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
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:
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 Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org 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 binoculars bring the birds practically into my lap. The perky little Sparrow with the black dot on his fluffy breast is a Tree Sparrow, and the one with no dot is a Field Sparrow. I often mix these up. The lady Junko has touches of brown. The male is charming with his slate gray head and back and creamy undersides. The Nuthatch is another winner. He creeps cheerfully down the maple trunk headfirst. Sometimes his world is upside down, sometimes right side up. He views it with equanimity either way. With a long bill, he reaches out, quickly snatches a seed, and flies off. The markings of the Nuthatch are the essence of winter. His blues and greys are the mist that drift over the meadow and brush against Pop's Mountain at dusk. The golden tans on his underside are wisps of dried grass in the meadow, Beech leaves in the woods with sun shining on them, or last year's Oak leaves that still cling. — Jean Hersey, American writer and authors, The Shape of a Year, February Grow That Garden Library Everlastings by Bex Partridge This book came out in 2020, and the subtitle is How to Grow, Harvest, and Create with Dried Flowers. In this book, we learn so much about dried flowers from the floral artist Bex Partridge - the owner of Botanical Tales. A specialist in working with dried flowers - known as everlasting flowers - Bex inspires us to grow, harvest, and create with dried flowers. Sharing her own wisdom from working with everlastings, Bex shares her tips for incorporating dried flowers into your garden planning and home decor. Bex loves dried flowers, and she fervently believes that something magical happens to flowers when they're dried. Although their vibrancy may be slightly dulled by drying, Bex feels that ultimately drying magnifies the bloom's beauty. One tip that I learned from Bex is to target plants with woody stems because those plants tend to dry beautifully. This book is 160 pages of Everlastings - preserved flowers, preserved memories, and magnified ethereal beauty that is everlasting. You can get a copy of Everlastings by Bex Partridge and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $13 Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart February 25, 1989 It was on this day that a newspaper out of Melbourne, Australia called The Age ran a story written by Anna Murdoch about a brand new play called "Edna for the Garden," and it was all about the charismatic Australian gardener, designer, and writer Edna Walling. Here's an excerpt: "The women who created The Home Cooking Theatre Company in Melbourne [the writer, Suzanne Spunner, and director Meredith Rogers] have a [new] production, called 'Edna for the Garden,' the story of Edna Walling, one of Australia's great artists of gardening. Edna Walling, who wrote an enormous amount about her philosophy of gardening and the environment, died in 1973 in her late 70s. [Edna] devoted her passionate life to creating extraordinary gardens, mainly in Victoria, some of which are still beautifully maintained. She spent her childhood in Bickleigh, an old village in Devon, England, and came to Melbourne, aged 18, infused with the intense romanticism of the English countryside where she had watched such subtle beauties as "Wind in the Willows." [Edna's] own photographs were almost always of pathways... "She liked the idea of different areas in a garden so that you couldn't take it all in in one view." One of Edna Walling's precepts was to "always sweep up to a house in a curve, never in a straight line." People would say: 'You must have Edna for the garden.' [and that saying inspired the name for the play!] "It's only at the end of her life that you sense disappointment as she saw the sprawls of Melbourne and what was happening with conservation. Edna Walling built her own house at Mooroolbark near Croydon and then bought seven adjoining hectares and created a rural community called Bickleigh Vale, where she designed very English-looking cottages that bore no relationship to the Australian climate and environment. "The people who live there have now formed 'the Friends of Edna Walling' to protect it," Ms. Spunner says. "Some of them knew her. They talk almost as if she is still there, a kind of spirit of the garden." Finally, there was one little story that I discovered about Edna a while ago, and that was her potato-throwing technique. Edna would throw potatoes on the ground, and where they landed would dictate where the significant trees would be planted in her garden designs. Basically, this technique helped ensure a more naturalistic style as Edna was laying out gardens. And even if the potatoes would land almost on top of each other, Edna let the chips - or should I say potato chips - fall where they may. In any case, this is how Edna's gardens end up without a contrived or overly planned feeling; there's a beautiful sense of randomness to Edna's work. And it was Edna Walling who said, "There are many possible approaches to Australian garden design, and they all reflect the designer's individual response to gardens. For my part, I love all the things most gardeners abhor - like moss in lawns, lichen on trees, more greenery than color - as if green isn't a color - bare branches in winter, and root-ridden ground wherein one never attempts to dig, with a natural covering of leaves of grass or of some amenable low-growing plant. I like the whole thing to be as wild as possible so that you have to fight your way through in places." Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."
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:
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 Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org 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 common, and be seen by many people, including non-Hoosiers who are just visiting. Fire Pink certainly is beautiful, but not so beautiful as the Cardinal Flower (also native to the state). And neither Fire Pink nor Cardinal Flower are even remotely as common as are several of the other candidates, especially the native spring beauty. Other Indiana Academy of Science candidates were White Nodding Trillium, Blue Phlox, Bluebell, Butterfly Milkweed, Bloodroot (a spectacularly beautiful flower, but not widely seen), Aster, Wood Poppy, Shooting Star, Wild Columbine, and Yellow Trout Lily." Well, this effort was unsuccessful because today, the Peony remains the State Flower of Indiana. And there are many fun facts about this beautiful plant. In addition to being the Indiana State Flower, Peonies are the flower for China where the peony is called the sho-yu, which translates to "most beautiful." When Marco Polo first spied the Peony, he wrote that the large blooms looked like "Roses as big as cabbages." As a symbol of wealth and a happy marriage, it's fitting that the Peony is the 12th wedding anniversary flower. It's also worth noting that a single peony plant could provide a century's worth of flowers. Impressively, peonies can live to be 100 years old. If you receive a bouquet of Peonies, make sure to keep the vase filled with fresh water. Peonies are thirsty cut flowers. As for Peony plants, make sure to plant them high and have plenty of patience - Peonies can be slow to get growing. If you wondered why grandma had you plant your banana peels under the Peony bushes, it's because Peonies love potassium. Potassium helps Peonies stay healthy and develop stronger stems. And if you want to help your Peony store up more energy for the following year, you can cut off the seed pods after your peony is finished flowering. Now, medicinally, Peonies were thought to help with pain, and they were used to treat everything from headaches to childbirth. And the childbirth connection to the Peony has roots in Greek mythology. The story goes like this: Asclepius was the god of healing and medicine, and he had a student named Paeon who discovered a root that could alleviate labor pain. This discovery brought Paeon notoriety, and Asclepius could not hide his jealousy, and he grew vengeful. Sensing trouble, Zeus stepped in and turned Paeon into a flower - the peony - and thereby saved his life. And to this day, Paeon, through the peony, helps ease the pain of childbirth. Unearthed Words
— The Gardener's Almanac, 1997, February Chores Grow That Garden Library English Gardens by Kathryn Bradley-Hole This book came out in 2019, and the subtitle is From the Archives of Country Life Magazine. In this instant classic, Kathryn shares her masterpiece that revels in the glories of English gardening. The publisher said this of Kathyrn's book, "An unprecedented in-depth look at the English garden by one of Britain's foremost garden writers and authorities… Kathryn Bradley-Hole--the longtime garden columnist for Country Life--takes a fresh look at more than seventy gardens from across England and distills the essence of what makes the English garden style so sought after. Seasonal photographs capture the gardens--some grand, some personal, some celebrated, some rarely photographed--at their finest moments, accompanied by sparkling, insightful text. Featuring photographs from the unparalleled archives of Country Life, the full story of the English garden is here, from medieval monastery gardens to the Victorians and the Arts and Crafts movement to the twenty-first century." And the Wall Street Journal review of this book said, "At a time when the very idea of travel is inconceivable, what a gift to be taken on an armchair tour of the great English gardens." This book is 492 pages of the over seventy spectacular English gardens by one of the best garden writers on the planet. You can get a copy of English Gardens by Kathryn Bradley-Hole and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $44 Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart February 24, 1957 On this day, The Times-Dispatch out of Richmond, Virginia, ran a piece by Pat Perkinson that called on all gardeners to plant the Dogwood (Cornus florida) during the Virginia State Flower Anniversary. "Aside from their significance as the state flower of Virginia, Dogwood trees also are symbolically remindful of the colonists who first found them growing so prolifically here in the 17th century. Not only did they enjoy the bushy trees, but they also put the bark to medicinal use... combatting the effects of malaria. To get an idea of the conditions preferred by Dogwood, we have only to observe the situations in which they grow in nature. As you drive along the highways you will notice that Dogwood flourish in the shade of the taller trees of the forest. Perhaps you would like to situate young trees a short distance from the house where they will be partly shaded and where they may be enjoyed from the windows." And here are some fun Dogwood facts:
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."
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 Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org 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 home laboratory in the back of her house over the kitchen. Agnes worked from home for the rest of her life. A lover of researching whatever captured her curiosity, Agnes allowed her intellect to veer into areas seldom explored by her botanist peers, such as history, philosophy, poetry, and art. Yet, each of these disciplines molded and refined Agnes's perspective on plant morphology, and they put her in a unique position to write her most impactful philosophical works in the twilight of her life. When it came time for Agnes to publish her final work, Cambridge snubbed her again when they declined to publish it. As per usual, Agnes persevered without the University's help. Agnes became interested in botanical history after reading the old herbals. In 1912, Agnes released a book called Herbals: Their Origin and Evolution. Agnes's work reviewed the primary herbals written for a 200 year time period between 1470 and 1670. These beautiful books formed the basis for early botanical education, and, luckily for Agnes, many were housed at Cambridge. In her book, Agnes examined how the plant descriptions and illustrations evolved over time. An instant classic, Agnes forever changed the way herbals were reviewed and written. In her philosophical work, The Mind and the Eye, Agnes argued that there was a blurred line between the science and art of botany. Botanists cannot fully capture a flower through data alone, just as the painter cannot paint all that a flower contributes to nature. Any gardener who sees their garden with their head and their heart can relate to Agnes' philosophy. When she was 67 years old, Agnes became the first female botanist to be elected as a Royal Society Fellow. Two years later, she became the first woman to receive the Linnean Society's Gold Medal for her botanical work. Known by many in her circle as the "Lady of Botany," Agnes wrote, "A record of research should not resemble a casual pile of quarried stone; it should seem "not built, but born," as Vasari said in praise of a building." Today, you can toast Agnes with a gin made in the UK. The gin is made in her honor and it's called Agnes Arber gin. And it's made with nine botanicals, including angelica, cassia, coriander, grapefruit, iris, juniper, lemon, licorice, and orange. And I think Agnes would be especially touched by the beautiful hand-drawn botanical illustrations on the label of every bottle. If ever there was a female botanist that deserved to be toasted, I believe Agnes Arber fits the bill. February 23, 1980 Today is the anniversary of the death of the British botanist and botanical pioneer Marion Delf-Smith. A botanical trailblazer, Marion started the botany program at London's Westfield (a women's college preparatory school) in 1906. To make the program a reality, Marion fundraised relentlessly, and then she bought everything the program needed to teach botany, mount specimens, store collections, and conduct fieldwork. Ultimately Westfield became one of the only places in the world where women could learn how to study botany. And in 1915, almost a decade after starting her degree program, Marion was finally able to award Bachelor's degrees in botany to her students. Sixty-Seven years after starting her botany program, Marion was honored by her students on the occasion of her 90th birthday. Marion died seven years later, on this day in 1980. She was 97 years old. And there's a lovely side note about Marion's botanical career. At one point, Marion served as an editor for a botanical comedy magazine called "The Sportophyte." Marion's poem, "A Botanical Dream," was featured in a volume of The Sportophyte, and I thought I would share some quick definitions to help you appreciate her verse. Gymnosperms produce seed cones like conifers and the Ginko. The Medullosae and Pteridosperms are extinct plants in the seed-fern group. Calamites are extinct swamp plants related to horsetails - except that they could grow as tall as a ten-story building. Cryptogams are plants that reproduce by spores (not flowers or seeds). Sphenophyllum cones would refer to the spore-filled cone of an extinct group of plants that are a sister group to modern horsetails. Finally, Palaeozoic is a reference to a long-ago era. The end of the Paleozoic period marked the most extraordinary extinction event on earth. A Botanical Dream Last night as I lay dreaming There came a dream so fair I stood mid ancient Gymnosperms Beside the Ginkgo rare. I saw the Medullosae With multipartite fronds, And watched the sunset rosy Through Calamites wands. Oh Cryptograms, Pteridosperms And Sphenophyllum cones, Why did ye ever fossilise To Palaeozoic stones? Unearthed Words The most predaceous winter visitor we have had was a mink that took up residence under the woodpile one winter. The end of the pile was only 20 feet or so from the place where the drain pipe struck out of the pond, which tends to be open even when other areas of the pond are frozen. The Mink had found the perfect carryout restaurant right across from his winter Abode. We timed him: 20 seconds from leaving the woodpile to returning with a crayfish. We never saw him return empty-handed. — Jo Busha, Time and the Garden, February Grow That Garden Library English Cottage Gardening by Margaret Hensel This book came out in 2000, and the subtitle is For American Gardeners, Revised Edition. In this book, Margaret shares everything she knows about English Cottage Gardening; and she's as charming as her topic. Margaret breaks down ten cottage gardens owned by everyday gardeners in England and America. By deliberately not focusing on estate gardens, Margaret shows Daily Gardeners how anyone can cultivate the charm of a cottage garden. With inspiring photographs, Margaret focuses on plants that are easy to grow and give the look cottage gardeners love - enchanted shapes and natural forms, gentle colors, and endearing varieties. The last section of the book shares a glossary of 76 plant recommendations, including the Latin and common names, how to use them in the garden, as well as a list of places to find old rose varieties. This book is 256 pages of an English Cottage Garden masterclass taught by a garden designer who loves to teach the most novice gardener to create enchanting gardens and vistas right outside their windows. You can get a copy of English Cottage Gardening by Margaret Hensel and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $10 Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart February 23, 1991 On this day, the Hartford Courant shared an article written by Anne Farrow called Garden of Everlasting Delights. This fantastic article features Gregg Fisk of Gregg Fisk Designs and his incredible dried arrangements and flower drying skills. Gregg's creations are truly a cut above the rest, and his celebrity clients have included Barbara Streisand and Lady Bird Johnson. And a photo of one of his swags highlights outstanding features like small flower pots, hydrangea, globe amaranth, and love-in-a-mist. Now as for Gregg's favorite plants to grow for drying, here's what Gregg suggests: "Some of the basics are globe amaranth, the everlasting signifying immortality; American statice, a ruffle-edged annual that's durable and can be grown in a variety of colors; strawflowers; asters; zinnias; heather' in several different colors; and nigella, a flower with a delicate mauve seed head and a beautiful name: love-in-a-mist. The current crop of books on growing flowers for drying also recommends hosta, the ubiquitous of shade-garden perennials; poppies, which have a globe-shaped seed case that dries easily, astilbe, ivy, baby's breath and the evocatively named money plant, which has a silvery, translucent seed case. Another must-have for the home gardener is the rose. [Gregg] recommends planting a climbing rose, sometimes called the faerie rose… [which adds] a finished, old-fashioned appearance to dried arrangements. From the herb family, [Gregg] chooses rosemary, which has a dark, blue-green needle and a wonderfully piney perfume; bay, for its fragrance; and both Silver King and Silver Queen artemisia. The artemisias, which really are silver-colored, look handsome and puffy in the garden and in dried arrangements. The bright golden florets of yarrow, a perennial grown in the earliest New World gardens, is another of the herbs he always chooses, as are the low-growing lamb's ear, which has a velvety, gray-green leaf that is soft even when dried. Often shown in herb kits for children because it is so touchable, lamb's ears are particularly pretty in wreaths with a lot of pink flowers or placed in a bowl of homemade potpourri. White lilacs can [hang-dry] easily and turn a pearlescent cream color. Hydrangeas, too, can be hang-dried and then dyed in a variety of shades. Asters, a garden classic, dry beautifully in beach sand. Experimentation teaches you a lot, [and Gregg] has found an ally in… the microwave oven. Though the procedure for drying flowers in the "mike" is more complicated than simple hang-drying methods, the results, particularly with… peonies, daffodils, marigolds, and roses, justify the effort required. The special advantage of microwave flower drying is that the delicate natural color of the bloom is preserved because the drying time is a fraction of traditional methods." Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."
Full show notes at the publisherToday 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:
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 Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org 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 remarkable deodorizing power." Lab experiments around the same time vindicated his observations: Sphagnum moss can hold up to 22 times its own weight in liquid, making it twice as absorbent as cotton." In response to Charles' advice, communities organized moss drives. A December 19, 1916 article from the Caspar Star-Tribune out of Caspar Wyoming was simply titled: Gather Moss For War Bandages. It read, "Thousands of women and children, unable to perform other war works, are daily combing the misty hills of Scotland and the Irish west coast for moss for absorbent dressings. Recently they filled an order for 20,000 bandages. The moss is wrapped in cotton gauze and applied to open wounds." Unearthed Words When the six-year-old Dorothy L. Sayers moved to her new home at Bluntisham rectory in the Fens in January 1897: As the fly turned into the drive, she cried out with astonishment, "Look, Auntie, look! The ground is all yellow, like the sun." This sudden splash of gold remained in her memory all her life. The ground was carpeted with early flowering aconites. Later, her father told her the legend that these flowers grew in England only where Roman soldiers have shed their blood, and Bluntisham contained the outworks of a Roman camp. So as early as this, and as young as she was, her imagination was caught by ancient Rome. — Roy Vickery, author and Curator of Flowering Plants at the London Natural History Museum, A Dictionary of Plant Lore, Winter Aconite (Eranthis hyemalis "YER-anth-iss hy-uh-MAY-lis") Grow That Garden Library Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine by Andrew Chevallier This book came out in 2016, and the subtitle is 550 Herbs and Remedies for Common Ailments. In this book, you really get one of the remarkable reference books of herbal remedies. The format is exact, and the information is reliable. If your looking to learn about the herbs that can help promote health and well-being, you have found a terrific resource. The instructions in this large volume are straightforward to follow, and you will be able to cultivate your own garden apothecary custom-tailored to your own health. In addition, this herbal encyclopedia is easy to use and allows you to look up information either with plant names or by ailments. This book is 336 pages of a detailed herbal reference with proven natural remedies and advice for growing herbs that will be the most helpful to you in your garden this season. You can get a copy of Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine by Andrew Chevallier and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $30 Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart February 22, 1756 Today is the anniversary of the death of the handsome and tall Swedish botanist - and a favorite student of Carl Linnaeus known as "the Vulture" - Pehr Loefling. Pehr met Carl at the University of Uppsala, where Carl was his professor. Early on, Carl dubbed Pehr his "most beloved pupil," and he even gave Pehr a nickname; the Vulture. Carl came up with the moniker after observing that Pehr had an intuitive way of finding plants and observing the most minute details of plant specimens. When Pehr wrote his dissertation called "On the Buds of Trees," his observation skills were put to use. Pehr's paper featured detailed descriptions of plants in bud in the offseason instead of in full flower during the summer. This unique perspective enabled people to identify many species in the leafless winter - something that easily confounds plant lovers - even today. When Carl felt Pehr could be a role model, tutor, and a friend to his son, he offered Pehr the chance to live with his family. Hence, Pehr continued his studies while living with the Linneaus family. After graduating, Carl recommended Pehr for an opportunity in Madrid, and this is how Pehr learned Spanish and befriended many Spanish botanists who called him Pedro. After two years of collecting over 1,400 specimens in Spain, Pehr secured a paid position on the Royal Botanical Expedition to South America with a mission of learning to cultivate a particular variety of cinnamon thought to be superior to the standard variety. By 1754, Pehr was botanizing in Venezuela with a small team that included two doctors and two artists. Pehr was just 27 years old when he died of malaria on the banks of the Caroní River at a Mission outpost on this day in 1756. He was buried beneath an orange tree. By the end of the year, over half of the expedition's men would be dead from disease compounded by hunger and fatigue. When Linnaeus shared the news about Pehr with a friend, he wrote, "The great Vulture is dead." Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."
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:
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 Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org 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 go with it—delicacies that are for those who like dried grasshoppers and locusts." Dr. Swingle made daily trips to the village markets to get peanuts, bananas, pineapples, guavas, mangoes, or papayas to add to the hotel diet of rice. On the sixteenth day of his march into the southern brush, Dr. Swingle sighted the first of his long-sought for plants—the Intisy plants. The curious bulbous roots were filled with water—the best they had had for many a day. And the milky latex which oozed from its trunk was found to be pure rubber." The Euphorbia Intisy is a large, succulent tree growing up to almost 25 feet tall. Thanks to Charles Swingle, the plant was experimentally cultivated in the American Southwest. Unearthed Words Kindliness, so far as the Algerian Iris is concerned, consists in starving it. Rich cultivation makes it run to leaf rather than to flower. What it really enjoys is being grown in a miserably poor soil, mostly composed of old lime and mortar rubble and even gravel: a gritty mixture at the foot of a sunny wall, the grittier and the sunnier, the better. Sun and poverty are the two things it likes. You should search your clumps of the grass-like leaves every day for possible buds, and pull the promising Bud while it still looks like a tiny, tightly rolled umbrella, and then bring it indoors and watch it open up under a lamp. If you have the patience to watch for long enough, you will see this miracle happen. If you have not yet got this Iris in your garden and want to acquire it, you can plant it in March or April; but September is the best time for transplanting. It does not much like being split up and moved, so whenever you require it, do make sure that it does not get too dry until it has had time to establish itself. After that, it will give you no trouble. — Vita Sackville West, English author and garden designer, In Your Garden, Algerian Iris Grow That Garden Library Embroidered Ground by Page Dickey This book came out in 2012, and the subtitle is Revisiting the Garden. In this book, Page recounts her journey as she created her magnificent garden, Duck Hill, in upstate New York. Gardeners will relate to the challenges and the pleasures that Page encountered creating her masterpiece. Best of all, we get a chance to learn directly from Page as she shares her unique perspective on making a garden shine - from textures and structure to fragrance and color. Page shares her garden's story and her garden wisdom like she's writing a story for a dear garden friend. Unpretentious and insightful, Page takes us on a delightful garden stroll through the evolution of her garden. This book is 272 pages of a garden by a garden writer who shares the tender story of how they both grew old together. You can get a copy of Embroidered Ground by Page Dickey and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $9 Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart February 19, 1974 On this day, The Journal Herald out of Dayton, Ohio, published a little snippet about the naturalist Eliza Brightwen and her unusual needlepoint methods: "If you are tired of the same crewel and needlepoint your friends are making, you might try a different type of embroidered picture. About 1880, Mrs. Brightwen, a famous botanist, began making embroidery pictures using the bones from the heads of fish such as haddock, whiting, or cod. The bones were cleaned, boiled, and dried. They were used as the wings for embroidered insects or leaves for flowers. The design was usually embroidered on black velvet. The tiny fish bones were sewn into place in a pattern that was embellished with original embroidery. This is not as odd as it might seem if you look today at the modern collages made with large animal bones, nuts, bolts, prune pits, and other ordinary materials." Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."
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:
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 Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org 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 Ground, Snowy Grow That Garden Library Ellis Rowan, 1848-1922 by Kate Collins This book came out in 1989, and it's part of the Australian book series that featured its most outstanding artists. My copy arrived last week, and it features incredible full-page color plates of Australian native flowers, birds, and insects. Born in Melbourne, Ellis married Frederic Rowan in 1873. Ellis discovered painting after her botanist husband, Frederick, encouraged her to develop talent, and it was a passion that she pursued until her death. Ellis's life was full of adventure. She traveled and painted abroad. Three of her paintings were presented to Queen Victoria. My favorite stories about Ellis concern her wonderful friendship with the botanist and writer Alice Lounsberry, and they created three beautiful books about the flowers of North America. During the First World War, Ellis was living in New Guinea. At one point, she painted 45 of the 62 known species of birds of paradise. As a woman living during the mid-1800s, Ellis followed the dress code of her era. Wherever she went, whether on an expedition or at home, Ellis was always impeccably dressed. Ellis's daily attire included heavy ankle-length dresses, high collars with full sleeves, crinolines, corsets, whalebone stays, and a hat. Just before Ellis died, the federal parliament in Australia debated whether to buy 1,000 of Ellis' paintings. The Australian artist and novelist Norman Lindsay called Ellis' work vulgar - believing wildflowers were unworthy subjects for art. But ultimately, Ellis' paintings were purchased for $5,000, and they are now a treasured part of Australia's National Library. This book is 52 pages of the beautiful work of Ellis Rowan. You can get a copy of Ellis Rowan, 1848-1922 by Kate Collins and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $9 Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart February 18, 1996 On this day, The Miami Herald shared a story about rebuilding the rare plant house at the Fairchild Botanical Garden. "The born-again rare-plant house at the Fairchild Tropical Garden called Windows on the Tropics has a new roof and new walls - and a whole collection of staghorn ferns mounted like prize stag heads overlooking the inner courtyard. The new $1 million conservatory at the Fairchild Tropical Garden that is being built on the footprint of the hurricane-demolished rare plant house is nearing its opening day. It will be the last piece of the Hurricane Andrew puzzle to be put back into place in the garden. More than 2,000 plants will be on display in the conservatory showing about 1,000 species grouped in themes or windows onto the natural tropical world. One window into plant and animal interactions will feature everything from ant plants to carnivorous plants. Recently a buttonwood tree was bolted to a wall for the display beneath which visitors will walk and come eyeball-to-eyeball with insect-dissolving pitcher plants. The window featuring epiphytic or air plants will open into the old orchid display room [which] will include orchids, bromeliads, and climbing philodendrons. The new conservatory path will lead through the most modern of greenhouse spaces [and will] house Economic plants — those used by man — [like] coffee, pepper, vanilla, and other tropical food and medicine plants. Three new waterfalls are being built in the lower level of the conservatory where ferns, tree ferns, and palms will reside ...and here, the conservatory becomes a sensual experience. The building is the largest aluminum structure in Florida [that also meets] the 120-mile-an-hour wind code. Soaring 12 feet taller than the old Rare Plant House, the plastic roof has clerestory windows that open for ventilation and come with built-in storm shutters. And, plants no longer will be subjected to chemicals in city water but to rainwater collected in two cisterns that will hold 45,000 gallons. The conservatory will be opened on March 23rd (1996)… Instead of having a guest speaker, the garden is letting Windows on the Tropics do all the talking, says Barbara Schuler, director of development. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."
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 Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org 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] stood alone. He wrote… from a peculiar angle of his own, giving queer human attributes to his plants, which somehow exactly described them." As an example, here's a journal entry from Reginal from June 2nd, 1919: "I sat down to paint it (the most marvelous and impressive Rhododendron I've ever seen - a gigantic, excellent, with corrugated leaves and great white trumpets stained with yellow inside - a thing alone, by itself WELL worth all the journey up here… And oddly enough, I did not enjoy doing so at first... a first false start - a second, better, splashed and spoilt, then a mizzle, so that umbrella had to be screamed for and held up with one hand while I worked with the other. Then flies and torment and finally a wild dust storm with rain and thunder came raging over so that everything had feverishly to be hauled indoors and the Rhododendron fell over… But one moral is - only paint when fresh or before the day's toils; The rhododendron gave me such a bad night... I… satisfactorily finished it - though it took till after 12." Many people have tried to puzzle out the personality of Reginald. While it's unanimously agreed that he could be eccentric, I'm not a fan of his harsher critics. I say, to discover Reginald's heart, learn how much he loved Jane Austen. In fact, his 1917 essay on Jane was judged the "best single introduction to her fiction." When he traveled, Reginald always brought Jane's books along. Reginald once wrote that, when traveling, he really only needed his clothing and Jane's books - and if he had to choose between the two, he'd keep the books. And there's a well-told story about Reginald that speaks to his ingenuity and uniqueness. Reginald was always searching for alpine plants that would grow in the British climate. One time, after an inspiring visit to Ceylon, Reginald got the idea to create a cliff garden with the seeds from his trip. So, when he returned home, he rowed a boat to the middle of the lake at Ingleborough and used a shotgun to blast the seeds into the face of a cliff. You can imagine his delight when his idea worked and the cliff was alive with plants. Today, although the cliff garden is no longer, there are many Himalayan plants - like bamboo and rhododendron - that remain around his home place, still thriving among the rocks in Ingleborough. In addition to having an impact on the field of garden writing, Reginald helped to change the course of British gardening. Reginald's influence happened to be timed perfectly - as millions of eager British gardeners wrenched the hobby of gardening away from the elite. By this time, Reginald had earned the moniker The Prince of Alpine Gardeners. Reginald had mastered rock gardens - the trick was to make them look as natural as possible - and Reginald's passion for rock gardens came through in his famous 1907 book My Rock Garden. Reginald's book and exploits made rock gardens trendy, and suddenly everyone wanted a rockery in their backyard. The rock garden craze made it all seem so simple, but Reginald knew full well the lengths he had to go to in order to source new alpine plants. During his two years in China, Reginald wrote, "You're on an uncharted mountainside, and you have to, first of all, find the Plant in the summer on the way up the mountain. Then in the autumn, you have to find the same plant – if it hasn't been eaten or trodden on – hope it's set seed and that the seeds haven't fallen yet – and this is just the start." After China, Reginald pivoted and became a war journalist during WWI - even embedding for a time along the Western Front. And, of course, it was botany that helped Reginald carry out this work. While he wrote stories along the Italian frontlines, he collected plants - once while taking fire from Austrian troops. Reginald knew this was insane and wrote: "What Englishman ever before has collected cyclamen on Monte Santo among the shell-fire?" After the war, in 1919, Reginald took a trip to the mountains of Myanmar in Upper Burma. He would never see his beloved Yorkshire again. He was just 40 years old. Somehow, Reginald met his end alone on a remote Burmese mountain, and his body was buried in Konglu in Burma. Most reports say he died of Diptheria, but the explorer and botanist Joseph Rock said he was told Reginald - who had become a devout Buddhist after college - had drank himself to death on the night of October 17th, 1920. And I thought of Reginald up on that mountain alone when I researched the etymology of the name of his nursery, Craven, which means defeated, crushed, or overwhelmed. Today Reginald is remembered in the names of many plants like the beautiful blue Gentiana farreri ("jen-tee-AYE-na FAR-ur-eye"). And the Alpine Garden Society's most highly-prized show medal is the Farrer Medal, which honors the best plant in the show. Unearthed Words When I first began growing houseplants, my mother sent me a cactus garden of native plants from her home in Phoenix, Arizona. My Gardening Style: I nurture plants to death. I check them daily, pluck off alien leaves, and water them every time I notice dryness. Now my mother told me to watch the news and only water my cacti when it rained in Phoenix, I could not help primping my plants. They died within weeks by turning into a brown, mushy mess. My gardening style is an overly involved one, and once I choose plants that craved that kind of style; they flourished more than anything else I grew. Some of my most successful - and needy - plants have been an Umbrella Plant, an African Violet, and [a Tradescantia pallida]. I also find that my kitchen windowsill herb garden thrives when I constantly rotate the plants in the sun and prune them for dinner recipes. — Angela Williams Duea ("Do-ee")and Donna Murphy, The Complete Guide to Growing Windowsill Plants, What is Your Gardening Style, The Over-Nurturer Grow That Garden Library The Earth Moved by Amy Stewart This book came out in 2012, and the subtitle is On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms. In this book, Amy introduces us to earthworms, and it turns out there's a ton to learn. Amy's book helps us understand more about these blind creatures and the vital work they do on our planet - from moving soil, suppressing pests, and cleaning up pollution - earthworms regenerate the soil. If you've ever wanted to know more about worms, you're in good company. Charles Darwin was endlessly intrigued by earthworms, too. This book is 256 pages of life underground with the magnificent earthworm and Amy Stewart as your enlightening and entertaining guide. You can get a copy of The Earth Moved by Amy Stewart and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $3 Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart Even though roses are often associated with February thanks to Valentine's Day, February's birth flower is not the rose. Instead, February has two birth flowers. In England, February's birth flower is the Violet, and in the United States, February is honored with the primrose. Concerning the violet, the plantsman Derek Jarman once wrote: "Violet has the shortest wavelength of the spectrum. Behind it, the invisible ultraviolet. 'Roses are Red, Violets are Blue.' Poor Violet violated for a rhyme." The adorable little violet signifies many virtues; truth and loyalty, watchfulness, and faithfulness. Gifting a violet lets the recipient know you'll always be true. Like the theme song from Friends promises, you'll always be there for them. The ancient Greeks placed a high value on the violet. When it came time to pick a blossom as a symbol for Athens, the violet made the cut. The Greeks used Violet to make medicine. They also used violets in the kitchen to make wine and to eat the edible blossoms. Today, Violets are used to decorate salads, and they can even be sprinkled over fish or poultry. Violets are beautiful when candied in sugar or used to decorate pastries. Violets can even be distilled into a syrup for a Violet liqueur. Finally, Violets were Napoleon Bonaparte's signature flower. When his wife, Josephine, died in 1814, Napoleon covered her grave with violets. His friends even referred to Napoleon as Corporal Violet; after he was exiled to Elba, Napoleon vowed to return before the Violet season. Napoleon's followers used the violet to weed out his detractors. They would ask strangers if they liked violets; a positive response was a sign of loyalty. The other official February flower is the primrose, which originated from the Latin word "primus," meaning "first" or "early." The name is in reference to the fact that the primrose is one of the first plants that bloom in the spring. As with the violet, the leaves and flowers of primrose are edible and often tossed into a salad. The leaves are said to taste like lettuce. Gifting a primrose has a more urgent - stalkerish- meaning than the violet; a primrose tells a person that you can't live without them. In Germany, people believed that the first girl to find a primrose on Easter would marry that same year. And, the saying about leading someone down the primrose path refers to enticing someone to do something terrible by laying out irresistible traps. The phrase originated in William Shakespeare's Hamlet as Ophelia begs her brother: Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven; While like a puffed and reckless libertine, Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads. And the man known as "The Daffodil King, Peter Barr, bred over 2 million daffodils at his home in Surrey, and he's credited with popularizing the daffodil. Yet, when Barr retired, he went to Scotland and grew - not daffodils, but primroses. Two years before he died, Peter Barr, the Daffodil King, mused, "I wonder who will plant my grave with primroses?" Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."
Full show notes at the publisherToday 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 Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org 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 surprise of their friends, they married. Kate always referred to Townshend as "Townie." Equally yoked, Townie and Kate's happy honeymoon was a 500-mile nature walk - collecting plant specimens from San Diego to San Francisco. After their honeymoon, Townie and Kate moved to San Diego, where they created a herbarium, library, and garden praised as a botanical paradise. In 1899, the jeweler Frederick Arthur Walton, who was reported to have the largest private cactus collection in England, visited Kate and Townie in San Diego. Frederick shared a review of the Brandegee's spectacular garden in his magazine called The Cactus Journal: "The garden of Mr. and Mrs. Brandegee… [is] a wild garden, being situated upon the mesa, or high land overlooking the sea. Mr. and Mrs. Brandegee are enthusiastic botanists, and have built a magnificent herbarium, where they spend most of their time. The wild land round the herbarium is full of interesting plants that are growing in a state of nature, while being studied and described in all their various conditions. Mrs. Brandegee has preserved specimens of all the kinds she can get. In some cases where the plants are very rare, I asked how she could so destroy such beauties. She replied that her specimens would be there to refer to at any time, with all its descriptions and particulars, whereas if the plant had been left growing, or sent to some botanical gardens, it would probably have died some time, and all trace have been lost." Townie and Kate continued botanizing - individually and together. During their lifetime, botanists could travel for free by train, and the Brandegees used these free passes regularly in their travels throughout California, Arizona, and Mexico. On one trip to Mexico, Kate left early, and she managed to survive a shipwreck. The story goes that Townsend asked about the fate of the specimens before asking about Kate. Yet, this anecdote shouldn't discount their very loving marriage; they were both just maniacally focused on their botanical work. In 1906, when an earthquake destroyed the Berkeley herbarium, the Brandegees single-handedly restored it by donating their entire San Diego botanical library (including many rare volumes) and herbarium of over 80,000 plants. Keeping in mind that Townshend's substantial inheritance had funded all of their botanical efforts, Townie and Kate requested a modest stipend of $100 per month in exchange for their life's work. Despite years of haggling, Berkeley never agreed to pay the Brandegees a cent for what was the richest private plant collection in the United States. Incredibly, the Brandegees continued to be selfless when it came to Berkely. They followed their plants and books to campus, where Townsend and Kate worked the rest of their lives pro bono. And while Townshend was honored with the title of curator of the herbarium, Kate was not given a title. In the early spring of 1920, a 75-year-old Kate was walking at Berkeley when she fell and broke her shoulder. Three weeks later, she died. On April 7, 1925, five years later - almost to the day - Townshend joined Kate on his final journey. February 16, 1971 On this day, the New Jersey State Flower, the Violet, was officially adopted by the legislature after a proposal from Josephine S. Margetts. In 1967, when Josephine Margetts was elected to the New Jersey State Assembly in 1967, she became the first woman to represent Morris County, New Jersey, since 1938. Politics was in Josephine's blood. Her grandfather, a Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice, ran for Governor of Pennsylvania. And Josephine's late husband, Walter T. Margetts Jr., served as New Jersey's state treasurer. A nursery and orchard owner, Josephine was environmentally conscious, and she introduced legislation to protect the land and waterways of New Jersey - even helping to ban the use of DDT. Long before Josephine was born, the violet was unofficially selected as the State Flower of New Jersey. By the late 1960s, New Jersey was the only state without legislation supporting an official state flower. And so, with the urging of local garden clubs, Josephine introduced legislation in February of 1971 to make the violet official State Flower of New Jersey. When it came time for Josephine's bill to be debated in the legislature, Josephine's peer Sen. Joseph J. Maraziti, R-Morris, read this poem: "Roses are red, Violets are blue If you vote for this bill Mrs. Margetts will love you." Josephine's legislation was passed 30-1. The sole dissenting vote was Sen. Frank J. Guarini, D-Hudson. He told the press, "I'm a marigold man." Two years later, in 1973, a newspaper called The Record out of Hackensack New Jersey, shared an Op-Ed titled, Consider the Lilies of the Field. "Conventional, chauvinist wisdom would have it that Mrs. Margetts introduced the bill because she's a woman and women are well, you know interested in growing things, flowers and plants and trees, the fruit of the earth. But Mrs. Margetts is not one of your everyday garden club ladies. She studied at the Ambler School of Horticulture, she operates a commercial apple and peach orchard in Pennsylvania, and she has a holly nursery on the grounds of her home in New Vernon. The house on the property is rather substantial for a Jersey farmhouse if memory serves, it has 14 bathrooms, but no matter." As Josephine no doubt knew, Violets are spring flowers, and they've been around for a long time. The ancient Greeks enjoyed violets. If you enjoy floriography ("FLOOR-EE-ah-grah-FEE") or the symbolic meaning of plants, the heart-shaped leaves offer a clue to their meaning: affection, love, faith, and dignity. The color of violets can add another layer of meaning. Blue violets especially symbolize love and devotion. White violets symbolize purity and yellow violets symbolize goodness and high esteem. Unearthed Words The chief work of the botanist of yesterday was the study and classification of dried, shriveled up mummy's whose souls had fled. They thought their classified species were more fixed and unchangeable than anything in heaven or earth that we can now imagine. We have learned that they are as plastic in our hands as clay in the hands of the potter or color on the artist canvas and can readily be molded into more beautiful forms and colors than any painter or sculptor can ever hope to bring forth. — Luther Burbank, Address to the Pacific States Floral Congress, 1901 Grow That Garden Library Uprooted by Page Dickey This book came out in 2020 (I bought my copy in November), and the subtitle is A Gardener Reflects on Beginning Again. When Margaret Roach reviewed this book, she wrote, "An intimate, lesson-filled story of what happens when one of America's best-known garden writers transplants herself, rooting into a deeper partnership with nature than ever before." If you've ever moved away from a beloved garden, or there is a move in your future, you'll find Page's book to be especially appealing. Uprooted is Page's story about leaving her beloved iconic garden at Duck Hill - a landscape she molded and refined for thirty-four years. Set on 17 acres of rolling fields and woodland, Page's new property is in northwestern Connecticut, and it surrounds a Methodist Church, which is how Page came to call her new space, Church House. What does it mean to be a seasoned gardener (at the age of 74) and to have to start again? How does a gardener handle the transition from a beloved home to the excitement of new possibilities? Uprooted gives us the chance to follow Page through all the major milestones as she finds her new homeplace. We get to hear about her search for a new place, how she establishes her new garden spaces, and her revelations as she learns to evolve as a gardener. If you've ever wondered how on earth you'll ever leave your garden, Page will give you hope. And, if you're thinking about revamping an old garden space or starting a new garden, you can learn from Page how to create a garden that will bring you joy. As an accomplished garden writer, Page's book is a fabulous read, and the photography is top-notch. And although the move from Duck Hill marked a horticultural turning point in her life, Page found herself excited and reenergized by her brand new space at Church House. This book is 244 pages of the evolution of a gardener as she transitions from Duck Hill to Church House with a lifelong love of nature, gardens, and landscape possibilities. You can get a copy of Duck Hill Journal by Page Dickey and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $18 Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart In researching Josephine Margetts — the woman who created the bill for the State Flower of New Jersey (the Violet), I came across her obituary. When Josephine Margetts died in March of 1989, Fran Wood wrote a touching tribute to her that was featured in The Daily Record out of Morristown, New Jersey: "Snow was falling on the day they remembered Josephine Margetts last week. It was gathering in little drifts on the trees outside her back door, collecting on the glossy leaves of some 15 varieties of holly… The fresh flakes formed in little peaks on the bird feeders just inches away from her breakfast table, covered the glass roof of the greenhouse where lantana, gardenias and scented geraniums had flowered for more winters than anyone could remember and accumulated along the fence rails next to the vegetable garden where she used to raise more produce than her family could eat in a summer. If the loving cultivation of these grounds, the perennials, the flowering shrubs and trees and all those hollies she planted and nurtured had been Mrs. Margetts' only accomplishment, it would have been worth remarking on. For gardening was a successful business as well as a private pleasure for her. Besides operating a licensed holly nursery on her home grounds, she and her family turned out some 10,000 bushels of peaches and apples each year at their Pennsylvania farm. Like all true gardeners, Mrs. Margetts got tremendous satisfaction from planting a seed and watching it grow. She considered herself no less rewarded by those things that grew on their own accord like the tiny white pine seedling that appeared in the middle of a flagstone path one spring. She hadn't the heart to pull it up, she said, and so it grew and grew until it rivaled the height of the tallest hollies and its expanding girth forced strollers to detour around it. Gardening was far from Mrs. Margetts' sole accomplishment, of course, but her inherent appreciation for the beauty o…
Full show notes at the publisherToday 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:
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 Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org 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, Ernest's leg was splinted with the legs of his camera tripod - but the story doesn't end there. The place where the rockslide occurred was on a very narrow trail - they had been walking single file along the mountainside. Before Ernest could be moved, a mule caravan came upon Ernest and his party. So, Ernest did the only thing he could - he laid down on the trail and let the 40-50 mules step over him on their way across the mountain. I always imagine the surreal experience Ernest had there - laying there in great pain and watching the bellies and hooves and whatever else of the mules passing over him for what must have seemed an eternity. Ernest himself marveled at this experience, and he later said, "The sure-footedness of the mule is well-known, and I realized it with gratitude as these animals one by one passed over me - and not even one frayed my clothing." After this trauma, it took Ernest a full year to walk without crutches. And forever after, Ernest walked with what he called his "lily limp." Incredibly, when Ernest was asked about the damage to his leg, he simply said, "The price I paid has been stated… The regal lily was worth it and more." After all of his daring experiences and bravery, it was a car crash that ultimately claimed the life of Ernest and his wife. They were driving their roadster on wet roads when their car swerved on a "carpet of leaves" and went over an embankment before plunging 40 feet onto a field - landing on the back bumper with the front wheels in the air. Ernest and Helen died within an hour of the accident. Their little Boston terrier, however, somehow managed to survive. At the time of the accident, Ernest had been working stateside as the Arnold Arboretum's keeper in Boston. The death of Ernest and Ellen shocked the botanical community and the country. Ernest and Ellen were survived by their daughter — a girl they had adopted and named Muriel Primrose. She was honored with the naming of a bamboo - Fargesia murielae ("Farj-eez-ee-ah Muriel-ee") commonly known as Umbrella Bamboo. Unearthed Words Information is so tantalizingly scanty about the expedition in 1927 for gardener-botanists so distinguished that one expects all the flowers of South Africa to have bowed down to them as they passed. Three of the four appear elsewhere in this book - Collingwood Ingram, George Taylor, and Lawrence Johnstone of Hidcote. The 4th, Reginald Cory, how to find Garden at Dyffryn near Cardiff, and is gratefully remembered for the bequest of his considerable Fortune to Cambridge University for the benefit of the botanic garden, and up his magnificent Botanical and Horticultural library to The Royal Horticultural Society. — Alice Coats, English gardener and author, The Plant Hunters, Africa Grow That Garden Library Dried Flowers by Morgane Illes This book came out in 2020, and the subtitle is Techniques and Ideas for the Modern Home. In this book, Morgane updates our preconceived notions regarding dried flowers. If dried flowers aren't intriguing to you or if you feel that they belong in your 3rd-great grandmother's steamer trunk along with vintage lace - get ready to be inspired. Morgane brings preserved florals out of the past and into the modern home. Selected for their color, texture, and architectural interest, Morgane's top 30 picks for blooms continue to look incredible after being preserved through drying or pressing. In addition, Morgane showcases fifteen projects that feature dried flowers — from wreaths and wall art, to terrariums and flower crowns. This book is 144 pages of preserved blooms that will enhance your home with everlasting beauty. You can get a copy of Dried Flowers by Morgane Illes and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $10 Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart On this day, February 15, 1992, The Vancouver Sun shared a story by Steve Whysall called "Break Outdoor Spaces into Series of Small Rooms." The article features David Stevens, one of England's leading garden designers and the winner of eight gold medals at the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show. David shared his advice at the 1992 Northwest Flower and Garden Show in Seattle. "In many instances, the city yard can be used as an outside room. You can extend the space inside the house out into the garden and make the two work as a single unit. It is important, especially for North Americans with large, open backyards, to break down the garden space into a series of smaller rooms. One of the great tricks of landscape design is to create a sense of mystery and surprise as you move from one space into another. If you see everything at once, it becomes uninteresting. But if you break the space down into individual rooms, it becomes inherently more interesting. [England has] some remarkable gardens, but the average backyard is a lot more mundane than most people imagine. We're a nation of plant-lovers, but we're certainly not a nation of garden designers. A lot of our gardens are too busy and overcomplicated." Next, David offered the following tips for people thinking of making a garden: "Don't let your garden end up a muddle of hard and soft landscaping. Take time to draw up a plan. "Most people tend to rush off to the garden center the first fine day, stick everything in the trunk, and then wonder where to plant it all." Before planting anything, put in all the hard landscaping, all the decking, walling, paving, the bones, and composition of the gardening. Plants will bring the garden to life, softening the hard surfaces. Keep the design and planting simple. Many gardens suffer from over-complication and gimmicks. Be careful not to use conflicting materials that can be "restless on the eye and hard on the pocket." Resist the temptation to plant too many different things. The well-planted border has a limited number of species that relate well to one another. "There are many foliage textures, colors, and shapes that give you interest throughout the year." You have to think about foliage and texture as well as flower." Remember what Gertrude Jekyll, the famous Edwardian garden designer, taught: hot colors (reds, yellows) foreshorten the space through their vibrancy. "If you put a pot of bright red flowers at the bottom of the garden, your eye will go straight to it. Use hot colors close to the viewpoint and cooler colors farther away. It gives a nice feeling of space, and small gardens can be made to feel larger." Do your homework before planting. Find out if a plant likes sun or shade and how big it will grow. "I'm a great believer in growing what does well in my climate. I won't plant things that are going to look unhappy. I'd much sooner have something that thrives than something that's good for a couple of seasons and then gets knocked off by bad weather." Don't bite off more than you can chew in one season. Take a few years to build your garden." Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."
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:
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 Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org 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 son, George II, were alone. Needless to say, the nursery became the center of their world. Now, the start of Clematis hybridizing began in 1835, about 35 miles from the Jackman nursery. The site was London's Pineapple Nursery, run by John Andrew Henderson, and he was the very first person to create a Clematis hybrid. John called his creation the Clematis Hendersonii, and there's no doubt that George I took notice. When George II was 13 years old, the great plant explorer, Robert Fortune, brought Clematis lanuginosa ("LAN-you-jee-NO-sah") to England. Native to China, the blooms on this Clematis were larger than any ever seen before. If Clematis blossoms were going to get bigger, the lanuginosa was the linchpin. By this point, George I was employing 35 men and six boys at the Jackman Nursery. George II shadowed every aspect of the business, and he grew to be a shrewd owner/operator. As a young man, George II was energized at the thought of clematis hybridizing. And when he was just 21 years old, George II crossed Fortune's lanuginosa with Hendersonii along with the climber atrorubens. In less than six months, they had 300 seedlings, and George Jackman II had an instant hit on his hands. The plant was hardy, it quickly produced long-lasting impressive flowers, and the rootstock lasted for many years. The year was 1858, and Clematis jackmanii (ii = "ee-eye") was born. And from George II's notebook, we see that he wrote: "Seedlings about 300 — results of hybrids: very robust growers, abundant in flower of rich deep purple and maroon." Clematis jackmanii went on to receive the Award of Garden Merit from The Royal Horticultural Society. And George II co-authored a book with Thomas Moore, the Secretary of The Royal Horticultural Society, and the the book was called Clematis as a Garden Flower. George II and Thomas Moore dedicated the book to HRH Princess Mary, the Duchess of Teck. The Clematis was one of her favorite flowers. When George I died on this day in 1869, he had raised his son and had turned his nursery into a success. He had served as chapelwarden for his church - the church of St. John - for over two decades. He had started serving a few years after losing his wife, Mary, Mrs. George Jackman. The Gardener's chronicle said he died after a gout attack and was by all accounts a "beloved… kind-hearted, genial Christian." It went on to say that his "workmen (several of whom had been [with him] for 20, 30, or 40 years)," followed his coffin to the churchyard for burial. In 1967, the Jackman Nursery was sold by a Jackman descendant, Roland Jackman. Unearthed Words Simpson, a light sleeper, often dosed during the day and was too alert for sleep at bedtime. On these occasions, when the balmy, humid air equaled body temperature, he would give his household fair warning and stroll nude in his garden. He relished the moonlight glimpsed through a vista to the bay or brushing with silver the feathery leaves of Bamboos and Palms. To walk in one garden at night is to discover a new world; the trees are larger, their forms have changed, and their well-known branches are shapeless blots against the sky. Unexpected noises startle and almost terrify one. The day birds have gone to rest, and a new and different set has taken their place, as if Nature were working her employees in shifts. — Elizabeth Ogren Rothra, Florida's Pioneer Naturalist: The Life of Charles Torrey Simpson Grow That Garden Library Desert Gardens of Steve Martino by Caren Yglesias This book came out in 2018. In this book, we get a tour of twenty-one gardens by Steve Martino. Martino's gardens are works of art that incorporate color, native plants, plants with dramatic shapes, and man-made elements in contrast with the backdrop of the desert. Martino has evolved his signature garden design style to include native plants, and he's allowed his love of the desert to guide his approach. Over and over again, Martino contrasts man-made pieces with the untamed desert. Martino explains, "Gardens consist of two worlds, the man-made and the natural one. I've described my design style as 'Weeds and Walls' — nature and man. I use native plants to make the transition from a building to the adjacent natural desert." The New York Times Book Review of this book said, "Part of Martino's trick is setting plants that have few flowers but fabulous shapes against geometric slabs of deeply colored walls. The crimson hues in a Phoenix garden must be as much of a draw for the hummingbirds as the mirrored surface of the water trough. Blue concrete pyramids, magenta poles, yellow awnings, and fiberglass panels — these are all elements in Martino's playful, imaginative designs." This book is 240 pages of Steve Martino's inspiring work - a treasure of vivid color, plants, design, and custom structures. You can get a copy of Desert Gardens of Steve Martino by Caren Yglesias and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $68 Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart February 12, 1724 Today is the birthday of the poet and gardener William Mason. The Reverend William Mason was also a writer, artist, and garden designer. Mason is remembered for creating the romance of the country house garden. Here's how he did it: In 1775 at Nuneham ("NEW-Num"), near Oxford, England, Mason designed a flower garden for his friend Lord Harcourt. This garden was a turning point to many and marked the beginning of what came to be known as romantic flower gardening. What Mason accomplished was a radical change; straight lines in borders and beds were out. Circular beds were in. With new elements in gardens like island beds, the plants were located away from the house. Instead, plantings and beds were situated near outdoor garden buildings like temples, orangeries, or a seating area. The garden at Nuneham became a model for others. Mason's creation set the trend for English gardening, and Mason broadcast his ideas about romantic gardening in a very, very, very long poem called "The English Garden." It was released in chunks over the span of a decade, between 1772 and 1781. Mason's target audience was the wealthy garden owners of his time. He was speaking directly to them when he wrote: "Waste is not grandeur," and "A garden is the purest of human pleasures; it is the greatest refreshment to the spirit of man." Mason made many appeals to country estate owners, but his overall message was to throw out formal gardens in favor of romantic landscapes. Now, the word romantic simply means a landscape that is wild or natural. During this time, people referred to these romantic, natural, or wild landscapes as the picturesque garden. Today, gardeners delight in this little verse from Mason's poem. It offers simple, resonate advice from William Mason to you: Take thy plastic spade, It is thy pencil. Take thy seeds, thy plants, They are thy colors. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."
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