Stay ConnectedThe Daily Gardener is a weekday podcast celebrating garden history, literature, and the small botanical stories that shape how we garden today.
Each episode follows an “on this day” format, uncovering the people, plants, books, and moments that have quietly influenced gardens across time.
New episodes are released Monday through Friday, and each show features a thoughtfully chosen garden book.
Copyright: Copyright ©2019-2020, Jennifer Ebeling|The Daily Gardener All rights reserved
Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1802 Birth of Dorothea Lynde Dix, Boston activist, writer, and schoolteacher. As a young woman, she visited England and met the philanthropist and mental-health reformer Samuel Tuke, the director of the York Retreat. There, the patients tended the flower and vegetable gardens surrounding the buildings. Samual called his methods "moral treatment," His work inspired Dorothea to pursue new ways of treating mental illness back home in America. Dorothea championed the causes of the marginalized, incredibly the mentally ill. She successfully lobbied for the creation of mental asylums. Despite today's negative connotations, the word asylum was initially intended to be a place of safety and refuge. Dorothea's asylums were a complete departure from the punitive madhouses that had come before. Today, the Dorothea Dix Park in Raleigh stands on the site of North Carolina's first mental health facility, Dorothea Dix Hospital, which existed for 160 years. Before that, the land was part of the Spring Hill Plantation, which was worked by hundreds of enslaved people for 150 years. Dorothea Dix Park is known for daffodils in spring and a field of sunflowers at the end of July. Dorothea Dix often included flower petals in letters to her friends. In 1829, she wrote a book of Floriography ("FLOOR-EE-ah-grah-FEE") or the language of flowers called The Garland of Flora. Dorothea wrote, The rose is the flower and handmaiden of love – the lily, her fair associate, is the emblem of beauty and purity. 1928 Birth of Maya Angelou (books by this author), American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist. Maya once wrote, On late evenings when quiet inhabits my garden when grass sleeps and streets are only paths for silent mist I seem to remember Smiling. 1929 Birth of James A. Duke (books about this person), American botanist and writer. He's remembered for his Handbook of Medicinal Herbs and the best-selling book The Green Pharmacy (1997). He developed Dr. Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases at the USDA. James once quipped regarding dandelions: If you can't beat them, eat them. 1944 On this day, English and American bombs hit the Botanical Garden in Bucharest. The garden's herbarium lost 500,000 sheets of specimens - roughly two-thirds of their collection. The origins of the garden date back to 1874. The garden found a champion in a 28-year-old Romanian botanist and naturalist named Dimitrie Brandza. Today the garden is named in his honor. Dimitri came to Bucharest to be a professor at the Department of Natural Science at the University of Bucharest. He created the botany department at the Natural Science Museum, only to see his entire plant collection destroyed by a fire two years later in 1884. But the fire ignited a new passion for Dimitri, which was the creation of the botanical garden, which opened in 1891. The garden's 42 acres are home to a museum, a greenhouse, formal gardens, wild spaces, lakes, ponds, and research buildings. The garden is a living part of the biology department at the University of Bucharest. Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation The Graphic Garden by Keith Williams This very, very green-covered book came out in May of 2020, and it's the first monograph from landscape architect Keith Williams. This book features all of Keith's projects to date. Now Keith is one of the country's leading landscape architects. Keith is a partner, along with Mario Nievera, in their design firm called Nievera Williams Design, a genuinely groundbreaking landscape architecture firm Is based in South Florida. Together, Mario and Keith have been designing fantastic outdoor spaces for over two decades. One of the wonderful things about this particular book is that Keith shares with us the transformations and pictures of his gardens, showcasing his work process from the beginning of the project all the way through to the end. In this way, you can see how he looks at spaces and incorporates different elements into these monumental design projects. And there's a reason he calls it the Graphic Garden, and that's because it's so visual. Keith is very generously sharing everything— all the pictures, all of the drawings, and the details regarding his approach to designing gardens. So if you are a garden designer, this book is a must because you will learn from a true expert in garden design. Now I have to say that when I first got this book, I was so blown away. It was way more than I anticipated. The level of detail is fantastic. You will learn about layering in gardens and how each layer contributes to the garden's overall design. And the other thing that I want to mention quickly is that I shared a great video of Keith and his partner, Mario, in a video with Steele Marcoux of Veranda, and they're talking about garden design, their unique perspectives, and their approach to it, which is just so fascinating. I learned a ton of little tips and views on garden design just from watching that particular video. So that's in the Facebook group for the show. But this book is a little gem — and since it's new and there weren't that many of them published — it is an investment, but it is so worth it. This book is 216 pages of the best of Keith Williams and his work in gardens. You can get a copy of The Graphic Garden by Keith Williams and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for around $70. Botanic Spark 1938 On this day, the Canadian Naturalist Charles Joseph Sauriol, wrote in his diary: For a few minutes this morning I fumbled around my Wild Flower garden... Little points which will soon be Bloodroots. Cautious little down covered stems and buds that will later become Hepaticas. Narrow leaves the forerunners of spring beauty. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.
Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1755 Birth of Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (books by this author), French lawyer and politician. He became a famous epicure and gastronome. In The Physiology of Taste, He wrote, A man who was fond of wine was offered some grapes at dessert after dinner. 'Much obliged', said he, pushing the plate aside; 'I am not accustomed to taking my wine in pills. 1803 Birth of Miles Joseph Berkeley, English cryptogamist and clergyman. Miles is regarded as a founder of plant pathology. As a young man, Miles became passionate about lichens, and he became a recognized expert in his lifetime. Miles pursued his botanical work around his duties as a pastor. He coined the term "mycologist" to describe his work with nature. Today Websters defines a mycologist as someone who works with fungi ("fun-guy"), living organisms such as molds, yeast, and mushrooms. And while many of his fellow clergymen believed the potato famine to be a tool of the devil, Miles correctly suspected that a water mold, Phytophthora infestans, could be the source of the problem. Miles named a mushroom species Agaricus ruthae ("Ah-GARE-uh-kus Ruth-ee") after his daughter Ruth. Ruth Ellen Berkeley became a successful botanical illustrator. 1838 Birth of George Edward Post, American physician and scholar. He was a missionary, professor, and pioneering doctor in Syria, Beirut, and Lebanon. In his spare time, he botanized the countryside and wrote the first English Flora of the Middle East. George is remembered for his extensive herbarium. His students helped with his collecting efforts. George would assign two hundred herbarium sheets per student and reward those who traveled the furthest to obtain specimens. There are many incredible stories about George Post. Supposedly, he could outwork most men and fall asleep very quickly. George Post lore tells how George could also collect specimens without getting off his horse. George got good at leaning down low on the side of his saddle to grab a specimen for his study. Finally, as George lay dying, a visitor placed some wheat in his hand. The wheat was symbolic of the harvest and George's lifetime of work with plants. 1868 Birth of Edmond Rostand (books by this author), the very dapper-looking French poet and dramatist. Edmond built a villa called Arnaga in Cambo less Bains, France. The beautiful gardens cover 37 acres. Edmond planned the French garden on the east side to greet the rising sun and an English garden on the west side to enjoy the setting sun. Edmond called Arnaga "a poem of stone and greenery," and it is often referred to as the "Little Versaille" in the Basque country. Today the villa and the gardens get five-star reviews on Trip Advisor. Edmond is best known for his 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac. In the play, Edmond wrote this garden-inspired verse, My soul, be satisfied with flowers, With fruit, with weeds even; but gather them In the one garden you may call your own. Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation Patina Farm by Brooke and Steve Giannetti This book came out in March of 2016 - so it's been out for six years already. This book has been on my watch list for quite some time, and use copies have finally dipped below $20, so I am thrilled to share this with you on today's show. Let me just start by saying that the cover of Patina Farm is so stunning. It's one of my favorite covers, and when I saw the cover for the first time, I could not stop thinking about it. I love the use of dried flowers and the styling on the cover. I love the cutting boards displayed over the mantle, the beautiful teal slip-covered chairs, and the natural elements that make this gorgeous cover. And then, of course, there is the incredibly inspiring story of Steve and his wife, Brooke, because they decided to leave suburbia - they were living in Santa Monica - and then they built a new life for themselves on a farm. But first, they went to Europe to find their inspiration for their farm - visiting Belgium and France - and then combined their talents to create Patina Farm, sharing what they did in this book. Now Steve is the architect. He puts together all the architectural drawings, which you can see in the book. And then Brooke is the writer. She's a beautiful writer and took over 200 photographs shared in this book. And don't I love the name of their farm: Patina Farm. The book is dedicated to their children, Charlie, Nick, and Lyla, and in the dedication, they said that their kids give their dreams meaning, which is so touching. The other thing I like about this book is how they share their journey in the titles of each chapter. So there's arriving, connecting, nourishing, creating, restoring, rejuvenating, sharing, and then farming - and then they give abundant resources at the end, too. If there's something that you're particularly inspired by, you can track down the resources that they used. Patina Farm is a total eye candy book. If you're a gardener, You're going to swoon at this book. It's gorgeous. And like I said, it's one of my favorite books. It's got all of the things that I love - beautiful elements, both natural and manmade - and it all comes together to create tranquil, inspiring Patina Farm (Which has not one but two courtyards. Isn't that a dream come true?!) The other thing that you're going to enjoy by getting this book is that you will quickly realize how down-to-earth Steve and Brooke are, even though they've created this incredible jaw-dropping space. These guys are salt of the earth kind of people, and they're just so generous and sharing how they came up with the plans and the ideas behind this space. I also want just to take a quick second and share a bit of what Clinton Smith said about this book. He is the editor-in-chief of Veranda, and he wrote the forward. He wrote. On five acres in the heart of the Ohai Valley in California Is a place that has emerged over the past three years as the best case study of confident design married with passion and purpose. It's not as over the top or attention-seeking as some homes. In fact, it excels in understatement. Hidden from street view by a bank of white roses, the house and landscape — treated as one — fosters respect for nature, for space, for light and air, and everyday moments. When you're at Patina Farm, you feel it through the waft of lavender in the backyard, the sound of crunching pea gravel underfoot on the back terrace. Bowls of freshly cut lemons on the kitchen island, the jolly nature of miniature donkeys, and silky Bantam chickens that have the run of the place. And while the owners didn't set out to create a Biltmore or Monticello (and why would they?), There are indeed similarities. I could go on and on gushing about this book, But I trust that you get the drift. This book is 176 pages (But I sure wish there were 500 pages, to be honest) of Patina Farm because I can't get enough of it. You can get a copy of Patina Farm by Brooke and Steve Giannetti and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for around $18. Botanic Spark In 2013, nine graduation speeches by Kurt Vonnegut (books by this author) were collected and published posthumously in a book called, If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Advice for the Young. In one speech, Kurt gave his unique take on the seasons. One sort of optional thing you might do is to realize there are six seasons instead of four. The poetry of four seasons is all wrong for this part of the planet, and this may explain why we are so depressed so much of the time. I mean, Spring doesn't feel like Spring a lot of the time, and November is all wrong for Fall and so on. Here is the truth about the seasons: Spring is May and June! What could be springier than May and June? Summer is July and August. Really hot, right? Autumn is September and October. See the pumpkins? Smell those burning leaves. Next comes the season called "Locking." That is when Nature shuts everything down. November and December aren't Winter. They're Locking. Next comes Winter, January and February. Boy! Are they ever cold! What comes next? Not Spring. Unlocking comes next. What else could April be? Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.
Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1621 Birth of Andrew Marvell, English poet and politician. He was a friend of John Milton. In addition to writing The Garden - one of the most famous English poems of the seventeenth century - he wrote this little garden verse: I have a garden of my own But so with Roses overgrown And Lilies, that you would it guess To be a little wilderness. 1824 Birth of Dietrich Brandis, German forester and botanist. He's remembered as the Father of Forestry in India, the Father of Modern Forest Management, and the Father of Tropical Forestry. Concerned about the unregulated destruction of the forests in India, the British wanted people in India to help manage and protect the trees. In 1856, Dietrich left his botany professorship in Bonn (where his father had been a professor) for a civil service position managing the teak forests in Burma. Eight years later, Dietrich was in charge of all the forests in India. In Carl Alwin Schenck's Birth of Forestry in America, there's a fascinating story about how Deitrich inventoried the Teak trees in the forest. [He rode] an elephant, on such trails as there were, with four sticks in his left hand and a pocketknife in his right. Whenever he saw in the bamboo thickets a teak tree within two hundred feet of his trail, he cut a notch in stick number 1, 2, 3, or 4, denoting the diameter of the tree. It was impossible for European hands, dripping with moisture, to carry a notebook. At the end of the day, after traveling some twenty miles, Brandis had collected forest stand data for a sample plot four hundred feet wide and twenty miles long, containing some nineteen hundred acres. He continued his cruise for a number of months, sick with malaria in a hellish climate. Moreover, he underwent a trepanning operation (brian surgery), and for the rest of his life, he carried a small hole filled with white cotton in the front of his skull. But he emerged from the cruise with the knowledge needed for his great enterprise. Dietrich established modern "sustainable" agroforestry principles that are still followed today. For two decades, Dietrich measured, itemized, and chronicled the forests of India. He started forest management schools and created training protocols for his employees. In 1878, Deitrich founded the Forest Research Institute in the Doon Valley in Dehradun. Styled in Greco Roman architecture, the building is beautiful and is the largest purely brick structure in the world. Sir Joseph Hooker recognized Deitrich's work and named the flowering-plant genus Brandisia in his honor. 1848 Birth of William Waldorf Astor, American-British attorney, politician, businessman (hotels and newspapers), and philanthropist. In 1891, a tall, shy William Waldorf Astor moved to Britain after declaring that "America is not a fit place for a gentleman to live." After over a decade living in England, William bought a run-down double-moated Hever Castle, which was Anne Boleyn's family home four hundred years earlier. Between 1904 and 1908, William oversaw the installation of the extensive gardens designed by Frank Pearson to surround the castle. William diverted water from a nearby river to make a 35-acre lake to make his vision a reality. It is said that eight hundred men hand-dug and stomped on the clay soil to make the bottom of the lake. Mature trees were harvested from Ashdown Forest and transplanted at Hever. Two mazes were installed. Topiary chessmen were pruned for the chess garden. Thousands of roses were brought in for the rose garden. But, the most impressive Garden at Hever was and is the Italian Garden, which features colonnades, classical sculptures, antiquities dating back to Roman times, and a loggia. There's also a long pergola on one end that features cool dripping fountains the entire length. Even today, it's staggering to think the whole project was completed in four short years. 1924 Birth of Leo Buscaglia, American author, motivational speaker, and professor in the Department of Special Education at the University of Southern California. Leo believed education should be the process of helping everyone to discover his uniqueness. Leo learned to Garden from his father, and he once wrote, To this day I cannot see a bright daffodil, a proud gladiola, or a smooth eggplant without thinking of Papa. Like his plants and trees, I grew up as a part of his garden. Leo was a self-help guru who preached love so much that he became known as "Dr. Love." He once wrote, A single rose can be my garden; a single friend, my world. He also wrote, There are many miracles in the world to be celebrated and, for me, garlic is the most deserving. Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation Passions by Carolyne Roehm This book came out in 2021 at the end of the year in December, and this is actually a collection of three books. All three books feature Carolyn's passions: flowers and gardens, feminine touch (which is all about how Carolyn loves to decorate), and furry friends, which of course, shares Carolyn's love of animals, especially her pups. I have to say that I love the book sleeve for these books slip into because the artwork is reminiscent of Maria Sibylla Merian. Carolyn writes, I hope that this little trio of books about the joy that I found in flowers and gardening, feminine allure and feminine style and the love of furry friends delights and inspires you as it has me. When I think about this book set, I think about it like a gift - a little book set to gift - so if you're looking for something special for yourself or a friend, this little set of books should be at the top of your list. The photography in all of these little books is absolutely stunning; it's all Carolyn Roehm. If you're a Carolyn Roehm fan, if you love her home in Connecticut or if you've watched any of her styling videos on YouTube, then you will immediately recognize the deeply saturated hues and the stunning compositions that she puts together with flowers and exquisite objects in her home. The balance of color, form, and architecture - all the incredible details that she pulls together - is just drop-dead gorgeous. This book is 240 pages of Carolyn Rome's passions - her favorite things - flowers and gardens, feminine allure and design, and furry friends. You can get a copy of Passions by Carolyne Roehm and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for around $34. Botanic Spark 1962 On this day, a landscape worker hit a line connecting President Kennedy's White House to the Strategic Arms Command, the line vital to launching a nuclear attack. The project was led by Bunny Mellon, who was in charge of designing a new rose garden outside the President's office. Robert Kennedy once reflected on Bunny in the Garden, saying, Often during cabinet meetings, we would see her out there in the rose garden – a little figure with a bandana on her head. One of Bunny's first tasks was to find a gardener to implement her designs. She selected a man named Irvin Williams, who was a government gardener at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. After Bunny brought him to the White House, he would stay on as the head gardener for almost fifty years. In early talks for the rose garden redesign, the Park Department voiced concerns about hitting underground lines. Bunny's plan called for large magnolia trees, which after some debate, were eventually ordered. But on this day, the underground line was cut during ground preparation. Bunny recalled that the problem was handled calmly and that she was never reprimanded. Bunny found the perfect magnolia trees for the White House over by the Tidal Basin overlooking the Jefferson Memorial. Once again, the Parks Department said "no" (due to costs). But Irvin Williams supported Bunny's idea, and he made arrangements to have the trees brought to the White House. The roses included a yellow rose from the state of Texas called the Speaker Sam rose in honor of the late speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, a bright red variety from the World's Fair, a white rose name Frau Karl Druschki, and pink Doctor roses. Twenty-four days after the underground line was hit, the Garden, complete with magnolia trees and roses, was unveiled to the public. The updated rose garden was an instant success. The artist and friend of the Kennedys, William Walton, later wrote, [President Kennedy's] pleasure in that garden was infinite. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener And remember: For a happy, healthy life, Garden every day.
Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1568 Birth of Henry Wotton, English writer, diplomat, and politician. Henry celebrated our relationships with gardens and landscapes. He especially enjoyed gardens that made one think or offered a surprise. Henry served as an Ambassador to Venice, and during his time there, he fell in love with Italian gardens. Henry's concept of a "garden of surprise" was inspired by the gardens he saw in Italy. In his Elements of Architecture (1624), Henry discusses what it was like to walk through an Italian garden: I have seen a garden into which the first [entry point] was a high walk like a [terrace], from whence might be taken a general view of the whole plot below, but rather in a delightful confusion... From this the Beholder descending any steps, was afterwards conveyed again... to various entertainments of his [scent] and sight... every one of these diversities, was as if he had [been] magically transported to a new garden. 1844 Birth of Paul-Marie Verlaine, French poet. He's remembered for his work with the Symbolist and Decadent movements. His poem, Clair de Lune, begins with the line, "Your soul is a sealed garden," and inspired Claude Debussy ("deh·byoo·see") to write his own 'Clair de lune, the work for which he is now most famous. Paul once wrote, Here are fruits, flowers, leaves and branches, and here is my heart which beats only for you. 1853 Birth of Vincent van Gogh, Dutch post-impressionist painter. After his death, he became a top-selling figure in the history of Western art. Bold colors and brushwork characterized his work. Vincent found inspiration in the natural world, and he once said, If you truly love Nature, you will find beauty everywhere. Vincent was also a lover of flowers and gardens, and he also said, For one's health as you say, it is very necessary to work in the garden and see the flowers growing. At the end of his life, Van Gogh suffered from depression, an unsuccessful painting career, and poverty. He committed a slow and painful suicide at 37 by shooting himself in the chest. He died two days later beside a stack of his sunflower canvases. He said his last words to his brother Theo, The sadness will last forever. The legacy of Van Gogh's 2,100 pieces of art was much brighter than he ever expected. In March of 1987, his painting titled Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers was sold by Sotheby's in London for $39.85 million, more than three times the highest price ever paid at the time for a painting at auction. 2003 On this day, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram shared an article called, What's in a name? Deciding the name of every plant could take decades and require a huge effort by Stephanie Simon. The article revealed that the Missouri Botanical Garden is teaming up with botanists worldwide on a 10-year $100-million effort to standardize plant names. The article shared the forecast for finishing the project, saying the project's leaders' plans for... the database [is] "45 compiler years." One note says "52 imager years." At the bottom there's a final tally: They will need a staff of 32 for at least a decade just to compile and input the information. That's not counting the botanists who will do all the research Missouri scientists will be working in formal collaboration with the two other top botanical research centers in the world: the New York Botanical Garden and the Kew Botanical Gardens near London. Incredibly, the project was completed way ahead of schedule at the end of 2010. At the time, The Plant List included 1.25 million scientific plant names. Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation Writing Wild by Kathryn Aalto This book came out in the summer of 2020, and the subtitle is Women Poets, Ramblers, and Mavericks Who Shape How We See the Natural World. This is such a good book, and I've been waiting to recommend it on the show. Kathryn herself was inspired to write this book after stumbling on a book written with all-male voices. Kathryn wanted to find the female voices and add their perspective on the natural world. In all, there are about 75 women that are talked about in Kathryn's book. Now, the goal behind curating all of these pieces was to help us deepen our connection to and understanding of the natural world. Some of these writers are some of my old favorites, like Mary Oliver, Vita Sackville West, Mary Austin, Susan Fenimore Cooper. But then there are also new voices like Helen MacDonald, Andrea Wulf, Amy Liptrot, and Elizabeth Rush. There are 25 of these women whose works are shared in full in this book. I love what Kathryn wrote in the introduction. She says, Much of this book was researched and penned outside - mountain climbing, mudlarking, canoeing, beachcombing, gardening, hiking, and birdwatching. I retraced the footsteps of those who have passed on, some of whom wrote anonymously or were chastised for daring to venture off without male chaperones. I walked and talked with living authors. I read original 19th-century journals, letters, essays, and books. I held tangible personal objects. I searched the faces and old photographs. I listened to historians, archivists, and experts. I attended live author readings and listened to recordings. I passed through 200 years of women's history through nature writing. Remarkable. Compilation books like this are excellent because Kathryn has done the heavy lifting for us. She has sifted through all of this nature writing, and she has brought us the best of the best - an excellent sampling of women writing about nature over the past two centuries. I simply have to share two beautiful quotes that Kathryn includes at the top of the book. The first is from Willa Cather in her 1913 book O Pioneers! She wrote, Isn't it queer: there are only two or three human stories and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before; like the larks in this country, that have been singing the same five notes for over thousands of years. And then there's this beautiful quote by Emily Dickinson in an 1885 letter that she wrote to Eugenia Hall. I hope you love Birds too. It is economical. It saves going to heaven. This book is chock full of great insights, quotes, and readings from women as marvelous as Willa Cather and Emily Dickinson. This book is 288 pages of women finding joy in nature and then writing about it and sharing it. You can get a copy of Writing Wild by Kathryn Aalto and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for around $6. Botanic Spark 1918 On this day, The Oregon Daily Journal out of Portland, Oregon, shared a front-page story with the headline, SLACKER IF HE PUTS BASEBALL STARTING TIME BACK ONE HOUR. President Pack of National War Garden Commission Severely Criticises [Baseball] Club Owner Who Plans to Add Extra Hour of Daylight That Could Be Used in Garden Work. Charles Lathrop-Pack was president of the national war garden commission and was against baseball teams who were planning to change the start time of their games to take advantage of the brand new daylight saving plan. Pack said, A move like this will take thousands of hours of time from gardens. It will doubtless mean many extra dollars in the box office, but it is certainly a violation of the spirit of the law. In other media, Charles reminded both leagues that, [the] law was intended to increase the daylight usefulness in war work, and was not intended to give extra hours for recreation... Slackers of the worst type is the brand placed upon baseball league owners or managers who plan to move down the scheduled time of starting games this Summer. But the historian Michael O'Malley noted in his book Keeping Watch (1996) that as president of the War Garden Commission, Charles Lathrop Pack was essentially the head of [a] lobbying organization for the makers of garden products—tools, seeds, fertilizers, canning, and preserving equipment... [and he] stood to gain dramatically from any increase in wartime gardening. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.
Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1779 Birth of William Baldwin, American physician, and botanist. William is remembered as one of the first botanists to explore Georgia and Florida and parts of Latin America and the West Indies. William was brought on as the botanist for Stephen Long's 1819 expedition to find the headwaters of the Missouri River. Six months later, William Baldwin died at Franklin, Missouri, at the age of 40 and was buried on the banks of the Missouri River. Today we know about William mostly from his dear friend, the botanist William Darlington, who wrote his biography. The two men became close after William nursed Darlington back to health after an illness when the two were young men. Darlington reflected on William's death decades later when he wrote these words: His gentle spirit forsook its frail tenement, in a region far remote from his anxious family, - and the wildflowers of the West, for more than twenty years, have been blooming on his lonely grave: But the recollection of his virtues continues to be fondly cherished by every surviving friend, - and his ardor in the pursuit of his favorite Science will render his memory forever dear to the true lovers of American Botany. William Darlington learned from a colleague that floodwaters had washed away William Baldwin's grave the following year. Baldwin's milkwort (Polygala balduinii "puh-LIG-ah-lah bal-DEE-nee-eye") was named in honor of William Baldwin. Baldwin's milkwort is one of only a handful of white milkworts found in Florida. 1913 Birth of Ronald Stuart Thomas (published as R. S. Thomas), Welsh poet and Anglican priest. Here's an excerpt of his poem The Garden (1963). It is a gesture against the wild, The ungovernable sea of grass; A place to remember love in, To be lonely for a while; 1969 On this day, work was finished on a kimono-inspired garden in Japan called Yûrin no Niwa ("Yer-EEN no nee-wah") in Kyoto. The garden was initially designed to accompany the building for the Association of Kimono Manufacturers. The famous garden designer Mirei Shigemori ("Me-ray Shig-ah-mor-ee") designed the garden, which was celebrated in a ceremony the day after work was completed. But thirty years later, the area was redeveloped, and the building was set to be demolished. Iwamoto Toshio ("E-wah-mo-to To-see-oh") was a student of Shigemori's, and he decided to rescue the garden so that it could be relocated to a new home. When Shigemori's hometown built a new town hall, the garden found its new home. And so, over 80 truckloads of rock and stone were painstakingly brought to the new site, where they were reassembled to make the second incarnation of the Yûrin no Niwa garden. This second garden ended up being just a bit larger. The garden features a shallow kimono-shaped pond, and the water brings out the colors of the red and blue stones that make the strips of the noshi bundle on the kimono. The garden's name was a blending of the two names - the name of the man who developed the silk-dying process for the kimonos and the name of the painter who inspired the kimono designs: Yûrin no Niwa. 2021 On this day, as Brits were enjoying the end of their COVID lockdown, Out and Out shared an article called, five things to do to get your garden ready for March 29th. The tips included: 1. Smarten up your lawn There is something so appealing about a lush, vibrant green lawn, so make this your first job. Give your lawn a good raking to get rid of any fallen debris and shake over some grass seed if you notice any patchy areas. 2. Wash away winter ...get everything scrubbed up nicely – you don't want to take the shine off your gathering with grubby surroundings. Give your patio and decking areas a good going over with a jet wash and blast away winter's deposits. 3. Organize your seating Place garden dining furniture in a large enough area that there's space to walk all the way around and for guests to comfortably get in and out. If you have a garden lounge set or garden sofas, lay them out so you can comfortably converse with guests while enjoying the satisfying garden views. 4. Spring planting If you didn't get round to planting spring bulbs last year, you can always add instant colour by picking up some established plants at the garden centre. Shrubs such as Camellia, Japanese quince and Forsythia also look their best during the spring months. Pop some into borders and create container displays for the patio to give your garden an instant lift. 5. Finishing touches For alfresco dining, set the table with colorful crockery and beakers which will take you through to BBQ season too. For sunny weather, invest in a parasol, and for cooler days and evenings patio heaters and some chunky throws will be very welcome additions. Don't forget solar lights either, to keep the conversation going after nightfall. Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation Homegrown Tea by Cassie Liversidge This book came out in 2014, and the subtitle is An Illustrated Guide to Planting, Harvesting, and Blending Teas and Tisanes. I have been waiting to share this book with you. Now, if you don't know what a Tisane is, it's an infusion: take dried or fresh herbs and infuse them into liquids, and then you have a beverage that you can drink just to enjoy or get some medicinal benefit from it. A sample Tisane might be made with Juniper berries or white peppercorns with grapefruit and orange peels. That's a great little drink. Juniper is outstanding and is a common ingredient in a Tisane. Now, one of the things that I want to say about Cassie's book right off the bat is that it's stunning. This is a St. Martin's Griffin book. There are so many beautiful photos. I love illustrated guides because they are so helpful. Sometimes, when you're exploring a new topic or venturing into a new area of gardening, you need lots of photos to find your way and serve as inspiration for you. Now Cassie is a huge tea fan, and she sees the garden through the lens of tea. When Cassie sees a garden, she sees a living tea cupboard because there are all kinds of plant materials that you can harvest to make your own teas and tisanes. As Cassie says in her introduction, Homegrown Tea is a gardening book for tea lovers. It explains how to grow a large variety of plants from which you can make your own teas and tisanes. your garden, your balcony, or even your window sill could become your tea cupboard. Now, one of the other things that I love about how Cassie approaches this is, she also shares some of the history of tea and how some of these ingredients have been used over the years. Her sample drinks include plants like rose hips, mint, sage hibiscus, and lavender and plants like chicory or angelica, apple geranium, and lemon verbena. One other thing that I want to tell you about Cassie is that she's a garden girl. She grew up in her parents' plant nursery, so she knows about plants - they're in her DNA. And that's why Cassie is so thoughtful and so knowledgeable about plants in the garden and how you can incorporate them into teas. And by the way, her debut book was called Grow Your Own Pasta Sauce, and that book is excellent as well. But if you are a tea lover, you've got to get this book. And if you have a friend that loves tea, this would make an excellent gift or even just a wonderful hostess gift. It would be great to give this book to a summer party hostess and a few teabags of your own concoctions. This book is 288 pages of tea in all its glory and fresh from your garden. You can get a copy of Homegrown Tea by Cassie Liversidge and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for around $16. Botanic Spark 1942 On this day, a twenty-six-year-old ethnobotanist named Richard Evans Schultes arrived at the Kofán village of El Conejo, where a shaman welcomed him. Richard had just finished his Ph.D. at Harvard, and his mission was to find indigenous arrow poisons used in the Amazon rainforest. The goal was to see if the poisons could be used as muscle relaxants in surgical procedures. The trip set Richard down a path of meeting with shamans and discovering the plants they used medicinally and in their holy traditions. Richard gleaned so much on this trip. He learned about special leaves that were heated with smoke and then laid on the forehead to relieve headaches; orchid bulbs that were chewed for energy on long trips; shamrock leaves that were gargled for throat pain; pepper plant poultices applied to insect bites; the leaves of a white orchid that could be packed around a sore tooth or eaten mashed with sugar to heal a broken heart. The list goes on and on. Overall, Richard's trip was a success. It seemed charmed from the start. On his first day in Bogata, Richard discovered a new orchid. He pressed it in between the pages of his passport. It was later named Pacyphyllum schultesii in his honor. Richard later reflected on the opportunity and wrote, I had just earned my Ph.D. at Harvard, and I had been offered two jobs. One was as a biology master at a private school in New England; the other was a ten-month grant... to go to the Amazon region to identify the plants employed in the many kinds of curare the Indians use for hunting. I decided on the Amazon—which is fortunate because otherwise, I would probably still be a biology [teacher]! Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.
Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1895 Birth of Spencer Woolley Kimball, American business, civic, and religious leader. He was the twelfth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). He was also a gardener and wrote, Where you have a plot of land, however small, plant a garden. Staying close to the soil is good for the soul. 1906 Birth of Jean Galbraith, Australian botanist, gardener, writer, and poet. Jean is remembered for her books on Australian botany including three editions of the seminal Wildflowers of Victoria (1950), Collins Field Guide to the Wild Flowers of Southeast Australia, and a children's book Grandma Honeypot (1964). Her charming book, Garden in a Valley (1939), became an instant garden classic when it was republished in 1985. Born in Tyers (a little town in Gippsland, Australia), Jean spent almost eighty years in her family home called Dunedin ("Do-NEE-din"). At Dunedin, Jean maintained an enormous garden, which became a draw for visitors from all over Australia and the world. The artist, Peter Cuffley, painted a fabulous representation of Dunedin. It's one of the most iconic garden art pieces of the past century. Jean learned botany through letters she exchanged with the botanist Herbert B. Williamson during the 1920s. When Jean turned 21, Herbert sent her a microscope and it became one of her most treasured possessions. As a writer, Jean had a distinctive style and voice. Her writing was more akin to John Muir's than the stiff formal writing of her scientific peers. For 50 years she delighted the readers of the two magazines she regularly wrote for: The Garden Lover and the Victorian Naturalist. As a person, Jean lived an incredibly simple life. She did not have a car, tv, or phone and wrote her books longhand. By all accounts, she was one of the kindest souls to have ever walked the earth. She wanted children to know and love nature. She was an advocate for plant preservation - especially wildflowers in their native habitats. Jean believed in the spiritual and healing aspects of gardening. She believed that the garden was a metaphor for life and for living. In 1970, Jean was awarded the Australian Natural History Medallion. Jean died in 1999, just before her 93rd birthday. Jean once wrote that she knew the stories of every plant in her garden, There is no flower in the garden that has not its remembered history. And Jean loved her garden, despite its faults. It is not a model garden, rarely, alas, is it even orderly. (But) in spite of its failures and mistakes and imperfections, its airs are sweet, its flowers love to bloom, and we are happy in it. 1928 On this day, Margarita Grace Phipps, wife of John S. Phipps (an heir to the Phipps family fortune), hosted the first meeting of The Garden Club of Palm Beach at her home, Casa Bendita. Fifteen women attended the event. Mrs. Frederick E. Guest is credited with having the original idea for the club Today Casa Bendita's remaining six-acre garden has evolved into Casa Phippsberger, the island's most sensational private botanical garden. And, The Garden Club of Palm Beach continues to grow. One of the ways the club stays relevant is to have a member attend every single town meeting to make sure the club can take advantage of opportunities to help the community. In 2010, the club installed a beautification and education garden at the Southern Oasis Traffic Circle. The garden features plants that thrive in the Palm Beach climate. That same year, the club installed xeriscape landscaping in eight Kaleidoscope Flower Beds on Royal Poinciana Way. In 2011, the club created a vertical garden on the Saks Fifth Avenue store. Called the Living Wall, the project has become an iconic element of the Worth Avenue Restoration Project. In 2021, the club created the four-acre Bradley Park Tidal Garden. When the club began work on a children's playground in Bradley Park, members realized that frequent flooding from king tides needed to be addressed in the plans. The solution was the creation of a tidal garden. King tides are bigger than normal tides and they can cause an enormous amount of damage to the Landscapeape. The new tidal garden was designed by SMI Landscape Architecture LLC, to withstand king tides by incorporating sunken gardens with channels that send water back where it belongs. The majority of the garden is designed with native plants and natural elements like climbable cap-stone boulders. The next project will be the restoration of the Chinese Garden at The Society of The Four Arts where the demonstration gardens are maintained by the Palm Beach Garden Club. The seven demonstration gardens illustrate different themed garden spaces and include the Chinese Garden, the Fragrant Moonlight Garden, the Palm Garden, the Bromeliad Garden, the Jungle Garden, the Spanish Facade Garden, the Formal Garden, the Tropical Garden, and the Madonna Garden. Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation Aquascaping by George Farmer This book came out in 2020, and the subtitle is Simple Ideas For Small Outdoor Spaces. You can get a copy of Aquascaping by George Farmer and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes. Botanic Spark 1961 On this day, the American poet Sylvia Plath wrote a poem called I Am Vertical. Here's the first verse: I Am Vertical But I would rather be horizontal. I am not a tree with my root in the soil Sucking up minerals and motherly love So that each March I may gleam into leaf, Nor am I the beauty of a garden bed Attracting my share of Ahs and spectacularly painted, Unknowing I must soon unpetal. Compared with me, a tree is immortal And a flower-head not tall, but more startling, And I want the one's longevity and the other's daring. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.
Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events Lady Day March 25 is also known as Lady Day, the traditional name of the Feast of the Annunciation, which commemorates the visit of the archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary. During this visit, Gabriel told Mary that she would be the mother of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Lady Day is also the first of the four traditional English quarter days. The Marigold is the flower dedicated to Mary on Lady Day. The etymology of the common name Marigold comes from Mary (probably referring to the Virgin Mary) + gold, thus Mary's gold. Mary's gold was also a common name used for a similar plant native to Europe, Calendula officinalis. Both Marigold flowers and leaves are edible, and Marigolds are commonly used as culinary herbs. In terms of medicinal uses, Marigold is good for the skin and has been used for topical healing to address cuts, soars, and general skincare. Marigolds have essential oils and a high concentration of flavonoids like carotene. In Floriography or the language of flowers, Marigolds represent the sun and therefore refer to the power, strength, and light inside each of us. Marigolds also represent lost love. So if someone's inner strength has been damaged by the loss of a loved one, whether by death or a breakup, the Marigold represents that despaired or lost love. 1641 Birth of Nehemiah Grew, English botanist. He's remembered as the Father of Plant Anatomy. Nehemiah was the first person to illustrate plants' inner structures and functions in all their unique intricacies. His 1682 book, Anatomy of Plants, was divided into four topics: Anatomy of Vegetables Begun, Anatomy of Roots, Anatomy of Trunks, and Anatomy of Leaves, Flowers, Fruits, and Seeds. Nehemiah used a relatively new invention to help his study of plant morphology: the microscope. He tried to recreate what he saw through the lens when he drew. Nehemiah's drawings of tree parts cut transversely look like intricate laser cuts - imagine a mandala - and the lines are impossibly thin. Nehemiah examined all kinds of natural elements under the microscope, and he wrote the first known microscopic description of pollen. If you'd like to try something fun this summer, channel your inner Nehemiah Grew, get a microscope on Amazon or at a thrift store, and check out your own plant specimens under the microscope. 1890 On this day, the naturalist João Barbosa Rodrigues established the Herbarium at the Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro. The Herbarium was Rodrigues's first step toward expanding the scope of the garden to include education. Today, the Herbarium has over 750,000 mounted specimens of Brazilian flora, and most of the collection is from the Atlantic and Amazon forests. The botanic garden sits on 350-acres and features over 7,000 species of tropical plants. One of the most unique elements of the garden is the avenues of 100-foot-tall avenues of royal palms. 2021 On this day, the Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip garden in Kashmir opened to the public. The most extensive tulip garden in Asia, the garden was formerly known as the Model Floriculture Center and covers 74 acres. The government owns the garden. The garden was initially created in 2007 with 1.5 million tulip bulbs from Amsterdam's famous Keukenhof tulip gardens. Other spring-flowering bulbs like daffodils, hyacinth, and ranunculus have since been added to the 65 different varieties of tulips now growing in Kashmir. This year the Kashmir Tulip Garden Festival runs from April 1 through the 20th. Every year, the tulip garden is opened to the public during the month of March when the tulips start to bloom - a fantastic sight to see. Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation The Violets of March Sarah Jio This book came out in 2011, and this book is a fiction book. The book is about a heartbroken woman who stumbles on a diary and then steps into the life of its anonymous author. The main character is named Emily Wilson. She has a bestselling novel and a GQ husband, and a one-way ticket to happily ever after. But ten years later, Emily's life has changed. Her Great Aunt Bee invites her to spend the month of March on Bainbridge Island in Washington State. When she's researching her next book, she stumbles on a red velvet diary dated 1943. And then, the contents of the journal have massive implications for her own life. Now I love what Jodi Picoult said about The Violets of March. She wrote Mix a love story history and a mystery and what takes root. The Violets of March is a novel that reminds us how the past comes back to haunt us and packs great surprises along the way. Now, if you're a gardener, you're going to love the cover of this book because it's an old chair with the diary that's open and then a violet cutting on top of the pages. It's gorgeous. So if you're looking for a bit of fiction book to tide you over through the spring, please consider The Violets of March by Sarah Jio. This book is 296 pages of intrigue, incredible settings, as well as history, and mystery. You can get a copy of The Violets of March Sarah Jio and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for $1. Botanic Spark 2020 On this day, Jim Salyards, Director of Horticulture, Filoli Center, documented the spring displays in an article called Essential Gardening: Public Gardens in the Spring of COVID-19, published in Arnoldia, a publication of the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. The Filoli garden is located at a grand country estate built in 1917 for the William Bourn family. Bourn devised the name Filoli from his personal motto. Fi from fighting for a just cause, Lo from loving your fellow man, and Li from to live a good life. There's a good chance that Filoli is a place you may be familiar with - especially if you were a fan of the 1980s hit tv show Dynasty because Filoli's house was the Carrington house. Every year, 100,000 visitors stop by the home and gardens. It is nestled in the foothills of the Santa Cruz mountains just south of San Francisco. The 16-acre formal English garden at Filoli is in USDA zone 7, which allows Filoli to grow beautiful spring bulbs and draws many visitors since spring bulbs generally can't grow in the native California climate. But on this day in 2020, at the beginning phase of the pandemic, the garden had no visitors. Here's some of what Jim wrote, On March 25, I was in the Sunken Garden, snapping a social media photo of yellow 'West Point' tulips that were blooming within the low, clipped hedges of the parterres. Filoli has blooms 365 days a year because of the moderate climate along the coast of northern California. Locals and visitors from around the globe are captivated by the spring experience of seeing daffodils and tulips in our meadows and formal beds. Wisteria clambers on the side of the mansion, and peonies are showstopping. But this year, our spring peak of mid-March to mid-April was completely missed. All the planting and tending on the part of the staff, all the expectant calls and emails that started at the beginning of the year asking the best time to visit were for naught. I did my best to share photos and videos through our social media outlets, but it's just not the same. A few thumbs-up or heart emojis are a poor substitution for the "oohs" and "aahs" and the thank-yous we receive from guests each day—the guests who call out compliments while we are weeding and pruning or who pass along the praise to our colleagues in visitor services and interpretation. Public gardens like Filoli are champions of environmental education and conservation, yes, but we also provide substance for people's souls. Hopefully, in the near future, the garden will once again become a space of healing, just when the world needs us most. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.
Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1682 Baptism of Mark Catesby, English naturalist, adventurer, explorer, and artist. Mark made two trips to the new world when America was still a British colony. On his second trip, he explored the lower southeastern corner of the United States. After returning to England, he published his masterpiece, the very first account of flora and fauna of North America, in two large folios called The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands. Mark provided the text and the outstanding illustrations. He also offered an overview of the climate, soil, water, and any crops that were grown. Mark was a superb nature artist. He depicted birds and plants together, something only a handful of artists did at the time. Maria Sybilla Merian did that, and like Maria, once you've seen Mark's work, you never forget it. Mark also painted living subjects, which made his depictions more lifelike. Mark's botanical illustrations showed both the fruit and the flower of a plant in a single image. And when you consider the fact that Mark paired his art with the text in two languages - English and French - to market this content to his audience, Mark Catesby's genius and dedication really become apparent. In Mark's book, the first plant he dedicated an entire page to was the Magnolia, and he also included a full page of text. Magnolias are one of the planet's earliest flowering plants, and as such, they existed before bees. Now for gardeners, this is an important clue about how Magnolias reproduce, which explains why magnolias rely on beetle pollination. Magnolia blossoms do not produce nectar. Instead, they produce pollen, and that pollen is food for the beetles. In terms of uses, in Chinese medicine, the bark of the Magnolia has been used to treat respiratory illness and anxiety. 1733 Birth of Joseph Priestley FRS, English chemist, polymath, author, and minister. Joseph conducted many experiments while he tutored the sons of American sympathizer William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne, at Bowood House in Wiltshire, England. In one of his experiments, he put a mouse and a mint plant in a bell jar. Without the mint, the mouse died, but the mouse survived with a plant inside the jar. This laid the foundation for the study of ecosystems. Joseph also wrote the first comprehensive study of the history of electricity, invented carbonated water, created the first timeline, and discovered laughing gas. He also revealed a practical use for vegetable gum: it could remove pencil marks from paper, becoming known as the eraser. 1834 Birth of William Morris, British textile designer, poet, writer, and socialist activist. Born in 1834 to a wealthy family, William was the leading figure in the Arts and Crafts Movement. As a designer, William Morris remains widespread, and his designs are based on nature. Trees and plants figure prominently in his designs and patterns. Many of his designs feature the flowers that bloomed in his own garden, and among his favorites were honeysuckle, rose, acanthus, tulips, and chrysanthemums. Although he was not a fan of geraniums and once wrote, Red geraniums were invented to show that even a flower could be hideous. The first Morris wallpaper was 'Trellis' (1862) and was based on a rose trellis in his garden in Kent. William found inspiration in England's gardens and countryside. His most iconic designs include Larkspur (1872), Jasmine (1872), Willow (1874), Marigold (1875), Wreath (1876), and Chrysanthemum (1887). And William's poems are clever and offer a glimpse of his personality. In 1888, William created his design for 'Autumn Leaves' 1888 and a seasonal poem 'Autumn': 'Laden Autumn here I stand Worn of heart, and weak of hand: Nought but rest seems good to me, Speak the word that sets me free' In 1890, William designed his first tapestry, which depicts four medical women holding a banner with the words of an original poem by morris. The poem celebrates the orchard in every season, from the bounty of the harvest to the promise of spring. Midst bitten mead and acre shorn, The world without is waste and worn, But here within our orchard-close, The guerdon of its labour shows. O valiant Earth, O happy year That mocks the threat of winter near, And hangs aloft from tree to tree The banners of the Spring to be. Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation Reflections of Paradise by Gordon Taylor This book came out in 2020, and the subtitle is The Gardens of Fernando Caruncho. Every time I think about this particular book, I regret the fact that it was released during the pandemic, as I believe it would've gotten so much more attention had it been released just a year earlier, in September of 2019. But that said, people, are still discovering the magnificent gardens created by Fernando Caruncho. Fernando is a Spanish landscape designer, and he has been designing gardens for over four decades. His gardens are all over the world, and they include elements from zen gardens, Islamic gardens, and classical European gardens. Fernando is very sensitive to scale in gardens, the amount of light in a garden, and how light can impact garden design. He's also a massive fan of using local materials- not shipping in a bunch of different stone and elements from far-flung places around the globe. Fernando is all about looking to the region, to the location to determine what beautiful elements should be incorporated into his garden. In this book, Reflections of Paradise, Gordon Taylor is profiling 26 Fernando Caruncho projects, and these gardens run the gamut from largest states to private little spaces. You will see an incredible vineyard in Italy. You'll see a private garden in France. There's a magnificent estate in New Jersey. That's how it is with Fernando Caruncho because once you know about him and once you've seen some of his gardens, he is just going to pop up everywhere in your life. In any case, this book features unique environments that are landscape-focused that are designed to perfection, and that are unmistakably Fernando Caruncho's creations. This bookcase is 304 pages of 26 Incredible gardens designed by Fernando Caruncho. (And the cover is extraordinary too, I might add.) You can get a copy of Reflections of Paradise by Gordon Taylor and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for around $29. Botanic Spark 1993 On this day, 2.4 acres of the Krider Display garden were donated to the town of Middlebury, Indiana. The garden was formally dedicated two years later and is formally known as Krider Nurseries World's Fair Garden, a garden park. Kreider Nurseries' origins date back to 1896, when Vernon Krider supplemented his teaching income by planting berries on thirty acres of land. A decade later, he quit his teaching job to start his nursery. The nursery had grown to over 500 acres when the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago looked for a nursery to set up display gardens. Vernon signed onto the project but had no way of knowing how the World's Fair would change his business. Kreider gardens set up many different display gardens at the fair in the horticulture building. The gardens represented gardens worldwide; there was a Japanese garden, a Dutch garden with a windmill, etc. The gardens got a lot of attention, and visitors happily shared their contact information to receive the Kreider nursery catalog. Vernon had over 370,000 names and addresses for his catalog by the end of the expo. The old saying "the money is in the list" proved true for Krider Nurseries, and they became the largest mail-order nursery business in the U.S almost overnight. Soon, there were many mail-order requests that the Middlebury post office had to be redesigned to handle the volume. At one point, Kreider Nurseries was the largest employer in Middlebury. In 1946, in an attempt to keep growing, Kreider Nurseries spent $11,000 on a patent for a thornless rose dubbed "Festival." It was the most amount of money ever paid by a single nursery for a patent - and they had to learn to cultivate it all on their own. Another Kreider claim to fame was that the nursery provided all the roses for Tricia Nixon's wedding. Despite their successes, Kreider's business declined in the 1980s. By 1990, Kreider Nursery closed for good - almost 100 years after Vernon's humble start. Today the Kreider Nursery legacy is the Kreider Garden - lovingly restored and maintained by the Middlebury community since 1995. The garden pays homage to the display that Krider Nurseries created for the Chicago World's Fair - complete with the original Dutch windmill and the giant toadstool sculptures that were a hit with the crowds back in 1933-1934, as well as new elements like the ever-changing Quilt Garden, is one of several Quilt Gardens in Northern Indiana Amish Country. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.
Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Historical Events 1699 Birth of John Bartram, American botanist, and explorer. John founded the first botanical garden in America, and Linnaeus called him the "greatest natural botanist in the world." Like many botanists of his time, John was born to a farming Quaker family in Pennsylvania. He never forgot his rural roots, and he always thought of himself as a farmer first. When asked to describe how he ended up in botany, he wrote, One day, I was very busy [plowing]… and being weary I ran under a tree to repose myself. I cast my eyes on a daisy; I plucked it mechanically and viewed it with more curiosity than common country farmers are wont to do, and observed ... many distinct parts, some perpendicular, some horizontal. ...I thought about it continually, at supper, in bed, and wherever I went.... On the fourth day I hired a man to plow for me and went to Philadelphia. [I bought] a Latin grammar [and] ...applied to a neighboring schoolmaster, who in three months taught me Latin enough to understand Linnaeus... Then I began to botanize all over my farm. 1907 On this day, a school garden for boys only was started at a school in Rhode Island. A summary report was published with the State Board of Education. Here's what the report said, On March 26th, all the boys wrote for catalogs, some sending several letters or cards. It proved a valuable letter lesson in letter-writing and geography as they looked at the places they had sent the letters and inquired about distances, railroads, and mail trains. More than fifty attractive catalogs were received. Tomatoes, lettuce, and radishes were planted in boxes ready for early transplanting. The seeds were obtained through a member of Congress, and despite all the rumors regarding the poor quality of government seed, [they] proved excellent. Two boys found an old sink in a dump. This was sunk in the middle of the West yard, partly filled with cement and now used as a birdbath. Each boy chose several vegetables from a list of corn, squash, onions, carrots, beans, beets, lettuce, radishes, pumpkins, potatoes, peas, and parsnips. The corn and a row of sunflowers were planted next to the fence; the other vegetables [were planted] according to height, living lettuce, and radishes in the front. Difficulties: There have been many difficulties in the way. Most of the work has been done outside of school hours, at noon when some of the boys have to hurry home or at night when they carry papers. Most discouraging of all, vegetables have been stolen and Gardens trampton almost nightly. Effect: But the effect of the garden work on the boys has been excellent. First of all it's giving them an outside interest. They have learned courtesy and generosity and showing visitors the garden and giving away their vegetables. Toads which we have raised from eggs are to be put in the garden when school closes. There has been less time for running about the streets and cigarette smoking. Since the gardens were started, there's only been one case of truancy and very little absence. Ten or fifteen minutes hard work during the school hours has often served to bring a cross, restless boy back to quiet and pleasant. Of the 23 boys, 18 have made gardens at home and most of them are doing well. A copy of one boy's notebook will give an idea of the garden from the boy's standpoint. March 25: Began to pick rocks. Got a backache. Wrote for catalogs. March 26: Laid out 23 beds - [each] 6 by 14 ft March 27: Planted radishes, lettuce, tomatoes in boxes. Miss Allen paid $0.25 for loam. May 1: Put down sink for Birds bath. May 3rd: Planted pumpkins, potatoes, beans, beets, lettuce, radishes. May 15, 16, 17: Cleaned up West yard. Got loam. Planted shrubs and trees. Planted marigolds, candytuft and poppies, Boston Ivy, cornus, weigelia, lilac, crab. It looks slick. May 20th: These seeds are up in my bed: radish, lettuce, beans. May 21: brought Bush to school. Went to Arlington for ferns. Pumpkins up. Put violets beside Birds tub. June 12th: Brought home 10 radishes. They were good ones. Saw a jay in our bath and a chipping sparrow. June 17: Mr Randall out. Hoeing. A lot of teachers came. Took home lettuce June 18: Sent radishes to Mr. Small. A man and lady came to see if we will get a prize. June 19: Everything in my garden is growing fine. It's a good thing. We have spent $11.45. 1913 Birth of James C. Rose, American landscape architect, and author. A high school dropout, James was expelled from Harvard University as a landscape architecture major because they disapproved of his design style. James fulfilled a lifelong dream despite his personal struggles with educational institutions when he created The James Rose Center for design study and landscape research. In From Creative Gardens (1958), James wrote, A garden is an experience. It is not flowers or plants of any kind. It is not flagstone, brick, grass, or pebbles. It is not a barbeque or a fiberglass screen. It is an experience. If it were possible to distill the essence of a garden, I think it would be the sense of being within something while still out of doors. That is the substance of it; for until you have that, you do not have a garden at all. 1923 Birth of Norman Thelwell, English cartoonist. He is remembered for his humorous drawings of ponies and horses. In his book, From a Plank Bridge by a Pool (1978), he wrote, When I look at the tree in the dark days of winter, its huge green-black skeleton silhouetted against the ashen sky, or hear its tracery seething in a westerly gale as I lie snug and warm in bed, I wonder who it was planted this giant for so many generations to enjoy. And in the balmy days of summer when its leaves are overlaid like the breast feathers of a great bird to form high domes of rounded foliage, I wish I could call back this gentle spirit of the past and say, "This is your tree. Look at it now, for it is gracious beyond words." Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation The Cook's Herb Garden by Jeff Cox and Marie-Pierre Moine This book came out in 2010, and the subtitle is: grow harvest cook. As someone who loves to grow herbs, this is one of my favorite books on herbs because it features beautiful photography of over 120 culinary herbs. Then, Jeff and Marie-Pierre offer more than 30 delicious, practical recipes that show you what you can do with your herbs - everything from making your own salad dressings and marinades to flavored butter, pestos, herbal teas, and cordials; in addition to seasoning your favorite meals. And I love what Jeff writes. He says, I always think of culinary herbs as the champions of the kitchen garden. And he reminds us that their volatile oils serve a purpose: they were the compounds that plants used to defend themselves from insects and fungi. As for Marie, she says that, As a cook herbs are my best friends. Just a handful brightens up the concoctions that I make in my kitchen. And she also reminds us that when space is at a premium, herbs should be a priority. So whether you're going to store some ginger root in the freezer, or a roll of herb butter or even just a little cilantro ice cube. They are all well-worth their shelf space. This book is 192 pages of fantastic herbs -and the photography is top-notch. This is a DK book - and it looks like it. You can get a copy of The Cook's Herb Garden by Jeff Cox and Marie-Pierre Moine and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for around $4. Botanic Spark 2011 Death of Elizabeth Taylor, British-American actress. She was the highest-paid movie star in the 1960s. She won two academy awards - for BUtterfield 8 (1960) and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) In 1999, she was named the seventh-greatest female screen legend of Classic Hollywood cinema by the American Film Institute. Elizabeth was an early AIDS activist, and she founded the National AIDS Research Foundation. In 1990, she championed Ryan White Care Act to stop discrimination against people with H.I.V. One of her tactics was to send lavender-scented notes to senators and congressmen that simply read, "I think you should see this," along with detailed information about H.I.V. Elizabeth's Bel Air home garden was located behind the swimming pool. A private tropical paradise, the garden featured her favorite flowers - gardenias and lilies of the valley - along with birds of paradise. Tucked beneath lush palms and bamboo, a small greenhouse held her collection of orchids. In 2004, Elizabeth's mobility declined, and she stopped walking through her beloved garden. In 1987, Elizabeth was one of the first celebrities to launch a signature fragrance: White Diamonds. Her garden served as the muse for her fragrance. The White Diamonds scent is made up of Italian neroli, Egyptian tuberose, narcissus, and Turkish rose. It has generated more than $1.5 billion in sales, and Revlon reports that four bottles of the scent are sold per minute in the United States, and a bottle is sold every 15 seconds worldwide. Elizabeth died at 79 from congestive heart failure. She left instructions that her funeral service started 15 minutes late as she wanted to be late for her own funeral. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.
March 22, 2022 St. Catherine, Thomas Carew, New York Horticultural Society, Christine Johanna Buisman, The Earth in Her Hands by Jennifer Jewell, and John Banister Tabb
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
