crutch or cane in one hand. To secure a plant, he would drop the camp stool, which opened of itself, then he would lower himself to the stool and dig the plant. Ellsworth recovered from his lameness but often suffered acute pain from cold or wetness or overexertion. But this did not deter him from making botanical trips that would have taxed a more robust man. In the Dunes, I have seen him tire out more than one able-bodied man. Ellsworth recognized the value in revisiting places that had been previously botanized. It was Ellsworth Jerome Hill who said, In studying the flora of a restricted region, no matter how carefully it seems to have been explored, one is frequently surprised by new things... No region can be regarded as thoroughly explored until every acre of its wild areas at least has been examined. Some plants are SO rare or local or grow under such p

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1791 On this day, Martha Ballard recorded her work as an herbalist and midwife. For 27 years, Martha kept a journal of her work as the town healer and midwife for Hallowell, Maine. In all, Martha assisted with 816 births. Today, Martha's marvelous journal gives us a glimpse into the plants she regularly used and how she applied them medicinally. As for how Martha sourced her plants, she raised them in her garden or foraged them in the wild. As the village apothecary, Martha found her ingredients and personally made all of her herbal remedies. Two hundred twenty-nine years ago today, Martha recorded her work to help her sick daughter. She wrote, My daughter Hannah is very unwell this evening. I gave her some Chamomile & Camphor. Today we know that Chamomile has a calming effect, and Camphor can help treat skin conditions, improve respiratory function, and relieve pain. 1835 Birth of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (known by his pen name Mark Twain), American writer and humorist. Samuel used the garden and garden imagery to convey his wit and satire. In 1874, Samuel's sister, Susan, and her husband built a shed for him to write in. They surprised him with it when Samuel visited their farm in upstate New York. The garden shed was ideally situated on a hilltop overlooking the Chemung ("Sha-mung") River Valley. Like Roald Dahl, Samuel smoked as he wrote, and his sister despised his incessant pipe smoking. In this little octagonal garden/writing shed, Samuel wrote significant sections of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Life on the Mississippi, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, The Prince and the Pauper, A Tramp Abroad, and many other short works. And in 1952, Samuel's octagonal shed was relocated to Elmira College ("EI-MEER-ah") campus in Elmira, New York. Today, people can visit the garden shed with student guides daily throughout the summer and by appointment in the off-season. Here are some garden-related thoughts by Mark Twain. Climate is what we expect; the weather is what we get. It was a soft, reposeful summer landscape, as lovely as a dream and as lonesome as Sunday. To get the full value of joy You must have someone to divide it with. After all these years, I see that I was mistaken about Eve in the beginning; it is better to live outside the garden with her than inside it without her. 1874 Birth of Lucy Maud Montgomery, Canadian writer and author of the Anne of Green Gables series. Lucy was born on Prince Edward Island and was almost two years old when her mother died. Like her character in Ann of Green Gables, Lucy had an unconventional upbringing when her father left her to be raised by her grandparents. Despite being a Canadian literary icon and loved worldwide, Lucy's personal life was marred by loneliness, death, and depression. Historians now believe she may have ended her own life. Yet we know that flowers and gardening were a balm to Lucy. She grew lettuce, peas, carrots, radish, and herbs in her kitchen garden. And Lucy had a habit of going to the garden after finishing her writing and chores about the house. Today in Norval, a place Lucy lived in her adult life, the Lucy Maud Montgomery Sensory Garden is next to the public school. The Landscape Architect, Eileen Foley, created the garden, which features an analemmatic (horizontal sundial), a butterfly and bird garden, a children's vegetable garden, a log bridge, and a woodland trail. It was Lucy Maud Montgomery, who wrote, I love my garden, and I love working in it. To potter with green growing things, watching each day to see the dear, new sprouts come up, is like taking a hand in creation, I think. Just now, my garden is like faith, the substance of things hoped for. 1875 Birth of Frank Nicholas Meyer, Dutch-American plant explorer. Frank worked as an intrepid explorer for the USDA, and he traveled to Asia to find and collect new plant specimens. His work netted 2,500 new plants, including the beautiful Korean Lilac, Soybeans, Asparagus, Chinese Horse Chestnut, Water Chestnut, Oats, Wild Pears, Ginkgo Biloba, and Persimmons, to name a few. Today, Frank is most remembered for a bit of fruit named in his honor - the Meyer Lemon. Frank found it growing in the doorway to a family home in Peking. The Lemon is suspected to be a hybrid of a standard lemon and mandarin orange. Early on in his career, Frank was known as a rambler and a bit of a loner. Frank once confessed in an October 11, 1901, letter to a friend, I am pessimistic by nature and have not found a road which leads to relaxation. I withdraw from humanity and try to find relaxation with plants. Frank was indeed more enthusiastic about plants than his fellow humans. He even named his plants and talked to them. Once he arrived in China, Frank was overwhelmed by the flora. A be

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1627 Birth of John Ray, English naturalist and writer. In 1660, he published a catalog of Cambridge plants. John developed his own system for classifying plants based on their observed similarities and differences. So he was clearly thinking about ways to distinguish one plant from another. And in his book, History of Plants, John was the first scientist to use the terms petal and pollen. John also wrote a Collection of English Proverbs. In one for summer, John wrote: If the first of July be rainy weather, It will rain, more or less, for four weeks together. 1799 Birth of Amos Bronson Alcott, American teacher, writer, Transcendentalist and reformer. In most aspects of his life, Amos was ahead of his time. He was also an abolitionist and an advocate for women's rights. He also advocated a plant-based diet. Amos once wrote, Who loves a garden still his Eden keeps, Perennial pleasures, plants, and wholesome harvest reaps. In 1830, Amos married pretty Abigail May, and together they had four daughters; the second-oldest was Louisa May, born on this day in 1832. 1832 Birth of Louisa May Alcott, American writer, and poet. She grew up in the company of her parents' friends and fellow Transcendentalists like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow In 1868, she wrote Little Women. In it, she wrote, Jo had learned that hearts, like flowers, cannot be rudely handled, but must open naturally... Louisa could be witty. She once wrote, Money is the root of all evil, and yet it is such a useful root that we cannot get on without it any more than we can without potatoes. 1978 Death of Edward C. Hummel, American plantsman and hybridizer. Edward and his wife Minnie ran Hummel's Exotic Gardens of southern California for 43 years. They specialized in cacti, succulents, bromeliads ("brow·mee·lee·ads"), and orchids. In 1935, Edward and Minnie were featured in a Quaker State Motor Oil advertisement. The young Hummel family is in their home cactus garden. Edward is examining a cactus specimen while his daughter Marquetta and son Edward gather around. Mother Minnie is standing behind them, looking on. The ad garnered plenty of attention, and soon Edward was fielding requests from American gardeners for more information about his cactus garden. The letters gave Edward and Minnie the idea to start a mail-order business for their plants. In 1943, during WWII, Edward published Hummel's Victory Picture Book. The cover featured a photo of two 6-foot-tall Barrel cacti at the base, leaning away from each other at the top in a perfect V formation for victory. The book was a smash hit, and subsequent editions were quickly put together. In the first edition, Edward wrote a note to his customers in the forward. Perhaps you will wonder at receiving this free picture book which contains no prices of plants. If you enjoy a few minutes of interest and relaxation in looking it over, it will have fulfilled its obvious purpose. If your interest and curiosity are stirred to the point that you write us for further information, it will have fulfilled its hidden purpose. After the War, the fumes from LAX drove the Hummels to find a new home for their nursery. They settled in Carlsbad and purchased an existing nursery after the founder Dr. Robert W. Poindexter, died unexpectedly. The nursery was a perfect fit. Robert Poindexter shared the Hummel's passion for cacti and succulents. Robert's son John finalized the sale. Edward was especially interested in propagating and selling drought-resistant plants in his nursery. He won many awards for his plants and was primarily known for his work with Bromeliads ("brow·mee·lee·ads"). Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation Flower Flash by Lewis Miller This book came out in 2021, and Lewis Miller is a celebrated floral designer and "Flower Bandit." The publisher writes, Before dawn one morning in October 2016, renowned New York-based floral designer Lewis Miller stealthily arranged hundreds of brightly colored dahlias, carnations, and mums into a psychedelic halo around the John Lennon memorial in Central Park. The spontaneous floral installation was Miller's gift to the city an effort to spark joy during a difficult time. Nearly five years and more than ninety Flower Flashes later, these elaborate flower bombs - bursts of jubilant blooms in trash cans, over bus canopies, on construction sites and traffic medians - have brought moments of delight and wonder to countless New Yorkers and flower lovers everywhere, and earned Miller a following of dedicated fans and the nickname the "Flower Bandit." After New York City entered lockdown, Miller doubled down, creating Flower Flashes outside hospitals to express gratitude to frontline health workers and throughout the city to raise spir

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1660 On this day, the first meeting occurred of what would become The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge. The Royal Society's Latin motto, 'Nullius in verba,' translates to "Take nobody's word for it." The motto reminded the Society's members to verify information through experiments and not just based on authority. 1694 Death of Matsuo Basho ("Bash=oh"), Japanese poet. He is remembered as the most famous poet of the Edo period and the greatest master of haiku. In one verse, Matsuo wrote, The temple bell stops But I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers. And in another poem from his book on traveling, he wrote, Many things of the past Are brought to my mind, As I stand in the garden Staring at a cherry tree. 1854 Birth of Gottlieb Haberlandt, Austrian botanist. His father was a pioneer in 'soybean' work, and his physiologist son is now regarded as the grandfather of the birth control pill. As for Gottlieb, he grew plant cells in tissue culture and was the first scientist to point out the possibility of the culture of Isolated & Plant Tissues. In 1902 he shared his original idea called totipotentiality ("to-'ti-pe-tent-chee-al-it-tee"), which Gottlieb defined as "the theory that all plant cells can give rise to a complete plant." Today we remember Gottlieb as the father of plant tissue culture. During the 1950s scientists proved Gottlieb's totipotentiality. Indeed, any part of a plant grown in nutrient media under sterile conditions can create a whole new plant. Today, the technique of tissue culture is a very efficient tool for propagating improved plants for food, hardiness, and beauty. 1881 Birth of Stefan Zweig, Austrian writer. During the 1920s and 1930s, at the peak of his career, Stefan was one of the most widely translated writers in the world. In The Post-Office Girl, Stefan wrote, For this quiet, unprepossessing, passive man who has no garden in front of his subsidised flat, books are like flowers. He loves to line them up on the shelf in multicoloured rows: he watches over each of them with an old-fashioned gardener's delight, holds them like fragile objects in his thin, bloodless hands. Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation English Cottage by Andrew Sankey This book came out in 2022, and it is a master guide to cottage-style gardening. The chapters in this book cover: The History of the Cottage Garden, Creating the "Cottage Garden Style, Cottage Planting Style, Cottage Flowers, Companion Planting, Green Structure, and Traditional Features. In the Preface, Andrew shares a bit about his background and how he came to master English Cottage Gardening. My first introduction to the style of the English cottage garden came when I was given a copy of Margery Fish's book, We Made a Garden. Having been enthralled with the book, I then traveled down to Somerset to see her wonderful cottage garden at East Lambrook Manor. Shortly after this, Geoff Hamilton started to construct his cottage gardens for the BBC Gardeners' World programs and it soon became apparent that this was the style of gardening I myself wished to adopt. Not long after this I moved to Lincolnshire and started my own garden design/landscaping business, and I soon realized it was difficult to obtain the more unusual plants required for number of my garden designs, in particular plants for dry shade positions. This encouraged me to look for a larger garden with the potential to run a small specialist nursery. This resulted in purchasing Grade II listed cottage (built in 1852) with a good-sized old cottage garden. Although the original garden (like many in Lincolnshire) had once been an extremely long strip stretching back to the village pond, the plot that came with the cottage was much reduced. Nevertheless, at almost half an acre it was more than enough for me to manage. Luckily the garden was pretty much a blank canvas, having a couple of large old fruit trees, a vegetable patch, various outbuildings and a chicken hut; and this afforded me the opportunity to make something special of the garden. It was here that my love for cottage gardens blossomed. Over time I re-designed the garden, I created different rooms/areas, spring and summer borders, and began experimenting with colour schemes and companion planting. I joined the Cottage Garden Society and then helped form the Lincolnshire branch, eventually becoming chairman. Within a few years I opened the garden under the National Gardens Scheme; I then started writing articles and lecturing on different aspects of the cottage garden. This book is the culmination of my years working on my own cottage gardens, designing and creating cottage gardens for clients, experimenting with companion planting and lecturing widely on the subject. I very much hope you enjoy it. This book is

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1714 Birth of William Shenstone, English poet, and landscape gardener. In the early 1740s, Shenstone inherited his family's dairy farm, which he transformed into the Leasowes (pronounced 'lezzoes'). The transfer of ownership lit a fire under Shenstone, and he immediately started changing the land into a wild landscape - something he referred to as an ornamented farm. Shenstone wisely bucked the trend of his time, which called for formal garden design (he didn't have the money to do that anyway.) Yet, what Shenstone accomplished was quite extraordinary. His picturesque natural landscape included water features like cascades and pools and structures like temples and ruins. What I love most about Shenstone is that he was a consummate host. He considered the garden's comfort and perspective from his visitors' standpoint. When he created a walk around his estate, Shenstone wanted to control the experience. So, Shenstone added seating every so often along the path to cause folks to stop and admire the views that Shenstone found it most appealing. Then, he incorporated signage with beautiful classical verses and poems, even adding some of his own - which elevated the Leasowes experience for his guests. After his death, his garden, the Leasowes, became a popular destination - attracting the likes of William Pitt, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. It was William Shenstone who said, Grandeur and beauty are so very opposite, that you often diminish the one as you increase the other. Variety is most akin to the latter, simplicity to the former. 1806 Birth of Charles Leo Lesquereux, Swiss botanist. Leo was born with a naturalist's heart. A self-described dreamer, Leo loved going out into the forest, collecting all kinds of flowers and specimens for his mother. Sadly, when Leo was seven years old, he fell off the top of a mountain. He was carried back to his home completely unconscious, with multiple injuries to his body and head trauma. He remained motionless and unconscious for two weeks. His survival was a miracle, yet the fall resulted in hearing loss that would eventually leave Leo utterly deaf by the time he was a young man. Despite the fall, nature still ruled Leo's heart. As Leo matured, he tried to provide for his family as a watchmaker. But, he found himself returning again and again to the outdoors. Eventually, Leo began to focus his efforts on peat bogs, and his early work protecting peat bogs attracted the attention of Louis Agassiz of Harvard, who invited Leo to bring his family to America. When he arrived, Leo classified the plants that Agassiz had discovered on his expedition to Lake Superior. Then, on Christmas Eve, 1848, Asa Gray summoned Leo to help William Starling Sullivant. Asa predicted the collaboration would be successful, and he wrote to his friend and fellow 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. So, Leo packed up his family, traveled to Columbus, Ohio, and settled near the bryologist, William Starling Sullivant. Bryology is the study of mosses. The root, bryos, is a Greek verb meaning to swell and is the etymology of the word embryo. Bryology will be easier to remember if you think of the ability of moss to expand as it takes on water. Mosses suited Leo and Sullivant's strengths. They require patience and close observation, scrupulous accuracy, and discrimination. Together, Leo and Sullivant wrote the book on American mosses. Sullivant funded the endeavor and generously allowed Leo to share in the proceeds. In 1873, Sullivant contracted pneumonia - ironically, an illness where your lungs fill or swell with fluid - and died on April 30, 1873. Leo lived for another 16 years before dying at the age of 83. It was Leo Lesquereux who said, My deafness cut me off from everything that lay outside of science. I have lived with Nature, the rocks, the trees, the flowers. They know me. I know them. 1810 Birth of Asa Gray, American botanist. As a professor of botany at Harvard University, Asa interacted with the top scientific minds of his time, including Charles Darwin. In 1857, Asa Gray received a confidential letter from Charles Darwin. In the letter, Darwin confided: I will enclose the briefest abstract of my notions on the means by which nature makes her species....[but] I ask you not to mention my doctrine. Darwin revealed his concept of natural selection two years later in his book, On the Origin of Species. Asa and Darwin mutually admired each other. Although Asa's masterwork, Darwiniana, deviated from Darwin's because Asa purported that religion and science were not mutually exclusive. Asa was a prolific writer. His most famous work was his Manual of the Botany of

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1771 On this day, heavy rains caused the ancient raised peat bog known as the Solway Moss to burst over its earthen banks and flowed down into a valley covering four hundred acres of farmland. The next day, Solway Moss covered the surrounding land with 15 feet of thick feculent mud. Solway Moss was a one-by-two-mile-long moss land growing since the end of the last Ice Age. The raised bog was an estimated 50 feet higher than the surrounding farmland. The living surface of the Solway Moss was a unique mix of bog cotton, sphagnum, and heather. The porous soupy surface hosted a few shrubs and standing pools of water. But the rotting vegetation created a dangerous predicament that no man or cattle would dare traverse throughout the year. Over two hundred years before the Solway Moss burst, the English and the Scots fought over the land surrounding the bog in the Battle of Solway Moss. After the English victory, hundreds of Scots drowned in the bog as they tried to return home by crossing the moss hillside. Like a sponge, peat expands to absorb moisture when it gets wet. And, during wet months like November of 1771, the peat swells; in this case, the peat swelled until it bursts. The incredible event was recorded in a journal: A farmer who lived nearest the moss was alarmed with an unusual noise. The crust had at once given way, and the black deluge was rolling toward his house. He gave notice to his neighbors with all expedition; others received no other advice but... by its noise, many by its entrance into their houses.... some were surprised with it even in their beds. [while some] remaining totally ignorant…until the morning when their neighbors with difficulty got them out through the roof. The eruption burst… like a cataract of thick ink... intermixed with great fragments of peat... filling the whole valley... leaving... tremendous heaps of turf. 1785 Birth of Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg, American Lutheran Pastor and botanist. He was always referred to by his second name Heinrich. The Muhlenberg family was a founding family of the United States, and Heinrich came from a long line of pastors. His father, Pastor Heinrich Melchior Mühlenberg, was known as the patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America. His brother was a major in the Revolutionary War, and his other brother was a Congressman. Muhlenberg's journals are a treasure trove of his thoughts on botanical self-improvement. He would write: How may I best advance myself in the knowledge of plants? And Muhlenberg would set goals and reminders to challenge himself, writing: It is winter, and there is little to do . . . Toward spring I should go out and [put together] a chronology of the trees; how they come out, the flowers, how they appear,. . . . I should especially [take not of] the flowers and fruit. The grass Muhlenbergia was named for Heinrich Muhlenberg. Muhly grasses are beautiful native grasses with two critical strengths in their plant profile: drought tolerance and visual punch. In addition, Muhly grasses are easy-going, growing equally well in harsh conditions and perfectly manicured gardens. The Muhly cultivar 'White Cloud' offers gorgeous white plumes. When the coveted Pink Muhly blooms, people often stop and ask the name of the beautiful pink grass. Lindheimer's Muhly makes a fantastic screen, and Bamboo Muhly commands attention when it is featured in containers. All Muhly grasses like well-drained soil and full sun. If you plant them in the fall, be sure to get them situated and in the ground at least a month before the first frost. And here's an interesting side note: Muhlenberg also discovered the bog turtle. In 1801, the turtle was named Clemmys muhlenbergii in his honor. 1818 Death of England's Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III. Charlotte is remembered as the patroness of the arts, an amateur botanist, and a champion of Kew Gardens. In addition to the astounding fact that Charlotte gave birth to 15 children, she was a fascinating royal. Born in Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Germany, Charlotte was the first person in England to bring a Christmas tree indoors to celebrate the holiday season. Charlotte had gotten the idea from her home country of Germany. In December 1800, Charlotte selected a yew which was brought inside Windsor Castle and festively decorated. Charlotte and her husband, King George, both loved botany. After his mother died, George gained control of Kew and Charlotte set about expanding Kew Gardens. On the property, Charlotte had a little cottage installed along with a rustic cottage garden. Her daughter Elizabeth likely painted the attic room ceiling with nasturtium and morning glory. Charlotte was quite serious in her pursuit of botany. She collected plants and had a personal herbarium to help with her studies. The President of the Linn

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1643 Birth of Sir Jean Chardin, French jeweler and traveler. Jean is remembered for his ten-volume work, The Travels of Sir John Chardin, which is considered one of the most important early accounts of Persia and the Near East. In Travels, Jean wrote about the Persian love language of tulips. When a young man presents a tulip to his mistress he gives her to understand, by the general color of the flower that he is on fire with her beauty, and by the black base of it that his heart is burnt to a coal. 1845 Death of Elizabeth Fox, also known as Baroness Holland, English political hostess and flower lover. When she was 15, Elizabeth married Sir Godfrey Webster, who was twenty years her senior. After having five children in six years, Elizabeth began an affair with a Whig politician named Henry Fox, the 3rd Baron Holland. When she had his child, she divorced Godfrey and quickly married Mr. Fox. Together they had six more children. Elizabeth is remembered for her strong will and domineering nature. She was a zealous socialite and highly passionate about flowers. In garden history, Elizabeth is remembered for introducing the Dahlia to England. In 1804 during a visit to Madrid's Royal Botanic Gardens, Elizabeth received Dahlia pinnata seeds from the botanist Antonio José Cavanilles ("Cah-vah-nee-yes"). When she returned to England, the little seeds were successfully cultivated in her gardens at Holland House. Twenty years later, Elizabeth's beloved second husband, Henry Fox, was so proud of her effort to share the Dahlia with England that he wrote these words in a little love note: The dahlia you brought to our isle Your praises forever shall speak; 'Mid gardens as sweet as your smile, And in color as bright as your cheek. 1964 Death of Denys Zirngiebel, Swiss-born naturalist, florist, and plant breeder. After establishing a home in Needham, Massachusetts, Denys sent for his wife and little boy. Denys and Henrietta had four children. Their only daughter (also named Henriette) married Andrew Newell Wyeth, and their son was NC Wyeth, the Realistic Painter. During the 1860s, Denys worked for the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University. He later bought a 35-acre tract of land along the Charles River in Needham and started his floral business. An excellent businessman, Denys expertly marketed his inventory. Denys shipped flowers to the White House and the State Department each week. In a nod to his Swiss heritage, Denys was the first person in America to cultivate the Giant Swiss Pansy successfully. Denys's Needham nursery grew so many Giant Swiss Pansies that the town adopted the flower as their floral emblem, and Denys became known as the "Pansy King." 2001 On this day, the French Film Amelie was released in the United States. In the movie, Amélie steals her father's garden gnome to help him escape his depression after losing his wife. Amélie gives the gnome to an airline stewardess. Her father starts receiving photos of his garden buddy visiting iconic travel destinations like Monument Valley, The Empire State Building, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, The Blue Mosque in Instanbul, and The Sphinx in Cairo, Egypt. In the end, Amélie's plan works. In the last scene, her dad sets off on his own adventure inspired by a little garden gnome. On a historical note, one of the earliest mentions of garden gnomes I could find was from July 9, 1928, in the Liverpool Echo. The article announced: Quaint Garden Ornaments... a quaint littie tribe of people - garden gnomes, sixty in number - [were] sold by auction, in Liverpool. They were imported from the Continent. Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation The Revolutionary Genius of Plants by Stefano Mancuso This book came out in 2018, and the subtitle is A New Understanding of Plant Intelligence and Behavior. The Wall Street Journal raved about this book in their review: In this thought-provoking, handsomely illustrated book, Italian neurobiologist Stefano Mancuso considers the fundamental differences between plants and animals and challenges our assumptions about which is the 'higher' form of life. The editor wrote, ...world-renowned scientist Stefano Mancuso reveals the surprisingly sophisticated ability of plants to innovate, to remember, and to learn, offering us creative solutions to the most vexing technological and ecological problems that face us today. Despite not having brains or central nervous systems, plants perceive their surroundings with an even greater sensitivity than animals. They efficiently explore and react promptly to potentially damaging external events thanks to their cooperative, shared systems; without any central command centers, they are able to remember prior catastrophic events and to actively adapt to new ones. Stefano introduced the controversial topic of plant memory this

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1791 On this day, Australia's first thriving grapevine was planted. The First Fleet's Captain Arthur Phillip brought grape cuttings from South America and South Africa and produced a small vineyard at Farm Cove. Today, Farm Cove is the location of the Sydney Botanical Gardens. When the plants did not bear, they were transplanted to Parramatta. Arthur Philip served as the first Governor of New South Wales when his Crimson Grapes flourished in the warm Australian fertile soil. Today Crimson Grapes can also be found in Victoria and southeastern Queensland. Australian Crimson Grapes enjoy a long harvest period from November to May. 1869 Birth of Charlotte Mary Mew, English poet. In her poem, In Nunhead Cemetary, she wrote, There is something horrible about a flower; This, broken in my hand, is one of those He threw it in just now; it will not live another hour; There are thousands more; you do not miss a rose. And in The Sunlit House, she wrote, The parched garden flowers Their scarlet petals from the beds unswept Like children unloved and ill-kept But I, the stranger, knew that I must stay. Pace up the weed-grown paths and down Till one afternoon ... From an upper window a bird flew out And I went my way. 1887 Birth of Georgia O'Keeffe, American modernist artist. During her incredible career as a painter, Georgia created over 900 works of art. She is remembered for her iconic paintings of skulls and flowers. In 1938 Georgia's career stalled. Yet she was approached by an advertising agency about creating two paintings for the Hawaiian Pineapple Company (now Dole Food Company) to use in their advertising. Georgia was 51 years old when she took the nine weeks, all-expense-paid trip. Georgia never did paint a pineapple. And gardeners will enjoy this obscure fact: Of all the floral paintings that O'Keeffe created in Hawaii, exactly NONE were native to the island. Instead, Georgia loved the exotic tropicals imported from South America: Bougainvillea, Plumeria, Heliconia, Calliandra, and the White Bird of Paradise. It was Georgia 0'Keeffe who said all of these quotes about flowers - a subject for which she held strong opinions. Nobody sees a flower - really - it is so small it takes time ...like to have a friend takes time. I hate flowers. I paint them because they're cheaper than models and they don't move! If you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for a moment. I decided that if I could paint that flower on a huge scale, you could not ignore its beauty. 1930 Birth of James Graham Ballard (pen name J.G. Ballard), English novelist. James was part of the New Wave of science fiction in the 1960s. Yet, he is most remembered for his 1984 war novel, Empire of the Sun. In The Unlimited Dream Company, James wrote, "Miriam - I'll give you any flowers you want!' Rhapsodising over the thousand scents of her body, I exclaimed: "I'Il grow orchids from your hands, roses from your breasts. You can have magnolias in your hair... In your womb I'll set a fly-trap!" And in The Garden of Time, James wrote, "Axel," his wife asked with sudden seriousness. "Before the garden dies ... may I pick the last flower?" Understanding her request, he nodded slowly. James once wrote, I believe in madness, in the truth of the inexplicable, in the common sense of stones, in the lunacy of flowers. Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake This book came out in 2021, and the subtitle is How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures. This book has won all kinds of recognition: The Wainwright Prize, the Royal Society Science Book Prize, and the Guild of Food Writers Award • Shortlisted for the British Book Award Longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize. The publisher writes, In Entangled Life, the brilliant young biologist Merlin Sheldrake shows us the world from a fungal point of view, providing an exhilarating change of perspective. Sheldrake's vivid exploration takes us from yeast to psychedelics, to the fungi that range for miles underground and are the largest organisms on the planet, to those that link plants together in complex networks known as the "Wood Wide Web," to those that infiltrate and manipulate insect bodies with devastating precision. Entangled Life is a fascinating read. Merlin's passion for fungi (fun-ghee) knows no bounds. Fungi are often referred to as a neglected kingdom of life. Compared to other kingdoms like plants and animals, we know very little about fungi, and only six percent has thus far been described. And Fungi are more closely related to animals than to plants. Today most plant life depends on relationships with mycorrhizal fungi or fungi that live in their roots. These fungi help plants acquire water and nutrients. They also protect the plants from dis

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1771 Birth of Xavier Bichat ("bee'shah"), French anatomist and pathologist. Remembered as the father of modern histology, or the study of tissues. In his work, Xavier did not use a microscope and still discovered 21 distinct types of tissues in the human body. His work accelerated and transformed the way doctors understood disease. Sadly, Xavier died accidentally in his early thirties in 1802 after falling down the steps of his hospital. Today, Xavier Bichat's name is one of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower. A lover of nature, Xavier's work was grounded in observations from the natural world. Charles Darwin quoted Xavier in his book The Descent of Man. The great botanist Bichat long ago said, if everyone were cast in the same mould, there would be no such thing as beauty. If all our women were to become as beautiful as the Venus de' Medici, we should for a time be charmed; but we should soon wish for variety; and as soon as we had obtained variety, we should wish to see certain characteristics in our women a little exaggerated beyond the then existing common standard. The beauty of nature and the secret to that beauty is in nature's diversity and the ephemeral nature of all things - the seasons, flowers, the weather, etc., Xavier also wrote, Life is the sum of forces resisting death. 1776 Birth of Henri Dutrochet, French physician, botanist, and physiologist. After studying the movement of sap in plants in his home laboratory, Henri discovered and named osmosis. Henri shared his discovery with the Paris Academy of Sciences on October 30th, 1826. Like the cells in our human bodies, plants don't drink water; they absorb it through osmosis. Henri also figured out that a plant's green pigment, chlorophyll, is essential to how plants take up carbon dioxide. Hence, photosynthesis could not happen without chlorophyll. It turns out chlorophyll helps plants gather energy from light. And if you've ever asked yourself why plants are green, the answer is chlorophyll. Since it reflects green light, chlorophyll makes the plant appear green. As for Henri, he was a true pioneer in plant research. He was the first to examine plant respiration, light sensitivity, and geotropism (How the plant responds to gravity, i.e., roots grow down to the ground.) Geotropism can be confusing at first, but I think of it this way: The upward growth of plants - fighting against gravity - is called negative geotropism, and the downward growth of roots, growing with gravity, is called positive geotropism. And there's a tiny part of the plant at the very end of the root that responds to positive geotropism, and it's called the root cap. So, what makes the roots grow downward? The small but mighty root cap - responds to positive geotropism. 1907 Birth of Astrid Lindgren, Swedish writer of fiction and screenplays. Astrid is remembered for several children's book series, including Pippi Longstocking. She wrote more than 30 books for children and has sold 165 million copies. In January 2017, Astrid's prolific work made her the fourth most translated children's author trailing Enid Blyton, Hans Christian Andersen, and the Brothers Grimm. Astrid was a flower lover. In her book, Mio, My Son, Astrid wrote, He turned to the Master Rose Gardener and said something even more peculiar, "I enjoy the birds singing. I enjoy the music of the silver poplars." In her book, Most Beloved Sister, Astrid wrote, Then the flowers stopped singing and the trees stopped playing, and I could no longer hear the brook's melody. "Most Beloved Sister," said YlvaLi. "When Salikon's roses wither, then I will be dead.' And in Astrid's story Bullarbyn, the maid Agda tells a group of girls that if on Midsummer night, they climb over nine fences and pick nine different flowers in complete silence, without speaking a single word, and then return home to put the flowers under their pillow, they will dream of their future husband. On Social Media, there's a marvelous photograph of Astrid climbing a pine tree. In the photo, Astrid is 67 years old. She apparently climbed the tree in her front yard after being dared by her 80-year-old friend Elsa. Astrid later quipped, There's nothing in the Ten Commandments forbidding old ladies to climb trees, is there? Astrid once wrote, In our unknown past we might have been creatures swinging from branch to branch, living in trees. Perhaps in the deepest depths of our wandering souls we long to return there... perhaps it is pure homesickness that makes us write poems and songs of the trees... 1908 Birth of Harrison Salisbury, American journalist. After World War II, Harrison became the first regular New York Times correspondent in Moscow. He went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for his work. Harrison once wrote, My favorite word is 'pumpkin.' You are a pumpkin. Or

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1802 Birth of George Pope Morris was an American editor, poet, and songwriter. George co-founded the daily New York Evening Mirror with Nathaniel Parker Willis. George and Nathaniel also started Town and Country magazine. Nathaniel once wrote that George was "just what poets would be if they sang like birds without criticism." In 1837, George wrote his popular poem-turned-song Woodman, Spare that Tree! The verse resonated with conservationists. Woodman, woodman, spare that tree Touch not a single bough For years it has protected me And I'll protect it now Chop down an oak, a birch or pine But not this slipp'ry elm of mine It's the only tree that my wife can't climb So spare that tree 1825 On this day, the English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote, Nature is a wary wily long-breathed old witch, tough-lived as a turtle and divisible as the polyp. The polyp Coleridge refers to is the water plant discovered by Abraham Trembley in 1740. That year, Abe was walking along a pool of water and saw what he called a polyp or a hydra. Abe was astonished to see the organism's response to being chopped into pieces; it would simply regenerate into a new whole organism. 1895 Birth of Lin Yutang, Chinese inventor, writer, and translator. Yutang's English translations of Chinese classics became bestsellers in the West. Yutang once wrote, I like spring, but it is too young. I like summer, but it is too proud. So I like best of all autumn, because its tone is mellower, its colours are richer, and it is tinged with a little sorrow. Its golden richness speaks not of the innocence of spring, nor the power of summer, but of the mellowness and kindly wisdom of approaching age. It knows the limitations of life and its content. 1900 Birth of Helen Hayes MacArthur, American actress. Remembered as the "First Lady of American Theatre," she was the first person to win the Triple Crown of Acting - an Academy Award, an Emmy Award, and a Tony Award. In her spare time, Helen was also a gardener. Regarding wildflowers, she said, They won't bow to one's wishes. They don't want to be tamed. That must be the reason these darling, lovely, little things won't cooperate. While most people credit Helen's success with her passion and inner drive, Helen found the time she spent in her garden as restorative. She wrote, All through the long winter I dream of my garden. On the first warm day of spring I dig my fingers deep into the soft earth. I can feel its energy, and my spirits soar. Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation Garden as Art by Thaïsa Way ("Ty-EE-sah") This book came out in 2022, and the subtitle is Beatrix Farrand at Dumbarton Oaks. If Thaïsa's name sounds familiar to you, it is because she is the director of garden and landscape studies at Dumbarton Oaks and her book is one of two new books this year as part of the centennial celebrations at Dumbarton. As this garden enters its second century, I see Thaïsa's book as a commemorative book, which features the beautiful garden photography of Sahar Coston-Hardy ("Sah-har Cost-in Hardy"). Along with the photography, there is a wonderful selection of essays that were handpicked to reveal the history of design in the garden and the significance of those gardens from a variety of different voices. So, this is an extraordinary book. If you're a fan of Dumbarton Oaks, then this book is an absolute must-have. And what I find especially wonderful about this book are the seasonal glimpses of Dumbarton Oaks that are offered by Sahar's photography and seeing the transformation at Dumbarton throughout the year is really quite special. If you're a fan of Beatrix and her work, then you know that Dunbarton is regarded as her crowning achievement and this book is definitely a testament to that. Harvard published this book, and they write that, The book invites the reader to contemplate the art of garden design and the remarkable beauty of the natural world. There are archival images of the garden that offer a chronicle of evolving design concepts. And the book also illustrates how gardens change over time as living works of art. And so that brings us to the title Garden as Art. Garden as Art offers an inspiring view of a place that has been remarkably influential in both design and the art of landscape architecture. This is a very special book and would make a wonderful Christmas present for yourself as a gardener or for a gardener in your life. This book is 312 pages of one of our country's most beautiful gardens with a beautiful story to tell featuring Beatrix Farrand and Dumbarton Oaks. You can get a copy of Garden as Art by Thaïsa Way and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for around $42. Botanic Spark 1817 On this day, the garden of a Mr. Pringuer

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1747 Birth of Antoine Nicolas Duchesne ("do-Shane"), French botanist, gardener, and professor at Versailles. A specialist in strawberries and gourds, Duchesne was a student of Bernard de Jussieu at the Royal Garden in Paris. A plant pioneer, Duchesne recognized that mutation was a natural occurrence and that plants could be altered through mutation at any time. And when he was a young botanist, Duchesne began experimenting with strawberries. Ever since the 1300s, wild strawberries have been incorporated into gardens. But, on July 6, 1764, Duchesne created the modern strawberry - the strawberry we know and love today. Strawberries are members of the rose family, and their seeds are on the outside of the fruit. Just how many seeds are on a single strawberry? Well, the average strawberry has around 200 seeds. Now, if you're wondering whether to cut your strawberry plants back for winter, you should cut your plants back about three inches after your final harvest. As you tidy up your strawberry plants for winter, you can remove all dead leaves and trimmings. Right about now, strawberry growers are winterizing their plants, which is pretty straightforward. Simply cover your plants with 6-8 inches of mulch. Then when spring returns, remove the winterizing mulch as your strawberry plants wake up and start growing. 1817 On this day, James Madison, America's fourth President, was elected to serve as the President of his local Agricultural Society. James had just retired from his presidential duties and quickly resumed his passion for cultivating the land. James spent many hours every day working in his four-acre Montpelier garden. The horse-shoe-shaped bed was assumed to be an homage to the floor of the house of representatives. The following May, James spoke to his fellow farmers and gardeners in the Agricultural Society about some of the latest discoveries in agriculture, such as the benefits of incorporating manure to leverage nitrogen and optimizing the water for plant uptake. James Madison was one of America's earliest conservationists. He was primarily concerned with preserving the land and wise stewardship of natural resources. 1817 Birth of Joseph Stayman, Kansas horticulturist. His obituary announcement said, Dr. Stayman is dead at Leavenworth. He came to Kansas in 1859 and brought a half million fruit grafts with him, from which he started the fruit industry of the state. The doctor was well-named, and lived true to the name as his fruit trees were. Joseph helped establish the Kansas State Horticultural Society in 1866. He dropped his medical practice to pursue horticulture and bred new varieties of apples, strawberries, and grapes at his orchards, which hosted over 3,000 trees. Joseph specifically worked to cultivate varieties best suited to the Kansas soil and climate. Joseph was a renaissance man and developed skills across a spectrum of skills and science. He bred the famous Clyde strawberry and established himself as an outstanding botanical artist (many of his drawings are at the Smithsonian). And Joseph was one of the country's best checker players. Some games lasted months to a year since Joseph played many matches by correspondence. 1849 Birth of James Whitcomb Riley, American writer and poet. In his poem, The Ripest Peach, he wrote, The ripest peach is highest on the tree -- And so her love, beyond the reach of me, Is dearest in my sight. Sweet breezes, bow Her heart down to me where I worship now! She looms aloft where every eye may see The ripest peach is highest on the tree. In the US, over thirty states grow peaches. The peach season varies by state, but it usually ends by early October. Peaches are a member of the rose family and are rich in vitamins A and C. Freestone peaches are the type of peaches that we buy whole and eat raw. The Clingstone peach is canned commercially. Clingstone peaches get their name because Cling peaches have stones that cling to the peach flesh. By extracting the stone, the fruit is damaged yet still tasty, so processing and canning are ways to redeem the damaged fruit. And although Georgia is known for its peaches, California produces more peaches every year. Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation Growing Joy by Maria Failla ("Fy-ELL-ah") This book came out in 2022, and the subtitle is The Plant Lover's Guide to Cultivating Happiness (and Plants). And Maria says her book is full of planty practices to grow your way to a happier and more peaceful life. Well, this is another garden book that was conceived during the early days of the pandemic. And if you remember that time, so many of us were feeling disconnected and stressed and anxious - and we were looking for ways to feel more anchored, healthy, stronger, and positive. And this was definitely the case with Maria. In fact, she

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events Today is Garlic Lovers Day Garlic, or stinking rose, is a member of the lily family. Onions, leeks, and shallots are also in the family. All alliums are reactive to the amount of daylight they receive, so a great way to think about the garlic life cycle is that it matures during the longest days in the summer. This is why Autumn is garlic-planting time in most areas, and many gardeners wait until after the fall equinox in the back half of September. (This year's autumnal equinox is Thursday, September 22, 2022). By planting garlic in the fall, your garlic gets a headstart on the growing season, which means that when spring arrives, your little garlic shoots will be one of the first plants to greet you in the April rain. Garlic has antibiotic properties and helps reduce blood pressure and cholesterol. Herbalists recommend garlic as a remedy for colds. And Gilroy, California, is known as the World's Garlic Capital. Most of us know and love garlic as a culinary staple - a must-have ingredient for most savory dishes. Alice May Brock, American artist, author, and former restaurateur, once wrote, Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good. And Anthony Bourdain, in Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, wrote: Garlic is divine. Few food items can taste so many distinct ways, handled correctly. Misuse of garlic is a crime...Please, treat your garlic with respect...Avoid at all costs that vile spew you see rotting in oil in screwtop jars. Too lazy to peel fresh? You don't deserve to eat garlic. 1794 Birth of Charles Wilkins Short, American botanist and doctor. A Kentuckian, Charles wrote a flora of Kentucky in 1833. He had one of the largest, most valued private herbariums with 15,000 plant samples, and his massive garden covered several acres. Charles was honored in the naming of many plants, including the Oconee bell named the Shortia galacifolia. The location of the plant became a mystery during the 1800s. In 1863, Charles Short died, and at the time, the Shortia plant still could not be found. But finally, in May of 1877, a North Carolina teenager named George Hyams sent an unknown specimen to Harvard's top plant expert, the knowledgeable Asa Gray, who could be heard crying 'Eureka' when he finally saw the Shortia specimen. Two years later, Asa and his wife, along with his dear friend, the botanist John Redfield, the director of the Arnold Arboretum Charles Sprague Sargent, and the botanist William Canby got to see the Shortia in the wild in the spot where George Hyams knew it was growing. The scientists all stood around the little patch of earth where the Shortia grew in oblivion, and the long search to find the Shortia, named for Charles Wilkins Short, was over. 1799 Death of the English botanist geologist, physician, and chemist William Withering. William was a doctor and the first person to study Digitalis - most commonly known as Foxglove. The story goes that one day, he noticed a person suffering from what was then called dropsy, an old word for a person suffering from congestive heart failure. William observed that the patient in question showed remarkable improvement after taking an herbal remedy that included Digitalis or Foxglove. Today William gets the credit for discovering the power of Digitalis because after he studied the various ingredients of this remedy, he determined that Digitalis was the key ingredient to addressing heart issues. In 1785, William published his famous work, An Account of the Foxglove and Some of its Medical Uses. Foxgloves are a beautiful plant often seen in ornamental or cottage gardens. Foxgloves produce beautiful tall flower spikes, and each spike can contain 20 to 80 purple to pink tubular blossoms that are whitish on the inside. Foxgloves are toxic, and eating any part of the plant can result in severe poisoning. And this is important to know because when Foxglove first emerges from the ground, it can be confused for Comfrey or Plantain. Since both of those plants are used as edible plants by many people - it's important to distinguish them and remember where you're planting Foxglove in your garden. Foxglove is actually in the Plantain family. Before flowering, Foxglove can also be confused with Great mullein (Verbascum thapsus). In addition to the Foxglove common name, Digitalis has many adorable common names, including Fairy Fingers, Fairy Thimbles, Rabbits Flower, and Scotch Mercury. And there are many delightful stories about the Foxglove. One foxglove origin story says that fairies gave blossoms to a Fox who needed to put the flowers on his toes to muffle the sound of his feet as he hunted for prey. This would account for the

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1852 On this day, Henry David Thoreau writes in his journal. The maples are reddening, and birches yellowing. The mouse-ear in the shade in the middle of the day... looks as if the frost still lay on it. Bumblebees are on the Aster... and gnats are dancing in the air. The Mouse Ears that Thoreau mentions in this excerpt is actually a species of forget-me-not (Myosotis laxa) known as the tufted forget-me-not, bay forget-me-not, or just the small-flower forget-me-not. Mouse Ears like to grow in wet areas, so I can believe there was still frost on this forget-me-not when Thoreau looked at it - especially since it was probably in a low-lying or damp area. Now Thoreau himself went into a little more detail about the Mouse Ears forget-me-not. He wrote. It is one of the most interesting minute flowers. It is the more beautiful for being small and unpretending; even flowers must be modest. Thoreau underscores this point of agreement that I have with longtime gardeners: the longer we garden, we come to appreciate some of the more subtle, more minor details in a much bigger way than we did when we were first starting out. We mature in our perspective on our garden - or on different plants or species of plants in our gardens. Our thinking evolves and changes - and what we love about our garden grows as we mature as gardeners. 1921 Death of Mary Hiester Reid (books about this person), American-born Canadian painter, and teacher. A painter of floral still lifes, Mary was a tonalist - passionate, poetic, and subtle - and her works have been called "devastatingly expressive." In her career, Mary was both an impressionist and a realist. Mary produced over 300 oil paintings. In her prime in 1890, Mary was regarded as the most critical flower painter in Canada. Mary often painted trios - so her paintings would feature three flowers or three trees, for example. The author, Molly Peacock, offers additional insight into Mary's work with trios and triangulation as a reflection of what was going on in her own life. Molly points out that, Mary and her husband lived in a loose menage with a talented younger artist named Mary Evelyn Wrinch... Mary Evelyn Wrinch was both Mary Hiester Reid's friend and rival and 24 years her junior. When Mary died, in her will, she specified that her husband should be given to Mary Evelyn Wrinch. Mary's death so moved the Canadian newspaperman Duncan Sutherland Macorquodale that he felt compelled to write a memorial poem in her honor. The verse refers to Mary's Wychwood home. (Wychwood was an artist's enclave of sixty homes tucked in the rolling wooded hills of the Davenport Ridge in Toronto.) Here's an excerpt of Duncan's tribute to Mary. 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. In September of last year, Molly Peacock's fabulous book on Mary Hiester Reid was published. It's called Flower Diary: In Which Mary Hiester Reid Paints, Travels, Marries & Opens a Door. 1926 On this day, the Dahlia was officially designated as San Francisco's city flower. The Dahlia Society of California had been founded almost a decade earlier, and the club was responsible for getting the city to embrace the beautiful Dahlia as its own. A newspaper account of their efforts to persuade city leaders was shared in a local newspaper: The... desks in the headquarters of the Board of Supervisors burst into bloom yesterday when the Dahlia Society of California ... presented a petition asking for the dahlia's "appointment" as the official flower of San Francisco. The petition...pointed out that... nowhere else in the world is such favorable soil for the Dahlia found. As the city's official flower, [the Dahlia] will win worldwide notice for San Francisco in the same manner [that the rose has for] Portland. [As the petition was read, women], armed with great bouquets of giant dahlias, distributed the colorful blossoms among the listening Supervisors. Supervisor James B. McSheehy, presiding over the meeting, was surrounded by a bower of enormous blooms. So that is how the Dahlia became San Francisco's official flower. Since 1926, Dahlias are generally in peak bloom at the Dahlia Dell in Golden Gate Park in early August - a month known as the foggiest, grayest month of the year in San Francisco. The Dahlia Dell just inside Golden Gate Park. To get to the Dahlia Dell, head east past the Conservatory of Flowers. Volunteers from the Dahlia Society of California still maintain the garden - and hold an annual Dahlia & Tuber Sale and an annual two-day Dahlia show. As for the beautiful Dahlia, it's the official flower of Seattle, the city of destiny and goodwill. And it may surprise you to learn th

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events National Butterfly and Hummingbird Day Look at the Leaves Day 1877 Birth of Otto Emery Jennings, former curator at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and devoted scientist. In 1904, Jennings started as the custodian at the Carnegie Museum, where, over the next 41 years, he held almost every position before becoming the director of the Museum in 1945. Today, the Jennings Nature Reserve near Butler, Pennsylvania, is named for Otto Jennings. Otto worked to protect the 20-acre area because it was a natural habitat for the native Blazing Star (Liatris spicata "Ly-at-truss Spah-cah-tah"). The Jennings Reserve was expressly established to ensure that the Blazing Star could spread and multiply. The Blazing Star is native to North America and is known by other common names, including the Gayfeather or Prairie Star. The Blazing Star is a late-bloomer and features majestic plumes in purple or white. Blazing Star is a gardener favorite, easy to grow and propagate, it's low maintenance, makes excellent cut flowers, and pollinators love them (Monarchs go crazy for Blazing Star). The Blazing Star grows up to 16 in tall, but if you want something more elevated, its cousin, the Prairie Blazing Star, can grow five feet tall. 1891 Birth of Lewis Stiles Gannett, American journalist, and author. Lewis wrote The Living One, Magazine Beach, The Siege, and two Millennium novels: Gehenna and Force Majeure. In Cream Hill: Discoveries of a Weekend Countryman (1949), Lewis wrote: But each spring . . . a gardening instinct, sore as the sap rising in the trees, stirs within us. We look about and decide to tame another little bit of ground. Lewis also wrote, Gardening is a kind of disease. It infects you, you cannot escape it. When you go visiting, your eyes rove about the garden; you interrupt the serious cocktail drinking because of an irresistible impulse to get up and pull a weed. 1895 Birth of Sergei Yesenin (books about this person), Russian lyric poet. One current biographical account of Sergei's life said, "his poems [became] the people's songs." Today, the Yesenin Monument graces the Tauride Garden in the center of Saint Petersburg. The likeness of Sergei Yesenin, seated in a thoughtful pose, is made of solid white marble. There are words that are difficult to translate ie Russian because there is no English equivalent. For instance, there is a word that translates to "mushroom rain." A mushroom rain is a gentle, fragrant rain that wets the forest floor in a steady, lazy fashion. It's the kind of rain that is perfect for mushroom cultivation. In terms of his use of language, Sergei Yesenin was not averse to adding new words to the Russian lexicon. He once created a Russian word to describe how sand ripples across the surface when blown by the wind - something Sergei would have seen daily growing up along the banks of the Oka river near the birch forests in his hometown. Sergei's first poem Beryoza (The Birch Tree), was published in a children's magazine in January of 1914. Today Sergei's Birch tree poem is still taught in Russian schools. Birch trees are a powerful symbol in Russia, where folklore held that planting birches around a village had the power to ward off cholera. A beloved tree in Russia, Birch trees can be found growing across the breadth and depth of the country. In addition to the birch, Sergei wrote about the maple, willow, fir, lime tree, poplar, and bird cherry. Here's an excerpt from The Birch Tree: Under my own window White is birch's hue • Snowy blanket-shadow, Silver patterned too. On its fluffy branches With a snowy hem Tassels' blossom blanches Fringe's icy gem. Standing, birch is yearning, Silent, sleepy spire, Falling snow is burning In its golden fire. Lazy dawn in wrinkles, Circling all around, Now its branches sprinkle Newly silver-crowned. Sergei once wrote, In this world you can search for everything, except Love and death. They find you when the time comes. All will pass like the smoke of white apple trees Seized by the gold of autumn. I will no longer be young. 1900 Birth of Thomas Wolfe (books by this author), American novelist. Thomas once wrote, All things on earth point home in old October: sailors to sea, travelers to walls and fences, hunters to field and hollow and the long voice of the hounds, the lover to the love he has forsaken. He also wrote, And the flowers grew in rioting glory... Garden and Gun magazine once shared this quote about Thomas Wolfe: Thomas Wolfe may have said 'You can't go home again,' but I can. Just give me some vinegar and red pepper and I'm there. Today, the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Garden in Chapel Hill is a living memorial to Thomas. Thomas attended the University of North Carolina and remained one of their most famous alumni. And there is, at Chapell Hill, a wonderful sculpture of

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1757 On this day, Horace Walpole wrote a letter to his friend John Chute Esquire about the heat wave coursing through Europe. July of 1757 set many records for heat. At the time, it was the hottest month ever recorded in Paris history and for the country of England. The English physician John Huxham, a provincial doctor remembered for his study of fevers, noted that the heat caused many health issues for people. Horace's letter from his home at Strawberry Hill ended with these words, I say nothing of the heat of this magnificent weather, with the glass yesterday up to three quarters of sultry. In all English probability this will not be a hinderance long; though at present... I have made the tour of my own garden but once these three days before eight at night, and then I thought I should have died of it. For how many years we shall have to talk of the summer of fifty-seven! 1817 Birth of Henry David Thoreau, American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher. National Simplicity Day is observed on July 12th in his honor. Thoreau advocated for living a life of simplicity, and he is best known for his book Walden, a reflection on simple living in natural surroundings. A leading Transcendentalist, his essay, Civil Disobedience, was an argument for disobedience to an unjust state. Thoreau said all of these things: The bluebird carries the sky on his back. God made ferns to show what he could do with leaves There are moments when all anxiety and toil are becalmed in the infinite leisure and repose of nature. I know because I read...Your mind is not a cage. It's a garden. And it requires cultivating. Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders. Gardening is civil and social, but it wants the vigor and freedom of the forest and the outlaw. I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion. Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of each. We can make liquor to sweeten our lips Of pumpkins and parsnips and walnut-tree chips. I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn. 1895 Birth of Oscar Hammerstein II, American lyricist, librettist, theatrical producer, and director in the musical theater. Oscar Hammerstein II was born into a show business family who lived in New York. His father and uncle, Willie and Arthur Hammerstein were successful theater managers, and his grandfather, Oscar Hammerstein I, was a famous opera impresario. Oscar's career spanned almost four decades, during which time he won eight Tony Awards and two Academy Awards for Best Original Song. For Carousel, Oscar famously wrote his most famous lyric, June is bustin' out all over. The last song Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote together before his death in August of 1960 was Edelweiss, Captain von Trapp's poignant farewell to his beloved homeland. Oscar used the flower to symbolize Captain von Trapp's loyalty to Austria. Nine months after The Sound of Music opened on Broadway, Oscar Hammerstein II died from stomach cancer. 1895 Birth of Richard Buckminster Fuller, American architect, systems theorist, author, designer, inventor, and futurist. Richard styled his name R. Buckminster Fuller for his writing. He wrote over thirty books and coined or popularized terms such as "Spaceship Earth," "ephemeralization," and "synergetics." In 1960, he also popularized the geodesic dome, and he installed one called the "Climatron" in the Missouri Botanical Garden. Richard predicted it would last for a while but was not a permanent structure. The word Climatron is a blend of the Greek words for climate and machine. The magnificent dome was also the world's first fully air-conditioned greenhouse. The Climatron ranges from 64°F at night to a high of 85°F — the perfect temperature range for keeping the rainforest plants happy and healthy. Today, some sixty years after its debut, the Climatron is still standing and is home to nearly 3,000 plants covering almost 200 different plant species, including one that produces the largest tree-born fruit in the world: the Jackfruit. The Climatron also hosts at least three varieties of coffee plants. And every January, the Climatron closes for tree trimming of the tallest trees as they reach the edges of the geodesic dome. Trimming allows the trees to continue actively growing and lets sunlight filter in to reach ground-level plants. Richard wrote, Nature does have manure and she does have roots as well as blossoms, and yo

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1788 On this day, Horace Walpole wrote about the powerful impact of rain on the garden. He wrote, My verdure begins to recover its bloom.. in this country, nobody pays his debts like rain. It may destroy your flowers, but you cannot complain of want of fruit; cherries, apples, walnuts, are more exuberant than their leaves. 1893 Birth of Dorothy Thompson, American journalist and radio broadcaster. She is remembered as the First Lady of American Journalism. In 1934, Dorothy was the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany. In her final book, The Courage to Be Happy (1957), she wrote: I am inclined to think that the flowers we must love are those we knew when we were very young, when our senses were most acute to color into smell, and our natures most lyrical. 1933 Birth of Oliver Sacks, British neurologist, naturalist, historian of science, and writer. I once watched a video featuring Dr. Oliver Sacks, who practiced medicine in NYC across from the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG). In the video, Oliver reflected on the garden and its meaning. I've cobbled together a few of his inspiring thoughts. Here's what he said: I think of this garden as a treasure. First, it's a haven. In a noisy, crowded New York, we need a haven; we wander around, and time doesn't matter too much. When I worked at the hospital opposite the garden, I used to come in every day. Specifically, I would come in after seeing my patients but before writing up my notes. And, I would walk around the garden and put everything out of consciousness except the plants and the air. But, by the time I got back, the patient's story would have crystallized in my mind [and then] I could then write it straight away. But I needed this sort of incubation in the garden, and to go for a walk in the garden; that sort of thing is an essential thing for me in writing. I think nature has a healing effect; the garden the closest one can come to nature. The garden has affected me and does affect me in various ways; it's not just the pleasure of walking around but [also] the very special virtues of the library and the museum and the fact that, in some ways, this is a university as well as a garden. I just feel very comfortable in the garden, and whenever people come to New York from out of town or out of the country, I say let's go to the garden. I would like to quote a couple of lines from a TS Eliot poem: Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?' Let us go and make our visit. In his book, The River of Consciousness, Oliver wrote, While most of the flowers in the garden had rich scents and colors, we also had two magnolia trees, with huge but pale and scentless flowers. The magnolia flowers, when ripe, would be crawling with tiny insects, little beetles. Magnolias, my mother explained, were among the most ancient of flowering plants and had appeared nearly a hundred million years ago, at a time when "modern" insects like bees had not yet evolved, so they had to rely on a more ancient insect, a beetle, for pollination. Bees and butterflies, flowers with colors and scents, were not preordained, waiting in the wings—and they might never have appeared. They would develop together, in infinitesimal stages, over millions of years. The idea of a world without bees or butterflies, without scent or color, affected me with a sense of awe. 2021 On this day, India's first cryptogamic garden, with nearly fifty different species, is opened. Cryptogams are non-seed-bearing plants. These primitive plants do not reproduce through seeds, for example, algae, bryophytes (moss, liverworts), lichens, ferns, fungi, etc. The garden is located in the Deoban area of Dehradun in Uttarakhand and is situated at 9000 feet and spread over three acres. Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation Botany for the Artist by Sarah Simblet ("Sim-blit") This book came out in 2020, and the subtitle is An Inspirational Guide to Drawing Plants. In this book, Sarah Simblet takes you on an inspirational journey of creativity and botanical art as she demonstrates how to draw virtually every type of plant. As Sarah writes in the forward, This book was inspired by my love of gardening, a desire to know more about the structures, forms, and lives of plants, and an opportunity to spend a whole year exploring wild landscapes and the fabulous collections of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Oxford University Herbaria. These collections generously gave or lent me hundreds of pieces of plants to draw or have photographed for this book. Botany for the Artist features around 550 species, chosen to represent almost every kind of plant and habitat on Earth. Gorgeous, unfamiliar exotics are celebrated alongside more common plants, to show the beauty and wonder of the bird-of-paradise flower and the pavement milk thistle, trop

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1726 Birth of John Berkenhout, English physician, naturalist, and writer. While studying at Edinburgh, John published a botanical lexicon reference. In it, he wrote, Those who wish to remain ignorant of the Latin language have no business with the study of Botany. 1822 On this day, Caroline Herschel wrote in her diary about her brother, William Herschel, the German-English astronomer and composer. Caroline Herschel assisted her brother in his astronomical work, and she became an accomplished astronomer and comet discoverer in her own right. She's remembered as a comet hunter. Two centuries ago, on this day, Caroline wrote, I had a dawn of hope that my brother might regain once more a little strength; for I have a [note] in my almanac of his walking with a firmer step than usual -- above three or four times the distance from the... house to his library in his garden, for the purpose [of gathering and eating] Raspberries with me; but I never saw the like again. William Herschel died about six weeks later, at the age of eighty-four. This year is the 200th anniversary of his death. Forty-one years earlier, on the night of 13 March 1781, William, with his homemade 6.2-inch reflecting telescope, discovered a new planet: Uranus. He initially thought it was "either a Nebulous star or perhaps a comet," and he named it George - Georgium Sidus (the Georgian Planet) - in honor of his patron, King George III. But surprisingly, the name did not stick, and George was renamed Uranus after the Greek god of the sky. Uranus is the first and only planet (thus far) discovered from a backyard garden. Today William and Caroline's Georgian townhouse and garden at 19 New King Street in Bath is the home of the lovely Herschel Museum. You can stand in the beautiful garden where William and Caroline spent so much time together gazing at the stars. William's son, John, became an accomplished astronomer and a polymath. He was involved in many other sciences, including botany. 1912 On this day, Mrs. F. E. Griggs of Raymond, Nebraska, began selling her surplus tomatoes. She shared the story of her garden with nurseryman Henry Field for publication in his book, The Book of a Thousand Gardens. Mrs. Griggs, who sold over $50 worth of tomatoes from 135 plants, wrote, I had worked very hard for four months, and my garden was a very nice one and I couldn't see it die, so I started in to carry water (a long distance up a 30-foot creek bank). But it did not rain until fall. ...[and] the fall rains washed the fertilier down and they again set the largest crop I ever saw. I pruned my vines severely and also pinched off all tomatoes that would be gnarled or poor shape, as soon as could see them, and it paid well in the nice crop of smooth ones I got. The first were ripe July 4th, and on July 8th we were already oversupplied and began selling the surplus to people who had no gardens at all this year. They were 15c per lb. at first, and people said, "Too dear to eat", so my first ones went at 3c. Later, as they acquired a taste for them, I got 5c, then 7½c and 10c [per pound], but always 3c to 5c under the town retail price, although I had to deliver them. On Aug. 26th they dropped to 5c, as people were just getting a few scattered ones of their own, and up to that date I had sold $50.00 worth. They were then coming so fast that I had to go on the jump almost to dispose of them, and in my haste one foot slipped from the buggy step and I fell, breaking and badly crushing [my leg] just above the ankle. So that ended my garden. Not entirely [though], for my heart was [in the garden] and the following week with this fractured limb in plaster cast, I crawled down to [the garden] and gathered [tomatoes] ... I am still unable to walk much. I then had to give the patch away, and there have been fully 40 bushels eaten, given away and wasted besides my $50.00 worth sold; and the frost has just caught the vines uncovered with an enormous crop of ripe ones and green ones in all stages, just bushels of them. I hope some day to see just what an acre of these Field's Early June tomatoes will do. 1955 Birth of Monty Don, English horticulturist and writer. He once wrote, I always see gardening as escape, as peace really. If you are angry or troubled, nothing provides the same solace as nurturing the soil. Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation Peonies by Jane Eastoe This book came out in 2018, and the subtitle is Beautiful Varieties for Home & Garden. And I should mention that the magnificent romantic photographs are by Georgianna Lane. The publisher wrote this about Jane's book. From Shawnee Chief to Top Brass, this guide to over 60 varieties of peonies presents an eclectic selection of specimens—from those with the best visual appearance and the most fragrant perfume, to those th

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1713 Death of Henry Compton, Bishop of London from 1675 to 1713. Although Henry played an important role in English political and religious circles, his main passion was plants — especially scarce and exotic plants. It was said that Henry relished staying on the fringes of Charles II's court because it gave him more time to devote to his plants and gardens. One of his closest friends was one of the earliest English parson-naturalists, John Ray, who published the first account of North American flora in his Historia Plantarum (1688). Since Henry's role overseeing the Church extended to the American Colonies, Henry was able to get his hands on all the new plant discoveries from the new world. Henry even personally sent a man named John Banister to collect plants for him in Virginia. John is most remembered for sending Henry the Magnolia virginiana and Dodecatheon media. Tragically, John died at 38 after falling from a cliff while exploring the area above James River. Between his involvement with the top plant explorers and nurseries of his day and his special relationship with the Tradescant family, Henry was able to fully stock his garden at Fulham Palace. This Tudor country house was home to England's clergy for over a millennium. When he was alive, Henry's garden was reputed to have a greater variety of plants than any other garden in England. It featured over 1,000 exotic plants and tropicals, making it one of his time's most popular, envied, and essential gardens. Henry's kitchen garden always grew a great crop of his favorite vegetable: kidney beans. In 1686, even William Penn's Pennsylvania gardener was keen to swap seeds and plants with Henry Compton. History records that Henry felt guilt about the amount of church money he had invested in plants. His collection of trees was also particularly exciting. Henry grew the first Liriodendron tulipifera (the tulip tree), Liquidambar (American Sweetgum) used as a veneer or satinwood in furniture, Acacia, Mahogany, and Maple trees in England. The garden designer Capability Brown found a special inspiration after touring Fulham, and it was there that he first saw the cluster-pin, the ash-maple, the cork oak, the black Virginian walnut, and the honey locust. Henry also grew the first American azalea grown in England, Rhododendron viscosum. Henry even managed to grow the first coffee tree in England with the help of his heated "stove.". In 1698, the Governor of Virginia personally sent Henry a Magnolia virginiana for "his paradise at Fulham." Three hundred years after Henry planted the first Magnolia virginiana grown in Europe at St. Anne's Church, a new tree was planted in the exact same spot to honor the botanical work of Bishop Henry Compton. The Arnold Arboretum at Harvard propagated the Magnolia sapling, and it was hand-delivered by Vi Lort Phillips, a member of the International Dendrology Society. The tree was planted on the 19th of May in 1992 and is already forty years old this year (2022). St. Anne's Church was special to Henry. He consecrated the grounds in honor of Queen Anne because he had tutored both Princesses Mary and Anne when they were young. 1893 Birth of Miroslav Krleža, Yugoslav and Croatian writer, poet, and cultural influencer. Miroslav's nickname was Fritz, and he is often credited as the greatest Croatian writer of the 20th century. Miroslav believed that Serbs and Croats were one people suffering from two national consciences, which inevitably pitted them against each other. Today three hours west of his hometown of Zagreb, a celebrated statue of Miroslav stands in Opatija above the city's famous Slatina Beach. During WWI, Miroslav wrote in his diary at the Croatian Botanical Garden in Zagreb. The relaxing gardens edge the city railroad tracks before blending into the native grass and forestlands that feather the countryside. Although Miroslav found the garden suitable for writing, he dismissed its beauty and criticized it as a "boring second-rate cemetery." Miroslav served in the same regiment as Yugoslavian communist dictator Tito during the war, but the two men didn't become lifelong friends until 1937. Tito protected Krleža from pressures in his party. Tito once told him, I know you're an old liberal and that you disagree with me on many things, but I wouldn't want to lose you. In 1938, Miroslav wrote On the Edge of Reason - an instant classic about human nature, hypocrisy, conformism, and stupidity. Miroslav once wrote, There is no justice even among flowers. 1908 Birth of Herbert Rappaport, Austrian-Soviet screenwriter, and film director. Born in Vienna, Herbert first studied law before finding work in the movie business. In 1936, he was invited to help internationalize Soviet Cinema, and he spent the next four decades working as a filmmaker in Russia

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1686 Birth of Antoine de Jussieu ("Ann-twan do Jyou-sue"), French naturalist, botanist, and physician. Born in Lyon, Antoine was the son of an apothecary. After touring Spain, Portugal, and southern France with his brother Bernard, he went to Paris and ultimately succeeded Joseph Pitton de Tournefort as director of the royal gardens. In 1713, Antoine shared the first scientific reference to coffee with the Royal Academy of Sciences of France. He called it Jasminum arabicanum, but Carl Linneaus gave the official botanical classification forty years later in 1753. Antoine once wrote about finding plant fossils in a quarry. I observed on most collected stones the imprints of innumerable plant fragments which were so different from those which are growing in the Lyonnais, in the nearby provinces, and even in the rest of France, that I felt like collecting plants in a new world... The number of these leaves, the way they separated easily, and the great variety of plants whose imprints I saw, appeared to me... as many volumes of botany... [in] the oldest library of the world. 1865 On this day, members of the John Wesley Powell expedition raided a garden on an island in the Green just above the mouth of the White River. The expedition had just thrown out more spoiled food, and the group faced the constant fear of hunger. In Powell of the Colorado (2015), William Culp Darrah wrote, Fresh fruit had been mighty scarce and the temptation to steal some greens was irresistible. The Major, Andy, and Bill Dunn filled their arms with young beets, turnips, carrots, and potatoes. The men rowed a few miles down the river and paused to enjoy the stolen fruit. Of course the season was not advanced enough to yield sizable vegetables, so Andy cooked up the whole mess as greens. It was a not-quite-unpleasant stew. After eating their fill and disposing of the remainder, the men resumed the journey. They had not gone a mile before all hands except Bradley and Howland were violently nauseated. Bradley explained that the potato tops were so bitter he had not eaten any. The Major said their illness was caused by a narcotic in the potato leaves, but Hall swore that it was all his fault; in their haste he had only half-cooked the stuff. Sumner wrote in his diary, "We all learned one lesson--never to rob gardens." 1887 Birth of Marc Chagall (born Moishe Shagal)(books about this person), Russian-French artist of Belarus. He was an early modernist and created in various formats, including paintings, drawings, stained glass, ceramics, and tapestries, among many others. The art critic Robert Hughes called Chagall "the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century." And Pablo Picasso once said, When Matisse dies, Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what color really is. It was Marc Chagall himself who once wrote, Art is the unceasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers – and never succeeding. 1907 Birth of Frida Kahlo (books about this person), Mexican painter. Frida is remembered for her portraits, self-portraits, and work inspired by Mexican nature and artifacts. She once wrote, I paint flowers so they will not die. She also wrote, I wish I could do whatever I liked behind the curtain of "madness". Then I'd arrange flowers, all day long. I'd paint pain, love and tenderness. I would laugh as much as I feel like at the stupidity of others, and they would all say: "Poor thing, she's crazy! Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation The Ultimate Flower Gardener's Guide by Jenny Rose Carey This book came out in 2020, and the subtitle is Simple Ideas For Small Outdoor Spaces. In this book, Jenny Rose Carey is essentially teaching a master class on ornamental gardening. If you are looking for ways to add interest, color combinations that are guaranteed to work instead of clash, and how to incorporate favorite blossoms or aspects of flowers, you'll find everything you're looking for in this very inspiring and jam-packed book on all kinds of beautiful flowers. Most flower experts teach color first. Jenny brings new dimensions into play - namely shape and texture. But Jenny's focus on texture and shape works surprisingly well - especially if you are someone who struggles with color in the garden. Shape and texture are two often overlooked floral elements, but they are equally important as color in garden design. Without shape and texture, gardens would lack that sense of excitement, mystery, and magnetism that exist in our most beloved gardens. Jenny also does a great job of keeping today's gardener in mind. She selected the annuals and perennials that she recommends in her book based on their ease of care, appeal to pollinators, and wildlife friendliness. This book is 364 pages of beautiful flower gardening all season long - no matte

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1698 On this day, the English writer, landowner, gardener, courtier, and diarist, John Evelyn, went to Deptford to "see how miserably the Czar... left my house after three months [of] making it his Court." Keep in mind John's appreciation for the amount of work a garden requires as I tell you this little story about him. In 1698, John Evelyn had owned his estate for 40 years. Everyone who knew it said it was magnificent - both inside and out. It was decorated to the nines. Of all he had accomplished, John's garden was his pride and joy. That year, the Russian Czar, Peter the Great, brought an entourage of 200 people to England to visit William III. In a gesture of hospitality, William volunteered John Evelyn's home to host the Czar and his people during their visit. John and his wife graciously moved out to give the Czar his privacy. But it wasn't long before John's servants began sending urgent messages begging him to return. And when John returned home, he walked into a nightmare. The whole estate had been trashed. Priceless paintings had served as dartboards. His floors were ruined, windows were smashed; even the garden was destroyed. The servants told how the 6'8 Czar had played a game with his friends where they put him in one of John's wheelbarrows and then raced him through the garden beds, crashing into walls, trees, and hedges. It must have been a scene akin to the movie Animal House. Clearly, the Czar had shown a complete disregard for the sanctity of John's garden. As gardeners, we can imagine how John must have felt. For twenty years, John had nursed along a hedge of holly that had turned into a glorious living wall. John, who was an expert on trees, was particularly proud of that hedge, and he wrote, Is there under heaven a more glorious and refreshing object of the kind than an impregnable hedge of about 480 feet length, 9 feet high, and 5 feet in diameter Sadly the hedge was also ruined by the Czar. And even the hardscapes were no match for the Czar's party, and part of a stone wall surrounding the garden was toppled over. John immediately sent word to the king about what had happened, and arrangements were made straight away to move the Czar to other lodgings. King William made arrangements to have the Evelyn home fully restored - the house needed to be gutted and rebuilt from the floors up. John Evelyn was 78 years old when this happened to him. I'm sure there was no amount of restitution that could restore the years of love he had spent in his garden. He lived for another eight years before dying in 1706. Today John is remembered for his detailed diary that he kept for 66 years. As a passionate gardener, many of his entries pertain to plants, landscaping, and related garden topics. John believed that gardening was a year-long endeavor and that the experience of gardening provided immeasurable benefits. John wrote, The gardener's work is never at an end, it begins with the year and continues to the next. Gardening is a labor full of tranquility and satisfaction; natural and instructive, and [aids the] most serious contemplation, experience, health, and longevity. 1714 Death of Sophia of Hanover, the Electress of Hanover. She died at 83. Sophia was next in line to become the Queen of England, but she never got the chance. She was strolling through her magnificent garden in Hanover, Germany, when she was caught in a rainstorm, and after she rushed to find shelter, she collapsed and died of heart failure. Today a sculpture memorial of Electress Sophia stands on the southern edge of the garden. In 1714, after Sophia died on June 8th, her cousin, Queen Anne, died just two months later at the beginning of August. And that is how Sophia's eldest son was able to claim the British throne as George I. Today, both Sophia and her son, George I, are buried in the very garden she ran out of over three centuries ago. Incidentally, George I became the last British monarch to be buried outside Britain. And while it is unfortunate that Sophia got caught in the rain, there's no doubt that the beautiful grounds she had installed at Herrenhausen Palace in Hanover brought her great joy. Sophia once said, The garden is my life. A patron of the arts, Sophia commissioned Herrenhausen Palace and the surrounding gardens, which remain the greatest treasure in all of Hanover. As one of the most important historical gardens in Europe, Herrenhausen Gardens is one of the few baroque gardens remaining in Europe. And the garden remains true to its original design and comprises four separate gardens that feature over 60,000 blooming flowers and 1,000 containers. The baroque garden, also called the big garden, is home to thirty-two magnificent statues made of sandstone. The sculptures represent the four continents, the four seasons, the four elem

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1848 Birth of Paul Gauguin (books about this person), one of the leading French painters of the Postimpression- ist period. Born in Paris, Paul Gauguin was a self-taught painter. He was also a rugged individualist, and his incredible talent helped introduce Primitivism to the art world. His best primitive work was created on his 1895 trip to Tahiti - a place he would spend the rest of his life. Flora and fauna of the landscape feature prominently in most of his Tahitian art. Paul was obsessed with art, and he once wrote, Color! What a deep and mysterious language, the language of dreams. After Van Gogh rented a yellow house in Arles, he invited Gauguin to visit. In preparation for his stay, Van Gogh painted 'Poet's Garden' in the bedroom Gauguin was to stay in. The painting depicts the public garden across from the Yellow House. Van Gogh filled the rest of the house with paintings of sunflowers. When Gauguin arrived, he painted his friend, Van Gogh, painting sunflowers. For nine weeks, the two men painted, and when they weren't painting, they fought. In fact, during one of their final arguments, Gauguin was supposedly sliced off Van Gogh's ear with a sword. Paul was more diverse in terms of his subjects. He didn't exclusively paint florals. Once when he was in a creative lull, he wrote, When I am able to paint again, if I have no imagination, I shall do some studies of flowers . . . . It is a great pleasure for me. 1878 On this day, Fisk Bangs wrote about his blooming White Mustard in the American Bee Journal Volume 14. It began to bloom about June 7th and lasted nearly eight months. The bees commenced work on the 11th. On the 19th, the bees were so thick that their hum sounded something like Prof. Cook's buzz-saw, lacking the screech. This is one of the best honey plants, and I think its bloom call be easily regulated... to have it come after Basswood. 1935 Death of Ivan Michurin (books about this person), Russian botanist and plant breeder. A Russian horticulturist and a Master of selection, Ivan was an Honorable Member of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. Throughout his life, Ivan created all sorts of fruit plants. He introduced over 300 new varieties and was often called the Russian Luther Burbank. Ivan started out working on the railroad. His job riding the rails allowed him to visit many famous gardens and nurseries across Russia. His informal nursery tour inspired Ivan to start a fruit tree nursery in 1888. Ivan was maniacally focused on improving fruit, and by doing so, he selected the best examples and used them to improve the next generation. And although Russian would not support his work, they made sure that Ivan could never leave the country. The last thing Russia wanted was for Ivan to bring his work to the United States, where many scientists recognized the value of Ivan's work early on. Although the 1917 October Revolution hurt many land owners and farmers forced to give up their land to Mother Russia, Lenin liked Ivan. With Nikolai Vavilov's encouragement, Ivan's work was protected as intellectual property of the Russian government. Today, Ivan's most famous creation is the Antonovka or 'The People's Apple.' It was Ivan Michurin who said, We cannot wait for gifts from Nature. To take them from her – that is our task. (Translation my own.) 2013 On this day, Jane Green planted zucchini in her garden. Then, she wrote about her zucchini in a lovely little article called Conquering the Zucchini Beast. Here's an excerpt: Something's always happening in a garden Upon entering the garden {on the morning of the 4th of July], [my dog] Tootie and I found that our four zucchini plants were in full bloom, and lo and behold, one plant had already popped out a nice-sized fruit. What a stupendous treat! And to think that had planted my garden on the 7th of June, and that I already had a zucchini fruit to enjoy on the 4th of July. What a cause for a celebration! Of course, 1 did cheat just a teensy little bit because I planted zucchini plants and not zucchini seeds this year. But, hey, it was still an awesome experience for me. With the glorious discovery of a zucchini fruit just waiting to be harvested, my saliva juices kicked into full capacity mode and my brain cells started conjuring up all sorts of yummy zucchini dishes to prepare. For instance: making zucchini bread or zucchini relish or zucchini cake or zucchini brownies or preparing a wonderful zucchini hot dish! Yum! I call this zucchini mania time because there are so many foods you can make with zucchini that you don't know which one to make first. Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation The Darling Dahlias and the Red Hot Poker by Susan Wittig Albert This book is a brand new release today, June 7th, 2022, and this is a fiction book. Here's what the publisher wro

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1648 On this day, Elias Ashmole (books about this person), the English antiquary, politician, astrologer, and alchemist, wrote in his diary, Having entered upon a study this day about three o'clock was the first time I went a simpling; Dr: Carter of Reding and Mr. Watling an Apothecary there, accompanying me. To go "a simpling" was an early term for botanizing. People would gather "simples" or medicinal plants, so Elias went out with a Dr. Carter and an Apothecary. They were no doubt looking for herbal remedies. 1816 During June, in New England, six inches of snow fell. The entire year of 1816 was freezing. Every month of the year 1816 had a hard frost. Temperatures dropped to 40 degrees in July and August as far south as Connecticut. This is known as 'The Year Without a Summer' in New England. The weather anomalies originated from the volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora the previous year. The enormous volcanic explosion in recorded history spewed small particles that were light enough to spread over the atmosphere the following year. The impact on the world's climate was profound. The earth's temperature dropped an average of three degrees Celsius across the globe. On the bright side, the terrible summer of 1816 served as an inspiration to many writers. In Lake Geneva, Switzerland, Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein while on vacation with her husband, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and the poet Lord Byron. Thanks to nonstop rain and gray skies, the three writers had been stuck inside for days. On the same trip, Lord Byron wrote Darkness, his poem that begins, I had a dream, which was not all a dream. The bright sun was extinguished. 1864 On this day, the famous American writer and political reporter, John Beauchamp Jones ("Bo-shamp"), wrote in his journal: Clear and hot, but with a fine breeze-southwest. Yesterday, I learn, both sides buried the dead... What a war, and for what? And then, after giving some updates from the battlefield, John wrote: Small heads of early York cabbage sold in market to-day at $3, or $5 for two. At that rate, I got about $10 worth out of my garden. Mine are excellent, and so far abundant, as well as the lettuce, which we have every day. My snap beans and beets will soon come on. The little garden is a little treasure. John Beauchamp Jones was born in Maryland and served as a Confederate soldier during the Civil War. 2022 National Garden Exercise Day Gardening is a workout. Gardening is therapeutic on so many levels. The physical aspect of gardening is quite demanding and is an excellent way to build muscle and burn calories. And for many garden podcast listeners, the brain is engaged as well - learning about new plants, techniques, or general garden info. Today and every day in your garden, make sure to stay hydrated and make a point of gardening that promotes good health - take breaks, stretch, use garden chairs, add elevated beds, etc. Be careful living heavy items and tuck some bandaids, bee sting relief (like an epi-pen or Benedryl), and betadine in your garden tote. You never know when you might need a little first aid in the garden. Happy gardening!! It's National Garden Exercise day! Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation The Sibley Guide to Trees by David Allen Sibley This book came out in 2009, but this is one of the best when it comes to tree-reference books. This book has over 500 five-star reviews on Amazon, and it's easy to see why — this book is laid out in such an accessible way. It's effortless to use. I keep one tucked in my garden bench in the garage because I love keeping this guide handy. And I should mention that the reason it's called the Sibley Guide to Trees is that it's written by David Alan Sibley. If that name's familiar, it's because he is the bird guide, author, and illustrator. So you have those side-by-side skills of bird identification and tree identification — and they just go together. David Sibley applies the same approach that he used with birds for the equally complex subject of tree identification. And if trees are a challenge for you, you will definitely appreciate the over 4,000 illustrations in this guide. And I had to chuckle just a little bit after reading an Amazon Q&A with David Alan Sibley about this book. They asked him, Were there significant differences in writing this book vs. the Guide to Birds? I got a kick out of David's answer: The obvious difference is that trees are much easier to find. When I needed to study a particular species of tree I could just walk right up to it and spend as much time investigating it as I needed. Birds are more elusive. I had to spend years in the field in order to build up enough observation time to draw them well. I thought David's response was such a clue to the rest of us regarding tree identification because Da

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1731 Birth of Martha Washington (books about this person), the inaugural first lady of the United States. At Mount Vernon, Martha was in charge of the kitchen garden. As mistress of the plantation, she was in charge of entertaining guests and planning the evening meal. This meant that a robust kitchen garden was an absolute necessity. Thus, the kitchen garden is the oldest garden at Mount Vernon. It was installed in 1760, and the grounds have produced edibles now for over 250 years. So while other areas of Mount Vernon have gone through some changes, the kitchen garden or the lower garden remains primarily unchanged from how it was initially used back when the Washingtons lived there. Now George and Martha spent a great deal of time away from the estate. And whenever George Washington would send letters back to Mount Vernon, the last paragraph was reserved for instructions from Martha to the gardener about the kitchen garden. Martha would ask about different crops and suggest planting or collecting seeds. Martha really was a knowledgeable plantswoman, and when it came to the kitchen garden, she was not afraid to make suggestions or changes. Martha knew that the kitchen garden was a reflection of her As George's wife and as the president's wife. And when George and Martha were at Mount Vernon, they hosted an average of 600 guests every single year. And most of those people enjoyed supper at the plantation, and the meal No Doubt featured produce from the kitchen garden. William Spence was the gardener at Mount Vernon. He continued working at Mount Vernon after George Washington's death. In addition, William was s a witness to Martha Washington's will, which he signed on September 22, 1800. 1874 On this day, Ann Pamela Cunningham, founder of the MVLA, gave her farewell address MVLA stands for the Mount Vernon Ladies Association, which was founded in 1853. In 1858, less than five years later, this group of indomitable women purchased Mount Vernon from the George Washington family. By so doing, they saved George Washington's eighteenth-century plantation home from development or destruction. Together with encouragement from tourists, the MVLA worked to restore the home and grounds to their full glory. Ann spoke of the need for continued work in her address: Ladies, the home of Washington is in your charge see to it that you keep It the home of Washington! Let no irreverent hand change it; let no vandal hands desecrate it with the fingers of "progress"! Let one spot, in this grand country of ours, be saved from change. Upon you rests this duty. Today we can say definitively that Ann's advice was followed. Washington's home is in top condition along with the outbuildings and the grounds. The greenhouse, which was in a fire in 1835, was fully restored in 1952. To preserve Washington's view of the Potomac, the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association purchased nearly 500 acres on the other side of the Potomac River, thanks to Mrs. Frances Payne Bolton. The latter ended up organizing one of the country's earliest land trusts. When it came to Mount Vernon, George Washington always dreamed of a fine landscape and beautiful gardens. Many enslaved people and trained gardeners made his dream a reality. George hired his first gardener in 1762. A decade later, he posted an ad that said, "a good Kitchen Gardener is what I want." After seeing the one that Margaret Tilghman Carroll installed at her home, Mount Clare, near Baltimore, George added a greenhouse. In turn, Margaret sent the plans and some plants to help the Washingtons christen their greenhouse. In 1799, one guest at Mount Vernon wrote, "[There] I saw ...English grapes, oranges, limes, and lemons... as well as a great variety of plants and flowers... exquisite in their perfume and delightful to the eye..." 1893 On this day, a witty, thoughtful, and upright citizen of South Yarmouth, Massachusetts, Stephen Sears wrote in his journal about his garden. Stephen kept a journal for posterity, and nature entries are sprinkled throughout his writings in between notes on work, worship, and family. Stephen was a Sunday School teacher, and he wrote that he thought it was "the best thing I can do for the coming generation." On this day in 1893, Stephen was 71 years old. He built a cage around a tree and burned caterpillars. He must have thought them destructive (maybe tent caterpillars?) That spring, he had "plowed [the] garden and planted peas." On June 6, he noted that "summer is here, hot and dry," and then he "transplanted [his] tomato vines and hoed [his] watermelons." Almost every day, Stephen worked in his garden. He watered daily and occasionally added seaweed as a fertilizer. On June 17, after three weeks of no rain, Stephen wrote, "The ground is wet again, and vegetation smiles." At the end of t

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1785 It was on this day that Noah Webster (books about this person) (of Webster's dictionary fame) boarded a little ship named George in Baltimore. When the ship stopped in Norfolk, Virginia, Noah ate some cherries for the very first time. He must have liked them because he later added cherry trees to his orchard. Noah Webster was a fierce gardener. He enjoyed his time in the garden, and he planted all kinds of vegetables, like parsnips, carrots, cucumbers, beets, and potatoes. In fact, in his dictionary, Noah Webster defined potatoes as, one of the cheapest and most nourishing vegetables. And then he got a little spiritual about the potato. Noah wrote, In the British dominions and in the United States, the potato has proved to be one of the greatest blessings bestowed on man by the Creator. Noah Webster was also a fan of farming. He called farming, the most necessary, the most healthy, the most innocent, and the most agreeable employment of men. Noah Webster had a property in Amhurst, and over the years, he gradually acquired the land around his property until he had around ten acres. On this land. Noah built a barn. He had a chaise house, and he also planted a magnificent garden. Everyone in Amhurst knew that Noah Webster's orchard was the best in the town. Noah grew pears. He had apple trees and peach trees - and even grew sweet white grapes, 1859 From The Diary of Calvin Fletcher, American attorney who became a prominent banker, farmer, and state senator in Indianapolis, Indiana This a beautiful day. My early corn one foot high. Early potatoes set for blossom. Early tomatoes six and eight inches high. Grapes in full blossom. Strawberrys Ditto. Two messes of green peas. The grass in the yard cut one week ago. Raspberrys nearly full grown. Currants ditto former good size latter small. 1888 Birth of Henry Beston (books by this author), American writer and naturalist. Last week I discovered Henry Beston when I researched his wife, the writer, and poet, Elizabeth Coatsworth (books by this author). I have to say it was a thrill getting to know both of them. Henry is best remembered for his book The Outermost House (1928). Henry wrote the book during the year spent on the Great Beach of Cape Cod. He isolated himself in a house on the beach and devoted himself to writing about life along the shore. Henry wrote his book in longhand at a kitchen table. During this year, when Henry was sequestered in this house, he actually met his future wife, Elizabeth, at a garden party. Later on, when he proposed marriage to Elizabeth, She told him, "No book. No marriage". So that was an extra incentive for Henry to finish his book. Now Henry and Elizabeth went on to have two little girls. Their daughter, Kate Barnes (books by this author), became a respected author and poet in her own right. Here's a little excerpt from her poem called Old Roses, which is about how her parents met. Kate wrote, When my father met my mother at a dinner party in a garden of very old roses on Beacon Hill one hot evening in early June, he said to his friend, F. Morton Smith, that night, "Morton, I have met the girl I'm going to marry!" (We have Uncle Morton's testimony for that, the certified word of a Boston lawyer.) My mother said my father had looked handsome, yes, and talked delightfully, but what she remembered were the mosquitoes. "If you stopped slapping at them, even for a second, you were eaten up alive." Henry wrote many different books. Of course, most of them are about nature, but there was one garden book that caught my attention, and it's called Herbs and the Earth. And in this book, Henry wrote. A garden of herbs, is a garden of things loved for themselves in their wholeness and integrity. It is not a garden of flowers, but a garden of plants which are sometimes very lovely flowers and are always more than flowers. Isn't that a great quote about herbs? The more I read about Henry Beston, the more it became apparent that Henry was a profound thinker and thought about gardening on a much deeper level. I think it's because Henry was so grounded in the tenants of nature. Listen to how Henry describes watering plants. This is a perspective that I have not heard before. Henry wrote. If gardeners will forget a little the phrase, "watering the plants" and think of watering as a matter of "watering the earth" under the plants, keeping up its moisture content and gauging. its need, the garden will get on very well. And isn't that the truth? Here's a delightful little quote by Henry. It's about. Fall: The leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly changes from the summer cottons into its winter wools. 1968 Death of Helen Keller (books about this person), American author, disability rights advocate, and lecture. Helen lost both her sight and hearing w

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1819 Birth of Walt Whitman, American poet, essayist, and journalist. A humanist, Walt is remembered as the father of free verse. When Whitman was 54 years old, he suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed. He spent the next two years immersed in nature, and he believed that nature had helped to heal him. He wrote, How it all nourishes, lulls me, in the way most needed; the open air, the rye-fields, the apple orchards. Walt also appreciated flowers. He wrote, A morning-glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books. In 1892, Walt wrote one of his most celebrated prose about Wild Flowers in a piece called Specimen Days. This has been and is yet a great season for wild flowers; oceans of them line the roads through the woods, border the edges of the water-runlets, grow all along the old fences, and are scatter'd in profusion over the fields. An eight-petal'd blossom of gold-yellow clear and bright, with a brown tuft in the middle, nearly as large as a silver half-dollar, is very common; yesterday on a long drive I noticed it thickly lining the borders of the brooks everywhere. Then there is a beautiful weed cover'd with blue flowers, (the blue of the old Chinese teacups treasur'd by our grand-aunts,) I am continually stopping to admire [it] - [it's] a little larger than a dime, and very plentiful. White, however, is the prevailing color. The wild carrot I have spoken of; also the fragrant life-everlasting. But there are all hues and beauties, especially on the frequent tracts of half-open scrub-oak and dwarf-cedar hereabout - wild asters of all colors. Notwithstanding the frost-touch the hardy little chaps maintain themselves in all their bloom. 1840 Birth of Charles McIlvaine, American author, and mycologist. Charles was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania. He served as a captain in the Pennsylvania Infantry. After the Civil War, he always went by "Captain." When he was 40, Charles moved to West Virginia, where he wrote articles for magazines like Century and Harpers. After the war, food was scarce, and Charles started hunting and eating mushrooms. Charles ate virtually every specimen he encountered and even dabbled in mushrooms said to be poisonous. If he suffered no ill effects, Charles deemed a specimen edible. Before Charles's work, the USDA issued a report in 1885 that claimed there were only twelve edible species of mushrooms in the United States. Today Charles is best known for his 1896 book called 1,000 American Fungi. Charles was passionate about mycology, and he included his experiences with eating almost every species mentioned in his book. He wrote, I take no man's word for the qualities of a toadstool. I go for it myself. Charles claimed to have eaten over 1,000 mushrooms and toadstools, and he said he enjoyed the flavor of most of them. His daring ingestion of so many species earned Charles the nickname Old Iron Guts. Charles lived to be 69 and defied the old saying, There are old mushroom hunters and there are bold mushroom hunters, but there are no old bold mushroom hunters. Charles was indeed an old, bold mycologist. Charles's experimentation is all the more impressive given the challenging nature of mushroom identification. If you find plant identification challenging, mushroom identification is much more involved and often requires chemical reagents and microscopic evaluation. In our modern times, DNA sequencing can also definitively establish species. Thanks to his excellent writing skills, Charles wrote about mushrooms in a friendly and conversational manner. Here's what Charles wrote about the Oyster Mushroom: The camel is gratefully called the ship of the desert. The oyster mushroom is the shellfish of the forest. When the tender parts are dipped in egg, rolled in bread crumbs, and fried as an oyster, they're not excelled buy any vegetable and are worth of place on the daintiest menu. Here's how Charles described the Vomiting Russella: Most are sweet and nutty to the taste. Some are as hot as the fiercest cayenne, but this they lose upon cooking. Their caps make the most palatable dishes when stewed, baked, roasted or escalloped. Finally, here's a little-known poem that Charles wrote called Our Church Fight. I'm that nigh near disgusted with the fight in our old church, Where one halfs 'g'in the t'other, an' the Lord's left in the lurch, That I went an' told the parson if he'd jine me in a prayer, We'd slip out 'mong the daisies and' put one up from there. Charles is remembered in the name of the journal of the North American Mycological Association (NAMA), McIlvainea ("Mick-ill-vay-nee-ah"). 1893 Birth of Elizabeth Coatsworth, American writer of fiction and poetry for children and adults. In 1931, She won the Newbery Medal for her children's book, The Cat Who Went to Heaven. Elizabeth'

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1669 Birth of Sébastien Vaillant ("Vy-yaw"), French botanist. Appointed to the King's garden in Paris, Sebastien loved organizing and cataloging plants. Biographical accounts say Sebastian showed a passion for plants from the age of five. His masterpiece, forty years in the making, Botanicon Parisienne, was a book about the flora of Paris. It wasn't published until five years after his death. Sebastian's work on plant sexuality inspired generations of botanists and set the stage for Linneaus to develop his sexual system of plant classification. Linnaeus used the male stamens to determine the class and the female pistils to determine the order. And like Sebastion, Linnaeus often compared plant sexuality to that of humans. Linnaeus wrote, Love even seizes... plants... both [males and females], even the hermaphrodites, hold their nuptials, which is what I now intend to discuss. Sebastian caused a sensation at the Royal Garden in Paris on June 10, 1717. On that day, he presented a lecture titled, Lecture on the Structure of the Flowers: Their Differences and the Use of Their Parts. He began by reinforcing the idea that the flower is the most essential part of a plant - essential to reproduction - and then he began to lead his scientific colleagues into a deep dive on plant sexuality - at six in the morning, no less. Before Sebastian's lecture, the topic of sex in the plant world had only been touched on lightly, allowing flowers and blossoms to maintain their reputation as pure, sweet, and innocent. Today, we can imagine the reaction of his 600-person audience as he began using fairly explicit language and the lens of human sexuality to describe the sex lives of plants. A 2002 translation of Sebastian's speech was presented in the Huntia - a Journal of Botanical History. Sebastian started his lecture with these words, Perhaps the language I am going to use for this purpose will seem a little novel for botany, but since it will be filled with terminology that is perfectly proper for the use of the parts ... I intend to expose, I believe it will be more comprehensible than the old fashioned terminology, which — being crammed with incorrect and ambiguous terms [is] better suited for confusing the subject than for shedding light on it. Sebastian's discussion of the plant embryos was rather poetic: Who can imagine that a prism with four faces becomes a Pansy; a narrow roll, the Borage; a kidney, the Daffodil; that a cross can metamorphose into a maple; two crystal balls intimately glued to each other, [Comfrey], etc.? These are nevertheless the shapes favored in these diverse plants by their lowly little embryos. 1742 On this day, Horace Walpole wrote to Horace Mann, in part describing his visit to Ranelagh ("Ron-ah-lay") Gardens in Chelsea. Ranelagh had opened just two days prior, and it was one of several pleasure gardens opened around this time. Horace wrote, Today calls itself May the 26th, as you perceive by the date; but I am writing to you by the fireside, instead of going to Vauxhall. If we have one warm day in seven, "we bless our stars, and think it luxury." And yet we have as much waterworks and fresco diversions, as if we lay ten degrees nearer warmth. Two nights ago Ranelagh-gardens were opened at Chelsea; the Prince, Princess, Duke, much nobility, and much mob besides, were there. There is a vast amphitheatre, finely gilt, painted, and illuminated, into which everybody that loves eating, drinking, staring, or crowding, is admitted for twelvepence. The building and... gardens cost sixteen thousand pounds. Twice a-week there are to be ridottos... [entertainment] for which you are to have a supper and music. I was there last night, but did not find the joy of it. Vauxhall is a little better; the garden is pleasanter, and [you arrive] by water... Horace must have come to prefer Ranelagh. He later wrote, It has totally beat Vauxhall... You can't set your foot without treading on a Prince, or Duke of Cumberland. Finally, it was Horace Walpole who wrote, When people will not weed their own minds, they are apt to be overrun by nettles. 1811 On this day, Thomas Jefferson wrote to his granddaughter, Anne, who was visiting her in-laws: Nothing new has happened in our neighborhood since you left us. The houses and trees stand where they did. The flowers come forth like the belles of the day, have their short reign of beauty and splendor, and retire like them to the more interesting office of reproducing their like. The hyacinths and tulips are off the stage, the irises are giving place to the belladonnas, as this will to the tuberoses etc. Thomas was not able to garden much during the summer of 1811. His arthritis had flared, and he found himself almost entirely bedridden. 1921 On this day, Kate Lancaster Brewster resigned as editor o

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1803 Birth of Ralph Waldo Emerson, American transcendentalist, essayist, philosopher, and poet. After graduating from Harvard, Ralph decided to go by his middle name, Waldo. He was beloved by his fellow Harvard classmates, and many became his lifelong friends. Waldo served as his class poet. Waldo met his first wife, Ellen, on Christmas Day six years later. Two years later, he lost her to tuberculosis. Her death eventually made him a wealthy man — although Waldo had to sue his inlaws to get his inheritance. After losing Ellen, Waldo traveled to Europe and visited the Royal Botanical Garden while he was in Paris. The experience was a revelation to him. There Waldo began to see connections between different plant species thanks to Jussieu's natural way of organizing the garden. The American historian and biographer Robert D. Richardson wrote about this period of heightened awareness for Waldo. He wrote, Emerson's moment of insight into the interconnectedness of things in the Jardin des Plantes was a moment of almost visionary intensity that pointed him away from theology and toward science. When he returned to the states, Waldo became friends with other forward thinkers and writers of his time: William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Thomas Carlyle. In 1835, Waldo married again. His second wife was named Lydia Jackson. Waldo changed her name to Lidian, and he also had many pet names for her, like Queenie and Asia - but she always called him "Mr. Emerson." Around that time, Waldo began to think differently about the world and his perspective on life. As the son of a minister, his move away from religion and societal beliefs was quite impressive. In 1836, Waldo published his philosophy of transcendentalism in an essay he titled "Nature." He wrote: Nature is a language and every new fact one learns is a new word; but it is not a language taken to pieces and dead in the dictionary, but [a] language put together into a most significant and universal sense. I wish to learn this language, not that I may know a new grammar, but that I may read the great book that is written in that tongue. Waldo also advised, Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. As Waldo grew older, he immensely enjoyed gardening. His time in the garden also proved revelatory. Waldo had hired workers to help him in the landscape as a younger man. As a mature man, he recognized the benefits of exercise and a feeling of satisfaction from doing garden work all by himself. Waldo wrote, When I go into the garden with a spade and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and [good] health that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have done with my own hands. He also quipped, All my hurts my garden spade can heal. In the twilight of his life, Ralph Waldo Emerson was invited to join a group of nine intellectuals on a camping trip in the Adirondacks. The trip had one mission: to connect with nature. Waldo's traveling companions included Harvard's naturalist Louis Agassiz, the great botanist James Russell Lowell, and the American naturalist Jeffries Wyman. They had a marvelous time. It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who wrote, The landscape belongs to the person who looks at it. And another Waldo quote is a personal favorite, The Earth laughs in flowers. Finally, here's a little prayer Waldo wrote to thank God for the gifts of nature. For flowers that bloom about our feet; For tender grass, so fresh, so sweet; For song of bird, and hum of bee; For all things fair we hear or see, Father in heaven, we thank Thee! 1909 On this day, Miss Amanda Palmer, a teacher at Wilmington Normal School in Wilmington, North Carolina, shared her experience of taking her students on nature-based field trips. Her report was published in the Atlantic Educational Journal. Amanda wrote, On a field trip, a pupil... gains more of life's lessons than could possibly be learned in the schoolroom. These trips lead the children to ask questions, which the teacher must answer. My class is composed of children in the fourth year primary. On one trip, trees of the neighborhood were studied. The flowers commanded our attention on still another trip. [Flowers like] the wild carrot, the yarrow, and wild mustard were examined. On one occasion a great mullein, or velvet dock, was brought into school. It was greatly admired by the children. On the next field trip no child had to be told what a mullein was. They, themselves, each saw and knew the mullein. On our trips, we sometimes catch glimpses of shy, wild creatures-a water-snake or, perhaps, a prairie hen. Again we may see only tracks here, the tiny footprints of a field-mouse; there, the path of a snake. On one trip we looked for birds especially, using field glasses. After hearing and seei

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1794 Birth of William Whewell ("Hyoo- uhl"), English polymath, scientist, and Anglican priest. He was Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. William was a unique blend of right and left brain aptitudes. As a university student, he was recognized for his work in both poetry and mathematics. In Elizabeth Gilbert's The Signature of All Things, she wrote of William's signature accomplishment - devising the word "scientist." She wrote, ...the word scientist had been coined, by the polymath William Whewell. Many scholars had objected to this blunt new term, as it sounded so sinisterly similar to that awful word atheist; Why not simply continue to call themselves natural philosophers? Was that designation not more godly, more pure? But divisions were being drawn now between the realm of nature and the realm of philosophy. Ministers who doubled as botanists or geologists were becoming increasingly rare, as far too many challenges to biblical truths were stirred up through investigation of the natural world. It used to be that God was revealed in the wonders of nature; now God was being challenged by those same wonders. Scholars were now required to choose one side or the other. 1819 Birth of Queen Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from June 20, 1837, until she died in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and seven months was longer than any previous British monarch and is known as the Victorian era. In 2019, Kensington Palace celebrated the bicentenary, the 200th anniversary, of Victoria's birth with a large floral display in the sunken garden. The display included blossoms from the Victorian era, such as heliotropes, cannas, pelargonium, and begonias. The humble violet was Queen Victoria's favorite flower. Today many plants are named for Queen Victoria, including the Victoria agave and the giant waterlily, Victoria amazonica. 1861 It was on this day that 45-year-old Anne Frobel, who lived outside of Alexandria, Virginia, not far from Mount Vernon started her Civil War diary with these words, I never saw 'Wilton' my dear old home looking more lovely and inviting. The trees and plants had put on their loveliest spring attire, and the garden was resplendent with the bloom of rare and brilliant flowers, and the fields were all smiling with a bright prospect of an abundant harvest. The following day, Anne's farmhouse, like many homes in Alexandria and all along the Potomac, was ceased by Union soldiers looking for quarters. Anne shared her home with her sister Lizzie. The two women never married. Anne's journal gives a glimpse of what it was like for Southern women of the Civil War era to endure four years of occupation as troops and scavengers used their land for firewood, food, and water. One day, Anne recounted how a Union officer shared a story over dinner at her table about how he had destroyed the last turnips. Anne wrote, My very blood boiled! 1905 On this day, the banker H. Howard Pepper of Providence, Rhode Island, wrote a letter to the magazine Country Life in America, I have had the gardening fever for three summers. ...All the work in the garden is done by myself, and it takes about two hours a day. We started with these objects in view: To have cut flowers for the house at all times. To have a mass of roses in the backyard. To have [flowers] in the garden all season. Our lot is the average city size, fifty by one hundred feet. The house is twenty feet from the street line, where there are two large elm trees that shade the lawn and beds in front. While these trees are beautiful and we would not part with them, yet they are great deal of trouble, They require spraying each spring, and their roots fill ... the drainpipes, causing much annoyance and expense. I should never plant elm trees near flowerbeds or drain pipes. The backyard is surrounded by a five-foot board fence on the north and east and picket fence on the south. Climbing nasturtiums cover the picket fence, and [we want] to have climbers hide the board fence, which is covered with wire netting hung on hooks In case the fence is to be painted, the vines and netting can easily be laid down. A woodbine trumpet-vine and Clematis paniculeta are already established, The single tuberous begonias are the best bedding plants I know; they bloom all summer. Last year's hollyhocks were affected with blight; we have overcome that disease by spraying with ... One ounce of carbonate of copper made into a paste with one• half pint of water; slowly add one-half pint of strong ammonia water (twenty-six degrees}; water, nine gallons. Our spraying outfit consists of a wooden pail and whisk broom. The broom is far ahead of the ordinary syringe, as it is not so wasteful. The sweet-pea bed, or No. 5, is twelve feet long and three and one-half feet wide. Last year, by

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1707 Birth of Carl Linnaeus (books about this person), Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician. Carl was a fan of flowers early on in his life. As a young child, his mother gave him flowers to soothe him whenever he was upset. On May 1st, 1753, the publication of his masterpiece Species Plantarum changed plant taxonomy forever. The work gave Linnaeus the moniker Father of Taxonomy; his naming system is called binomial nomenclature. Binomial means "two names," which in the naming game includes the plant's genus (which is capitalized or could be abbreviated by its first letter) and species or specific epithet (which is all lowercase and can be shortened sp.) If you have trouble remembering taxonomy, I like to think of it as a person's given name and surname, but in reverse order. Linnaeus's names live on unchanged and are distinguished by an "L." after their name. And it was Linnaeus himself who said: God created, Linnaeus ordered. There are many stories about Linnaeus, but I thought I'd share a few more-obscure stories about him and his work. First, Linnaeus' friend Anders Celsius created the Centigrade thermometer in 1742, with water boiling at 0 degrees and freezing at 100. Three years later, Linnaeus reversed the scale - sharing it in an article with the Botanical Garden at Uppsala University. Second, there is a memorable story about Linnaeus and the genus Commelina, the genus of the Asiatic Dayflower. Linnaeus named the genus after the three Commelin brothers, two of whom achieved much in botany and one who died young before amounting to anything. Linnaeus wrote: Commelina has three petals, two of which are showy — where the third is not conspicuous. Next time you see the Commelina communis or Asiatic Dayflower (with two large blue petals and one tiny white petal), you can remember the Commelins and Linnaeus' kind commemoration of the three brothers. Another fun story about Linnaeus involved a trip he took to Lapland when Linnaeus was 25 years old. Carl spent nearly six months there, and he came back with stories of an obscure part of Scandinavia few people knew existed. The expedition was trying, and Linneaus suffered from hunger, mosquitoes, freezing temperatures, near death from a rockslide and a gunshot wound. Through it all, Linnaeus fell in love with the Lapland. He even brought home a traditional costume complete with a magical drum as a souvenir from his adventure. Five years later, an obscure German painter named Martin Hoffman painted Linnaeus' portrait. And, guess what did Linnaeus choose to wear for the sitting? His Lapland costume (Of course!). In Hoffman's Linnaeus, a 30-year-old Linnaeus is seen wearing boots made of reindeer skin. He's also wearing an early version of a toolbelt. Suspended from the belt is a magical drum from a shaman, a needle to make nets, a snuffbox, a cartridge box, and a knife. Linnaeus is also wearing traditional Laplander gloves, and in his right hand, he holds his favorite plant: the Twinflower, Linnaea borealis. 1799 Birth of Thomas Hood was an English poet, author, and humorist. Thomas is remembered for his poems "The Bridge of Sighs" and "The Song of the Shirt." Here's an excerpt from his poem Song. 'Tis like the birthday of the world, When earth was born in bloom; The light is made of many dyes, The air is all perfume: There's crimson buds, and white and blue, The very rainbow showers Have turned to blossoms where they fell, And sown the earth with flowers. And here's my all-time favorite Thomas Hood poem, and it's called No. No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease, No comfortable feel in any member - No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds - November! 1843 Birth of Georgiana Molloy (books about this person), English-Australian pioneer and one of the first botanical collectors in Western Australia. Georgiana's life in the 1830s in Western Australia was one of extreme hardship. Her first child died shortly after it was born, and her only son ended up drowning in a well. After these events, Georgiana naturally struggled to find joy in her life. But in 1836, at the end of the year, Georgiana received a letter from a man named James Mangles. James was an officer in the Royal Navy and a naturalist, horticulturist, and writer. He wrote to ask Georgiana for help, and his request for botanical specimens gave her life new meaning. James had made arrangements for several people to collect for him in Australia. He was very strategic in that regard. But it also meant that James was uniquely qualified to review the work done by collectors in Western Australia before 1850. The result was that James was a huge fan of Georgiana's work. He once wrote. [Georgiana's collections] were full of pressed plants that were mounted and set

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events National Pick Strawberries Day Here are a few fun facts about this beloved sweet fruit: The etymology of the name strawberry (books about this topic) is likely a corruption of the phrase "strewn berry." This would reference the way the plant produced thanks prolifically to runners, resulting in berries strewn about the ground. Fragariaphobia is a little-known word and is the fear of strawberries. In terms of their uniqueness, strawberries are the only fruit that wears its seeds on the outside, and the average strawberry has 200 seeds. Strawberries are perennial and are members of the rose family. The strawberry flower averages five to seven petals. In terms of harvesting, strawberry plants are hand-picked about every three days. A single acre of land can grow almost 50,000 pounds of strawberries. California produces a billion pounds of strawberries every year which means that 75% of the American strawberry crop is grown in California - with Florida and North Carolina in the 2nd and 3rd place. As for strawberry quotes, the author Tsugumi Ohba, Death Note Box Set, wrote, If you keep my secret, this strawberry is yours. 1846 On this day, the Prussian botanist Ludwig Leichhardt (books about this person) wrote a letter to a fellow botanist about his impressive and arduous collecting efforts in Australia. For his part, Ludwig loved Australia. He wrote, I would find it hard to remain in Germany, or even in Europe, now. I [prefer] the clear, sunny skies of Australia. On this day, 1846, Leichhardt wrote a letter to his botanist contact and friend, the Italian Gaetano Durando, living in Paris. Ludwig's message conveys the extreme difficulties and dangers faced by the early plant explorers. He wrote, My dear friend, You have, no doubt, noticed and regretted my long silence... But you must bear this in mind, my good friend, ... it was not my lot to travel all at my ease... Gladly would I have made drawings of my plants, and noted fully all particulars of the different species which I saw; and how valuable would such memoranda have been... [as] four of my pack-horses having been drowned. Botanical and geological specimens thus abandoned — how disappointing! From four to five thousand plants were thus sacrificed... In the spring of 1848, Ludwig Leichhardt and a small group of explorers began what was to be a two- to three-year expedition across Australia. Shortly after starting the trek, the entire party vanished with barely a trace. Still known as the 'Prince of Explorers,' Leichhardt was 35 when he was lost to time. 1858 On this day, in The Flower Garden, Or Breck's Book of Flowers, Tulips at their peak per Joseph Breck A bed of late tulips is generally in its highest perfection about the 20th of May and may be kept in fine condition a fortnight longer, taking the trouble to erect an awning over them. I take up my Tulips about the 20th of June, and dry them undercover in an airy place, and, when dry, take off the offsets and plant them out, while the flowering roots are each wrapped in a piece of waste paper, and put away, in a box or drawer, in a dry place, until wanted to plant. One hundred different varieties, with their names and colors, reputed to be the very best, mabe obtained from Holland, at the cost of about $25; but I have found, by experience, that some of the rarer and most expensive sorts are not included. Very good border Tulips, including finedouble sorts, early and late, single, parrots, etc, may be obtained from 50 cents to $1 per dozen, and some of the common sorts at much less price. So there is some tulip pricing for you courtesy of Joseph Breck back in 1858. And just for comparison, I went out to brecks.com and priced some of their deluxe tulips. They sell eight tulips for $15. 1922 On this day, the sorority of Pi Beta Phi at West Virginia University held a party to celebrate the arrival of spring. In a report of their activities to the 1922 edition of The Arrow, the chapter wrote, The spring party comes on May 20. It will be a Japanese party, with lanterns, spring blossoms, and wooden programs. Present Day On or around this day in Blackville, South Carolina, that Cuke Season gets underway. The Encyclopedia of South Carolina (2000) says this about Blackville: Named for Alexander Black, an early railroad executive who shipped cantaloupes, watermelons, and cucumbers in large quantities by rail. During the "cuke" season, beginning about May 20, the town council employs an auctioneer to conduct daily sales, generally starting at 10 in the morning and frequently lasting until 6. At the auction, growers may accept or refuse the offered prices. Buyers are usually local produce merchants, though there are often purchasers from markets out of state. Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation Garden Maker by Christie Purifoy

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1780 It was on this day that much of New England was shrouded in darkness. In fact, many feared that Judgment Day had arrived And so this day became known as The Dark Day. During this day, the sun rose as per usual. But around 10 o'clock in the morning, the sky grew dark. So dark that there were reports of candle-lit lunches, and people stopped what they were doing to pray. The blackout spread from Portland, Maine, to New Jersey. Boston newspapers reported that chickens returned to their roosts after the darkness began, and animals returned to their places in the barn - even they knew that something odd was going on. Even General George Washington wrote about the dark day in his diary. The nature poet John Greenleaf Whittier (books about this person) wrote about the event in a poem. Twas on a May-day of the far-old years Seventeen hundred eighty, that there fell Over the bloom and sweet life of the spring, Over the fresh earth, and the heaven of noon, A horror of great darkness.' "Men prayed, and women wept; all ears grew sharp To hear the doom-blast of the trumpet shatter The black sky. Instead of Judgment Day, it's now generally believed that the darkness stemmed from a fire out west. And the following night, on May 19th in 1780, New England was treated to a full moon that was said to be as red as blood set against the night sky - a spring to remember. 1864 Death of Nathaniel Hawthorne (books about this person), American novelist, and short-story writer. In May 1866, Nathaniel's sister Sophia was writing about The Wayside landscape in a letter to her friend, Annie Fields. She wrote: There is a beauty in May which there is not in July. After these latter rains, the glory of tender and deep greens surpasses all words . . . the walks — the paths look so nice, and there is no knowing what enormity of sauciness the weeds will arrive at by July. In 1843, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote a crazy short story that not many people know about today. The story was about a mad scientist who becomes obsessed about removing his wife Georgiana's birthmark. And so the scientist, concocts a remedy for the blemish and creates a solution using the leaves of geraniums. As his wife drinks this potion, her birthmark does fade away, but in the process, the mixture also kills her. Thus, she dies a perfect unblemished woman. And that's the end of this little known and very bizarre short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. 1906 On this day, Country Life gave an update on the season of tulips. They wrote, The writer regards the season of Tulips as one of the brightest and happiest of the year. Daffodils still flutter in the wind, the first of the Roses are bursting their buds, and the whole air is filled with the scent of wayside of garden flowers. But it is the Tulip that gives the colour, splashes of crimson,scarlet, yellow, rose, white, and even black. A black Tulip is a reality, and is known as The Sultan. It belongs to the race called Darwin, but we prefer the homely name of the May or Cottage Tulip. Dusky as the firm, short segments are, they have weird, strange beauty, which is as fascinating as the clear crimson of the greatest of all Tulips, Tulipa gesneriana major, which opens its big goblets to the sun and discloses a pool of inky blue at the base. A few years ago the May Tulips were seldom seen, but persistent reference to them has brought about a revolution: so much so, that one greets the Tulip with much the same affection as the Daffodil which precedes it. We believe it was in the Royal Gardens, Kew, that the Gesner and other Tulips were first planted in large beds, and the effect of their glorious colour we shall ever remember, it was a novel sight... So there you go—an update on tulip season from 1906. And isn't it interesting to think about how tulips were perceived compared to the daffodil a little over a hundred years ago? 1934 Birth of Ruskin Bond (books about this person), Indian author of British descent. Ruskin's novels, The Room on the Roof and Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra, received critical acclaim and he's written hundreds of short stories, essays, and books for children. In The Room on the Roof, Ruskin wrote, I don't want to rot like mangoes at the end of the season, or burnout like the sun at the and of the day. I cannot live like the gardener, the cook and water-carrier, doing the same task everyday of my life... I want to be either somebody or nobody. I don't want to be anybody. From Rain in the Mountains: Notes from the Himalayas, Ruskin wrote, Yes, I'd love to have a garden of my own--spacious, and full of everything that is fragrant and flowering. But if I don't succeed, never mind--I've still got the dream. Finally, in his book, A Book of Simple Living: Brief Notes from the Hills, Ruskin wrote, Botanists have done their best to in

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1868 Birth of Tsar Nicholas II (books about this person), the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland, ruling from 1 November 1894 until his abdication on 15 March 1917. On his fiftieth birthday on this day in 1918, he was essentially under house arrest by the Bolsheviks along with the rest of his family, the Romanovs (books about this family), in Yekaterinburg "Yek-ah-teerin- borg" (the fourth largest city in Russia) in a private home called Ipatiev ("ee-pah-tee-iv") or the "House of Special Purpose." It would be Nicholas's last birthday. In June, he wrote in his diary "It was unbearable to sit that way, locked up, and not be in a position to go out into the garden when you wanted and spend a fine evening outside." That same month, his wife, Alexandra, wrote, "Out in the garden, fearfully hot, sat under the bushes. They have given us. . . half an hour more for being out. Heat, airlessness in the rooms intense." By the 23rd of June, Alexandra noted the wonder of breathing in the fresh summer air. She wrote, Two of the soldiers came and took out one window in our room. Such joy, delicious air at last, and one window no longer whitewashed. The air in the room became clean and by evening, cool. Nicholas observed, The fragrance from all the town's gardens is amazing. This moment would be one of the family's last happy times. On July 17, 1918, the entire family, including their children and most faithful servants, were brought to the basement and executed. Today there is nothing left of the Ipatiev house. It was demolished in September of 1977, and the land was given to the Russian Orthodox Church. The altar inside a church called the Church on the Blood is on the very spot where the Romanovs died. The beautiful church honors Nicholas and his family, now regarded as saints in the Russian Orthodox Church. 1926 On this day, Ralph Waldo Emerson (books by this author) wrote in his journal: My garden is an honest place. Every tree and every vine are incapable of concealment and tell after two or three months exactly what sort of treatment they have had. The sower may mistake and sow his peas crookedly: the peas make no mistake, but come up and show his line. 1944 Birth of Winfried Georg Sebald ("Say-bald") (books by this author), who went by Max and wrote as W. G. Sebald, German writer and academic. When Max died at 57, he was regarded as one of the greatest authors of his time. His 2001 novel Austerlitz was Sebald's final novel. The book was honored with the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 2019, it ranked 5th on The Guardian's list of the 100 best books of the 21st century. Here's an excerpt: In the warmer months of the year, one or other of those nocturnal insects quite often strays indoors from the small garden behind my house. When I get up early in the morning, I find them clinging to the wall, motionless. I believe, said Austerlitz, they know they have lost their way since if you do not put them out again carefully, they will stay where they are, never moving, until the last breath is out of their bodies. Indeed they will remain in the place where they came to grief even after death, held fast by the tiny claws that stiffened in their last agony until a draft of air detaches them and blows them into a dusty corner. Sometimes, seeing one of these moths that have met their end in my house, I wonder what kind of fear and pain they feel while they are lost. 1955 Death of Mary McLeod Bethune (books about this person), American educator, philanthropist, humanitarian, womanist, and civil rights activist. Mary was the fifteenth child - and the first baby born free - to her newly freed parents, who were enslaved before the Civil War and owned by a different master. Mary's father, Samuel, had worked to "buy" his bride. Most of Mary's older brothers and sisters were sold to other masters. Mary was also the first person in her family to go to school. In 1904, Mary moved to Daytona, Florida. There, she created the Daytona Literary and Industrial School for Training Negro Girls, and within two years, she had 250 students. Without any means, Mary improvised and used sticks of charcoal for pencils, mashed elderberries for ink, and cardboard boxes for tables and chairs. Mary put fifteen dollars in pennies, nickels, and dimes down on a swampy piece of land that served as a garbage dump. It was called Hell's Hole. With the help of benefactors, Mary built a four-story building on the site. Over the main doors were the words "Enter to Learn," and looking up over the same doors upon leaving, students saw the words "Depart to Serve." Mary's school continued to grow until it merged with an all-boys school and became Bethune-Cookman College (B-CC). As the school's first president, Mary reflected, When I walk throug

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1510 Death of Sandro Botticelli, Italian Renaissance master. His painting Allegory of Abundance or Autumn is one of his most elaborate and detailed drawings, and it depicts an abundance of flowers and fruits. Sandro painted idyllic garden scenes filled with beautiful women and men from the classical period. His painting, Primavera, depicts nine springtime gods and goddesses from classical mythology in a garden. Venus, the goddess of love, presides over the Garden of the Hesperides. To her right, Flora, the goddess of flowers, sprinkles roses. The garden features orange and laurel trees and dozens of other species of plants. 1642 On this day, Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, French military officer, catches his first glimpse of Montreal's landscape. He is recognized as the founder of Fort Ville-Marie (modern-day Montreal) in New France (Province of Quebec, Canada). In George Waldo Browne's 1905 book, The St. Lawrence River: Historical, Legendary, Picturesque, he wrote, On the 17th of May, the rounded slopes of Mount Royal, clad in the delicate green foliage of spring, burst into sight, stirring the hearts of the anxious beholders with newfound joy. They were delighted with the scenery. The fragrance of the springing forest permeated the balmy air, and, what was dearer far to them, over the water and over the landscape, rested an air of peace quite in keeping with their pious purpose. Maisonneuve was the first to step upon the land, and as the others followed him... they fell upon their knees, sending up their songs of praise and thanksgiving. Their first work was to erect an altar at a favorable spot within sight and sound of the riverbank, the women decorating the rough woodwork with some of the wildflowers growing in abundance upon the island, until the whole, looked very beautiful. Then every member of the party... knelt in solemn silence while M. Barthelemy Vimont... performed ...high mass. As he closed, he addressed his little congregation with these prophetic words: You are a grain of mustard seed that shall rise and grow till its branches overshadow the earth. 1810 Death of Robert Tannahill, Scottish poet, and lyricist. Remembered as the 'Weaver Poet,' Robert was born in Paisley and is often hailed as Paisley's own Robert Burns, as his work is said to rival Robert Burns. Today in Paisley, a stunning 50ft high mural of a young Robert Tannahill was painted by Mark Worst, collaborating with Paisley Housing Association. The mural overlooks where Robert Tannahill was born on Castle Street in 1774. One of Robert's most beloved songs is Will Ye Go Lassie, Go. The lyrics mention picking Wild Mountain Thyme, a plant known botanically as Thymus serpyllum (TY-mus sir-PIE-lum). Wild Mountain Thyme is a showy, wide growing groundcover from the Old World and has beautiful rose-red flowers and glossy deep green, mat-forming foliage. In the song, the thyme has grown in and around the heather. O the summer time has come And the trees are sweetly bloomin' The wild mountain thyme Grows around the bloomin' heather Will ye go, lassie, go? And we'll all go together To pull wild mountain thyme All around the bloomin' heather Will ye go, lassie, go? 1885 Birth of Elvin Charles Stakman, American plant pathologist. Elvin is remembered for his work identifying and combatting diseases in wheat. In 1917, he married fellow a plant pathologist named Estelle Louise Jensen. He also encouraged Norman Borlaug to pursue his career in phytopathology after Norman's job at the Forest Service was eliminated due to budget cuts. Elvin was Norman's teacher. And Norman went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize (1970) after discovering dwarf wheat varieties that reduced famine in India, Pakistan, and other third world countries. In 1938, Elvin gave a speech entitled These Shifty Little Enemies that Destroy our Food Crops. During his talk, Elvin focused on one shifty little enemy in particular: rust. Rust is a parasitic fungus that feeds on phytonutrients in grain crops like wheat, oat, and barley. Today, Elvin is remembered with the naming of Stakman Hall - the building where Plant Pathology is taught - at the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus. In The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World, Charles Mann reflected, Stakman did not view science as a disinterested quest for knowledge. It was a tool—may be the tool—for human betterment. Not all sciences were equally valuable, as he liked to explain. "Botany," he said, "is the most important of all sciences, and plant pathology is one of its most essential branches. Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation 150 Gardens You Need To Visit Before You Die by Stefanie Waldek This book came out in 2022. Stefanie writes in her introduction: In 150 Gard

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1735 On this day, a French expedition made the first attempt to transport cinchona trees to Europe. The scientist Charles Marie de La Condamine was the first man to describe the Cinchona tree, the scientist Charles Marie de La Condamine, was on the expedition along with the botanist Joseph de Jussieu. Their mission was to add the trees to a Paris collection, but sadly the trees were lost when they were washed overboard. Once Europe learned of the power of the Cinchona tree, they were eager to get their hands on the bark. Cinchona's name was in honor of a Spanish Countess named Ana, and her second marriage was to the Count of Chinchon. After the Count was given the job of serving as the viceroy of Peru, a station that oversaw the entire continent of South America, except for Brazil, the couple arrived in Lima in 1629. The following year, the Countess grew gravely ill with tertian ague. She suffered a fever that occurred every other day, the Governor of Loxa, Don Francisco Lopez de Canizares, sent over a life-saving parcel of cinchona bark. With the cinchona powder, the Countess made a rapid recovery. Eleven years later, when the Count and Countess began their return trip to Spain, they brought along a precious supply of the curative Quina bark for use with their people. They also hoped to introduce cinchona medicine to the rest of Europe. Sadly, Ana died during the long voyage home in Cartegena in December 1639. But Ana's legacy lives on in the medicine we know today as quinine. After her husband, the Count returned to Spain, the medicinal Quina bark powder became known as Pulvis Comitissa in honor of the Countess. And over 100 years later, Linneaus named the genus Cinchona in honor of the Countess of Chinchon in 1742. Linneaus should have called it Chinchona, but he forgot the "h." 1809 On this day, the herbalist and midwife Martha Ballard worked in the raised beds in her garden and recorded her annual spring gardening efforts. For 27 years, Martha kept a journal of her work as a gardener, town healer, and midwife for Hallowell, Maine. Today, Martha's great journal gives us a glimpse into the plants she regularly used and how she applied them medicinally. As for how Martha sourced her plants, she raised them in her garden or foraged them in the wild. As the village apothecary, Martha found her own ingredients and made all of her herbal remedies personally. As a midwife, Martha assisted with 816 births. In May of 1809, Martha worked in the gardens surrounding her house. She sowed, set, planted, and transplanted. On May 15, she planted squash, cucumbers, muskmelons, and watermelons. And on this day, May 16, she sowed string peas at the end of her garden. In Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's work, The Life of Martha Ballard, she writes, Martha's was an ordinary garden, a factory for food and medicine that incidentally provided nourishment to the soul. "I have workt in my gardin," she wrote on May 17, the possessive pronoun the only hint of the sense of ownership she felt in her work. The garden was hers, though her husband or son or the Hallowell and Augusta Bank owned the land. "I have squash and Cucumbers come up in the bed [on the] east side the house," she wrote on May 22. The garden was hers because she turned the soil, dropped the seeds, and each year recorded in her diary, as though it had never happened before, the recurring miracle of spring. 1861 On this day, Union Captain Jacob Ritner wrote back to his wife, Emeline. Jacob and Emeline exchanged marvelous letters throughout the Civil War that depicted their heroic lives on both the battlefield and homefront. While Jacob wrote with the tragic news of war, Emeline kept him apprised of their four small children and the challenges of maintaining the family farm. Emeline's news from home kept Jacob sane and anchored to the happier reality that awaited him after the war. Emeline often wrote about the garden and the landscape, proving that even news of a faraway garden can be anchoring and grounding amid hardship. And so, on this day back in 1861, Jacob wrote in his letter, Now Emeline dear, you must write me a great long letter next Sunday. Tell me all the news, how the trees grow, the garden and grass, what everybody says... 1918 On this day, the rose season began at Munstead Wood, the Arts and Crafts style home and surrounding gardens in Surrey, England, created by garden designer Gertrude Jekyll. Munstead Wood became famous thanks to Gertrude's books and articles in magazines like Country Life. Gertrude lived at Munstead Wood from 1897 to 1932. Volume 82 of The Garden celebrated the first rose to open at Munstead Wood on this day by reporting, The rose season begins. The opening the first Rose is always a source of delight. The first we have seen in the open this year was the pink R

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1815 On this day, Mary Russell Mitford wrote about the changing times in a letter to her friend, Sir William Elford, English banker, politician, and amateur artist. Our grandmothers, when about to make a beau-pot (A large ornamental vase for cut flowers.), proceeded, I fancy, much as their gardeners when clipping a yew hedge or laying out a parterre. Every stalk and stem was in its place; tulip answered tulip, and peony stared at peony. Even a rebellious leaf was reduced to order, and the huge bouquet spread its tremendous width as flat, as stiff, and almost as ugly as its fair framer's painted fan. We, their granddaughters, throw our honeysuckles and posies into their vases with little other care than to produce the grace of nature by its carelessness and profusion. And why should we not...? 1896 Death of Nora Perry, American poet, newspaper correspondent, and writer. In her poem, What May Be, Nora wrote, When the days are longer, longer, And the sun shines stronger, stronger, And the winds cease blowing, blowing, And the winter's chance of snowing Is lost in springtime weather. Here's an excerpt from her poem, The Coming of Spring. All this changing tint, This whispering stir and hint Of bud and bloom and wing, Is the coming of the spring. So, silently but swift, Above the wintry drift, The long days gain and gain, Until on hill and plain— Once more, and yet once more, Returning as before, We see the bloom of birth Make young again the earth 1906 Birth of Enid Annenberg Haupt, American publisher and philanthropist. The president of the New York Botanical Garden called Enid, 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 and became 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 got engaged, Ira gave Enid a cymbidium orchid. 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. Enid's brother, Walter, put her in charge of the magazine Seventeen in 1953. During her tenure, Seventeen magazine was more popular than Glamor and twice as popular as Mademoiselle. At one point, more than half of the teenage girls in the United States were reading Seventeen magazine. Enid ran the magazine until 1970. 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 most significant gifts was to the New York Botanical Garden. Over her lifetime, Enid gave them over $34 million – $5 million of which was dedicated to restoring the stunning Victorian glass greenhouse now called the Enid Haupt Conservancy. Without Enid, the greenhouse would have been demolished. After she retired from Seventeen magazine, Enid learned that the Soviet Union was considering purchasing River Farm, the 27-acre property once owned by George Washington as part of his Mount Vernon estate. The news was abhorrent to Enid. In 1973, she donated a million dollars to the American Horticultural Society to buy the property with the stipulation that it would remain open to the public. In November 2020, the American Horticultural Society attempted to sell River Farm for $32.9 million. AHS Board Chair Terry Hayes argued that selling River Farm was the only way to effectively carry out its national mission of "connecting people with plants and to help all Americans learn about sustainable gardening." The move caused a rift on the board after five board members — Skipp Calvert, Tim Conlon, Holly Shimizu, Marcia Zech, and Laura Dowling — argued that it was "not only morally and ethically wrong, but... fraught with serious legal issues." A year later, in the fall of 2021, the AHS officially took River Farm off the market. The AHS board had shrunk to the five board members who had fought to keep the historic property. In a statement, they said River Farm would remain as the permanent headquarters of the AHS and as a green space open to the public in honor of Enid Annenberg Haupt. 1823 On this day, William Bartram, American botanist, ornithologist, natural historian, and explorer, wrote in his diary that there were, numerous tribes of small birds, feeding on the aphids on the apple, pear trees - towhe buntings building their nests in the garden. Sharon White summarizes William Bartram's May garden life in her book Vanished Gardens: Finding Nature in Phil

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1735 Birth of Charles-Joseph Lamoral, French Field Marshal, writer, and member of the princely family of Ligne ("Leen-ya"). Charles once wrote, I should like to inflame the whole world with my taste for gardening. There is no virtue that I would not attribute to the man who lives to project and execute gardens. 1812 Birth of Edward Lear, English artist, musician, and writer. Edward is remembered for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose. He once wrote, As for myself, I am sitting up today for the first time - partly dressed - [something] the cucumber said when oil and vinegar were poured over him, salt & pepper being omitted. Edward also popularized the limerick. Here's an Edward Lear limerick for gardeners. There was an old person so silly, He poked his head into a lily; But six bees who lived there, filled him full of despair, For they stung that old person so silly. 1820 Birth of Florence Nightingale (books about this person), English social reformer, statistician, and founder of modern nursing. Florence earned the moniker "The Lady with the Lamp" during the Crimean War because she would make her rounds to visit wounded soldiers with a lamp during the night. The American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow used the term in his poem Santa Filomena, which he wrote in honor of Florence's work in Scutari Hospital. Florence was named after Florence, Italy - the city where she was born. As a young girl, she and her sister had their garden to plant and tend. When Florence was 13, she collected flowers with a 77-year-old botanist named Margaret Stovin. Together they gathered and pressed over 100 different species of plants. This charming story was featured in a 2008 book by Richard Mendelsohn. Today, Florence and Margaret's flowers are housed at the Natural History Museum in London. As an adult, Florence wrote, Poetry and imagination begin life. A child will fall on its knees on the gravel walk at the sight of a pink hawthorn in full flower, when it is by itself, to praise God for it. As a nurse, Florence believed flowers helped with the morale and recovery of her patients. And personally, the foxglove was her favorite flower. And Florence received a lovely bouquet every week from William Rathbone, the man who founded the Queen Victoria Jubilee Institute for Nurses. In 2020, one of the anticipated gardens was dedicated to Florence during the pandemic. The year 2020 marked the 200th Anniversary of her birth, and the garden was to be called The Florence Nightingale Garden - A Celebration of Modern Day Nursing. Instead, the garden debuted at the Chelsea Flower Show in 2021. The garden featured "Images from Florence Nightingale's pressed flower collection and echoes of her handwriting … on… the timber walls." Today Florence is remembered in the Florence Nightingale Museum in London, which celebrates the life and work of the best-known figure in nursing history. She is also honored with the Florence Nightingale rose — a pretty pale pink fragrant rose. 1856 Birth of Andreas Franz Wilhelm Schimper, German botanist and phytogeographer Andreas was a significant player in the early days of plant ecology. In 1901, his work was cut short due to his untimely death at 45 after contracting Malaria in Cameroon. Andreas coined the terms tropical rainforest and sclerophyll and is honored in many species names. Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation P. Allen Smith's Garden Home by P. Allen Smith This book came out in 2003, and the subtitle is Creating a Garden for Everyday Living. Well, to me, this book is a garden classic. You get to know a little bit about P. Allen Smith's biography. His family's love of gardens, his experience working in the nursery business - plus all of the great relationships that he made working in some of England's top gardens. (He could write a book on that alone.) Fascinating stories. But in all seriousness, this book is so foundational to gardening. It's a great book to give new gardeners. And it's also an excellent book for gardeners who are considering a redesign or, after a long winter, feel like they need to brush up on their skills. The bulk of this book is dedicated to Allen's twelve garden design principles. He'll talk about aspects like framing a view, having texture in the garden, rhythm, pattern, color, etc. Now I thought I'd share this little excerpt from Allen's introduction. And here he's talking about how he created the garden rooms on his own property. He writes, I began working out the various outdoor rooms to see how they related to the house itself. The shape to one another and to the of the house and the lot created a series of rectangular spaces. I recognized an opportunity to design strong unbroken lines of sight or axes from one garden room into the next. Like an open door, these visual sight li

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1904 Birth of Salvador Dalí, Spanish surrealist artist. Educated in Madrid, Salvador was a son of Catalonia, and he never lost his love for the beauty of his homeland. Early in his career, Salvador gravitated toward surrealism. By 1929, Salvador Dali was regarded as a leading figure in the art form. Like Sigmund Freud, Salvador Dalí used the landscape to metaphor the human mind. He once said about the coastline of his beloved Catalonia, I personify the living core of this landscape. Today, two museums are devoted to Salvador Dalí's work: the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Figueres, Spain, and the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida. And in 2020, the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida, presented Salvador Dalí: Gardens of the Mind. The exhibit's centerpiece was Flordalí, a fantastically-colored series of flower lithographs from 1968. In Flordali, Salvador created imaginary surrealist enhancements to favorite blossoms. He made Dahlia unicorns, which feature a twisted horn in the middle of the bloom. Lilium musicum has vinyl records and sheet music for petals. Pisum sensuale is a sensory plant with fingers with painted nails and voluptuous lips. Panseé (Viola cogitans) is a self-portrait with pansies for the eyes and mouth. 1907 On this day, the American botanist Nathaniel Lord Britton was in Nantucket preparing for a lecture on plant protection. Nathaniel had brought along fifty colored lantern slides from the Van Brunt collection to use in his presentation. Nathaniel and his wife co-founded the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, New York. Nathaniel's time in Nantucket was brief - only for a day - but he wrote these observations in a letter about his trip. [On Nantucket] The mayflower is the most abundant of spring wildflowers, carpeting the moors on the south side of the island and lending a rich, spicy fragrance to the ocean breezes that sweep over these exposed tracts. It is in less danger from picking than from the surface fires, which are common occurrences in spring. The later blooming wildflowers suffer more or less at the hands of summer tourists, but I was glad to observe that the residents of Nantucket as a whole are keenly alive to the importance of preserving the natural beauties of the island and carefully guard the localities for many rare plants, especially the Scotch heather and the two European heaths (Erica cinerea and E. tetralix) which occur there. 1923 On this day, a schoolyard garden reported outside of Lochness gave the following update, As sheep are constantly breaking into the garden work has been stopped till the walls are rendered sheep-proof. This little entry was discovered by the modern-day owner of the property Katharine Stewart, and she shared it in her delightful month by month garden book called A Garden in the Hills (2006). Katharine reflected on the journal entry regarding the sheep and wrote, I know exactly what he meant. More than sixty years later, the sheep, the more agile variety, are still sometimes managing to leap over the wall, where the superimposed netting has given way. That can mean goodbye to all the summer lettuce and the winter greens, not to mention the precious flowering plants and all the work that went into producing them. The little school in the Scottish highlands closed in 1958. A few years later, Katharine and her husband, Sam, bought the property known as the croft at Abriachan near Loch Ness. There, Katharine began her writing. Reflecting on her first days in the garden at the croft, Katharine wrote, When we arrived, wild raspberries, willowherb, and sweet cicely had largely taken over. To bees and butterflies and to many kinds of birds, this was paradise! For us, it held all the thrill of uncharted territory. Every day a fresh discovery was made. Even now, I come on surprises each summer. Digging [has] revealed many other interesting things-worn-out toys, pieces of pottery, a pile of school slates from a dump against the top wall, evidently discarded when jotters came in-and, most interesting of all, several 'scrapers' dating from prehistoric times. Meanwhile, I often imagine my predecessors here looking on the same outline of hills, the same scoop of the burn in the hollow, listening to the same sounds of lark and owl, the bark of deer, and many more long gone-the howl of wolf, maybe the growl of bear. The heather would have been their late summer delight, making drinks of tea or ale, thatching for their roofs, and kindling for their fires. Sometimes envy them the simplicity of their lives, though the hardships must have been great. They didn't have a Christmas to celebrate, but they knew all about the winter solstice, and they must have been happy to see the bright berries on the holly, as we do today. Late in life, Katharine Stewart went on

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1725 Birth of John Hope, botanist, professor, and founder of the Royal Garden in Edinburgh. John produced considerable work on plant classification and physiology. He was appointed 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. John created a school for botanists after spinning off the school's materia medica (pharmacy) department, which allowed him to specialize exclusively in botany. John was a captivating instructor. He was one of the first two people to teach the Linnean system. He also taught the natural system. John was one of the first professors to use big teaching diagrams or visual aids to teach his lectures. John led over 1,700 students during his tenure. His students traveled from all over Europe, America, and India. John Hope Alumni include the likes of James Edward Smith, founder and first President of the Linnaean Society, Charles Drayton, and Benjamin Rush. A field botanist, John encouraged his students to go out and investigate the Flora of Scotland. He awarded a medal every year to the student who collected the best herbarium. 1818 Birth of Arthur Cleveland Coxe, American theologian and composer. Arthur served as the second Episcopal bishop of Western New York. He once wrote, Flowers are words, which even a baby can understand. 1891 Death of Carl Wilhelm von Nägeli, Swiss botanist. Although he studied cell division and pollination, Carl's claim to fame is being the guy who discouraged Gregor Mendel from pursuing his work on genetics. Gregor regarded Carl as a botanical expert and his professional hero. When Gregor sent Carl an overview of his work with pea plants in a letter, Carl dismissed the results out of hand, labeling them "only empirical, and impossible to prove rationally." Carl poo-pooed natural selection. Instead, he believed in orthogenesis, a now-defunct theory that living organisms have an internal driving force - a desire to perfect themselves- and evolve toward this goal. Over a seven-year period in the mid-1800s, Gregor Mendel grew nearly 30,000 pea plants - taking note of their height and shape and color - in his garden at the Augustinian monastery he lived in at Brno (pronounced "burr-no") in the Czech Republic. His work resulted in what we now know as the Laws of Heredity. Gregor came up with the genetic terms and terminology that we still use today, like dominant and recessive genes. Carl Wilhelm von Nägeli's dismissal prompted Gregor to give up his work with genetics. After his promotion to the abbot of the monastery, Gregor focused on his general duties and teaching. In 1884, Gregor died without ever knowing the impact his work would have on modern science. Fifteen years later, in 1899, a friend sent the Dutch botanist Hugo de Vries a copy of Gregor's work - calling it a paper on hybridization - not heredity. At the same time, Gregor's paper was uncovered by a student of Carl Wilhelm von Nägeli's - a man named Carl E. F. J. Correns. Hugo de Vries rushed to publish his first paper on genetics without mentioning Gregor Mendel. But he did have the nerve to use some of Gregor's data and terminology in his paper. Carl Correns threatened to expose De Vries, who then quickly drafted a new version of his paper, which gave proper credit to Gregor Mendel. Through his work with the humble pea plant, Gregor came up with many of the genetic terms still used today, like dominant and recessive genes. 1907 It was on this day that Francis Younghusband, British Army officer, explorer, and spiritual writer, documented the progression of spring in the Residency Garden in Kashmir. Francis shared his observations in a book called Kashmir(1909). The Residency Garden was an English country house that was built specifically for guests by the Maharajah, and so naturally, Francis loved staying there. Here's what Francis wrote in May of 1907 about the Residency Garden, which was just coming into full flower. Francis observed, By May 1st ...The May trees were in full blossom. The bank on the south side of the garden was a mass of dark purple and white irises, and [the] evening [sun] caused each flower to [become] a blaze of glory. Stock was in full bloom. Pansies were out in masses. Both the English and Kashmir lilacs were in blossom, and the columbines were in perfection. The first horse chestnuts came into blossom on May 10th, and on that date, the single pink rose, sinica anemone, on the trellis at the end of the garden, was in full bloom and of wondrous beauty; a summer-house covered with Fortune's yellow was a dream of golden loveliness; I picked the first bloom of some English roses that a kind friend had sent out... and we had our first plateful of strawberries. A

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events National Public Gardens Week This week marks the beginning of National Public Gardens Week (May 6-15). This celebration started in 2009 as part of the effort to bring attention to the country's public gardens. Go Public Gardens is an ongoing, evergreen Association initiative to drive the public to visit, value, and volunteer at public gardens in their area and when they travel. You can be part of the celebration by visiting a public garden this week. You can find gardens near you on the interactive Garden Map. 1781 Birth of Henri Cassini, French botanist and naturalist. Henri's 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. Henri took a decidedly different path than his ancestors. He was the fifth generation of a family of star scholars, so Henri is often referred to as Cassini V. Henri became a lawyer, and like many professionals, botany was a hobby for Henri. His heart belonged to the sunflower family, and it is fitting that the genus Cassinia(the sunflower genus) was named in his honor by the botanist Robert Brown. Henri's work had staying power. Many of his sunflower descriptions and observations are still valid over two centuries later. Henri married his cousin and had no children. He died of cholera at 50, and he was the last of the Cassini name - and a punctuation mark on the wonderful Cassini legacy. 1807 On this day in 1807, Lewis and Clark returned a book they had borrowed from Benjamin Smith Barton. Before starting their incredible expedition, Meriwether Lewis visited Barton at his home. Meriwether left with Barton's copy of The History of Louisiana by Antoine le Page. Meriwether memorialized the gesture in the flyleaf of the book, writing: 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. 1860 Birth of James Matthew Barrie (books by this author), Scottish novelist, and playwright. James is best remembered as the creator and author of Peter Pan, and he drew inspiration from the real world's Kensington Gardens. In 1912, James commissioned Sir George Frampton to build a statue of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. It's been a favorite of visitors to the park ever since. Gardens and flowers were other sources of inspiration for James. The following are just a few samples of his garden inspired prose: There is almost nothing that has such a keen sense of fun as a fallen leaf. The unhappy Hook was as impotent as he was damp, and he fell forward like a cut flower. All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old, she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, 'Oh, why can't you remain like this forever!' This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end. James also wrote, God gave us memories that we may have roses in December. 1921 Birth of Sophia Magdalena Scholl (books about this person), German student, and anti-Nazi activist. Sophia was part of the White Rose non-violent resistance group started by her brother Hans. The two were arrested and convicted of high treason after distributing anti-war leaflets at the University of Munich. Sophia was executed by guillotine. Her last words were, "long live freedom." Since the 1970s, Sophia has been praised and remembered for her anti-Nazi resistance work. In 2021, Sophia was commemorated on a special sterling silver collector's coin issued on her 100th birthday. It was Sophie Scholl, leader of the White Rose Movement, who said, Who would have thought it possible that a tiny little flower could preoccupy a person so completely that there simply wasn't room for any other thought. Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation Patina Living by Steve Giannetti and Brooke Giannetti This book came out in 2019, and this is The heartwarming story of how the Giannetties live and entertain in the well-designed and lushly planted gardens of their farm in Ojai, California. If you're a longtime listener of the show, you know that I recommended Steve and Brooke's second book Patina Farmjust a few weeks ago. But this is actually their third book, and it's called Patina Living, and it came out in 2019. And as the publishe

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events Compost Awareness Week 1742 Birth of Jean Senebier, a Swiss pastor and botanist. Where would we be without Senebier? We'd still be breathing, but we'd lack the knowledge that carbon dioxide is consumed by plants and, in turn, that plants produce oxygen as part of the process of photosynthesis. In a nutshell, Senebier's work is crucial because he had learned the function of leaves: capturing carbon for food. Before 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. 1754 Birth of Joseph Joubert, French moralist and essayist. Remembered mainly for his Pensées ("Pon-see") or (Thoughts), which were published posthumously, he once wrote, All gardeners live in beautiful places because they make them so. 1856 Birth of Sigmund Freud (books about this person), Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis. Freud once offered this humorous insight: Common sense is a rare flower and does not grow in everyone's garden. Freud offered up a few dispassionate observations regarding the natural world. He once wrote, Beauty has no obvious use, nor is there any clear cultural necessity for it. Yet civilization could not do without it. And he also wrote, Flowers are restful to look at. They have neither emotions nor conflicts. Online there are many photos of Freud and his family in the garden of their home in London. The Freuds left their home in Austria to escape the Nazis with the help of Princess Marie Bonaparte (books about this person), known as Princess George of Greece and Denmark. In 1938, there was a photo of Sigmund with his daughter Anna and Martha in the garden of Marie Bonaparte's house in Paris after arriving on the Orient Express from Vienna. Anna looks happy, Martha looks at a flower, and Sigmund has a little snooze in his garden bed. The Freud home in London was much larger and nicer, and there was a large backyard with a garden. The property still boasts Freud's rose garden and is now the Freud Museum at 20 Maresfield Gardens in Hampstead, London NW3, England. In 2008, the French botanist and biologist Francis Hallé wrote, Everyone knows that going to the garden does not solve the problems of everyday life, yet it relativizes them and makes them more bearable. Sigmund Freud had this late regret: 'I lost my time; the only important thing in life is gardening.' 1925 On this day, at the age of 29, the great twentieth-century reformer of Japanese gardens, Mirei Shigemori (books about this person), changed his name from Kazuo ("Kah-zoh") to Mirei ("me-RAY"). The name change was a tribute to the 19th-century French painter of pastoral landscapes and daily life, Jean Francois Millet (books about this person), who once said, It is the treating of the commonplace with the feeling of the sublime that gives to art its true power. In 1932, Mirei founded the Kyoto Garden Society. Mirei practiced the art of tea - Chado ("Cha-doe") and the art of flower arranging - Ikebana ("ick-aye-bah-na"). Mirei once advised, People who try to do research on the garden have to very seriously study the way of tea. Mirei wrote eighty-one books, including the Illustrated Book on the History of the Japanese Garden in 26-volumes, released in 1938. Mother Nature played an important role in shaping Mirei's life when the Muroto Typhoon destroyed much of Kyoto in 1934. Many sacred temples, shrines, and gardens were wiped out in the life-altering storm. In response, Mirei took action. He used his own money and became one of the first designers to survey every garden in Japan - creating records for restoration if they were ever damaged or destroyed. The tour provided a valuable service to his country and was also a means for Mirei to learn garden design - with a particular focus on incorporating rocks and stone. As a garden designer, Mirei was entirely self-taught. Throughout his fifty-year career, Mirei designed over two hundred gardens, including the checkerboard North Garden/Moss Garden at Tofukuji ("Tofu-kah-gee") Temple, Kyoto (1939), the dry landscape at Zuiho-in ("zwee-ho een" (1961), and the garden at the oldest shrine in Kyoto City, the Matsuo Taisha ("maht-sue-oh Ty-sha"(1975). The shrine is dedicated to the gods of water in western Kyoto and was an important place for sake-brewing families to worship over the centuries. In 2020, the second edition of landscape architect Christian Tschumi's book, Mirei Shigemori - Rebel in the Garden, was released. In it, Christian breaks down the profound influences and meanings behind Mirei's most iconic gardens. Christian once wrote, Shigemori's body of work is a compelling manifesto for continuous cultural renewal. Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation The Layered Garden by David

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1830 Birth of Thomas Edward Brown, late-Victorian scholar, schoolmaster, poet, and theologian from the Isle of Man. Thomas was published under T.E. Brown, and here's a little excerpt from his poem called My Garden. A GARDEN is a lovesome thing, God wot! Rose plot, Fringed pool, Fern'd grot— The veriest school Of peace; and yet the fool Contends that God is not— Not God! in gardens! when the eve is cool? Nay, but I have a sign; 'Tis very sure God walks in mine. 1833 Birth of Richard Watson Dixon, English poet, and clergyman. Richard was the son of the clergyman, Dr. James Dixon. He's most remembered for that lyrical poem that begins. The feathers of the willow Are half of them grown yellow Above the swelling stream; And ragged are the bushes, And rusty now the rushes, And wild the clouded gleam. But today, I thought I would share an excerpt from his little-known poem called The Judgement Of The May. Come to the judgement, golden threads upon golden hair in rich array; Many a chestnut shakes its heads, Many a lupine at this day, Many a white rose in our beds Waits the judgement of the May. 1890 Birth of Christopher Morley, American journalist, novelist, essayist, and poet. Christopher also produced plays and gave college lectures. And in addition to all of that, He wrote little sayings, like The trouble with wedlock is that there's not enough wed and too much lock. And he also wrote Heavy hearts, like heavy clouds in the sky, are best relieved by the letting of a little water. And then finally, here's a Christopher Marley quote on spring. April prepares her green traffic light, and the world thinks: Go. 1921 Birth of Mavis Lilian Batey, English Codebreaker and garden historian. Mavis served as an English Codebreaker during World War II, and her unique skillset broke the German enigma code, which allowed the allied forces to stage their D-Day invasion. Mavis became a champion for forgotten, yet historically significant, English gardens. She also helped establish garden history as an academic specialty. In 1955, Mavis and her Codebreaker husband, Keith, settled on a farm in Surrey. It was this property that sparked Mavis's passion for landscape history. After moving to Oxford, Mavis and her family lived in a fantastic park designed by Capability Brown. The park was also home to a garden designed by William Mason in 1775. Mavis recalled, We lived in the agent's house right in the middle of Capability Brown Park. But it was William Mason's garden that really got me. We had to cut our way into it. It was all overgrown and garden ornaments were buried in the grass. I knew at once it wasn't just an ordinary derelict garden. Someone had tried to say something there. Mavis Batey used her wit and determination to become a force in numerous conservation organizations and missions. In 1985, Mavis was honored with the RHS Veitch Memorial Medal for her invaluable work, preserving gardens that would otherwise have been lost to time. Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation The Magical World of Moss Gardening by Annie Martin This book came out in 2015, and Pacific Northwest magazine said this about Annie's book: Instead of eradicating this deer-resistant, pest-resistant, rootless, stemless, wonder of a plant, Annni Martin tells us how to encourage and cultivate it. Well, mosses are near and dear to many gardeners' hearts, and there have been many gardeners who try to grow and cultivate moss to no avail. And that's because moss has some special requirements. Annie writes, In my own garden, I feel angst when mosses is dry out and I obsessively respond to my compelling desire to give them a rejuvenating drink. And as they begin the saturation process, I regain my own glowing state. As I watch leaves swiftly unfold and colors, magically intensify. In addition to being mesmerizing, there are many reasons to pursue moss gardening. There are also many environmental benefits. Moss can be a lawn substitute - depending on where you live and your garden set up. If you have a shady property, you should definitely look into mosses as an option. Mosses are super carbon sequesters. They're great at erosion control and flood mitigation - and they have a built-in filtration system, which means that moss can help reclaim land in locations where cleanup is needed. Now, if Annie's name sounds familiar, it's because she is a moss expert. Her nickname is Mossin' Annie, and she's the proud owner of Mountain Moss Enterprises. I appreciate books like this because you have a true subject matter expert acting as your guide. Annie will help you identify dozens of Moss species, and she'll teach you how to propagate moss successfully. (This is something most gardeners want to know how to do). Finally, Annie is a master when designing and installing moss gardens. This bo

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events Today is Bird Day! 1556 Death of Luca Ghini ("Gee-nee"), Italian physician and botanist. Luca is remembered for creating the first recorded herbarium and the first botanical garden in Pisa, Italy. Historical accounts indicate he was an outstanding and beloved botany teacher at the university in Bologna. By 1527, Luca was giving lectures on medicinal plants and essentially teaching what is considered the first official university-level classes on botany. Luca was also the first to press flowers to create a plant collection. The English botanist William Withering wrote about flower pressing in the 1770s. Luca used his pressed and dried plants the same way future botanists would - he used them to study when fresh or live specimens were not available. In this way, he could teach his students, and they could use the dried specimens to continue their studies all year long. Luca mentored his students - taking them on field trips and encouraging them to learn all about plants. And if Luca Ghini seems an obscure character in botanical history, it's because he didn't publish anything. He was too busy interacting with his botanist peers and teaching his students - through whom he left a lasting legacy. 1749 Birth of Charlotte Turner Smith, English novelist, and Romantic poet. She revived the English sonnet, was an early Gothic fiction writer and helped establish the genre. She also wrote about sensibility in her political novels. Charlotte's novels, Emmeline (1788) and Desmond (1792), reflect womanly hope and disenfranchisement with eighteenth-century Common Law. Charlotte once wrote, Oh, Hope! thou soother sweet of human woes! How shall I lure thee to my haunts forlorn! For me wilt thou renew the withered rose, And clear my painful path of pointed thorn? And here is an excerpt of Charlotte's poem called Written at the Close of Spring. The garlands fade that Spring so lately wove, Each simple flow'r, which she had nurs'd in dew, Anemones that spangled every grove, The primrose wan, and harebell, mildly blue. No more shall violets linger in the dell, Or purple orchis variegate the plain, Till Spring again shall call forth every bell, And dress with humid hands her wreaths again. Ah, poor Humanity! so frail, so fair, Are the fond visions of thy early day, Another May new buds and flow'rs shall bring; Ah! Why has Happiness—no second Spring? 1858 Birth of Sophie Emma Magdalene Grieve (pen name Mrs. Grieve), English writer and herbalist. Her friends called her Maud. In addition to her writing, Maud founded an Herb School and Farm in England. She was a Fellow of the Royal Horticultural Society, President of the British Guild of Herb Growers, and a Fellow of the British Science Guild. Today, Maud is best remembered for her book, A Modern Herbal (1931). Maud's Herbal is still regarded as one of the best herbals ever written. She provided detailed information about each herb she profiled, including "Medicinal Actions and Uses." Here's a sampling of her information. Purple Loosestrife: As an eyewash this invasive herb is superior to Eyebright for preserving the sight and curing sore eyes. Chives: Useful for cutting up and mixing with the food of newly-hatched turkeys. Borage: May be regarded as a garden escape. (A delicate way of saying it is invasive.) Valerian: A powerful nervine, stimulant, carminative, and anti-spasmodic. The drug allays pain and promotes sleep. It is of especial use and benefit to those suffering from nervous overstrain…During the recent War (WWI), when air-raids were a serious strain on the nerves of civilian men and women, valerian…proved wonderfully efficacious, preventing or minimizing serious results. Garlic: There is a Mohammedan legend that when Satan stepped out from the Garden of Eden after the fall of man, Garlick sprang up from the spot where he placed his left foot and Onion from that where his right foot touched. Moneywort: We are told by old writers that this herb was not only used by man, but that if serpents hurt or wounded themselves, they turned to this plant for healing, and so it was sometimes called 'Serpentaria'. Agrimony or Church-Steeple: the small root is sweet-scented, especially in spring. Lemon: It is probable that the lemon is the most valuable of all fruit for preserving health. English Summers: 'It has been said, with some truth, that our English summer is not here until the Elder is fully in flower, and that it ends when the berries are ripe." 1894 Birth of Margaret Leland Goldsmith, American journalist, historical novelist, and translator. In June of 1936, in "The Perils of Gardening" for Scribner's Magazine, she wrote: For years I have avoided magenta with feverish zest. I do not like it. It kills my henna reds. It fights with the cedar brown of my cottage. Yet every year something of that hue