The Daily Gardener

Today we celebrate one of the most prolific garden writers of the 1800s. We'll also learn about a Hollywood legend who ate roses... We hear an adorable poem about the crocus. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that helps us make our own little piece of heaven here on earth in the form of a garden. And then we'll wrap things up with the living legacy - a garden - that honors the memory of a trailblazing first lady. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Here are the Top 10 things to do for your garden this spring | The Olympian | Marianne Binetti Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.

Today we celebrate a botanist who is honored by the genus for the spectacular Baobab tree. We'll recognize the man who became a globetrotting botanist and even a food spy and ultimately introduced more than 200,000 plants to the United States, We'll hear some words from a poet gardener, ecologist, and naturalist, who celebrates his 251st birthday today. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about the pioneering herbalist Nicholas Culpeper. And then we'll wrap things up with a fun little quote from an Iowa newspaperman. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News The Plant Lover's Guide to Styling a Bookshelf | Apartment Therapy | Anna Kocharian Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.

Today we celebrate the man who is remembered with the much-loved Zinnia We'll also learn about the California Poppy and California Poppy Day, which is celebrated today. We hear one of my favorite passages about springtime. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a lovely book about Orchids - that's sure to bring a smile. And then we'll wrap things up with the story of a wonderful botanist who did tremendous work in the Southern part of the United States and he is remembered fondly still today. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News The 'Plant for Peace' Is a Common Herb Often Overlooked for Treating Stress | Well + Good | Saanya Ali Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.

Today we celebrate the botanist who discovered cells in plants and helped to establish cell theory. We'll also learn about an amateur botanist who had a tremendous impact on the University of Michigan. We'll remember the gift of a stunning Fabergé egg known as The Lilies of the Valley egg. We hear a delightful verse about spring from a popular cookbook author. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about Bonsai. And then we'll wrap things up with the story of one of England's great garden writers. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Cottage Garden Ideas | Ideal Home | Tamara Kelly Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.

Today we celebrate a woman who was outcast and imprisoned in her own home and so she became a gardener. We'll also learn about a man who wrote one of the most useful and beautiful medical botany books. We'll hear a charming garden verse from an English writer and poet. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about one of America's greatest botanists. And then we'll wrap things up with a sweet little garden poem from an American poet laureate. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News 6 Shows to Stream If You Love Gardening | Apartment Therapy | Wendy Rose Gould Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.

Today we celebrate the man remembered as the Father of Plant Anatomy. We'll also learn about a man who developed his own system fr classifying plant families and then we'll chat a bit about why knowing your plant families can be a beneficial skill to add to your gardening expertise. We hear a little poem today from an English writer who was born on this day - she led an incredible life and died young. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about a great topic - Plant Folklore. And then we'll wrap things up with a little story about one of my favorite spring ephemerals: Violets. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Top 10 BEST Botany Discoveries in 2019 | BioExplorer Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.

Today we celebrate a remarkable English naturalist and artist. We'll also learn about the man known as the Rocky Mountain botanist. We hear a journal entry about bloodroot. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about place and how location, location, location is just as important to gardens as it is to real estate. And then we'll wrap things up with the story of a Landscape Gardener that broke away from the style used by his mentor Capability Brown - and he even coined the term "Landscape Gardener." Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News How to Find Native Plants Near Me | Native Backyards | Haeley Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.

Today we celebrate one of American's earliest botanists. We'll also learn about a fantastic English flower painter who was mentored by Nathaniel Wallich after meeting him in Cape Town - they happened to be staying at the same hotel. We'll hear a little poem about budding trees. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book getting back to the basics Growing all the food you need with just for hand tools. No fuss no muss. And then we'll wrap things up with some fun; it's National Chia day. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News You Should Totally Be Doing the TikTok Plant-Shaking Trend | The Spruce | Taylor Fuller Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.

Today we celebrate a journal entry about spring and sap and microclimates. We'll also learn about a young Dutch botanist who determined the cause of Dutch Elm Disease. We'll hear a poem about spring from a beloved English poet. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about the Garden from a man who was never in a hurry, who fought to preserve trees, and sought to work with nature. And then we'll wrap things up with the story of the earliest horticulture society in the United States. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News The hunt for a white iris once popular in old New Orleans gardens | Nola.com | Dan Gill Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Grow That Garden Library Garden Time by W.S. Merwin

Today we celebrate one of the best British scientific botanical artists of the 20th century. We'll also learn about a Canadian naturalist who was battling a mole problem on this day 83 years ago today. We hear a wonderful excerpt from a garden design book published two years ago today We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about the secret design tips of the great Bunny Mellon. And then we'll wrap things up with a glimpse behind the scenes of life as a student botanist at Kew. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up forthe FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News France on hunt for centuries-old oaks to rebuild spire of Notre Dame | The Guardian | Kim Willsher Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events March 19, 1906 Today is the birthday of the English illustrator who specialized in the native flora of Britain, Stella Ross-Craig. When Stella was 23, she landed a job at Kew Gardens, where she worked as a botanical illustrator, taxonomist, and contributor to Curtis's Botanical Magazine. When Stella's work caught the attention of the director of Kew, Sir Edward Sailsbury, he made sure to introduce her to a publisher, and the rest, as they say, is history. Today we remember Stella as one of the best British scientific botanical artists of the 20th century. In total, Stella illustrated over 1,300 species in her monumental and highly detailed series called, Drawings of British Plants series - something she worked on for over twenty-five years. The series was available in 31 individual paperback books or eight hardcover volumes. Stella's paperbacks were revolutionary; She was one of the first botanical writers to publish an illustrated book of British plants that were both inexpensive and accessible to readers. On Twitter, the ecologist and author Alex Morss wrote, "The best wild flower guides offer keys, but artists bring the music. Here is one of the masters, scientific illustrator Stella Ross-Craig. She breathed life into Kew's dried specimens with stunning accuracy." To look at photos of Stella Ross-Craig from the 1990s forward is to see a happy woman with kind eyes and perfectly coiffed snow-white hair reminiscent of a loving grandmother or even Mrs. Claus. In pictures, Stella is always smiling. In the twilight of her life, Stella received many well-deserved honors. When she was 93, she became the sixth person ever to receive the Kew International Medal. Following this honor, Stella's work was exhibited at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and then at the Kew Gardens Gallery. And in 2002, at the age of 86, Stella was awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's Gold Veitch Memorial Medal. One of the many plants that are better-understood thanks to Stella Ross-Craig is the Fritillaria. A member of the lily family, the fritillary is a spring-blooming flower, and each plant generally produces a single blossom from April to May. With pendulous lily-shaped flowers, the blossoms have a distinct checkered pattern that is stunning, and the blooms are either purple, pink, or white. Most gardeners treat Fritillaria imperialis as an annual and plant new specimens every single year. Fritillarias love the sun and can tolerate dappled shade. The etymology of the fritillary is from the Latin "frills," meaning "dice box" - a reference to the checkered pattern on the petals in a number of species. And here's a fun fact, the checkered pattern of the fritillaria inspired the checkerboard pattern on Croatia's coat of arms. The fritillaria is native to Croatia, where it is regarded as the national flower and is known as "Kockavica" ("COX-ah-veet-sah") or the Checkered Lily. March 19, 1938 It was on this day that the Canadian Naturalist Charles Joseph Sauriol ("Sar-ee-all") jotted down a sweet diary entry, and it was shared bythe Toronto Archiveson their fabulous twitter feed - which is a wonderful thing to follow. Charles wrote: "We have a visitor. A long winding trail of tunneled earth f

Today we celebrate the birthday of a man many of us have heard about, but the details of his life story are even more compelling than the legend that is part of his legacy. We'll also learn about a gardener and broadcaster who was beloved by millions and who started off his lifelong career as a gardener at Windsor Castle. We hear an excerpt today from one of my favorite meditation books on nature. We Grow That Garden Library™ with an oldy but goody - a classic workbook on garden design. And then we'll wrap things up with the story of a philanthropic gardener who left a mark with her garden, her work at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG), and the 1939 World's Fair. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Sarah Raven on Why the Chrysanthemum is Having a Comeback | Home & Garden | Sarah Raven Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search forDaily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events March 18, 1845 Today is the anniversary of the death of John Chapman - better known as Johnny Appleseed - who died on this day at the age of 70. Johnny was born in Massachusetts. In fact, the street where he was born is now called Johnny Appleseed Lane. As a young man, Johnny became an apprentice to an orchardist named Crawford. Now the image that most of us have is of Johnny traipsing through the country; planting one apple tree at a time is off-base. That's not actually how things went for Johnny. Johnny actually traipsed through the country planting entire apple orchards. And then, after he planted an orchard, he would protect the grove by building a fence around it. And then, he'd arrange a deal with a neighboring farmer to sell trees from the orchard in exchange for shares. It was a genius setup. And every time I think of a community garden or hear about a school or a city that rejects a community garden, I always think of Johnny's ingenuity. Why? Because Johnny knew how to overcome the oft-cited objection of who's going to take care of this garden- and he incentivized people to do just that. Now during his life, Johnny had a particular high regard for, and relationship with, Native Americans who regarded Johnny as a medicine man. At the same time, Johnny wanted early American settlers to succeed. In fact, Johnny often acted as a one-man welcome wagon. He'd often show up at the door of a family who had just settled in the area, and he'd give them a gift of herbs as a welcoming gesture. And most people are surprised to learn that Johnny was an expert in more plants than just apple trees. In fact, Johnny was one of our country's first naturalists and herbalists. And Johnny regularly used many herbs for healing. Such as Catnip, Whore-Hound, Penny Royal, Rattlesnake Weed, and Dog Fennel. In fact, Dog Fennel (Eupatorium) was also called "Johnny weed" because Johnny planted it, believing it was antimalarial. Whenever I hear the word Eupatorium, I always think of Joe-Pye Weed, a plant that is closely related to Eupatorium or Dog Fennel. And like the Dog Fennel. It is a prolific spreader in the garden. Unfortunately, Dog Fennel is not something you want in your garden as it is a noxious weed. Toda,y the Johnny Appleseed Center is located on Urbana University's campus in Urbana, Ohio, and it holds the most extensive collection of memorabilia and information on Johnny Appleseed. In 1999, seedlings from the last-known surviving Johnny Appleseed tree were transplanted into the courtyard around the museum. Now I thought I would end this little segment on Johnny Appleseed by sharing some fun Apple facts with you. First, the crab apple is the only apple that's actually native to North America. A medium apple is about 80 calories, and apples are fat, sodium and cholesterol-free. And the old saying, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away," is actually from an old English adage that went like this: "To eat an apple before going to bed, we'll make the doctor beg for his bread." Apples are members of the R

Today we celebrate a man who revealed the medicinal properties of Digitalis or Foxglove. We'll also learn about an English author and gardener who wrote about the gardens of her life, and she turns 88 years old today. We hear an excerpt about a Scientist, Explorer, revolutionary, and Outcast who became one of New Zealand's Great Explorers. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about high-end garden design. And then we'll wrap things up with a story about the man who revived the town, Landscapes and gardens of Colonial Williamsburg. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News How to Decorate for Spring | House & Garden Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events March 17, 1741 Today is the birthday of the English botanist geologist, physician, and chemist William Withering. William became the very first person to study the bioactivity of the flower known as Digitalis or Foxglove. In this respect, William's training as a physician served him well. And the story goes that one day, he noticed a person suffering from what was then called dropsy, which is an old word for a person who's suffering from congestive heart failure. Now, in this particular case. William observed that the patient in question showed remarkable improvement after taking a traditional herbal remedy that included Digitalis or Foxglove. Now William gets the credit for discovering the power of Digitalis because he studied the various ingredients of this old herbal remedy. He determined that it really was the Digitalis that made all the difference when it came to heart issues. In 1785, William published his famous work called an account of the Foxglove and some of its medical uses. Now Foxgloves are a beautiful plant for the ornamental or cottage garden. These are plants that produce beautiful tall flower spikes. And each spike can contain 20 to 80 purple to pink flowers that are tubular and whitish on the inside. Now Foxgloves are a toxic plant, and if you eat any part of the plant, it can result in severe poisoning. And this is important to know because when Foxglove first emerges out of the ground, it can be confused for comfort or plantation. Since both of those plants are used as edible plants by many people - it's important to be able to distinguish them and to remember where you're planting Foxglove in your garden. The fact that the Foxglove so closely resembles Plantain when it first comes out of the ground is a helpful way for gardeners to remember that Foxglove is in the Plantain family. In addition to the common name, Foxgloves, Digitalis has many adorable common names, including Fairy Fingers, Fairy Thimbles, Rabbits Flower, and Scotch Mercury. And there's a delightful old legend about the Foxglove, and it goes like this, that bad fairies gave the blossoms to a Fox who needed to put the flowers on his toes so that he could muffle the sound of his feet, as he hunted for prey. And here's another fun fact about the Foxglove: it's a cousin to another beloved cottage garden flower, the Snapdragon or Antirrhinum majus ("ant-er-EYE-num MAY-jus"). Now, with regard to its toxicity, which is a very legitimate concern. The gardener and garden writer, Katharine S. White, wrote this: "At a very early age, I remember, I was to recognize what plants are to be avoided completely. At a very early age, I remember I was taught how to recognize and stay away from deadly nightshade, poison ivy, and poison sumac. (I was, just as early, taught the delights of chewing tender young checkerberry leaves and sassafras root.) To me, it would be ridiculous, though, not to grow monkshood, foxglove, hellebore, larkspur, autumn crocus, poppies, lilies of the valley, buttercups, and many other flowers now present in my borders just because they have some poison in them." So as you can see the Foxglove is in good company when it comes to toxic plants. Now when the botanical illustr

Today we celebrate a woman who made botanical art through her pioneering photography. We'll also learn about a man who discovered something new and gave it a name that we are all too familiar with today: the virus. We hear an excerpt from a book about one of the world's top floral designers and gardeners and what it was like to have a flower shop during the height of WWII. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a fantastic book about garden design - it doesn't get much better than this incredible book. And then we'll wrap things up with a little story about the Trailing Arbutus or Mayflower. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Rewilding: What is it And Why it's Good For Your Garden | Elle Decoration | Natasha Goodfellow Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events March 16, 1799 Today is the birthday of the English botanist and photographer Anna Children Atkins who was born on this day, March 16th in 1799. Anna is often regarded as the very first person to have published a book that was illustrated with photographs. Anna's photographs were extraordinary, and she used a type process that produced images onto cyan blue paper. And in case you're wondering, that is the etymology for the term blueprints. Today, there are just a handful of copies of Anna's 1843 work Photographs of British Algae. Sadly, although none of her specimens have survived, we at least have her beautiful prints. Back in 2015, on the occasion of her 216th birthday, Anna was honored with a Google Doodle. And if you have kids, please check out a wonderful book of photography that Fiona Robinson wrote called The Bluest of Blues: Anna Atkins and the First Book of Photographs. Now, a fun activity that you can do to accompany learning about Anna Atkins is making sun prints with botanical specimens. Sun prints are an easy project and only require a few simple steps. First, you want to go out and gather items that you want to use for your artwork - this can be fern leaves, or little flowers that you pick, or even leaves from a tree. Then you're going to need a tray, and on the tray, you'll place your sun print paper that you can get from Amazon. Next, place your botanical items on top of the Sun Paper. Now, if you have plexiglass, you can place that over the top. If you don't have plexiglass, it's not a windy day; that's just fine. You just need to bring your tray out into a sunny spot. And let it sit for about two minutes. Soon you'll notice that the paper will begin to turn a pale blue everywhere that's not covered by one of your botanical specimens. (The areas that are covered by the specimens will remain a dark blue.) After about two minutes, it's time to remove all of your items off of the paper. Then you just remove the paper and gently slip it into a tray of water. This step is essential because the water is going to stop that exposure process. And you don't need to leave the paper in the water very long - only for about a minute. Next, you can just take the paper out of the water after about a minute and then set it on a table or other flat surface to dry. This sun print activity is wonderful to do with kids in the summertime on a hot summer day when kids are looking for something to do. Then when it's all done, you will have these beautiful, fun prints that you can put on display - and they make beautiful gifts. It is a fun activity to do with little gardeners this summer in your 2021 garden. March 16, 1851 And today is the birthday of the Dutch microbiologist and botanist Martinus Beijerinck ("By-a-rink"). Now Martinus was a very smart man - a very brilliant botanist - and he was searching for the reason that tobacco plants were dying. And to do his research, Martin ground up some diseased tobacco leaves, and then he pressed the juices through a bacteria filter. And you can imagine his surprise when the filtered, bacteria-free liquid still spread the di

Today we celebrate the man who introduced Europe to the Piggyback Plant - it's now a popular houseplant. We'll also learn about the man who was an early evangelist for gardening and working with Mother Nature. We hear an excerpt from a book by a celebrated plantsman as he discusses a beloved snow gum tree. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a joyful book about permaculture. And then we'll wrap things up with the colorful story about the Indiana State Flower and how the Zinnia lost to the Peony. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Designing a Pollinator Habitat: Four Things to Consider | Story | The Xerces Society Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events March 15, 1754 Today is the birthday of the Scottish surgeon, botanist, and naturalist Archibald Menzies. Now there's a famous story about Archibald that goes something like this: One time, Joseph Banks sent Archibald on an expedition. At some point, Joseph ended up dining with the leadership of the country of Chile. Archibald was served nuts from the Chilean Pine Tree during the meal, and these nuts were featured as part of an elaborate dessert for this grand meal that Archibald enjoyed. As Archibald is sitting there, he begins to eat some of these nuts. But then, his inner-botanist took over, and Archibald realized that the nuts were actually large seeds. And so, Archibald does what any good botanist would do: he tucks five of the nuts in his pocket. And then, on his way back to England, Archibald planted the five seeds and started growing the Chilean Pine Tree right there on the ship. And guess what? He ended up growing them successfully. Now, once these trees started growing in England, they became known by a new common name when people started calling them the Monkey Puzzle Tree - because someone remarked that even a monkey would not be able to climb the Chilean Pine Tree. And as a result of this, Archibald became known as the Monkey Puzzle Man. Now today, sadly, Monkey Puzzle Trees are considered endangered. But like Archibald, gardeners still attempt to grow these curious trees from seed, and if you're fortunate, you can find those seeds online. Now another plant that Archibald discovered is the Piggyback Plant. Today, this is a popular houseplant, and its botanical name is Tolmiea menziesii in honor of Archibald Menzies. You may be wondering how it got the common name, the Piggyback Plant, which I think is an adorable name that is inspired by the way this plant grows. It turns out that Piggyback Plants develop buds at the base of each leaf where it meets the stalk. Then the new plants basically piggyback off the parent leaf, which forces the stem to bend down to the ground under the weight of that new plant, and the new baby Piggyback Plant can take off from there. Now because of its growing habit, Piggyback Plants are perfect for hanging baskets. And they really do make excellent houseplants because they like indirect light and partial shade. Online, I noticed that the Piggyback Plant is compared to the Strawberry Begonia because they both have attractive foliage, and they are super easy to propagate - which makes them a double win in my book. Anyway, happy heavenly birthday to Archibald Menzies - and thank you for the Monkey Puzzle Tree and the Piggyback Plant. March 15, 1858 Today is the birthday of the American horticulturist and botanist who co-founded the American Society for Horticultural Science, Liberty, Hyde Bailey, who was born on this day, March 15th in 1858. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to Liberty Hyde Bailey. He is responsible for starting so many things, including the 4-H movement, the nature study movement, parcel post, and even making sure that electricity got into rural parts of America. He truly was a pioneer. Looking back, it's actually rather staggering to reflect on Liberty Hyde Bailey's work. Luckily for us, we're able to get a cle

Today we celebrate a man remembered for bringing a ton of new and exciting plant species to California and his profound impact on Santa Barbara in particular. We'll also learn about a year of letter-writing between two garden greats. We hear an excerpt about the first time tulip bulbs were used as money. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a stunning book about our relationship with trees. And then we'll wrap things up with the sunny State Flower of Kansas: the Sunflower. . Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News National Plant-a-Flower Day | FTD Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events March 12, 1843 Today is the birthday of the Italian American horticulturist Francesco Franceschi ("fran-CHESS-ko fran-CHESS-key"). Born in Italy, Francesco changed his name after coming to America and settling in Santa Barbara, California. With a temperate Mediterranean climate, Santa Barbara became a haven for plant lovers in the 1800s. Francesco's work elevated him in the plant community. He planted a boulevard of impressive Italian Stone Pines and lined another main avenue with Palm Trees. Always on the lookout for new varieties, Francesco brought Italian Zucchini to California, and he introduced exciting new plants like Cape Pittosporum, Floss Silk, and Naked Coral Trees to California. Fluent in seven languages, Francesco communicated with botanists, collectors, and explorers all over Europe and South America. In terms of legacy, Francesco is remembered for bringing more exotic plants to Southern California than any other man. One specimen that made Francesco famous was the Catalina Ironwood and the story of how he sourced the tree is legendary. In 1894, Francesco made a trip to the Channel Islands to get the Catalina Ironwood. Tragically, this expedition was beset with all kinds of challenges. When the rough waters threatened to sink their vessel, Francesco's sons had to jump out of the boat. Seeing the commotion and suspecting the Francheschi's were smugglers, the coast guard fired on them. Yet despite these close calls, Francesco achieved his goal and he managed to bring an entire burl stump of Catalina Ironwood to Santa Barbara. Once he was home, Francesco propagated new Ironwoods from the suckers that formed on the stump and one of these offspring ended up at the Botanic Garden at UC Berkeley. Forty years after Francesco's rocky trip to the Channel Islands, Santa Barbara made the Catalina Ironwood (Lyonothamnus floribundus ssp. floribundus) the city's official tree. And today, next to the space where Francesco's nursery used to be, an oceanside park bears Francesco's name. And if you've ever lamented the way botanical plant names change over time, you'd be in good company with Francesco, who — after learning that Persea gratissima was updated to Persea americana — said, "One cannot protest strongly enough against this modern craziness of creating new names for old things." March 12, 2001 On this day Nancy Goodwin of the landmark Montrose Gardens and Allen Lacy American garden writer and columnist launched their garden book called A Year in Our Gardens. This is one of my favorite books and it's a collection of the letters that Alan and Nancy exchanged during a single year. Now, what I love about Alan in Nancy's letters is that these two people are truly real gardeners in every sense of the word - despite their fame and popularity. And so their letters share their horticultural wins and their failures. They talk about plants, of course, but they also share their dreams for their gardens and they even delve into other areas of their life - like their favorite music and what's going on with their family and friends. And as for these two gardeners, Alan and Nancy's gardens and their garden philosophies could not be more different. Alan's garden was on a 100- by 155-foot plot of farmland in Southern New Jersey. And while Alan gardened

Today we celebrate a botanical illustrator who is remembered as one of the greats from the 17th century. We'll also learn about a woman who battled the Prickly Pear Cactus - not an easy thing to do. We'll hear an excerpt from an expert on growing giant hybrid delphinium - and why we really should think of these as annuals and not perennials. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about growing food in your own backyard. And then we'll wrap things up with the story of a magnificent tree that met its demise on this day in 1992. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Plantswoman Sarah Raven reveals unconventional tip for growing herbs, and it doesn't cost a penny | Ideal Home | Millie Hurst Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search forDaily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events March 11, 1775 Today is the birthday of French botanist and illustrator Pierre Jean François Turpin. Pierre learned botany from a friend, Pierre Antoine Poiteau, who was a botanist, gardener, and botanical artist. And though we know that he had some help learning botany from his friend Poiteau, Pierre actually taught himself to draw, and he was influenced by other great artists like Redouté. Today there are many examples of Pierre's work in the Lindley Library. And history tells us that, altogether, Pierre created over 6,000 magnificent botanical watercolors. Furthermore, many experts regard Pierre's fruit prints to be some of the finest ever produced. I ran across two fascinating stories about Pierre that I wanted to share with you today. First, Pierre created a fictional illustration of an archetypal plant. This isn't something that he just decided to do. Instead, he was commissioned by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Goethe asked Pierre to demonstrate the diversity of angiosperms - no small task - and Pierre happily obliged. When Goethe first laid eyes on Pierre's drawing of this composite plant, he named it the Urplant. And he wrote that, "The Urplant would be the most wondrous creation in the world, for which nature itself would envy me. With it, one could invent plants to infinity..." I've shared his image of the Urplant inthe Facebook group for the show. So you can just head on over there, and it should be at the top of your feed for today. The second story that I wanted to share with you about Pierre is a little sadder but nonetheless touching. It turns out that Pierre also had a son named Pierre Jr., and no doubt. Pierre taught his son how to draw. But tragically, when he was just 18 years old, Pierre's son died, and the very last thing he drew was an Amaryllis. After his death, Pierre made sure to give him credit, and then he did something unusual for botanical illustrations: he made a little remark on his son's passing. And so the inscription under this amaryllis reads. This original illustration was painted by Pierre John Frederick Eugene Turpin. The illustrator, who was 18 years and six days of age, ceased to live on the 21st of August in 1821. And less than 20 years later. Pierre himself would die in Paris in 1840 at the age of 65. In any case, I found this little picture of the amaryllis drawn by Pierre's son to be so touching, and I included it in response to a listener who had written me to ask, "What should I do with my Amaryllis after it's done blooming?" Great question. Now I know that some people decide to throw their Amaryllis away when it's all done - because then you're just left with the beautiful foliage. But if you're intent on saving it, it is possible to do, and you can force it to flower again next year. And here's how you would do that. Once your Amaryllis finishes blooming, just remove the flower stock by cutting it about one to two inches above the leaves. And whatever you do, do not remove the leaves because they feed the bulb so that it can rebloom later in the year. Once you've removed the flower stock, you can place your Amaryllis in a sunny window and then w

Today we celebrate an East German Nurseryman and plant breeder who is remembered in the name Feather Reed Grass. We'll also learn about an exceptional English author and garden designer. We hear a little snippet about Gardener's Latin as a clue to the meaning behind Plant Names. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a fantastic book about the business of flowers. And then we'll wrap things up with a beloved old poem about botany. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Feel Happier — Easy Ways To Gaze At America's Most Gorgeous Spring Gardens | Forbes | Laura Manske Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events March 9, 1874 Today is the birthday of the revered German plant breeder, writer, and garden designer Karl Foerster. Now Karl was born into an intellectual and accomplished family. His father was an astronomer, and his mother was a famous painter. Many gardeners are surprised to learn that Karl began gardening at the tender age of seven after obtaining an apprenticeship. A year later, Karl entered a professional gardening program and studied there for 11 years. When Karl turned 18, he took over his family's Berlin nursery, which was a bit of a mess. But Karl had a knack for running a nursery. He streamlined the business by simplifying his plant inventory. Although Karl loved all plants, he was especially drawn to tough, low-maintenance, hardy perennials. Karl used three factors to determine whether a plant would be sold in his nursery: beauty, resilience, and endurance. And Karl's high standards ended up bringing great success to his nursery. When he turned 24, Karl moved his nursery to Potsdam. There, Karl married a singer and pianist named Eva, and together they had one daughter. Knowing Karl's high standards of plants, imagine how exacting Karl was as a plant breeder. Yet, Karl never pollinated flowers by hand. He wanted nature to reign supreme. Today, Karl Foerster grass is a recognized staple in many gardens and landscapes. The story goes that Karl was on a train when he spied the grass along the tracks. To seize the chance to collect the specimen, Karl pulled the emergency brake, stopped the train, and then quickly collected the specimen that now bears his name. While gardeners have heard of Karl Foerster Grass or Feather Reed Grass (Calamagrostis), many fail to realize the grass was successful because it first met Karl's high standards for perennials. Karl Foerster grass was the Perennial Plant of the Year in 2001. And, Overdam is a variegated version of Karl Foerster grass. Karl's plant performance expectations and his appreciation for low maintenance spaces with year-long seasonal interest helped shape the New German Garden Style of garden design. A Karl Foerster garden had some signature plants: grasses, delphinium, and phlox. Naturally, all of these plants were favorites in Karl's breeding work. Karl once wrote, "A garden without phlox is not only a sheer mistake but a sin against summer." And he also wrote, "Grasses are the hair of mother earth." Karl lived to the ripe old age of 96. And looking back, it's staggering to think that Karl spent nearly nine decades gardening, and it was Karl Foerster who said, "In my next life, I'd like to be a gardener once again. The job was too big for just one lifetime." March 9, 1892 Today is the birthday of the English author and garden designer, Vita Sackville West. In 1930, Sissinghurst Castle - at least what was left of it - was bought by Vita and her husband - the diplomat, and journalist, Harold Nicolson. Together, they restored the house and created the famous garden, which was given to the National Trust in 1967. After seeing Sissinghurst for the very first time, Vita recalled, "I fell in love; love at first sight. I saw what might be made of it." Vita explored the depths of her own creativity as she shaped the gardens at Sissinghurst. When she came up with the idea

Today we celebrate a French botanist and explorer who became an accomplished botanist after losing his wife. We'll also learn about the man remembered in the late spring/summer-flowering genus Roscoea (ross-COE-ee-uh), which includes extremely fragrant herbaceous perennials in the Zingiberaceae "Zin- jah-bah-RAY-see-ee" or ginger family. We hear an excerpt from a delightful book about pruning wisteria - if you have a wisteria in full sun that hasn't bloomed - you can thank your pruning regimen for that. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about floral cocktails. Cheers to that. And then we'll wrap things up with a little story about a female botanist and botanical illustrator known to her family and friends by her nickname: Shadow. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Build an Affordable Grow Light System | Fine Gardening | Carol Collins Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events March 8, 1746 Today is the birthday of the French botanist and explorer André Michaux. Most people think of André Michaux as the accomplished old botanist, but I always prefer to recall the beginning of his story because that's what set him on his course. André grew up on a royal farm in Satory south of Versailles. His father trained both he and his brother in horticulture, and after his father died, André carried on at the farm. André married a prosperous farmer's daughter from a nearby farm named Cécile Claye. Within a month after marrying, Cécile became pregnant. And a month shy of their first wedding anniversary Cécile delivered a son, Francois-André, and later in life, André named an oak in his son's honor. Tragically, Cécile died after the delivery of their only son, which plunged André into depression. Yet mercifully, the decade after Cécile's death ended up accelerating André's horticultural learning and development. First, his friend, the naturalist Louis-Guillaume Le Monnier, persuaded André to work with exotic plants that needed study and acclimation to France's weather. Then, André started studying with the great botanist Bernard de Jussieu at Versailles and in the Royal Botanic Garden in Paris. And then, André began starting to travel to collect plants. In 1786, André was asked to go to North America, and he brought his 15-year-old son François-Andre along with him. André's mission was to establish a botanical garden in America and send specimens back to France. In quick fashion, André established his nursery on the property that the Charleston Area National Airport now occupies. Today, as you leave the Charleston airport, you'll notice a stunning mural that honors Andre and his son. The mural was installed in 2016. In one panel, Andre-François and his father are depicted in the potager or kitchen garden. The central scene depicts the rice fields along the Ashley River and the Charleston Harbor, where Michaux introduced one of the first Camellia plants. Native to Asia, Camellias are small, evergreen flowering trees or shrubs, and Camellias are in the Theaceae or tea family, which is why Camellias are commonly called tea plants. In Floriography ("FLOOR-EE-ah-grah-FEE") or the language of flowers, the Camellia represents love and loyalty. Camellia blossoms are beautiful and come in various colors, sizes, bloom times, and forms. And, best of all, Camellias are long-lived and can grow for 100 to 200 years. Finally, here are two fun facts about the Camellia: In California, Sacramento is nicknamed the Camellia City, and The Camellia is Alabama's state flower. March 8, 1753 Today is the birthday of the Liverpool poet, historian, botanist, and politician William Roscoe. William grew up in the Presbyterian church. He learned his love of poetry from his mother, and he'd helped his father with his work as a market gardener. As an adult, William was an early abolitionist during a time when the slave trade was the backbone of the econo

Today we celebrate the woman who donated her entire orchid collection to begin the Belle Isle Conservatory. We'll also learn about a woman who Burpee honored with the naming of a Marigold. We hear an excerpt from a garden diary for this week of March. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a very delightful book that teaches how to make your own floral cocktails. And then we'll wrap things up with a little story that shares five favorite perennials for country life. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News 4 Things You Can Plant in March, the Very Beginning of Outdoor Gardening Season | Apartment Therapy | Molly Williams Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events March 5, 1866 Today is the birthday of Anna Scripps Whitcomb. Anna was born to James and Harriet Scripps. Anna's father was an entrepreneur; he founded the Detroit News and helped found the Detroit Museum of Art. In 1891, Anna married Edgar Whitcomb and together they raised two children. The couple lived on a beautiful estate in Gross Pointe and along the way, Anna nurtured her passion for orchids. The Whitcomb property boasted two large greenhouses which were largely devoted to orchids. During the first half of the 1900s, Orchids were still very challenging to grow and they had a very poor germination rate. Anna's success with orchids was in large part thanks to her longtime gardener and propagator William Crichton who worked for Anna for almost 30 years. William often had the help of a small staff of gardeners and the team worked together to show many of Anna's orchids at the Detroit Flower Show. A charming article about Anna's orchids highlighted William's expertise this way, "With a fine brush, [William] transferred the pollen of one gorgeous flower to another. The seed pod of the fertilized flower would contain a quarter million seeds, a few hundred thousand of which would be planted and half of them would bloom nine years after spring. Because the modern orchid grower studies the ancestry of his plants... [William] can predict their possible forms and colorings and qualities. But exactly what will happen, [William] must wait nine years to learn. Until recently the orchid breeder could count upon no more than five percent of selected seeds surviving to germinate. Now the famous Cornell University method has raised the life expectancy of orchid seeds to 50 percent. With this method seeds are sown in a propagating jelly, which looks like library paste. It is composed of chemicals, salts and nutrients made from seaweed. [Each year, William] will cross but one, possibly two, pair. [William] will save perhaps 10,000 to 20,000 seeds and plant half of them… Five flasks filled with the Cornell agar jelly [are] sufficient to fill a small orchid house with bloom. [And] Each flask [is corked with cotton and covered with a glass and] hold[s] [between] 500 to 1,000 seeds, fine as star dust, In ten months flecks of green appear on the thick, white gelatine within the flask. Minute seedlings are ready for the outside world, where, for eight or nine years more, they must face the hazards of life. Drafts, germs, insects, diseases, changes in temperature, careless hands would destroy them. Little pots filled with a special orchid moss, known as Osmunda fiber, are prepared, perhaps 10 or a dozen, for the benches of the private orchid house. The grower transfers the bits of green, washing off the jelly, scattering the thousands of seedlings, like chopped parsley, over the smooth, spongy surface of the moss. Years pass. The infant plants are moved from the nursery to less crowded quarters. Weak individuals are discarded. Finally, each survivor stands alone in a pot, guarded, sprayed, scrubbed with soap, watered and fed, by day and by night, in controlled degrees of heat and humidity." Before Anna died, she made arrangements for her orchid collection in the event of her death. And in

Today we celebrate a man who wrote the book on growing and selling orchids. We'll also learn about a very special Arbor Day to honor Luther Burbank. We hear a touching excerpt about the final days of an incredible gardener, teacher, and friend. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about the beautiful flowers of Japan. And then we'll wrap things up with a sweet little advertisement about the Gladiolus and Dahlias - two beautiful flowers that most gardeners are ordering and shopping for this month (if they haven't already). Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth [email protected] Curated News 5 Perennial Herbs You Should Grow | Hunker | Michelle Miley Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events March 4, 1847 Today is the birthday of the German-English orchidologist and nurseryman Henry Frederick Conrad Sander. As a young man of 20 years old, Conrad met the Czech plant collector Benedict Roezl. Benedict's heart lay in exploration and acquisition; he did not enjoy the marketing and sales aspects of plant hunting. Instead, these skills were Conrad's strengths. The two men struck up a business plan that left Benedict free to explore and collect and Conrad to sell, sell, sell. Conrad set up shop in St. Albans, and Benedict was soon sending shipments of orchids from Central and South America. Benedict collected for Sander for 40 years. Even though Benedict was 6'2" tall and had that imposing iron hook for a hand, Benedict was robbed 17 times and, once, even attacked by a jaguar during his collecting days. After his quick success with Benedict, Conrad expanded his operations. Soon Conrad was managing inventory from over twenty collectors, growing orchids in over sixty greenhouses, and entertaining visitors that included Europe's top collectors and even royalty. As a result of his business success acquiring, breeding, and selling orchids, Conrad became known as the King of Orchids. Leveraging his incredible expertise, Conrad wrote a masterpiece in two volumes on every variety of orchid. The book was folio-sized, with text in three languages - English, French, and German - and the botanical drawing of orchids were life-sized. As a sign of great respect, Conrad named his book Reichenbachia in honor of the legendary orchidologist Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach. Reichenbach had named more orchids than any other person, and in his will, he asked that his herbarium be closed for 25 years to protect his work with orchids from his competitors. In turn, in 1882, Heinrich honored Sanders by naming the "Queen of Philippine Orchids" after Sanders - naming it the Vanda Sanderiana, which the locals called the waling-waling orchid. The waling-waling is considered one of the rarest, most beautiful, and most expensive orchid, and it is also one of the largest species of orchids in the world. Orchids are some of the world's oldest flowering plants, producing the world's tiniest seeds. A single Orchid seedpod can contain three million seeds! Orchids are also the largest family of flowering plants in the world. With over 25,000 species, Orchids represent about ten percent of all plant species on earth, and there are more orchids on earth than mammals and birds! Now, once they are germinated, Orchids can take five to seven years to produce a flower. And if you look at the orchid bloom closely, you'll see that the blossom, like the human face, is perfectly symmetrical, which only adds to their visual beauty. And, by the time you are buying that Orchid at Trader Joe's, it is likely already decades old. But never fear, Orchids are long-lived and can reach their 100th birthday. The vastness and complexity of orchids can be frustrating. Charles Darwin grew so discouraged writing his book about orchids that he wrote to a friend, "I am very poorly today and very stupid and hate everybody and everything." March 4, 1949 On this day, the Santa Cruz Sentinel out of Santa Cruz, California, p

Today we celebrate the man who is remembered in one of the garden's sweetest summer annuals - the lobelia. We'll also learn about the man who invented the telephone - he also happened to love gardening and the natural world. We hear a great memory about rhubarb from one of my favorite garden books from 2020, and the author is an incredible artist to boot! We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book to help you develop positive, meaningful mantras in your life. And then we'll wrap things up with some little-known facts about the birth flower for March. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Planning and Designing a Productive Vegetable Garden | The Ukiah Daily Journal | Melinda Myers Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events March 3, 1616 Today is the birthday of the Flemish physician and botanist Mathias de l'Obel ("ma-TEE-us dew Lew-bell"). Mathias practiced medicine in England. And among his accomplishments, Mathias was the first botanist to recognize the difference between monocots and dicots. Today we remember Mathias de l'Obel ("LEW-bell") with the Lobelia plant. Before researching Mathias, I pronounced obelia as "LOW- beel- ya". But now, knowing the French pronunciation of his name, I will say it "LEW-beel-ya." It's a subtle little change (LOW vs. LEW), but after all, the plant is named in Mathias's honor. Now, for as lovely as the Lobelia is, the common names for Lobelia are terribly unattractive and they include names like Asthma Weed, Bladderpod, Gagroot, Pukeweed, Vomit Wort, and Wild Tobacco. These common names for Lobelia reflect that Lobelia is very toxic to eat. Despite its toxicity, Lobelia is one of the sweetest-looking plants for your summer containers. This dainty annual comes in pink, light blue, and royal blue. Personally, every year, I buy two flats of light blue Lobelias. But no matter the color you choose, lobelias are a favorite of pollinators. The delicate blossoms frequently host bees, butterflies, and moths, which only adds to their charm. March 3, 1847 Today is the birthday of the Scottish-born inventor, scientist, and engineer credited with inventing and patenting the first practical telephone, Alexander Graham Bell. In 1855, Alexander co-founded the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, known today as AT&T. And although most people know about Alexander's story with regard to the telephone, most people are unaware that Alexander had a love for gardening and the natural world. Early on in his childhood, Alexander was drawn to the natural world, and he collected botanical specimens and conducted experiments. After attending school for only five years, Alexander took personal control over his lifelong love of learning. Growing up, Alexander's best friend, Ben Herdman, was from a family who owned a flour mill. When Alexander was 12 years old, he created a device that rotated paddles equipped with nail brushes and the family used this dehusking machine in their mill operations for years. As a gesture of thanks, Ben's father made a space for the boys where they could invent to their heart's content. Now many people are unaware that Alexander's mother was deaf, and Alexander had dedicated himself to helping the deaf his entire life. As a young man, Alexander opened a school for teachers of the deaf. While he was in Boston, he even worked with a young Helen Keller. Later on, he worked with a young woman named Mabel Hubbard, who became deaf as a child from scarlet fever. After five years of courtship, Alexander and Mabel married. At the ceremony, Alex presented Mabel with a special wedding present: nearly all the shares of the stock in a company called Bell Telephone. Alexander and Mabel shared a lifelong love of gardening. The couple built a summer home in the charming village of Baddeck, Canada, in 1889. Mabel would stroll the neighborhoods and ask about the plants that were growing in the gard

Today we celebrate the man who went to Mexico as an ambassador and sent back the plant that became synonymous with Christmas. We'll also learn about a gardener who worked for 50 years to create one of England's top gardens. We hear a charming account of spring's flower show. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a fantastic book for gardeners looking to ferment their harvest this year. And then we'll wrap things up with a sweet little story about the State Flower of Idaho. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Urban pollinators get almost all their food from backyard gardens | UPI | Brooks Hays Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events March 2, 1779 Today is the birthday of the physician, botanist, and American statesman, Joel Roberts Poinsett. In the 1820s, President John Quincy Adams appointed Joel to serve as a US ambassador in Mexico. Joel was introduced to a beautiful plant that the Aztecs called the cuetlaxochitl ("qwet-la-SHO-chee-til") but today it's better known as the Poinsettia. The Aztecs used to extract a purple dye from the Poinsettia, which they used for decorative purposes. Like euphorbias, the Poinsettia has a white sap that the Aztecs used that white sap to treat wounds, skin diseases, and fever which is how it got the common name "Skin Flower." The Aztecs also used the leaves of the Poinsettia to make a tea to increase breast milk in nursing mothers. In warm climates like Mexico, the poinsettia grows year-round and can grow up to 16 feet tall. In 1825, when Joel Poinsett sent clippings back home to South Carolina, botanists had new common names for the plant: "the Mexican Fire Plant" or "the Painted Leaf." The botanist Karl Wilenow ("Vill-ah-no") named the Poinsettia the Euphorbia pulcherrima. Pulcherrima means "very beautiful." And already in 1836, English newspapers were reporting about the Poinsettia in great detail: "Poinsettia Pulcherrima, the bracts which surround the numerous flowers, are of the most brilliant rosy-crimson color, the splendor of which is quite dazzling. Few, if any of the most highly valued beauties of our gardens, can vie with this. Indeed, when we take into consideration the profuse manner in which it flowers, the luxuriance of its foliage, and the long duration of the bracts, we are not aware of any plant more deserving in all select collections than this lovely and highly prized stranger." Every year, on December 12th, the day Joel Poinsett died, we celebrate National Poinsettia Day. March 2, 1875 Today is the birthday of the head gardener at Warley Place, John Jacob Mauerer. Jacob's story is intertwined with the enormously wealthy English horticulturalist Ellen Ann Willmott, who was 17 years older than him. In 1875, the year Jacob was born, Ellen's parents moved to Warley Place, a beautiful natural property set on 33 acres of land in Essex. As it turned out, Ellen lived there for the rest of her life. Every member of the Willmott family loved gardening, Ellen's parents often invited the Swiss botanist and world-renown alpine specialist Henri Corravon to be a guest in their home. When Ellen's wealthy aunt and godmother, Countess Helen Trasker, died, Ellen inherited some significant money. And when her father died, Ellen became the owner of Warley Place. With her large inheritance and the keys to the property she had grown to love, Ellen planted to her heart's content. Ellen also quickly hired over 100 gardeners to help transform Warley Place into one of the world's top botanical gardens. One time, while Ellen was visiting Henri Corravon's nursery in Switzerland, she learned that he was quite pleased with a new gardener named Jacob. After watching him work, Ellen hired him away with a promise to provide him a retirement package, which included a house to live in and a pension of £1 per week. The year was 1894, and Jacob Mauerer was 19 years old when he left Switzerland for W

Today we celebrate the first woman to describe Fungi ("funj-eye") using the Linnaean system of classification. We'll also learn about a little-known prolific nature and floral writer from the 1800s. We hear a little recollection by a garden writer who received an armload of Forsythia from a friend named Alice, just when she needed it most. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that encourages you to garden confidently - putting anxieties and fear behind you and creating the space of your dreams. And then we'll wrap things up with the roots of roses - they're deeper than you think. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News 30 Unique Plants That Attract Butterflies | Tree Hugger | Meghan Holmes Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events March 1, 1717 Today is the birthday of the German artist, children's book author, translator, editor, and pioneering female botanist Catharina Helena Dörrien ("Durr-ee-in"). Catharina was born into an intellectual family in Hildesheim, a community Southeast of Hannover. Her father, Ranier, believed that while beauty fades, ignorance can be a lifelong affliction. And so, Rainier made sure that his daughter Catharina was educated. After the death of her parents and her brother, Catharina sought work as a governess nearly 200 miles away in the town of Dillenburg. Catharina worked for the Erath ("AIR-rit") family - Anton was an attorney and scholar, and Sophie was a childhood friend to Catharina. Catharina could not have found a more like-minded household to her own family than the Eraths. Like her own parents, Anton and Sophie wanted both their sons and their daughters to be educated. Ultimately, the Eraths would become Catharina's second family. As a teacher, Catharina turned to nature to teach about all subjects and life as well. Realizing there were few resources for teaching women or children, Catharina wrote her own textbooks, which were heavily focused on botany and the natural world. It was rare enough that Catharina was teaching children and women about the natural world; it was nearly miraculous that she could research and write her own instructional guides. As the Erath children grew, Catharina was able to focus on her botanical work. Anton helped Catharina gain membership to the Botanical Society of Florence - something unheard of for women of her time. Catharina would go on to be a member of the Berlin Society of Friends of Nature Research and the Regensburg Botanical Society. During Catharina's time, Dillenburg was part of the Orange-Nassau principality, and she gradually came to the idea of creating a Flora for Orange-Nassau. Using her spare time to travel throughout the region, Catharina visited most areas at least twice to capture plant life in different seasons. During the winter months, Catharina dedicated her focus on the smallest plants: lichen, mosses, and fungi ("funj-eye"). In 1777, Catharina published her 496-page flora, which used the Linnaean system to organize and name each specimen. Catharina's flora was remarkable for the 1700s - not only for using the Linnaean system and for the inclusion of new plants and plant names but also for the sheer fact that it was the work of a woman. Catharine became the first woman to name two new fungi ("funj-eye") during the 1700s. During her fieldwork, Catharina created over 1,400 illustrations of local flora and fauna. Yet, these masterpieces never made it into her flora. Instead, Catharina's botanical art became an heirloom that was passed down through the generations of the Erath family. In 1875 a few pieces of Catharina's work were shown at an exhibition. However, fifteen years later, a large collection of paintings by a man named Johann Philipp Sandberger was bought by the Museum of Wiesbaden. Johann was a dear friend of Anton Erath's, and today, his work is considered to be copies of Catharine's original watercolor masterpi

Today we celebrate a charming woman who became known as the Apple Blossom Lady. We'll also learn about the man who raised the best begonias in the world back in the early 1900s. We hear some thoughts on tussie-mussies. We Grow That Garden Library™ with an informative and delightful book about Fungi ("funj-eye") - and it's loaded with incredible photography. And then we'll wrap things up with a dream - an inspired horticultural vision for the botanical building in Balboa Park by the Begonia man, Alfred Robinson. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Foliage Plants: How To Use Green Foliage Plants In Your Garden | Gardens Illustrated | Alasdair Cameron Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events February 26, 1834 Today is the birthday of the woman who came up with the State Flower for Michigan: Anna Eliza Reed Woodcock. Born in Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, Anna moved to Michigan after marrying her husband, David. She had a beautiful voice, and Anna was well-known in Lansing as an actress and a singer in local productions and events. On April 19, 1897, Anna clipped some branches from her flowering apple tree, loaded them up in a wheelbarrow, and then rolled them down North Capitol Avenue to the Michigan Statehouse. When she got there, Anna adorned the office of the Speaker of the House with the blooming branches. It turns out, 63-year-old Anna had been looking out her kitchen window at 309 Capital Avenue North in Lansing and was moved by the sight of her beautiful Apple tree in bloom. It suddenly occurred to her that the Apple Blossom would make a great state flower. Knowing that the Michigan Legislature would be voting on a state flower, she hoped her Apple Blossom branches would have some influence... and they did. Just nine days after wheeling her branches one block down the street to the Capital, the Michigan legislature approved the resolution making the apple blossom the State Flower, and they said, "Our blossoming apple trees add much to the beauty of our Landscape, and Michigan apples have gained a worldwide reputation." In her old age, Anna remembered, "When the selection of the State Flower was voted on, blossoms from my snow apple tree trimmed the speaker's desk at Lansing, and the vote was unanimous for the Apple Blossom." In 1930, Anna passed away in Minnesota at the age of 96. (I know this because, in researching Anna, I actually had to create a tree for her on Ancestry). Sixty years after Anna's death, the Michigan Legislature posthumously honored Anna with a title: Apple Blossom Lady. Anna's victory with the Michigan Legislature sparked a passion for Apple Blossoms in the twilight of her life. Anna began creating apple blossoms using silk ribbon, and she always took cuttings to sell for her favorite charities. Anna once said, "I feel my Apple Blossoms have taken me to the top of the world." February 26, 1942 Today is the anniversary of the death of the British-American horticulturist and founder of the California Begonia industry, Alfred D. Robinson. Along with his wife Marion, Alfred's passion was flowers. In the early 1900s, after hearing a religious leader speak about a utopian community called Lomaland, Alfred and Marion moved to Point Loma. Yet, their fresh start in Point Loma, which included buying ten acres of land, was irreparably damaged when their young daughter Lenora died of a heart issue. Losing Lenora devastated the Robinsons, and they left Point Loma and began building a new home in San Diego. As the gardens were getting established, their 15,000 square foot mansion was being built - and that mansion was called Rosecroft. The Rosecroft property became the home base for Alfred's Gegonia breeding program. And as Rosecroft's high-quality Begonias made their way to nurseries and botanists around the country, Alfred solidified his reputation as a high-quality Begonia grower. Now Alfred came up wi

Today we celebrate a young botanist that wrote the first flora of Ireland at the age of 22. We'll also learn about the Father of Serbian botany. We hear words about the birds of winter - creatures that entertain us at our bird feeders and fly freely over our winter gardens. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that has a charming title and it's all about something called Everlastings - or dried flowers. And then we'll wrap things up with a play about Australia's top gardener, and it's called Edna for the Garden. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Our Garden Editor Clare Foster On The Big Gardening Trends For 2021 | House & Garden | Clare Foster Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events February 25, 1856 Today is the anniversary of the Irish botanist and horticulturist Katherine Sophia Kane. Orphaned as a little girl, Katherine was taken in by her father's older brother - her uncle - Matthias O'Kelly, and she grew up alongside her cousins. A naturalist, Uncle Matthias fostered Kate's love for the outdoors and, ultimately, her focus on botany. When Kate was 22 years old, she anonymously published a book that became the first national flora of Ireland, and it was called The Irish Flora Comprising the Phaenogamous Plants and Ferns. With the help of the National Botanic Garden's John White, Kate's little book was released in 1833, and it described not only all the Irish flowering plants but also ferns and other cryptograms. Accurate and informative, Kate's book became a textbook for botany students at Trinity College in Dublin. Three years later, in recognition of her work, Kate became the first woman to be elected to the Botanical Society of Edinburgh. The story of how Kate met her husband Robert is similar to how John Claudius Loudon met his wife, Jane Webb: through her book. In Kate's case, proofs of The Irish Flora had mistakenly made their way to Robert's desk. Curious about the work, Robert tracked down Kate's address and personally returned the proofs to her. The two were married in 1838, and they went on to have ten children. In 1846, Robert was knighted, and Kate became known as Lady Kane. An economist, a chemist, and a scientist, Robert was hired to serve as the President of Queens College. And although Kate was happy for her husband, she put her foot down and refused to move to Cork. Apparently, Kate had designed a magnificent garden with many exotics planted all around their home in Dublin, and she was loath to leave it. And so, much to the school's dismay, Robert commuted to work until the College insisted he live in Cork during the schoolyear in 1858. And here's a fun little story about Kate and Robert: as they were both scientists, Kate and Robert would send notes to each other in Greek. February 25, 1888 Today is the anniversary of the death of the famous Serbian botanist, Josif Pančić ("pahn-Cheetz") In 1874, Josif discovered the Ramonda serbica, commonly known as the Serbian phoenix flower. Like the peace lily, this flower is an excellent indicator plant and flops quite severely when dehydrated. At the same time, it has incredible abilities to revive itself with watering. In Serbia, the flower of the Ramonda serbica is associated with peace after it became a symbol of Armistice Day, which marked the end of WWI. As for Josif, he became known as the father of Serbian botany. Late in his career, Josif came up with the idea for a botanical garden in Belgrade. Built in 1874, the garden proved to be a bit of a disappointment. In no time, it was apparent that the location was poorly sited because it flooded very quickly and damaged most of the various botanical specimens. Sadly Josif never saw the new, lovelier location for the garden. Perfectly situated in the heart of Belgrade, the land was donated by the Serbian King Milan I. Unearthed Words Our feeders are only fifteen feet from the window, and bino

Today we celebrate the birthday of a man who appreciated simplicity and knew that we would, too. We'll also learn about the Indiana State Flower - it's not a native - but it sure is beautiful. We hear some words from a 1997 Garden Chore list. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a beautiful book that takes us on a tour of more than seventy English gardens and then shares the elements that make the English garden style so beloved. And then, we'll wrap things up with an old article that asked Virginians to plant more of the State Flower: the dogwood, and we'll review some little-known Dogwood facts that will make you think about this genus a little differently... Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News World's Largest Honey Bee Makes Rare Hallucinogenic Honey | Treehugger | Bryan Nelson Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events February 24, 1955 Today is the birthday of the founder of Apple, Steve Jobs. A lover of simplicity and elegance, Steve once said that, "The most sublime thing I've ever seen are the gardens around Kyoto." To Steve, the ultimate Kyoto garden was the Saiho-ji ("Sy-ho-jee") - and most people would agree with him. The dream-like Saiho-ji garden was created by a Zen priest, poet, calligrapher, and gardener named Muso Soseki ("MOO-so SO-sec-key") in the 14th century during the Kamakura ("Comma-COOR-rah") Period. The Saiho-ji Temple is affectionately called koke-dera or the Moss Temple - a reference to the over 120 moss species found in the garden. Steve Jobs wasn't the only celebrity to find zen at Saiho-ji - David Bowie was also a huge fan. And when it comes to design, there's a Steve Jobs quote that garden designers should pay attention to, and it goes like this: "Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But... if you dig deeper, it's really how it works." And here's a little fun fact for gardeners: When Steve needed his garden designed at his Tudor-style home on Waverley Street in Palo Alto, he selected the great English garden designer Penelope Hobhouse to install a traditional English cottage garden - a garden she could have, no doubt, designed in her sleep. Nonplussed by the request, Penelope's son implored her to make room for the job. And when Penelope first met Steve, he made a unique first impression by rolling into the restaurant where they had agreed to meet on rollerblades. Although Penelope designed Steve's garden, she never actually saw it. Yet she did write about the project in an article for Hortus - it was called, "Malus californica: or, A New Garden for Mr. J." February 24, 2001 On this day, The Daily Journal out of Franklin, Indiana, shared an article called, Selection of State Flower Deserves Much Thought by "Bayou" Bill Scifres ("Sy-fers"). The article discusses the desire to change the State Flower of Indiana. "Well, we are at it again. Again we are embroiled in the state flower hassle, and rank-and-file legislators are telling us they have more important things to do than uproot the Peony as the state flower. Changing the state flower from the Peony to Fire Pink would be as simple as adopting either Senate Bill 57 or House Bill 2053, or both, to get the matter to the desk of the governor. But wait a minute. Is it really that simple? That cut-and-dried? Is this what we really want? Is the Fire Pink Hoosierland's best flora representative? Not native. That's the big rub proponents of the Fire Pink have with the peony. Foreigner. And they are right. Let's face it. We all are foreigners. Is it worse for a wildflower to have come from someplace else than it is for men? The thing that most concerns me is the state flower hassle revolves around the importance of nativeness. The real criteria should be the P&Ps of the issue, pulchritude, and proximity. Certainly, our state flower should be a raging beauty, but even more important, it should be accessible, very c

Today we celebrate a woman known as the Lady of Botany, yet today few people know her life story, and fewer still appreciate her difficult professional journey. We'll also learn about another female botanist who started one of the first degreed botany programs for women in England. We hear a story about a mink who set up residence in a winter garden from an avid gardener and writer. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a delightful book about Cottage Gardening. What could be more charming? And then we'll wrap things up with the story of a dried flower expert who created everlastings for celebrities and he also shares some of his favorite flowers to preserve for long-term joy and delight. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Sir Isaac Bayley Balfour (1853-1922) – An Appreciation | RBGE.org | Leonie Paterson Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events February 23, 1879 Today is the birthday of the British plant morphologist and anatomist, botanical historian, and philosopher of biology Agnes Arber. Since her father was the artist Henry Robertson, Agnes learned to draw as a child, and throughout her life, she illustrated all of her own botanical work. Agnes' mom, also an Agnes, fostered her love of plants. Mentored and befriended by the botanist Ethel Sargent, Agnes mastered the microscope. Ethel was a profound role model in Agnes' life. She not only taught Agnes her earliest lessons in botany, but she also modeled a unique approach to her work because Agnes watched Ethel successfully conduct her work in a small laboratory she had built in her home. Later, when Anges wrote her first book on her dear monocots (which are grass or grass-like flowering plants), she dedicated her work to the woman who was godmother to her only child Muriel Agnes Arber and the brightest beacon in her botanical career and: Ethel Sargent. In 1909, Agnes married a paleobotanist, Edward Alexander Newell Arber, of Trinity College at Cambridge. And it was thanks in part to Edward that Agnes moved to Cambridge from London and made a life there. Edward promised Agnes that "life in Cambridge offered unique opportunities for the observation of river and fenland plants." Despite Edward's appeal, for Agnes, Cambridge was tough. Cambridge was a much harder place for a female botanist than London - where Agnes would have had more opportunities, connections, and acceptance. Sadly, Agnes and Edward would be married for only nine years as Edward died in 1918. And so, before her 40th birthday, Agnes found herself both a widow and a single mother to six-year-old Muriel. After securing help with childcare and household duties, Agnes carried on with her botanical work - she wrote constantly, she was poorly compensated for her work, and she never re-married. A few years after Agnes arrived in Cambridge, she started working at the Balfour Laboratory, which was owned by Newnham College and was a place for teaching women. Now, the creation of this laboratory was a direct result of allowing women admittance into Cambridge. And although women could attend Cambridge, they could not go to labs or classes, and so the Balfour Lab became their only option for conducting experiments. Over the 19 years that Agnes worked at Balfour, the female students gradually disappeared as classes and lab opportunities opened up for them in botany, chemistry, geography, etc. By 1925, Newnham College was ready to sell the lab to Cambridge; they needed the cash, and it seems only Agnes needed the lab. Yet when Agnes reached out to Cambridge, both the University and the head of botany, Albert Seward, rejected her - suggesting she might seek out a space to work at the botanic garden. And so, an accomplished botanist and the widow of a Cambridge professor no less was left with nowhere to work. And so, seven years after her husband's death, Agnes, like her mentor and friend Ethel Sargent, set up a

Today we celebrate an American lyrical poet and playwright who wrote some beautiful poems about flowers. We'll also learn about the Scottish surgeon who advised using sphagnum moss to treat wounded soldiers. We hear inspiring words about Winter Aconite (Eranthis hyemalis "YER-anth-iss hy-uh-MAY-lis") We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about medicine - herbal medicine - an invaluable comprehensive reference. And then we'll wrap things up with the story of a favorite student of Carl Linnaeus known as "the Vulture." Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News 8 Ways To Create A Garden That Feels Like Art | Garden Design | Pam Penick Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events February 22, 1892 Today is the birthday of the American lyrical poet and playwright Edna St. Vincent Millay. Gardeners cherish Edna's verses like: April comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers. I would blossom if I were a rose. I will be the gladdest thing under the sun! I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one. However, Edna threw some shade at the very poisonous and rank-smelling Jimsonweed plant, the Thorn-apple, or Datura stramonium ("duh-too-ruh stra-MO-nee-um") in her poem "In the Grave No Flowers," writing: Here the rank-smelling Thorn-apple,—and who Would plant this by his dwelling? Well, it turns out the American botanist and geneticist Albert Francis Blakeslee was especially fond of Datura. In fact, one of Albert's friends once joked that in his life, Albert enjoyed two great love affairs — with his wife Margaret and with Datura, and in that order. Not surprisingly, Edna's verse riled Albert, and in response, he sent her a letter: "I thought I would write to you, and … answer... your question by saying that I would plant this by my dwelling and have done so for the last thirty years rather extensively. It turns out that this plant (Datura stramonium) is perhaps the very best plant with which to discover principles of heredity." Now, Datura's common name, Jimsonweed, is derived from Jamestown's colonial settlement, where British soldiers were given a salad made with boiled "Jamestown weed" or Jimsonweed. For days after eating the greens, instead of quelling the colonial uprising known as the Bacon rebellion, the British soldiers turned fools, blowing feathers in the air, running about naked, and acting entirely out of their minds. Datura's other common names, the thorn apple or the devil's apple, offer a clue that Datura is a nightshade plant. Those sinister names came about because nightshades were historically thought to be evil. In contrast, the Algonquin Indians and other ancient peoples regarded Datura as a shamanistic plant, and they smoked Datura to induce intoxication and hallucinations or visions. The etymology of the name Datura comes from an early Sanskrit word meaning "divine inebriation." February 22, 1932 Today is the anniversary of the death of the Scottish surgeon Charles Walker Cathcart. During WWI, Charles and his peer Isaac Balfour wrote a paper where they advised following the common German practice of using sphagnum moss to treat wounded soldiers. After this article, sphagnum moss was robustly harvested for wound dressings for the British Army. An article published by the Smithsonian Magazine called "How Humble Moss Healed the Wounds of Thousands in World War I" shared the history of the use of moss: "In ancient times, Gaelic-Irish sources wrote that warriors in the battle of Clontarf used moss to pack their wounds. Moss was also used by Native Americans, who lined their children's cradles and [used] it as a type of natural diaper. It continued to be used sporadically when battles erupted, including during the Napoleonic and Franco-Prussian wars. Lieutenant-Colonel E.P. Sewell of the General Hospital in Alexandria, Egypt, wrote approvingly that, "It is very absorbent, far more than cotton wool, and has

Today we look back at the story that inspired the book The Orchid Thief. We'll also learn about the incredible true story of a Madagascar explorer. We hear words about the incredible Algerian Iris. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a memoir from a garden who pulls back the row cover on the remarkable story of her magnificent garden - a place she called Duck Hill. And then we'll wrap things up with the story of an incredible naturalist and botanist who had some very eclectic habits concerning preserving and utilizing specimens. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Wild-Style Spring Plant Display For The Container Garden | Gardens Illustrated Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events February 19, 1962 Today is the birthday of the American horticulturist John Laroche ("La Rōsh"). Before John was arrested for poaching wild ghost orchids, he was a typical horticulturist. In the late 1980s, John was active in the Bromeliad ("brow·mee·lee·ad) Society of Broward County, and he was giving lectures on topics like "Growing Bromeliads from Seeds" and "New Techniques in Bromeliad Culture." By the early 1990s, John's attention turned to orchids, and this passion would end up becoming a story fit for a book. One of the first newspapers to share the story was the Indiana Gazette on June 14, 1993: "Susan Orlean's… "The Orchid Thief" tells the tale of John Laroche... When a fascination with orchids overtook him, he... conceived a scheme that would benefit the Seminoles, the world, and himself. Using the Seminoles' exemption from laws against picking orchids in the wild, he helped himself to rare specimens growing in a Florida swamp called the Fakahatchee ("Fack-ah-HATCH-ee") Strand State Preserve. His plan was to clone them by the millions, make them available to fanciers everywhere and thus save them in their wild state by obviating the need to pick them. Not incidentally, he would make a fortune for the Seminoles and himself. But the law did not agree, and Laroche was arrested and convicted for poaching. Attracted by an article on Laroche's arrest, Susan Orlean, a reporter for The New Yorker, traveled to Florida, befriended Laroche, and got him to introduce her to his world. Near the opening of The Orchid Thief, Susan describes how she approaches her subjects, "I read lots of local newspapers and particularly the shortest articles in them, and most particularly any articles that are full of words in combinations that are arresting. In the case of the orchid story, I was interested to see the words 'swamp' and 'orchids' and 'Seminoles' and 'cloning' and 'criminal' together in one short piece." Today it's estimated that only around 2,000 ghost orchids remain in Florida. February 19, 1932 On this day, The Shreveport Journal shared a story about the botanist Charles Swingle and his quest to find the Euphorbia Intisy ("in-tah-ZEE"). "Charles Swingle was the first American botanist to set foot on the island of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. He was on the trail of a peculiar rubber plant called "Intisy," which government scientists thought might be grown In our own Southwest. When this young American arrived in Madagascar, he found he was just 15 minutes too late to catch a little coastwise boat heading to the south. The natives simply couldn't understand his disappointment. "Oh sir," they said, "another boat will arrive in six weeks. In the meantime, there is rice for all —so there is nothing to worry about, good sir" In the native Malagash language, there is no word for "time." They spend a few days a year planting, transplanting, and harvesting rice—and there's enough food for all. "Don't the natives ever get tired of rice?" I asked Dr. Swingle. "Not at all" be explained, "If they get tired of white rice they change to red rice or blue rice or brown As many as 64 varieties grow in Madagascar And then there are special delicacies to g

Today we celebrate the French botanist who created the modern strawberry. We'll also learn about the sweet little orchid known as the moccasin flower. We hear words that offer perspective on our loss of wildlife and habitat. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about one of the world's best botanical illustrators - and here's a hint: she was a dear friend of Alice Lounsberry. And then we'll wrap things up with the story of the new rare-plant house at the Fairchild Tropical Garden rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News The Little Fern That Could | Earth Island Journal | Anna Gibbs Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events February 18, 1827 Today is the anniversary of the death of the French botanist, gardener, and professor at Versailles, Antoine Nicolas Duchesne ("do-Shane"). A specialist in strawberries and gourds, Antoine was a student of Bernard de Jussieu at the Royal Garden in Paris. A plant pioneer, Antoine, recognized that mutation was a natural occurrence and that plants could be altered through mutation at any time. As a young botanist, Antoine began experimenting with strawberries. Ever since the 1300s, wild strawberries had been incorporated into gardens. But on July 6, 1764, Antoine created the modern strawberry - the strawberry we know today. Strawberries are members of the rose family, and they are unique in that their seeds are on the outside of the fruit. Just how many seeds are on a single strawberry? The average strawberry has around 200 seeds. To get your strawberry plant to produce more fruit, plant in full sun, in well-drained soil, and trim the runners. February 18, 1902 Today the Showy Lady's-Slipper became the State Flower of Minnesota. The Lady Slipper orchid was discovered in 1789 by William Aiton. The Lady Slipper's common name is inspired by the unusual form of the third petal, and it's what makes the bloom look like a little shoe. During his lifetime, Darwin repeatedly tried to propagate the Lady's-Slipper Orchid. He never succeeded. The Lady Slipper's growing conditions are quite particular - which is why they are almost impossible to keep in a traditional garden. It's also illegal to pick, uproot or unearth the flowers - which was a problem in the 1800s when people collected them almost to extinction. Since 1925, the Lady's-Slipper has been protected by Minnesota state law. In the wild, Lady's-Slippers grow in swamps, bogs, and damp woods. They take forever to grow, and they can grow for almost a decade before producing their first flower, which can last for two months in cooler weather. As long-lived plants, Lady's-Slippers can grow as old as 100 years and grow up to 4 feet tall. To Native Americans, the Lady's-Slipper was known as the moccasin flower. An old Ojibwe legend told of a plague that had occurred during a harsh winter. Many people died - including the tribal healer. Desperate for help, a young girl was sent to find medicine. But, the snow was deep, and in her haste, she lost her boots and left a trail of bloody footprints in the snow. The legend was that her footprints were marked with the beautiful moccasin flower every spring. One summer, when Henry David Thoreau came upon a red variety of Lady's-Slipper in the woods, he wrote about it, saying: "Everywhere now in dry pitch pine woods stand the red lady's slipper over the red pine leaves on the forest floor rejoicing in June. Behold their rich striped red, their drooping sack." Unearthed Words I remembered reading that during the great flight year of 1926-27, over 2,300 snowy owls were shot and kept his trophies in the United States alone. One of the greatest difficulties for modern conservationists, I think, is to rightly conceive how much we have lost. We trudge so far today to see so little that the result is often a strangely pathetic elation. — Robert Finch, Nature writer, Common Gr

Today we celebrate one of the earliest botanists and his essential discoveries about plant physiology. We'll also learn about a man known as the 'Prince of Alpine gardeners.' We hear the story of a woman who over-nurturers her houseplants. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about worms from one of the best garden writers alive today. And then we'll wrap things up with the fascinating birth flowers for the month of February. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Stickiness Is A Weapon Some Plants Use To Fend Off Hungry Insects | Phys Org | Eric Lopresti Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events February 17, 1721 Today is the anniversary of the death of Rudolph Jacob Camerarius, the botanist who demonstrated the existence of sexes in plants. Rudolph was born in Germany. He was a professor of natural philosophy. Rudolph identified and defined the flower's male parts as the anther, and he did the same for the female part; the pistol. And Rudolph figured out that pollen made production possible. Rudolph's work was recorded for the ages in a letter he wrote to a peer in 1694 called On the Sex of Plants. February 17, 1880 Today is the birthday of the legendary rock and alpine gardener, plant explorer, nurseryman, writer, and painter Reginald Farrer. A son of the Yorkshire Dales, Reginald was raised in upper-middle-class circumstances on the Farrer family estate called Ingleborough Hall in Clapham. And although Reginald was a world traveler, his heart belonged to Yorkshire, and he repeatedly referenced Yorkshire in his writing. Given Reginald's influence on rock gardening, I always find it rather fitting that Reginald's Ingleton home place was itself a large natural rock garden. Reginald was born with many physical challenges. He had a cleft palate, speech difficulties, and what Reginald called a "pygmy body. " Growing up, Reginald endured many surgeries to correct his mouth, which resulted in him being homeschooled. The silver lining to his solitary childhood was that Reginald learned to find happiness looking at the flora and fauna as he scoured the rocks, ravines, and hills around Ingleborough. By the time Reginald was 14 years old, he had created his first Rock Garden in an old kitchen garden at his family home. This little magical space would eventually transform into a nursery Reginald called Craven, and it naturally specialized in Asian mountain plants. And every time Reginald went on an expedition, he would send back new alpine plants and seed from Craven. When it was time, Reginald attended St. John's College at the University of Oxford. It brings a smile to know that before Reginald graduated in 1902, he had left the school with his signature gift: a rock garden. Once he finished school, Reginald began botanizing in high places from the Alps to Ceylon and China. His first trip was to Tokyo, and Reginald found a little house to rent that had, of course, a real Japanese rock garden. This living and botanizing experience in Japan became the basis for his first book called The Garden of Asia (1904). During his twenties, Reginald liked to say that he found "joy in high places," and the European Alps became a yearly touchstone. And although he saw some of the most incredible mountains in the world - they held no sway with Reginald. For Reginald - it was always about the plants. Reginald wrote, "It may come as a shock and a heresy to my fellow Ramblers when I make the confession that, to me, the mountains… exist simply as homes and backgrounds to their population of infinitesimal plants. My enthusiasm halts... with my feet, at the precise point where the climber's energies are first called upon." Reginald's book, The Garden of Asia, launched his writing career, and Reginald's writing changed the way garden writers wrote about plants. The botanist Clarence Elliot observed, "As a writer of garden books [Reginald] sto

Today we celebrate a botanist of the American West and the husband of Kate Brandegee. We'll also learn about the woman who created the legislation for the New Jersey State Flower, the Violet. We hear some words about the role of the botanist from one of our horticultural greats. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about transitioning from a beloved garden to something new… this story is special. And then we'll wrap things up with a touching tribute to a gardener, a public servant, and a nursery owner. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News How Selfish Are Plants? Let's Do Some Root Analysis | The New York Times | Cara Giaimo Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events February 16, 1843 Today is the birthday of the American botanist Townshend Stith Brandegee. Townshend was born into one of America's oldest and prominent families, and he was the oldest of twelve children. Townshend's middle name, Stith, was his mother's maiden name. Townshend was descended from three generations of men named Elishama. Townshend's great grandfather, Elishama Brandegee I, had fought in the Revolutionary War. By 1778, Elishama bought a pretty piece of land in Berlin, Connecticut, known as the mulberry orchard. The History of Berlin tells a charming story of how Townshend's great grandmother, Lucy, made a red silk gown with the silk from her silkworms. Apparently, she intended to give the dress to Martha Washington, but somehow she ended up wearing it and keeping it for herself. The Brandegee family continued to grow Mulberry (Morus) trees on the property. In fact, Townshend's grandfather, Elishama Jr., founded the very first silk and cotton-thread company in Berlin. A successful entrepreneur, Elishama Jr, owned a mercantile store, which was the largest store between Hartford and New Haven, and people came from miles around to do their trading. His grandmother, Lucy, was a teacher and founded a private all-girls seminary, now a private prep school for girls known as the Emma Willard School. Townshend's father, Dr. Elishama Brandegee, became the town physician, and by all reports, he was beloved by all who knew him. Townshend and his dad shared a love of nature, and as a young boy, Townshend created his very own fern collection. Townshend came of age during the Civil War, and somehow he managed to live through two years of service in the union army. After his military service, like his father before him, Townshend attended Yale and graduated from Yale's Sheffield Scientific School. He forged his own path as a young civil engineer, and he ended up working on much-needed railroad surveys in the American West. In his spare time, both as a student at Yale and as a young engineer, Townshend botanized, and he even made some discoveries and sent specimens to Harvard's Asa Gray. Townshend's unique combination of surveying experience and botanical work proved invaluable as he began creating maps of the western forests. In fact, it was his love of forests that brought him to the greatest love of his life: Katherine Layne Curran. When his father died in 1884, Townshend's inheritance allowed him to pursue his interests without any financial worries. And in the late 1800s, if you were a young botanist with means and interested in West-coast botany, all roads lead to the California Academy of Sciences. In her early forties, Katharine Layne Curran was the curator of the Academy. She had been married to an alcoholic and then widowed in her twenties. She'd survived medical school when females were just breaking into the field of medicine, and she'd given up her career as a physician when it proved too difficult to set up a practice as a woman. By the time she met Townshend, the last thing Katharine had expected to find was love. And yet, these two middle-aged botanical experts did fall in love - "Insanely in love" to use Katharine's words - and to the su

Today we celebrate the man who introduced the Monkey Puzzle tree to England. We'll also learn about the prolific plant explorer who was disabled after searching for the regal lily - but he never had any regrets. We hear some words about the 1927 expedition to South Africa. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a beautiful book about dried flowers - something anyone can do. And then we'll wrap things up with garden design tips from the award-winning designer David Stevens. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News The Importance of Pioneer Trees for Forest Gardens and Other Purposes | Treehugger | Elizabeth Waddington Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events February 15, 1842 Today is the anniversary of the death of the Scottish surgeon, botanist, and naturalist Archibald Menzies. The famous story about Archibald goes something like this: Once, Joseph Banks sent Archibald on an expedition. At some point, Archibald ended up warmly received in Chile, where he dined with the country's leadership. During the meal, Archibald was served nuts from the Chile Pinetree to eat as part of the dessert. Archibald ate a few of the nuts, but then he managed to put a handful in his pocket after he recognized that the nuts were actually large seeds. On the trip back to England, Archibald could not wait and he started growing the five precious Chilean pinetree seeds and he managed to get them to grow successfully. Back in England, the evergreen Chili Pine Trees were blessed with a new common name - the Monkey Puzzle tree - after someone remarked that even a monkey would not be able to climb the tree. And Archibald's unique introduction earned him the moniker "Monkey Puzzle Man." Sadly, Monkey Puzzle trees (Araucaria araucana "arr-oh-KAR-ee-ah arr-oh-KAN-ah") are considered endangered today. But, like Archibald, gardeners still attempt to grow these curious trees from seed. February 15, 1876 Today is the birthday of the prolific English plant collector, gardener, botanist, and explorer Ernest Henry Wilson. When the botanist Augustine Henry met with a 22-year-old Ernest Henry Wilson, he wrote to his friend, Evelyn Gleesen, to share his impressions of Ernest after their first visit together: "He is a self-made man, knows botany thoroughly, is young, and will get on." Henry also shared with Evelyn that he, "would be glad if [Wilson] will continue to carry on the work in China which has been on my shoulders for some years. There is so much of interest and novelty." Later the same day, Henry also reported back to Kew about helping Ernest with his quest: ".... [I wrote] on a half-page of a notebook ... a sketch of a tract of country about the size of New York State [on which I marked the place where I had found the single tree of Davidia involucrata (the Dove Tree or Handkerchief Tree) in 1888. I also provided Wilson with useful information and hints.]" Henry and Ernest stayed close and corresponded for the rest of their lives. Henry returned to his native Ireland, and Ernest went on to find the Dove tree. Also known as the Handkerchief Tree, Ernest brought the Dove tree to England in 1899, and it would become his most famous tree introduction. Without a doubt, Ernest's first trip to China was a resounding success. Ernest returned to England and provided his sponsor, the nurseryman Harry James Veitch, with seeds for over 300 species in addition to 35 very full Wardian cases. Before he left for his second trip to China, Ernest married Hellen Ganderton. And within six months, Ernest was headed back to China with another singular mission: the yellow Chinese poppy (Meconopsis integrifolia) and it's commonly known as the Lampshade Poppy. Not only did Ernest find the yellow Chinese poppy, but he also found the Regal lily, rhododendrons, roses, and primulas. During that second trip, Ernest's leg was crushed in a landslide. As incredible as it sounds, Ernes

Today we celebrate the man who discovered the queen bee had ovaries, and he also said the head of the colony was not a king - but a queen. We'll also learn about the family behind the ubiquitous Jackman Clematis - it's the one with the large dark purple flowers with yellow centers. We hear words from Florida's pioneer naturalist: Charles Torrey Simpson. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a magnificent book about Desert Gardens - this is one of the best. And then we'll wrap things up with the sweet story of a gardener poet who made one of the first romantic gardens. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News The Organization Challenge — Small Steps Bring Big Rewards | Hartley Magazine | Mary-Kate Mackey Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events February 12, 1637 Today is the birthday of the Dutch biologist and entomologist Jan Swammerdam (Yahn SWAH-MER-dam). Before Jan's work, people believed that insects were created spontaneously. Jan proved that insects were born from eggs laid by the female species and that the larva, pupa, and adult, were just different forms of the same species. After Jan dissected a female bee and discovered it had ovaries, he pronounced the head of the colony to be a queen bee "hitherto looked upon like a king." And here was Jan's description of the male bees: "[The hive] tolerates, during summer days of abundance, the embarrassing presence... of three or four hundred males, from whose ranks the queen about to be born shall select her lover; Three or four hundred foolish, clumsy, useless, noisy creatures, who are pretentious, gluttonous, dirty, course, totally and scandalously idle, insatiable, and enormous." And, Jan's description of the hive's survival abilities is still as vibrant and relevant today as it was when he wrote: "Should disaster befall the little Republic; Should the hive or the comb collapse; Should man prove ignorant or brutal; Should they suffer from famine, from cold or disease, and perish by thousands, it will still be almost invariably found that the queen will be safe and alive beneath the corpses of her faithful daughters. For they will protect her and help her escape; their bodies will provide both rampart and shelter; for her will be the last drop of honey, the wholesomest food. Break their comb twenty times in succession, take twenty times from them their young and their food, you still shall never succeed in making them doubt of the future." February 12, 1869 Today is the anniversary of the death of the English nurseryman, pomologist, florist, and Clematis hybridizer George Jackman. George died at the age of 68. Now today, I thought you'd enjoy learning about the Jackman family because that really is the story behind George Jackman and the multigenerational family behind the ubiquitous Jackman Clematis - it's the one with the large dark purple flowers with yellow centers. And, just an FYI, you can prune the Jackman back in the fall without hurting next year's bloom - so don't sweat it; you can't hurt it with an end of the season cleanup. Now, with multiple George's in the family, this George Jackman was always referred to as George I. Now, George I, and his brother Henry, were born into a nurseryman's family. In 1810, their father, William, founded Jackman Nursery on 150 acres in Woking ("Woe-king"), Surrey. George I and Henry grew up learning the business alongside their dad. And by 1830, Willliam had turned the business over to his sons. After a few years, Henry decided he wasn't interested in running the struggling nursery, and he left it for George I. In the fall of 1834, George married Mary Ann Freemont. He was 33 years old. In a little over three years, George II was born. The beginning of the year 1840 was a terrible time for George I. He lost his wife Mary in January and his father, William, in February. In the span of twenty-five days, George I and his 3-year-old

Today we celebrate a woman who was insatiable when it came to plants, and she is remembered forever with the Portland Rose. We'll also learn about a famous speech given at a Vermont botanical club about why botany wasn't taught in schools - and the reasons were pretty spot on. We hear a story about a beautiful cherry tree found near the Osakabe ("sah-KAH-bay") Hotel. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about Darwin's plants - in addition to his theory of evolution, Darwin experimented and observed plants extensively at his home in Kent. And then we'll wrap things up by getting you ready for Valentine's Day with a few of my favorite garden-inspired verses about love. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Gardening As A Salve For Stress And Anxiety: A Gardener's Personal Story | House & Garden | Charlie Harpur Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events February 11, 1715 Today is the birthday of the British aristocrat, naturalist, plant lover, and botanist Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland. Her family and friends called her Maria. Maria married when she was 19 years old. Together, she and William Bentinck had five children; one of their sons became prime minister twice. When William died after their 27th anniversary, Maria threw herself into her many passions. As the wealthiest woman in England, Maria could acquire virtually any treasure from the natural world - and she did. She cultivated an enormous collection of natural history, which was tended by two experts she hired to personally attend each item: the naturalist Reverend John Lightfoot and the Swedish botanist Daniel Solander. Maria's home in Buckinghamshire was referred to by society as the hive - it was a reference to the hub of activity for Solander and Lightfoot and the other people who helped process her acquisitions. At one point, Maria had reached out to Captain James Cook. James gave Maria some shells from his second expedition to Australia. Meanwhile, Daniel Solander was in charge cataloging Maria's massive shell collection, but, sadly, he left the work unfinished when he died in 1782. Maria had an enormous appetite for curation and collecting. In addition to her Botanic Garden on her property, Maria opened a zoo, kept rabbits, and had an aviary. A constant stream of scientists, explorers, socialites, and artists visited Maria to exchange ideas and inspect her collections. And, think about the limitless ambition she must have had as Lightfoot wrote that Maria wanted, "...every unknown species in the three kingdoms of nature described and published to the world." Now, Maria had a special love for collecting plants and flowers from far-off places worldwide. She retained the botanist and the incomparable botanical illustrator Georg Dionysius Ehret as a drawing instructor. Struck by the luminescence of his work, Maria bought over 300 of Ehret's paintings. Maria also became friends with the botanical artist Mary Delany. Mary made botanical paper mosaics, as she called them. Mary was essentially creating flower specimens out of tissue paper. And Mary was exacting - dissecting real flowers and then replicating what she saw with tissue paper. To gather more material for her work, Maria and Mary loved to go out into the fields and collect specimens together. As the Duchess of Portland, Maria shared her specimens with the public, and she displayed her various collections from around the globe in what she called her Portland Museum. Once, in 1800, Maria received a rose from Italy, which became known as the Portland Rose in her honor. The rose was a beautiful crimson scarlet with round petals - and it was a repeat bloomer. And, here's a fun fact: all Portland Roses were developed from that very first Portland Rose - the sweet gift to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck - Maria - the Duchess of Portland. February 11, 1896 It was on this day that the Burli

Today we celebrate a botanist who gave Meriwether Lewis a crash course in botany. We'll also learn about a poet who wrote some touching poems that incorporated the natural world. We hear some words about getting the garden ready for growing - straightforward advice on getting started. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about a garden style that's never gone out of style: cottage gardening. And then we'll wrap things up with a pioneer naturalist who wrote books that became a beloved part of many modern childhoods. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News New Owners Of Barton Springs Nursery Plan To Add Learning, Community Spaces And Inspire Local Gardeners | Digging | Pam Penick Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events February 10, 1766 Today is the birthday of the American botanist, naturalist, and physician Benjamin Smith Barton. Benjamin worked as a Professor of Natural History and Botany at the University of Pennsylvania, where he authored the very first textbook on American Botany. In 1803, at Thomas Jefferson's request, Benjamin was tutoring Meriwether Lewis to get him ready for the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Now Meriwether had many strengths, but he had little knowledge of natural history or plants. Thanks to Benjamin's tutelage, Meriwether was an awesome specimen collector on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. After the Expedition, Benjamin was supposed to create a book describing all of the plant specimens found on their great voyage. But, for some reason, he never began writing. Instead, the job ultimately fell to Benjamin's assistant, Frederick Pursh. And when Frederick ended up having a falling out with Benjamin, he secretly took the specimens and fled to England. Once there, Frederick found a patron and published his Flora of North America in two years' time — much to the embarrassment of Benjamin Smith Barton and all American botanists. And, there's an incredible story that came out two years ago, in February, regarding Benjamin. The story featured a little yellow butterfly that was found pressed between the pages of one of Benjamin's manuscripts from 1812 - his Flora Virginica. And it turns out that a delicate, tiny, yellow-winged butterfly was discovered by a library fellow named E. Bennett Jones at the American Philosophical Society as he was looking through the book. Well, naturally, this caused a stir, and butterfly experts were called in to examine the specimen, and they believed that it was placed deliberately since the butterfly was found on the pages listed "Plants beloved by Pollinators - such as Monarda." After this incredible discovery, the Barton Butterfly, as it came to be called, was carefully removed and preserved in a suspended container. And there was a final touching detail to this story: the butterfly left an indelible mark on the manuscript. Even with the specimen now safely preserved in a glass box, the pages bear a little mark of a golden butterfly-shaped stain in the spot where it lay pressed for over 200 years before it was discovered. February 10, 1882 Today is the birthday of the English writer Winifred Mary Letts. Gardeners love her quote on spring: That God once loved a garden, we learn in Holy writ. And seeing gardens in the Spring, I well can credit it. Winifred also wrote a poem about spring called "Spring the Cheat." This is one of many poems Winifred wrote about the Great War - WWI. Winifred wrote "Spring the Cheat" to remind people that they were not alone in their suffering. And her poem illustrates how pointless existence seems during wartime. And Winifred contrasts the season of rebirth - spring (which is cyclical), with a war-induced season of loss (which usually spreads across many seasons and is wildly at odds during spring). Luminous evenings when the blackbird sways Upon the rose and tunes his flageolet, A sea of bluebells down the woodland ways, — O exquisit

Today we celebrate a man who published his garden journal in a book - and inspired countless gardeners and gardener writers with his resonant words. We'll also learn about a young botanist with drive and good intentions, as well as a personal beef with another botanist - both of these men had a dramatic impact on the Calcutta Botanical Garden. We hear some fascinating words about tree bark and pH - it's a little-discussed topic, but it's a good one. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that helps us cook with flowers. And then we'll wrap things up with a look at winter chores for this week from 1889. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Jade Plants Are the Low-Maintenance Houseplants Everyone Should Know About | MarthaStewart.com Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events February 9, 1830 Today is the birthday of the English gardener and writer Henry Arthur Bright. As an adult, Henry began a diary, which would become a book called A Year in a Lancashire Garden. Henry's book is one of the most beloved garden biographies of the nineteenth century, and Henry's book inspired future garden writers like Henry Nicholson Ellacombe, Theresa Earle, and Elizabeth Lawrence. And for today, I thought I would share a February 1874 excerpt from Henry's journal. Although this was almost 150 years ago, Henry was doing what gardeners do this time of year: worrying about how the winter would affect the garden, noticing the progress of the earliest blooming trees and shrubs, cleaning up and editing the garden for the new season, looking through his garden magazines for new and old plants, experiencing some disappointment in the spring showing of some of his flowers (in this case, his Aconites), and mulling over why some spring-flowering bulbs go unappreciated - like the humble spring Crocus. "Since I wrote, we have had the sharpest and keenest frost — sharper than we have had all the winter... Now spring has come again, and (as Horace says) has "shivered" through the trees. The Elders are already unfolding their leaves, and a Lonicera ("lon-ISS-er-ah") or Honeysuckle is in the freshest bud. I remember when, a few years ago, Mr. Longfellow, the American poet, was in England, he told me that he was often reminded by the tender foliage of an English spring of that well-known line of Watts, where the fields of Paradise, "Stand dressed in living green;" and I thought of this today when I looked... at the fresh verdure of this very Lonicera. But all things are now telling of spring. We have finished our pruning of the wall-fruit; we have ...sown our earliest Peas. We have planted our Ranunculus bed and gone through the herbaceous borders, dividing and clearing away where the growth was too thick, and sending off hamperfuls of Peony, Iris, Oenothera ("ee-no-THAIR-ah"), Snowflake, Japanese Anemone ("ah-NIM-oh-nee), Day Lily, and many others. On the other hand, we have been looking over old volumes of Curtis's Botanical Magazine, and have been trying to get, not always successfully, a number of old forgotten plants of beauty, and now of rarity. We have found enough, however, to add a fresh charm to our borders for June, July, and August. On the lawn, we have some Aconites in flower… This year they are doing badly. I suspect they must have been mown away last spring before their tubers were thoroughly ripe, and they are punishing us now by flowering only here and there. Then, too, the Crocuses are bursting up from the soil... "all gleaming in purple and gold." Nothing is more stupid than the ordinary way of planting Crocuses — in a narrow line or border. Of course, you get a line of color, but that is all, and, for all the good it does, you might as well have a line of colored pottery or variegated gravel. They should be grown in thick masses, and in a place where the sun can shine upon them, and then they open out into wonderful depths of be

Today we celebrate an English critic who wrote some of our most beautiful quotes about gardens, nature, and flowers. We'll also learn about a dedicated English naturalist who lived in the Rainforest for eleven years and provided ample proof of Darwin's theory of evolution. We hear words from a gardener and nursery owner about gardening and garden attire in winter. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that helps us make some great garden projects with concrete - prepare to be amazed. And then we'll wrap things up with a letter from Jane Austen to her sister Cassandra written on this day 214 years ago. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News The Gardening Doctor | Words and Herbs Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.

Today we celebrate a botanist and orchidologist who saved Kew, We'll also learn about an orchid hunter who collected plants on behalf of the London Horticultural Society. We hear some words about the challenging experience of a botanist in 1874. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about one of America's earliest botanists and the father of America's first female botanist. And then we'll wrap things up with a story of a plant that Joseph Dalton Hooker described as "The ugliest yet [most] botanically magnificent plant in the world." Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Carnation – A Little History and Some Growing Instructions | Harvesting History Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events February 5, 1799 Today is the birthday of the British botanist, pomologist, pioneer orchidologist, and flower show organizer, John Lindley. John's dad was a nurseryman, and he ran a commercial nursery in England. Despite his array of botanical talents and knowledge, the family was always under financial duress. Growing up in his father's nursery helped John acquire the knowledge to land his first job as a seed merchant. This position led to a chain of events that would shape John's life. First, he met the botanist William Jackson Hooker. And, second, Hooker introduced him to Sir Joseph Banks. As a result of these connections, John ended up working as an assistant in Bank's herbarium. In 1838 after Banks died, when the fate of Kew Gardens hung in the balance, John recommended that the gardens belonged to the people and that they should become the botanical headquarters for England. The government rejected John's proposal and decided to close the garden. But, on February 11, 1840, John ingeniously demanded that the issue be put before the Parliament. His advocacy brought the matter to the people; the garden-loving public was not about to lose the Royal Botanic. And, so, John saved Kew Gardens, and William Hooker was chosen as the new director. From his humble beginnings to his incredible standing in English Botanical History, John is remembered fondly for so many accomplishments. For 43 years, John served as secretary to the Royal Horticultural Society, which is why the RHS Library is called the Lindley Library. And, there are over 200 plant species named for John Lindley. There is "lindleyi," "lindleyana," "lindleya," "lindleyoides," etc., and they all pay homage to John. John once told his friend, the botanist Ludwig Reichenbach, "I am a dandy in my herbarium." John did love his plants. But, without question, John's favorite plants were orchids. Before John, not much was known about orchids. Thanks to John, the genus Orchidaceae was shortened to orchid – which is much more friendly to pronounce. And, when he died, John's massive orchid collection was moved to a new home at Kew. John's friend, the botanist Ludwig Reichenbach, wrote a touching tribute after John died. He wrote, "We cannot tell how long Botany, how long science, will be pursued; but we may affirm that so long as a knowledge of plants is considered necessary, so long will Lindley's name be remembered with gratitude." And here's a little-remembered factoid about John - he was blind in one eye. February 5, 1848 It was on this day, the botanist Karl Theodor Hartweg boarded a Hawaiian ship on his way back to England. The London Horticultural Society had hired Karl to collect plants in California. Yet when he reached London, the Hort Society was a little frustrated with Karl because he hadn't secured something they really wanted: Bristlecone Fir seeds. A short while later, Karl severed ties with London, and he ended up south of Frankfurt tending gardens for the Duke of Baden for thirty years until he died in 1871. Karl's journey as a plant collector began in the botanical garden in Paris. After working for the Chiswick garden in London, Karl began to turn his attention

Today we celebrate a botanist who helped us understand why plants are green: chlorophyll. We'll also learn about the dedicated Landscape Architect who was a protégé of Beatrix Farrand. We hear some tips for keeping a well-stocked winter larder. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a 2021 journal that you can use to keep track of your year - and it has some fantastic original sketches from a garden great on nearly every page. And then we'll wrap things up with a story that helps us see weedy plants through a different lens - and we're fools if we can't be more balanced in our perspective on these plants. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Starting Your Seeds for the First Time | That Bloomin' Garden | Kristin Crouch Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events February 4, 1847 Today is the anniversary of the death of the French botanist and physiologist Henri Dutrochet. 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 own human bodies, plants don't drink water; they absorb it by osmosis. Henri also figured out that the green pigment, chlorophyll, in a plant is essential to how plants take up carbon dioxide. Hence, photosynthesis could not happen without chlorophyll. It turns out chlorophyll actually 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, the 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 just think of it this way: The upward growth of plants - fighting against gravity - is called negative geotropism, and downward growth of roots, growing with gravity, is called positive geotropism. And there's a little 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 - responding to positive geotropism. February 4, 1899 Today is the birthday of the Beatrix Farrand protégé, the American Landscape Architect Ruth Harvey. After graduating from Smith College, Ruth attended the first landscape architecture school to allow women: the Cambridge School of Domestic Architecture and Landscape Architecture. Before she earned her Master's degree in Architecture, Ruth had already started working for Beatrix Farrand - and it was this relationship that would lead Ruth to her professional destiny: Dumbarton Oaks. Dumbarton Oaks was a farm that was purchased by Robert and Mildred Bliss in 1920. A creative visionary, Mildred immediately had big plans for the property, and she hired the great Landscape Architect Beatrix Farrand to help with the transformation. And while Mildred had bargained for creating a magnificent garden property, she ended up with so much more: a very dear friendship with Beatrix. As for Ruth, after she was hired, she joined a small team of women, spearheaded by Beatrix, to design the magnificent gardens and Landscape at Dumbarton. But in a few years, after the project was underway, it was Ruth who took point on the work at Dumbarton. Ruth's leadership happened organically after she proved herself by working on various projects. Ruth's first major project at Dumbarton was something called the Green Garden Inscription to Beatrix Farrand. The inscribed stone tablet was something special that Mildred wanted to be added to the Green Terrace; she was looking for a permanent way to honor her dear friend Beatrix, and she wanted it set in stone. And so, Ruth designed a plaque that was placed wi

Today we celebrate a man with, perhaps, the perfect last name for a botanist: Blume. We'll also learn about a wild berry that is a sister to the blueberry and the cranberry. We hear some words about the devastating impact of the poisonous White Snakeroot on the family of one of our American Presidents. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about the story of two botanists with different fates - yet both made their mark in horticulture. And then we'll wrap things up with the story of a Southern poet born on this day. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Drawing On History, Philosophy, Psychology & Art, The Gardens Of Shute House Are Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe's Masterpiece | House & Garden Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events February 3, 1862 Today is the anniversary of the death of the German-Dutch botanist with the perfect last name - Carl Ludwig Blume. Born in Germany and orphaned by the age of five, Carl proved to be a bright little boy and a successful student. He studied at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands - a place that would become his Northstar. When he died in Leiden, on this day in 1862, he had become a naturalized Dutch citizen. Scholastically, Carl went the path of most botanists. He first became a physician, and he ran an apothecary. In short order, he started botanizing in the Dutch East Indies, specifically on the island of Java, where he was the Botanic Garden director. Carl wrote a spectacular book on the collection of orchids that were available on the island. The title page is stunning, and it features three native women from Java performing a ceremonial dance. The mountains of Java in the village are in the background, and a garland of orchids frames the stunning portrait. This publication is considered one of the finest works of scientific literature during the early 1800s. In 1825, Carl established the Dendrobium genus of orchids. The genus name is derived from the Greek; "dendron" for tree and "bios" meaning life. The two terms, tree and life, refer to orchids' epiphytic habit of growing on trees. And, here's a great story about Carl. During his time in Java, Carl saw what he thought was a group of moths flying in a motionless fashion by a tree. It was a strange vision. But, when he got closer, Carl realized what he thought were moths were actually orchid flowers. Carl named the species Phalaenopsis amabilis (fayl-eh-NOP-sis ah-MA-bo-lis). In nature, the phalaenopsis orchid stems are not clipped to a bamboo pole like they are when we buy them in the supermarket. Instead, they arch away from the tree they are attached to and sway easily with the Wind. It was the motion of the Orchid flowers swaying in the wind that lead Carl to believe he saw an insect and not a blossom. The etymology of the word phalaenopsis comes from the Latin word "phal," which means moth - which is why this Orchid is commonly referred to as the Moth Orchid. Phalaenopsis orchids are native to Southeast Asia. Their popularity has steadily grown because they are so easy to grow and because they bloom indoors all year round. This makes them one of the most popular house plants in the world. Now, should you be tempted this summer to move your phalaenopsis orchid outside, think twice. Just because they are a tropical plant doesn't mean they want full sun. Phalaenopsis orchids grow in the shade of trees under the tree canopy. They like indirect light, and if you put them in full sun, they will get sunburned. If you are going to move them outside, make sure to put them in a place where they will not get direct sunlight. Sometimes I'll put mine onto my north-facing covered porch. In 1853, Carl Ludwig Blume discovered another popular plant in the mountains of Java: coleus. Coleus bluemei was named in Carl's honor until it was changed in 2006 to Coleux x Hybridus in recognition of all the new hybrid variations. As of 2

Today we celebrate a star from the silent film age, whose best movie featured a blind woman selling flowers. We'll also learn about Candlemas - the ancient celebration of the quickening of the year. Candlemas is associated with the snowdrop, candles, and predicting just how much longer winter will last…. We hear a passage about a wonderful mini-farm - an inspiring example of the Nature Principle at home. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that teaches how to propagate almost 400 plants - and if you get it, I see many baby plants in your future... And then we'll wrap things up with a little story about the Snowdrop Fairy. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News 5 Tips to Help Your Garden Now | Fine Gardening Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events February 2, 1914 On this day, the English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer Charlie Chaplin made his film debut in Making a Living. With regard to his enormous catalog of work, Charlie's onscreen persona, The Tramp, is considered iconic, and it brought him wealth and fame. In 1931, Charlie created the silent film that Roger Ebert regarded as his best: City Lights. In the film, Charlie, as The Tramp, falls in love with a blind flower girl. And here's some incredible movie trivia about City Lights: The scene where The Tramp bought a flower from the blind girl had 342 takes. Charlie could not figure out how to convey a key plot point: the blind woman needed to know that The Tramp - who didn't speak - was wealthy. So, until he got it just right, the actress, Virginia Cherrill, had to say, "Flower Sir?" 342 times. February 2, 2021 Today is Candlemas - a celebration of the quickening of the year. While today we might say we're half-way between Christmas and spring, this Celtic tradition honored the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox and was a forerunner to Groundhog Day. Like Groundhog Day, Candlemas was all about predicting when winter would come to an end. This is why there are so many verses for Candlemas: If Candlemas Day be mild and gay Go saddle your horses, and buy them hay But if Candlemas Day be stormy and black, It carries the winter away on its back. If Candlemas be fair and clear, there'll be two winters in the year. If Candlemas Day be fair and bright Winter will have another flight. If Candlemas Day be cloud and rain, Then Winter will not come again As for the garden, in the middle ages, your Christmas greenery could be left up until Candlemas - but then it needed to come down. And in England, the Snowdrop blooms in February, and this is reflected in the common names "Fair Maid of February" and "Candlemas Bells." Hence the verse: The snowdrop, in purest white array, First rears it head on Candlemas Day. And, if you were tempted to bring some cut snowdrops in the House before Candlemas, you probably wouldn't have - because that was considered bad luck. And it should be noted that snowdrops are stronger than we give them credit for; they contain a natural antifreeze, which helps them survive in freezing weather. Over the centuries, the forecast of Candlemas was shared differently across Europe. In France and England, a bear would tell the forecast, and the Germans look to the badger for signs of spring. When German immigrants in Pennsylvania were looking to maintain the custom, they turned to the groundhog - a creature (unlike the badger) that was relatively easy to find and easy to catch. In the United States, the first Groundhog Day was celebrated in Gobbler's Knob, Pennsylvania, on this day in 1887. Today the mother of all Groundhog Celebrations is held in Punxsutawney with the groundhog Punxsutawney Phil the star attraction. If you're looking to celebrate Candlemas, you can always light a candle in your garden tonight and invite spring and the sunshine back into your life. Unearthed Words The yard surrounding Karen Harwell's home

Today we celebrate a Harlem poet who loved children and flowers. We'll also learn about a newspaperman who wrote a fantastic essay about a harbinger of spring: the skunk cabbage. We'll hear some thoughts on how to start a garden. We Grow That Garden Library™ with an extraordinary book that takes us on a tour of brilliantly curated plant life. And then we'll wrap things up with a little obscure verse about the language of trees. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Removing Deadwood Makes For Happier, Healthier Shrubs And Trees — Here's How To Know If Branches Are Still Alive | The Chicago Tribune | Beth Botts Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events February 1, 1902 Today is the birthday of the American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist Langston Hughes. Langston was one of the leading voices of the 1920s. He was also part of the Harlem Renaissance Cultural Movement, and for the last twenty years of his life, Langston lived on the top floor of a Brownstone on 127th Street. And when Langston lived in Harlem, everyone knew which house was his - because it was the one covered in Boston Ivy. Langston loved the look of the Ivy, and it was planted at his request. Langston was just 5 feet and 4 inches tall, and he reportedly saw the world through the wonder-filled eyes of a child. Langston's outlook no doubt helped him relate to kids, and he loved being around children. One of the most charming details I learned about Langston was the little garden that he kept near the front steps of his home. Langston called the garden "Our Block's Children's Garden," and with the neighborhood kids there to help, he filled it with nasturtiums, asters, and marigolds. And all the neighbor kids were in charge of the watering and weeding. And if you search for Langston's garden online, you'll find an adorable photo of Langston from 1955 - he's surrounded by kids (one of them is holding a watering can), and they are kneeling behind a white picket fence. On the fence pickets is a round sign that says, "Our Block's Children's Garden," along with the names of 26 children. As for his writing, Langston always said that Harlem was his muse. Langston's poem, Poet to a Bigot, is still timely, and the last line will find purchase with gardeners. I have done so little For you, And you have done so little For me, That we have good reason Never to agree. I, however, Have such meager Power, Clutching at a Moment, While you control An hour. But your hour is A stone. My moment is A flower. February 1, 1916 On this day, the American newspaper editor, essayist, short story writer, and poet, Ben Hur Lampman, moved to Portland and began working for The Oregonian. On March 2, 1942, Ben wrote an article defending a harbinger of spring, the Skunkweed or Eastern Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus), that appeared in the Medford, Oregon newspaper. In this magnificent piece, Ben compares the yellow bloom of the Skunk Cabbage to a candle. "What a flower [the Skunk Cabbage] is, to be sure. When it lifts to burn coolly in the swampy wayside, there are few wayfarers who do not exclaim to see it. There seems to be something votive about it, as perhaps there is. The reason one is sure that people care about it... is simply because they must. There is no other choice; for the elder law is that people must always care about beauty. A Skunk Cabbage [is a] kind of calla lily, and though its odor is faintly mephitic, you don't have to sniff it. It may be supposed that the farmer who tends the cattle thinks he has little use for a Skunk Cabbage if he meditates in the least on its utility - but if ever the year should come when the golden, cool candles were not kindled, the farmer would be first to remark this and worry about it. For a farmer can't plow, and a farmer can't plant until the Skunk Cabbage is up everywhere." Unearthed Words As with most occ

Today we celebrate a woman who helped change the way pesticides were used in the United States. We'll also learn about the man who taught thousands of people how to prune and graft fruit trees and also founded the Home Orchard Society. We'll hear about how to prune Willow (Salix) trees with one of my favorite gardeners. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a lovely set of postcards - they're so pretty - you may just want to display them. And then we'll wrap things up with a marvelous article about a source of winter joy for gardeners: scented houseplants. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Eight Steps to Create a Stunning Winter Garden | Stihl Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events January 29, 1958 On this day, a letter to the editor appeared in the Boston Herald in Section 3 on Page 14 and was titled "Evidence of Havoc by DDT." It was written by a Duxbury resident, journalist, and nature-lover: Olga Owens Huckins. Olga and her husband, Stuart, had created a little bird sanctuary around two kettle ponds on their property. It was a place, "where songbirds sang, ducks swam, and great blue herons nested." When the Massachusetts State Mosquito control program began spraying in their area, Olga observed birds and insects dropping dead in her garden. During that time, the DDT was sprayed at a rate of two pounds per acre. The day Olga's property was sprayed, the pilot had extra DDT in his tank, and he decided to dump it - right over Olga's land. As a former Boston newspaper reporter, Olga voiced her anger and frustration in the best way she knew how; she wrote about it. Olga wrote, "The 'harmless' shower-bath killed seven of our lovely songbirds outright. We picked up three dead bodies the next morning right by the door. They were birds that had lived close to us, trusted us, and built their nests in our trees year after year." After writing the paper, Olga wrote another letter to an old friend named Rachel Carson. Olga wanted Rachel to help her find people in Washington who could provide more information about the aerial spraying of DDT. Olga's letter sparked four years of research for Rachel. She put it all together in a book called Silent Spring. Rachel's book opened people's eyes to the hazards of DDT, and public opinion eventually forced the banning of DDT in 1972. Today, Olga & Stuart's property has new owners, and they continue to preserve the site as a bird sanctuary - and also as a way to honor the two brave women who stepped forward when it was put in harm's way: Olga Huckins and Rachel Carson. January 29, 2005 Today is the anniversary of the death of the founder of Home Orchard Society, Larry L. McGraw. Larry's obituary stated that pomology was his passion for more than 50 years. Pomology is the science of growing fruit. In an effort to preserve fruit trees in the Northwest, Larry began collecting scion wood specimens in his twenties, and he founded the Northwest Fruit Explorers - an organization and clearinghouse for fruit information and fruit growers. During his retirement, Larry worked as a horticulturist for the Oregon Historical Society. One day, Larry discovered an envelope that contained apple seeds that were a hundred years old. The letter inside the envelope referenced Marcus Whitman and his orchard. Marcus Whitman was a doctor who led a group of settlers West to Washington State by Wagon Train. His wife was named Narcissa, and she was very bright, a teacher of physics and chemistry. Marcus and Narcissa were part of a group of missionaries. They settled in an area now known as Walla Walla, Washington, and apparently, the Whitman's had an orchard. Beyond that, Marcus and Narcissa's time in Washington was not fruitful. They attempted to convert the local Native Americans to Christianity but were unsuccessful mainly because they didn't bother to get to know or understand them. Sadly, their only daughter

Today we celebrate a colonial botanist who introduced nearly 200 plants to British horticulture after sourcing them from his good friend John Bartram in America. We'll also learn about the man who mastered growing the Poinsettia and established it as the official plant of Christmas. We'll hear some wonderful thoughts on the Common Daisy (Bellis perennis) from one of my favorite writers. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about styling your home with botanicals - making your own horticultural haven. And then we'll wrap things up with the story of a woman who found her way to the best job ever: creating herb gardens. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News New Year Plant Hunt 2021: Day One | BSBI: Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland | Louise Marsh Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events January 28, 1694 Today is the birthday of a Fellow of the Royal Society, an avid gardener, and a friend to many scientific leaders in London in the mid-18th century, Peter Collinson. Peter Collinson introduced nearly 200 species of plants to British horticulture - importing many from his friend John Bartram in America. And when the American gardener John Custis learned that Peter was looking for the mountain cowslip (Primula auricula), he happily sent him a sample. Auricula means ear-shaped, and the mountain cowslip is commonly known as a bear's ear - from the shape of its leaves. And the cowslip is a spring-flowering plant, and it is native to the mountains of Europe. Custis also sent Peter a Virginia Bluebell Or Virginia cowslip (Mertensia virginica). This plant is another spring beauty that can be found in woodlands. And I have to say that the blue about Virginia Bluebell is so striking - it's an old fashioned favorite for many gardeners. The Virginia Bluebell is known as lungwort or oyster wort. And it got those rather unattractive common names because people believed the plant could treat lung disorders, and also, the leaves taste like oysters. Virginia bluebells bloom alongside daffodils, so you end up with a beautiful yellow and blue combination in the spring garden - something highly desired and gorgeous. Peter was not the only gardener in search of Virginia bluebells. Thomas Jefferson grew them at Monticello ("MontiCHELLo") and loved them so much that they were often referred to as Jefferson's blue funnel flowers. As for Peter, he once wrote, "Forget not me and my garden." Given Peter's influence on English gardens, he would be pleased to know that, after all these years, he has not been forgotten. In fact, in 2010, the author Andrea Wulf wrote about Peter in her book The Brother Gardeners: A Generation of Gentlemen Naturalists and the Birth of an Obsession - one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors. January 28, 1895 Today is the birthday of the nurseryman known as "Mr. Poinsettia," Paul Ecke Sr. ("Eck-EE"), and he was born in Magdeburg, Germany. Paul and his family immigrated to the United States in 1906. And when Paul took over his father's nursery business located on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood in the early 1920s, the Poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) was a fragile, outdoor, wild plant. And Paul fell in love with the Poinsettia immediately. And Paul felt that the Poinsettia was perfectly created for the holiday season because the bloom occurred naturally during that time of year. By 1924, Paul was forced out of Hollywood by the movie business, and that's when he brought his family and the nursery to San Diego County. Paul and his wife Magdalena had four children, and they purchased 40 acres of land in Encinitas("en-sin-EE-tis"). It was here that Paul would turn his passion for Poinsettias into a powerhouse. And at one point, his nursery controlled 90% of the Poinsettia market in the United States. At first, Paul raised Poinsettias in the fields on his ranch. Each spring, the plants were harvested an

Today we celebrate the writer inspired by the Oxford Botanic Garden - a place he saw every day. We'll also learn about medicine with roots in the soil in Indiana. We'll hear a lovely excerpt about a harbinger of spring: Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) We Grow That Garden Library™ with a fantastic book about botanical baking with a master baker. And then we'll wrap things up with the story of a surprise found in a botanist's garden. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Predicting the New Year's 2021 Garden Trends | Ag Week | Don Kinzler Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events January 27, 1832 Today is the birthday of the English mathematician and writer Charles Lutwidge Dodgson - also known as Lewis Carroll. Lewis had worked as a librarian at Christ Church College in Oxford. His office window had a view of the Dean's Garden. Lewis wrote in his diary on the 25th of April in 1856 that he had visited the Deanery Garden, where he was planning to take pictures of the cathedral. Instead, he ended up taking pictures of children in the garden. The children were allowed in the Deanery Garden, but not in the Cathedral Garden, which was connected to the Deanery Garden by a little door. And so, it was the Oxford Botanic Garden that inspired Lewis Carroll to write Alice in Wonderland. The same garden also inspired the authors, JRR Tolkien and Philip Pullman. In Lewis Caroll's Through the Looking-Glass is this favorite passage among gardeners: "In most gardens," the Tiger-lily said, "they make the beds too soft-so that the flowers are always asleep." January 27, 1950 On this day, Science Magazine announced a brand new antibiotic made by Charles Pfizer & Company, and it was called Terramycin. Last year, when I shared this item, I don't think many of us were as familiar with the word Pfizer as we are today - living through the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 1950s, Pfizer was a small chemical company based in Brooklyn, New York. And it turns out that Pfizer had developed an expertise in fermentation with citric acid, and this process allowed them to mass-produce drugs. When Pfizer scientists discovered an antibiotic in a soil sample from Indiana, their deep-tank fermentation method allowed them to mass-produce Terramycin. Now, Pfizer had been searching through soil samples from around the world - isolating bacteria-fighting organisms when they stumbled on Terramycin. Effective against pneumonia, dysentery, and other infections, Terramycin was approved by the USDA. And the word Terramycin is created from the two Latin words: terra for earth and mycin, which means fungus - thus, earth fungus. And Terramycin made history: Terramycin was the very first mass-marketed product by a pharmaceutical company. Pfizer spent twice as much marketing Terramycin as it did on R&D for Terramycin. The gamble paid off; Terramycin, earth fungus, is what made Pfizer a pharmaceutical powerhouse. And so, there's a throughline from the vaccine we are using today, all the way back to that bacteria found in the soil in Indiana that ultimately became Terramycin. Unearthed Words In much of North America, skunk cabbage has earned the widespread reputation as the first flower of spring. It might be more accurate, however, to call it the first flower of winter. "The skunk cabbage may be found with its round green spear-point an inch or two above the mold in December," reported naturalist John Burroughs. "It is ready to welcome and make the most of the first fitful March warmth." Henry David Thoreau observed that new buds begin pushing upward almost as soon as the leaves wither and die in the fall. In fact, he counseled those afflicted with the melancholy of late autumn to go to the swamps "and see the brave spears of skunk cabbage buds already advanced toward the new year." People living in colder parts of North America have long watched for skunk cabbage as a si

Today we celebrate the Russian botanist who sought to end world hunger and created a seed bank. We'll also learn about a Landscape Architect known for her delicate illustrations and her love of realistic sculpture. We'll hear some thoughts on growing bulbs in pots by one of my favorite gardeners. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that proves anyone can draw botanical illustrations - even me. And then we'll wrap things up with a National Seed Swap Day the Pandemic Way. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News 5 Front-Yard Landscaping Secrets | Better Homes & Gardens Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events January 26, 1943 Today is the anniversary of the tragic death of the Russian botanist and plant geneticist Nikolai Vavilov. Regarded as one of the giants of plant science, Nikolai established over 400 research institutes, and he brought Russian plant explorers on expeditions to more than 50 countries around the globe. Worried about genetic erosion and destruction, Nikolai marshaled his resources toward preserving plant genetic diversity at every turn. To that end, Nikolai hoped that seed banking and his St. Petersburg seed vault would prove invaluable. The goal of ending hunger drove Nikolai, and to that end, he worked to collect specimens and run experiments in order to increase crop yields. After concluding that genetic diversity was the key to his mission, Nikoli realized that most of the world's agriculture came from eight specific regions - places with ancient roots where plants were first cultivated. Nikolai got caught up in the politics of communism when a fanatical Soviet agronomist and geneticist, Trofim Lysenko, denounced Nikolai's work as anti-communist. After being arrested in 1940, Nikolai was sent to a concentration camp at Saratov, where he eventually died of starvation on this day in 1943. He was 55 years old. Meanwhile, Nikolai's loyal team of seed collectors also faced starvation - and some starved to death - as they held up in the Russian seed bank. Despite being surrounded by many edible seeds, these valiant botanists successfully protected seeds from all over the world during the 900-day siege of St. Petersburg by German and Finish forces. Today this seed genebank is known as the Vavilov Institute of Plant Genetic Resources. January 26, 1905 Today is the birthday of the Connecticut landscape architect Eloise Ray. In Ruth Harley's book Pest-Proofing Your Garden, we get a little glimpse into Eloise's approach to gardening: "Eloise confesses that she long ago gave up her battle with the local groundhog. Over the years, she determined which plants appeal to him. Now she limits her crops to the plants the groundhog doesn't eat — tomatoes, eggplants, red and green peppers, chives, all kinds of onions and, perhaps, parsley." As a Landscape Architect, Eloise often worked with her husband, Jo Ray, who was also a Landscape Architect. Eloise was a marvelous artist, and she was known for her delicate illustrations, and she was exceptionally fond of realistic sculpture. Eloise is remembered through her gardens and estate work throughout Fairfield County, Connecticut. In 1978, the New York Times featured an interview with a 60-year-old Eloise at her Westport Home. Eloise reflected on her career, "[I started] in the heyday of the large estates of the late '20s, when we would put in gatehouses, decorative brick walls, dramatic driveways, servants' driveways, formal gardens, walks, greenhouses, and shrubs designed for intricate topiary. We would estimate the need for at least eight full‐time gardeners for most of our estates." Unearthed Words I shall never desert the bulbs, though, and last winter, I think I got more pleasure from a pot of February Gold daffodils than from anything else I raised unless it was my pots of freesias. February Gold, which is a medium-small, all-yellow narcissus of the cyclamen t

Today we celebrate a poet who loved flowers and became the beloved poet-son of a country that celebrates him still today. We'll also learn about an orchid that inspired a fabled true story about Charles Darwin. We'll hear about some fascinating vegetable history that is celebrated every year on this day. We Grow That Garden Library™ with some incredible exotic flower photography. And then we'll wrap things up with the garden and the Three R's of Renovation. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News How to Grow Chillies | Gardener's World Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events January 25, 1759 Today is the birthday of the Scottish poet and lyricist Robert Burns. Widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and celebrated worldwide, tonight is Burns Night. Each year Burns Night commemorates Robert, the beloved poet born into a poor Scottish family of farmers. A typical Burns Night includes live music, poetry readings of Burns masterpieces, and a traditional Scottish meal of Haggis, Neeps, and Tatties. Now, gardeners have a soft spot for Robert Burns. His 1794 poem 'Red Red Rose' starts out with the familiar verse: "O my Luve's like a red, red rose..." And gardeners have always loved Robert's poem "To a Mountain Daisy." with the line, "Sweet floweret of the rural shade! By love's simplicity betrayed" Of course, the way to end a fantastic Burns Night Celebration is to sing Robert's most famous poem, which has now been set to music: Auld Lang Syne. January 25, 1862 On this day, the English naturalist, geologist, and biologist Charles Darwin received a box of Orchids. Now after sorting through all of the flowers, one Orchid, in particular, caught Charles' attention: the Angraecum sesquipedale ("ang-GRAY-kum ses-kwah-puh-doll-lee"), commonly called Darwin's Orchid, the Christmas Orchid, the Star of Bethlehem Orchid, or the King of the Angraecums. An epiphyte (meaning a plant that grows on other plants), the Darwin Orchid, was initially discovered by the French botanist Louis-Marie Aubert du Petit-Thouars in 1798. When Charles first laid eyes on this Orchid, he suspected that a then-unknown moth with an almost 14-inch long proboscis must have co-evolved with the Orchid to pollinate it. Many people scoffed at this - a moth with a 14-inch tongue?! Sadly, Charles didn't live long enough to see his prediction come true. It wasn't until 21 years after his death, in 1903, that a moth was discovered with a proboscis that could perfectly reach the 13.5-inch nectary, and Charles's prediction was proved to be correct. Once the moth was officially discovered it was named predicata for "the predicted one" Incredibly, it took nine more decades for scientists to observe the moth pollinating the orchid. In 1992, a German entomologist named Lutz Thilo Wasserthal traveled to Madagascar, where he captured two moths. After placing the moths in a cage with the orchid, Lutz photographed them pollinating the flower - and it happened just as Charles Darwin imagined it would, after receiving the orchid on this day, over a century earlier. Unearthed Words "Neep" is the Scots term for the rutabaga, the root vegetable known as swede in Britain. Neeps and tatties (dialect for mashed potatoes) are the traditional accompaniment to haggis, served on Burns Night (January 25). Recipes vary, but butter and a little spice such as nutmeg or powdered ginger are common additions. All, of course, must be washed down with a glass of whiskey. — Lorraine Harrison, garden writer, A Potted History of Vegetables Grow That Garden Library Botanica Magnifica by Jonathan Singer This book came out in 2009, and the subtitle is Portraits of the World's Most Extraordinary Flowers and Plants. In this out-of-print book, Jonathan Singer shares 250 of his stunning photographs of rare and exotic plants and flowers "in large scale and exquisite detail, in a manner evocative of Ol

Today we celebrate a disabled botanist who felt no area could be considered fully explored. We'll also learn about the tree that honors David Douglas. We'll hear some thoughts about the future and our need to turn to nature, which will only grow in importance. We Grow That Garden Library™ with an old book that taught us how to cook with garden herbs, vegetables, and fruit. And then we'll wrap things up with a humorous story about a poet, a coachman, and street trees. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to [email protected] Curated News Lessons from Festival Beach Food Forest in Austin, Texas | Fine Gardening | Karen Beaty Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events January 22, 1917 Today is the anniversary of the death of the Presbyterian minister, writer, and American botanist Ellsworth Jerome Hill. Ellsworth was born in Leroy, New York. When Ellsworth was only 20 years old, one of his knees stopped working, and a doctor suggested he study botany. So, Ellsworth would crawl from his house to the orchard, where he would pick a few flowers and then crawl back to the house to identify them. And the following year, Ellsworth, who used to canes when he walked, 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 was feeling especially lame or simply lacked strength, Milancy would step in and finish the work for him. However, by the time he was 40, Ellsworth somehow put his lameness behind him. In the back half of his life, he seemed to be better able to manage his physical challenge. Thanks to Milancy's guidance, Ellsworth had learned how to cope with the symptoms. In a touching tribute to Ellsworth after his death, the botanist 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 peculiar conditions that a few square rods or even feet may comprise their range." January 22, 1927 On this day, The Placer Herald out of Rocklin, California, shared a story called "Douglas Fir Entirely Distinct Tree Species." "The Douglas fir, a native of the Northwest but now being planted extensively in the East, is becoming a famous Christmas tree. The species was named for a Scotch botanist who discovered it on an expedition in 1825, but its scientific name is Pseudotsuga, meaning "false hemlock." As a matter of fact, it is neither a hemlock nor a fir, and though it is sometimes called a spruce, It isn't that either. The tree belongs to an entirely distinct species. The tree most commonly used for Christmas trees is a real fir: the balsam - so-called because its blister-like pockets yield a resinous liquid known as Canada balsam, which is used, among other things, for attaching cover plates to microscope slides." The Douglas-fir is not a true fir, which is why it is spelled with a hyphen. Anytime you see a hyphen in the common name, you know it's not a true membe