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.
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Today we celebrate the Dutch botanist who figured out the king bee was actually a queen and the poet gardener who preferred curves over straight lines. We'll learn about the evolutionist who started out as a staunch Christian and who once wrote, "I did not in the least doubt the strict and literal truth of every word in the Bible." Today's Unearthed Words feature thoughts about February, our shortest month. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that is brand new - just released officially today - and it encourages you to grow your fruit and vegetables in pots. I'll talk about a garden item that is just the coolest little gadget for growing seeds. And then we'll wrap things up with the backstory on a Clematis you probably have in your garden, or your neighbor has it - or both. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events. Subscribe Apple|Google|Spotify|Stitcher|iHeart Curated Articles How to Eat Edible Flowers | FoodUnfolded How to Eat Edible Flowers? One bite at a time. "Chamomile tastes like apples; Begonia has a sharp citrus flavor, Calendula goes peppery to bitter, Daylilies - a melony, cucumber taste & Nasturtium is sweet and peppery." Penelope Hobhouse - SGD Awards 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner - YouTube Take a moment & watch this - an EXCELLENT video featuring Penelope Hobhouse - (Society of Garden Designers) SGD Awards 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner She says: "My feelings about good design are, first of all, the skeleton - the architecture. If you get the architecture right, you can fill it in with the plants you love. I was 82 - or something like that - when I came here. I knew it was my last garden. That's really what made me plant this as an architectural garden - with flowers in between green architecture. I only wanted plants I really loved, and that's what I've done. That's what is so lovely is living here - almost as a recluse - getting old. I think I'm very lucky people remember me at all. That's just luck and chance, I think." Sarah Morgan, SGD Chair, said: "Penelope Hobhouse has influenced and inspired garden design for decades. Self-trained in practical horticulture and design, she nevertheless forged a hugely successful career, thanks to her love and knowledge of plants and instinctive design talent." Now, if you'd like to check out these curated articles for yourself, you're in luck, because I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. There's no need to take notes or search for links - the next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events 1637Today is the birthday of the Dutch biologist and entomologist Jan Swammerdam (Yahn SWAH-MER-dam). Before Jan's work, people believed that insects created spontaneously. Jan proved that insects were born from eggs laid by the female of the 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 as a king." And here was Jan's description of the male bees: "[The hive] tolerates, during summer days of abundance, the embarrassing presence in the hive 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." 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." 1724Today 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. To many, this garden was a turning point 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, this meant that the plants were located away from the house. Instead, plantings and beds were located near outdoor garden buildings like temples, or 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 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 were 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 broad 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. 1809Today is the birthday of the English naturalist and writer Charles Robert Darwin. Darwin was born into a large Christian family in Victorian England. His dad was wealthy; he was a doctor and an investor. For generations, Darwin's family were staunch abolitionists. Darwin's mother died when he was just eight years old. Clever and curious, he managed to find solace in learning. When he went to college at Cambridge, he was planning to be a member of the clergy. He wrote, "I did not then in the least doubt, the strict and literal truth of every word in the Bible." But then, Darwin met a man who would become his mentor and friend, John Stevens Henslow. Henslow taught botany at Cambridge, and the two men enjoyed learning from each other as they took walks in the country. Their time together inspired Darwin and helped him to focus on his specialty - the natural world. It also opened the door to a strong wanderlust - a desire to see firsthand what the world had to offer. It was thanks to his friend Henslow that Darwin received an invitation to join Captain Robert FitzRoy on the HMS Beagle. Henslow had written a letter recommending Darwin for the journey, especially endorsing his likable personality. Once Darwin was officially asked to be part of team Beagle, Henslow presented Darwin with a gift - a rare copy of Alexander von Humboldt's travels in South America. In the book, Henslow had inscribed these words: "J. S. Henslow to his friend C. Darwin on his departure from England upon a voyage around the World. 21st Sept. 1831." Darwin treasured this gift above all others, and at his death, the book was safely brought to Cambridge University Library, where it remains to this day. Darwin's five-year Journey on the HMS Beagle led him to think differently about his faith and his perspective on creation. It was October 2, 1836, before the HMS Beagle returned to England. Often, Darwin is depicted on the Beagle as an old man; but he was just 22 when he sailed away and still a young 27 when he returned with boxes full of specimens and a brain swirling with new ideas. During the revelatory trip on the Beagle, Darwin had found the building blocks to his evolutionary theory in the many fossils and diverse species he discovered on his excursions. In particular, his visit to the Galapagos Islands - which were largely untouched by man; they were pristine - was especially influential. And, although people assume that Darwin had a lightbulb moment during his time on the Beagle, his writing shows that wasn't the case. Darwin's thinking on the topic of creation and evolution matured as he grew older. Bear in mind, his paternal grandfather, Erasmus, had experienced bigtime negative backlash for his own ideas on evolution. This made Darwin cautious, and it raised the stakes for going public with his own radical thoughts. To mitigate the risk, Darwin was methodical, and he worked to make an irrefutable case for evolution. Thus, it would be another 23 years after returning to England Beagle before Darwin was ready to publish his masterpiece: Origin of Species. Now, if you ever get the chance to review the first edition online, you might be surprised to know that the word evolution isn't even mentioned. It wasn't until the 6th edition that the powerful word that became synonymous with Darwin's work was integrated into the text - evolution. Unearthed Words Here are some thoughts on February - the shortest month of the year: The February sunshine steeps your boughs and tints the buds and swells the leaves within. — William Cullen Bryant, American Romantic poet Deep sleeps the winter, Cold, wet, and grey; Surely all the world is dead; Spring is far away. Wait! the world shall waken; It is not dead, for lo, The Fair Maids of February Stand in the snow! — Cicely Mary Barker, English illustrator of fairies and flowers In tangled wreath, in clustered gleaming stars, In floating, curling sprays, The golden flower comes shining through the woods These February days; Forth go all hearts, all hands, from out the town, To bring her gayly in, This wild, sweet Princess of far Florida - The yellow jessamine. — Constance Fenimore Woolson, American novelist, and poet, (and grand niece of James Fenimore Cooper), Yellow Jessamine February is merely as long as it is needed to pass the time until March. — Dr. J. R. Stockton, Professor Emeritus of Business Statistics, University of Texas February, when the days of winter seem endless, and no amount of wistful recollecting can bring back any air of summer. ― Shirley Hardie Jackson, American writer, Raising Demons February makes a bridge, and March breaks it. — George Herbert, Welsh poet, orator, and priest Grow That Garden Library Grow Fruit & Vegetables in Pots by Aaron Bertelsen This book is hot off the shelf - brand new - just released today! Aaron Bertelsen is the gardener-cook of England's Great Dixter in East Sussex — where the kitchen garden is a central part of everything he does. In his new cookbook, Aaron shares tips and tricks for potting up vegetables and preparing recipes from Grow Fruit & Vegetables in Pots - his brand new cookbook. This is such a great topic because so many of us have gardens where space is precious and limited. Following Aaron's example, we can expand our garden pots to include plants like blueberries and eggplant. Aaron has spent many seasons at Great Dixter, and for the years, he's refined his list of go-to vegetables and the various fruit specimens that he has learned to grow in containers. Now, he's sharing that advice with all of us so that we can learn what crops will grow best in pots. As a cook, Aaron also gives us his best advice on harvesting and cooking. This cookbook features over 50 wonderful recipes. The photos of these incredible dishes are so inspiring that you'll definitely want to expand what you're growing so that you can try some of Aaron's novel food ideas. Thanks to Aaron, once again, we've learned that space is not an excuse to not garden, and it certainly isn't a barrier to creativity or variety when it comes to what we plant. We just have to think more strategically about our gardens and search more diligently for wonderful examples to follow. Aaron and Great Dixter give us a wonderful blueprint for amping up the productivity in our garden space through the use of pots and the excitement in our own small garden spaces by following Aaron's lead. You can get a brand new copy of Grow Fruit & Vegetables in Pots by Aaron Bertelsen and support the show, using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for $39.95. Great Gifts for Gardeners Esschert Design USA W4008 Secrets du Potager Paper Pot Maker $13.65 Esschert Design says: "Our Secrets du Potager line is for those who are passionate about gardening, cooking, and entertaining and have an eye for detail. This clever tool is used for making seed pots from a newspaper; it's fun. Instead of traditional flower pots made of clay or plastic, you can also use homemade, small paper pots. In no time at all, you will be able to prepare a range of paper pots. When the time comes to plant the young seedlings outside, simply put them together with the paper pot in the ground. The newspaper rots away by itself. This set contains the paper pot press and instructions on how to produce the pots." A clever tool for making seed pots from newspaper Set includes the paper pot press and instructions on how to prepare the pot Today's Botanic Spark I thought you'd enjoy learning about the 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. 1869Today is the anniversary of the death of the English nurseryman, pomologist, florist, and Clematis hybridizer George Jackman. He died at the age of 68. 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. 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 in the life of 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. The start of Clematis hybridizing, began five years before George I's life took such a dramatic turn. In 1835, about 35 miles from the Jackman nursery, London's Pineapple Nursery owned by John Andrew Henderson created the first Clematis hybrid. It was called Clematis Hendersonii - no doubt, George I took notice. When George II was 13 years old, Robert Fortune brought Clematis lanuginosa ("LAN-you-jee-NO-sah") to Engla…
Full show notes at the publisherToday we celebrate a woman who was once the wealthiest woman in England, and she happily spent a fortune on plants. We also celebrate the man who transformed his family farm into a glorious garden. And, we'll learn about the Oxford professor who is remembered by a flower known as the "Jewel of the Desert." Today's Unearthed Words feature thoughts on winter. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that will help you develop a botanist's vocabulary. I'll talk about a garden item you can buy that I use all the time. And then, we'll wrap things up with some sweet February folklore. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Curated Articles Penelope Hobhouse wins Lifetime Achievement Award | @TEGmagazine Bravo for Penelope Hobhouse - awarded the 2020 Society of Garden Designers (SGD) Lifetime Achievement Award! Past winners: Piet Oudolf, Beth Chatto & Christopher Bradley-Hole. The award recognizes her outstanding contribution to landscape & garden design. Get inspired & grow with her many books on garden design & garden history. Fertilizer Numbers: What They Mean and How to Use Them to Grow Better Excellent Comprehensive Post on Fertilizer @savvygardening @JessicaWalliser Know Your Numbers: What they mean and how to use them to grow better! NPK stands for "nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium," the three nutrients that comprise complete fertilizers. The description of the fertilizer may not expressly say "NPK," but you will at least see a series of three numbers. How do plants use N, P, & K? Nitrogen promotes shoot & leaf growth. Adding it to a green, leafy vegetable plant, such as spinach or lettuce, makes sense. Phosphorous generates fruit, flower, & root production. It's great for root crops, like beets, carrots, and onions, as well as for encouraging flower and fruit production. Potassium affects a plant's heartiness and vigor. Now, if you'd like to check out these curated articles for yourself, you're in luck, because I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. There's no need to take notes or search for links - the next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events 1715 Today is the birthday of the British aristocrat, naturalist, plant lover, and botanist Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland. Her family and friends called her Maria. Maria married when she was 19 years old. Together, she and William Bentinck had five children; one of their sons became prime minister twice. When William died after their 27th anniversary, Maria threw herself into her many passions. As the wealthiest woman in England, Maria could acquire virtually any treasure from the natural world - and she did. She cultivated an enormous collection of natural history, which was tended by two experts she hired to personally attend each item: the naturalist Reverend John Lightfoot and the Swedish botanist Daniel Solander. Maria's home in Buckinghamshire was referred to by society as the hive - it was the Hub of activity for Solander and Lightfoot and the other people who helped process her acquisitions. At one point, Maria had reached out to Captain James Cook and had secured some shells from his second expedition to Australia. Daniel Solander was focused on cataloging Maria's massive shell collection but sadly left to the work unfinished when he died in 1782. Maria had an enormous appetite for curation and collecting. In addition to her Botanic Garden on her property, Maria opened a zoo, kept rabbits, and had an aviary. A constant stream of scientists, explorers, socialites, and artists visited her to exchange ideas and to inspect her collections. And, think about the limitless ambition she must have had as Lightfoot wrote that Maria wanted, "Every unknown species in the three kingdoms of nature described and published to the world." Now, Maria had a special love for collecting plants and flowers from far off places from around the world. She retained the botanist and the incomparable botanical illustrator Georg Dionysius Ehret as a drawing instructor. Struck by the luminescence of his work, Maria bought over 300 of his paintings. Maria also became friends with the botanical artist Mary Delaney. Mary made botanical paper mosaics, as she called them. Mary was essentially creating flower specimens out of tissue paper. Mary was exacting - dissecting real flowers and then replicating what she saw with tissue paper. To gather more material for her work, Maria and Mary loved to go out into the fields and collect specimens together. As the Duchess of Portland, Maria shared her specimens with the public, and she displayed her various collections from around the globe in what she called her Portland Museum. Once, in 1800, Maria received a rose from Italy, which became known as the Portland Rose in her honor. The rose was a beautiful crimson scarlet with round petals - and it was a repeat bloomer. And, here's a fun fact: all Portland Roses were developed from that first Portland Rose - the sweet gift to Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, the Duchess of Portland. 1763 Today is the anniversary of the death of poet and landscape gardener William Shenstone In the early 1740s, Shenstone inherited his family's dairy farm, which he transformed into the Leasowes (pronounced 'lezzoes'). The transfer of ownership lit a fire under Shenstone, and he immediately started changing the land into a wild landscape - something he referred to as an ornamented farm. Shenstone wisely bucked the trend of his time, which called for formal garden design (he didn't have the money to do that anyway.) Yet, what Shenstone accomplished was quite extraordinary. His picturesque natural landscape included water features like cascades and pools, as well as structures like temples and ruins. What I love most about Shenstone is that he was a consummate host. He considered the comfort and perspective of the garden from the standpoint of his visitors. When he created a walk around his estate, Shenstone wanted to control the experience. So, Shenstone added seating, every so often along the path, to cause folks to stop and admire the views that Shenstone found most appealing. Then, he incorporated signage with beautiful classical verses and poems - even adding some of his own - which elevated the Leasowes experience for guests. After his death, his garden, the Leasowes, became a popular destination - attracting the likes of William Pitt, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. It was William Shenstone who said, "Grandeur and beauty are so very opposite, that you often diminish the one as you increase the other. Variety is most akin to the latter, simplicity to the former." 1795 Today is the birthday of the 19th-century professor of botany at Oxford University — as well as a chemist and geologist — Charles Daubeny (dow-Ben-EE). The herbarium at Oxford is named in his honor, as is the Daubenya genus (dow-Ben-ya) in the Hyacinth family. In 1835, the genus was described by the British botanist John Lindley. Lindley named it in honor of his peer, Charles Daubeny, in recognition for his experiments in vegetable chemistry, which improved our understanding of plant physiology. Native to South Africa, up until 2000, Daubenya was thought to have a single species, Daubenya aurea or Golden Daubenya. But then, it was expanded by John Manning and Peter Goldblatt to include additional genera ("jeh·nr·uh"). These Hyacinth varieties, with the common name "Jewel of the Desert," - Daubenya - grow flat on the ground and have a single large red or yellow bloom. Growing only on the Roggeveld ("Rog-veld" Afrikaans for "rye field") mountain range in South Africa, Daubenya blooms every September. Unearthed Words Here are some thoughts on winter: Winter is a time of promise because there is so little to do — or because you can now and then permit yourself the luxury of thinking so. —Stanley Crawford, A Garlic Testament: Seasons on a Small New Mexico Farm, 1992 There are two seasons in Scotland: June and Winter. — Billy Connolly, Scottish stand-up comedian A melancholy mantle rests Upon the land, the sea. The wind in tristful cadence moans A mournful threnody. There flits no gleeful insect, No blithesome bee nor bird; Over all the vast of Nature No joyful sound is heard. In garments sere and somber Each vine and tree is clad: It's dreary-hearted winter, And all the earth is sad. — Hazel Dell Crandall, Los Angeles poet, The Lilt of the Year Go to the winter woods: listen there, look, watch, and "the dead months" will give you a subtler secret than any you have yet found in the forest. — William Sharp (pseudonym Fiona Macleod), Scottish writer and poet, Where the Forest Murmurs Grow That Garden Library A Botanist's Vocabulary by Susan K. Pell and Bobbi Angell This book came out in May of 2015, and it describes and illustrates - which is so helpful - a whopping 1300 terms. Bobbi and Susan introduce their book this way: "We have attempted to define terms used by botanists, naturalists, and gardeners alike to describe plants. The included terms mostly refer to plant structures and come from the horticultural and botanical literature and practice. Many… terms are not easily defined or illustrated. If they were, the botanical kingdom would not be as rich and engaging as it is. With infinite variety, petals and sepals sometimes adhere to each other to attract pollinators or facilitate pollination; male and female reproductive parts may fuse to form intricate unified columns; fruits have peculiar, sometimes complicated, mechanisms of seed dispersal. There are terms that apply only to a particular group of plants, such as orchids, grasses, or irises. Some apply to whole plants or ecosystems, while others are visible only under a microscope. Please wander through the book to recognize the easily applied terms and learn a few unusual ones, but also use the book as a reference when you are stumped by a field guide or a strange-looking fruit. We hope your newfound knowledge helps you gain an even greater appreciation for the world of plants." You can get a used copy of A Botanist's Vocabulary by Susan K. Pell and Bobbi Angell and support the show, using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for under $14. Great Gifts for Gardeners KINGLAKE 328 Feet Natural Jute Twine Best Arts Crafts Gift Twine Christmas Twine Durable Packing String for Gardening Applications $5.99
Today's Botanic Spark February joined the calendar with January around 700 B.C. The etymology of the name February comes from the Latin "februa," which means "purification." February generally has 28 days, except in a leap year (like this year), in which it has 29 days. Sometimes sayings about February aren't very kind like the translation of this French saying: "February is the shortest month and by far the worst." February is National Cherry (Prunus spp.) month and National Grapefruit (Citrus × paradisi) month. Here's some folklore regarding the month of February : Married in February's sleety weather, Life you'll tread in tune together. It is better to see a troop of wolves than a fine February. If a hedgehog casts a shadow at noon, winter will return. If February gives much snow, A fine summer it doth foreshow. Fogs in February mean frosts in May. A wet February, a wet Spring.
Today we celebrate the man who suggested naming the Twinflower for Linnaeus and the botanist who gave Meriwether Lewis a crash course in botany. We'll learn about the English writer who wrote, that, "God once loved a garden we learn in holy writ and seeing gardens in the spring, I well can credit it." And we also tip our hats to the British botanist who loved the common spotted orchid. Today's Unearthed Words feature words about the white stuff covering our gardens right now: snow. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about a family who settled in the Florida frontier. The book was honored as the "Most Outstanding Florida Historical Novel." I'll talk about a tool that will help you spruce up a number of items in your garden (I love these things!) and then we'll wrap things up with a pioneer naturalist who wrote books that became a beloved part of many modern childhoods. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events. Subscribe Apple|Google|Spotify|Stitcher|iHeart Curated Articles Alan Titchmarsh: The stunning midwinter trees whose bark is better than their bite - Country Life Here's a great post by Alan Titchmarsh in Country Life about the fabulous book Winter Gardens by Cedric Pollet. Pollet is a shutterbug who captures plants in their dormancy: "the best varieties of dogwoods, willows, maples, and birches, plus a smattering of brambles and bamboos." "We are none of us too old to discover new plants and new ways of using them." Plant health resolutions: Pippa Greenwood Botanist and broadcaster @PippaGreenwood wants to see more funding for research into pests and pathogens, and the breeding of plants better able to resist new diseases. "You could say that plant health is the most important thing – we, as the human race, cannot survive long-term without plants; in fact, we couldn't survive for long at all. Plants are fundamentally important to everything. Increased movement of people, food, and other goods has played a significant part in the spread of pests and pathogens, often with a very serious impact on plant health. Quite simply, we have to take steps to ensure plant health is seen as a top priority." Now, if you'd like to check out these curated articles for yourself, you're in luck, because I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. There's no need to take notes or search for links - the next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events 1686 Today is the birthday of the Dutch botanist Jan Gronovius. Gronovius's story is inextricably bound to the Virginia botanist John Clayton. Clayton botanized Virginia. In the early 1700s, Clayton sent specimens to Gronovius both directly and indirectly through the English naturalist Mark Catesby. Gronovius was a little in over his head as he attempted to make sense of the overwhelming amount of specimens from Clayton. So, he did what most of us would do; he asked for help - and he got it from Carl Linnaeus. In a brazen move, Gronovius used Clayton's specimens and documentation to put together a Flora of Virginia in 1739. He published the work without notifying Clayton, and he certainly didn't seek his permission before he started the endeavor. Other than the Clayton situation, Gronovius is remembered for the many plants that he named. After seeing the Twinflower, it was Gronovius who suggested naming the plant after Linnaeus. Without Gronovius, Linnaeus probably wouldn't have had a plant named for him during his lifetime; Linnaeus was very modest. And, bless his heart, Gronovius was sensitive to Linnaeus's need to keep the honorary naming low key. So Gronovius wrote that, "[The Twinflower was] "a plant of Lapland; lowly, insignificant, disregarded, flowering but for a brief space - after Linnaeus who resembles it." Thus, the Twinflower is the only plant named for the Father of Taxonomy, Linnaeus, and has the botanical name is Linnea Borealis. Another plant that Gronovius named was the genus Gerbera which was named after the German botanist Traugott Gerber. Finally, in 1739, It was Gronovius, who combined the words for water and jug - hydro and angeion; put them together, and you get hydrangea, which translates to water jug. 1766 Today is the birthday of the American botanist, naturalist, and physician Benjamin Smith Barton. Barton worked as a professor of natural history and botany at the University of Pennsylvania, where he authored the very first textbook on American botany. In 1803, Barton tutored Meriwether Lewis to get him ready for the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Lewis had little knowledge of natural history and plants. Barton's expertise made it possible for him to be quite effective on the expedition. Barton was supposed to create a book describing all of the plants that were found on the expedition. But, for some reason, he never began writing. The job ultimately fell to Barton's assistant, Frederick Pursh, who ended up having a falling out with Barton. Pursh took copies of the specimens and went to England, where he found a patron and published his Flora of North America — much to the chagrin of Benjamin Smith Barton and other botanists. And, there's a fun story that came out last year, in February, about this time. And, it was about a little yellow butterfly that was found pressed between the pages of a Barton manuscript - his Flora Virginica - from 1812. It turns out that this little yellow creature was found by a library fellow named E. Bennett Jones at the American Philosophical Society as he was looking through the book. Butterfly experts felt the placement was purposeful since the butterfly was found in between the pages listed "plants beloved by pollinators - such as Monarda." After the discovery, the Barton butterfly was carefully removed and preserved in a suspended container. In a touching result, the manuscript will forever bear a butterfly-shaped stain - marking the spot where the little butterfly was pressed between its pages for over 200 years before it was discovered. 1882 Today is the birthday of the English writer Winifred Mary Letts. Gardeners love her quote on spring: That God once loved a garden, we learn in Holy writ. And seeing gardens in the Spring, I well can credit it. Winifred also wrote a poem about spring called "Spring the Cheat." This is one of many poems Winifred wrote about the Great War - WWI. Winifred wrote "Spring the Cheat" to remind people that they were not alone in their suffering. Her poem illustrates how pointless existence seems during wartime. Winifred contrasts the season of rebirth - spring (which is cyclical), with a war-induced season of loss (which usually spreads across many seasons and is especially at odds during spring). Spring the Cheat The wych-elm shakes its sequins to the ground, With every wind, the chestnut blossoms fall: Down by the stream the willow-warblers sing, And in the garden to a merry sound The mown grass flies. The fantail pigeons call And sidle on the roof; a murmuring Of bees about the woodbine-covered wall, A child's sweet chime of laughter — this is spring. Luminous evenings when the blackbird sways Upon the rose and tunes his flageolet, A sea of bluebells down the woodland ways, — O exquisite spring, all this — and yet — and yet — Kinder to me the bleak face of December Who gives no cheating hopes, but says — "Remember." 1920 Happy birthday to British botanist and former Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Jack Heslop-Harrison. He was the first Director to resign the position since its creation in 1822. In 1957, Jack wrote an article on the hybridization of the common spotted orchid. Today, at Kew, there is a marker for the spotted orchid (or the marsh orchid), Dactylorhiza X braunii ("DACK-tie-lo-RYE-zah Brawn-ee-eye); Jack's favorite flower. Unearthed Words Here are some poems and quotes about snow: "To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake, it is necessary to stand out in the cold." — Aristotle, Greek philosopher and polymath "There is no winter without snow, no spring without sunshine, and no happiness without companions." — Korean Proverb Here delicate snow-stars, out of the cloud, Come floating downward in airy play, Like spangles dropped from the glistening crowd That whiten by night the milky way. — William Cullen Bryant, American Romantic poet, The Snow-Shower "There's a silence in a snowy dawn that forces you to look anew at what has been transformed from the customary landscape of your day-to-day life. Dogwoods glisten in their silver finery; bowing fir limbs form a secret cathedral." — Nancy Hatch Woodward, American writer, Southern Snow Grow That Garden Library A Land Remembered by Patrick D Smith This book came out in 1996. A land remembered is a multi-generational saga, and it tells the story of a family who settled in the Florida Frontier and survived against all the odds and the land itself. In the story, the MacIvey family arrive by oxcart in Florida in the 1850s. Settling on the banks of the Kissimmee River, they fight off mosquitoes, floods, freezes, and rustlers. In addition to telling the story of the MacIvey family, Smith writes poignantly about another character: the Florida landscape. Specifically, Smith tells how Florida looked - when it was pristine - before the pioneers came and settled the land. Smith highlights how the Florida landscape has been irrevocably altered by development and destroyed by greed over the past two centuries. A land remembered has won many awards as a work of Florida historical fiction. This best-selling novel has been reprinted multiple times over the years. You can get a used copy of A Land Remembered by Patrick D Smith and support the show, using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for under $5. Great Gifts for Gardeners Katzco Furniture Repair Kit Wood Markers - Set of 13 - Markers and Wax Sticks with Sharpener - for Stains, Scratches, Floors, Tables, Desks, Carpenters, Bedposts, Touch-Ups, Cover-Ups, Molding Repair $9.99 This 13 piece kit includes 6 Repair Markers, six paper wrapped wax sticks, and one wax stick sharpener packaged in a blister card. 6 Unique Colors - Maple, Oak, Cherry, Walnut, Mahogany, and Black to match the color of your furniture. Now there's no need for you to call a professional to retouch your scuffed furniture. Become the pro yourself! Premium Quality - Top quality markers and wax sticks that cover scratches, nicks, scuffs, and discoloration on furniture, cabinets, tables, beds, and more. 100% effective and permanent. Easy To Use - Simply draw over the scratch, allow it to quickly dry, and watch the scratches disappear right before your eyes! These are safe to use on all types of wooden furniture. Use the included sharpener to sharpen the wax sticks. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed - Katzco will make sure that you will be satisfied with this product you buy from us. You are protected with our 100% No Questions Asked Guarantee for either a replacement or refund. We care about only putting out high-quality products that satisfy your needs. If there is anything you need that we don't offer, we go and find the best for you! Today's Botanic Spark 1957 Today is the anniversary of the death of Laura Ingalls Wilder. One of the reasons so many of us have a soft spot in our heart for the Little House books is because Laura was so descriptive; she was a natural storyteller. In retrospect, I think you might be surprised by the amount of material in Laura's books devoted to the natural world - ma's gardens, the landscapes that Laura and her family experienced, and her overall reverence for life - plants, animals, and human - all of it is so cherished by Laura and her loved ones. In 2017, the author, Marta McDowell, wrote a book called The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder, and in it, she highlights the "Frontier Landscapes that Inspired the Little House books." Marta's book sheds light on Laura as a naturalist. In a blog post, she challenged us by writing: "I'd like to suggest a thought experiment. Instead of categorizing Laura Ingalls Wilder as an American children's author, think of her as a nature writer as well… Long before she was a writer, Laura Ingalls Wilder was a gardener and farmer, growing food for the table and raising crops for sale. Nature was her home, as well as little houses. Through her life and work, Wilder sowed a deep appreciation for the world outside one's own door. Her books still inspire budding naturalists to plant, preserve, and appreciate their own wilder gardens." Marta and I had a lovely chat that is featured in Episode 585 of the Still Growing podcast - if you'd like to check it out. You can get a used copy of TheWorld of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Marta McDowell and support the show, using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for under $4. In the Missouri Ruralist, Laura wrote, "The voices of nature do not speak so plainly to us as we grow older, but I think it is because, in our busy lives, we neglect her until we grow out of sympathy. Our ears and eyes grow dull, and beauties are lost to us that we should still enjoy. Life was not intended to be simply a round of work, no matter how interesting and important that work may be. A moment's pause to watch the glory of a sunrise - or a sunset - is so satisfying, while a bird song will set the steps to music all day long." In early February 1918, Laura wrote: "Now is the time to make a garden! Anyone can be a successful gardener at this time of year, and I know of no pleasanter occupation these cold, snowy days, then to sit warm and snug by the fire making a garden with a pencil, and a seed catalog. What perfect vegetables do we raise in that way, and so many of them! Our radishes are crisp and sweet, our lettuce tender and our tomatoes smooth and beautifully colored. Best of all, there is not a bug or worm in the whole garden, and the work is so easily done. In imagination, we see the plants in our spring garden, all in straight, thrifty rows with the fruit of each plant and vine numerous and beautiful as the pictures before us. How near the real garden of next summer approaches the ideal garden of our winter fancies depends upon how practically we dream and how hard we work."
Full show notes at the publisherToday we celebrate the botanist who served as Lieutenant Governor of New York and the first American female botanist in America. We'll learn about the man who changed agriculture forever with his invention. Today's Unearthed Words feature the English Victorian author born today. He loved geraniums. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that features Thomas Jefferson's revolutionary garden at Monticello. I'll talk about a garden item that will heat things up... And, then, we'll wrap things up with a fantastic honor for a modern plant explorer and ethnobotanist - a daughter of the great state of Wisconsin and a senior curator of the Missouri Botanical Garden. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events. Subscribe Apple|Google|Spotify|Stitcher|iHeart Curated Articles Yes, Native Plants Can Flourish After Bushfire. But There's Only So Much Hardship They Can Take While Australian plants and ecosystems have evolved to embrace bushfires, there's only so much drought and fire they can take... Poetic Botany: A Digital Exhibition Poetic Botany: Have you explored the 'Poetic Botany' exhibition from @NYBG yet? This interactive digital exhibition illuminates the cross-section between art, science, and poetry through nine plant species. Check it out here: Now, if you'd like to check out these curated articles for yourself, you're in luck, because I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. There's no need to take notes or search for links - the next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events 1688 Today is the birthday of the Scottish-American physician, Scientist, botanist, and Lieutenant Governor of New York, Cadwallader Colden (CAD-wah-LIDDER). When Colden arrived in America in 1718, he began a family dynasty that would eventually settle in Queens, New York. Aside from his political endeavors and his many interests, Colden was interested in botany and the new Linnaean system. The family lived on an estate called Coldenham, and it was often visited by famous New World botanists like John Bartram. Now, Colden and his wife had ten children, and they actively encouraged each of them to pursue their education. Colden's 5th child was a daughter named Jane. Jane was born in 1724, and she followed in her father's footsteps and is regarded to be the first American woman to have become an official botanist. Peter Collinson suspected as much when he wrote to John Bartram about Jane saying, "Our friend, Colden's daughter, has, in a scientifical manner, sent over several sheets of plants - very curiously anatomized after Linnaeus's method and I believe that she is the first lady that has the tempted anything of this nature." A proud dad, Colden wrote to his friend Jan Gronovius, "I (have) often thought that botany is an amusement which may be made greater to the ladies who are often at a loss to fill up their time… Their natural curiosity and the pleasure they take in the beauty and variety of dress seems to fit it for them (far more than men). The chief reason that few or none of them have applied themselves to (it)… is because all the books of any value are (written) in Latin. I have a daughter (with) an inclination... for natural philosophy or history… I took the pains to explained her Linnaeus's system and put it in English for her to use by freeing it from the technical terms - which was easily done by using two or three words in the place of one. She is now grown very fond of the study… she now understands to some degree Linnaeus's characters. Notwithstanding that, she does not understand Latin. she has already (written) a pretty large volume in writing of the description of plants." Cadwallader was able to give his daughter personal instruction on botany. He gave her access to his impressive botanical library; he even shared his personal correspondence with her and allowed her to interact with the many botanists that came to visit the family's estate. In 1754 at Coldenham, when Jane was 30 years old, she met a young William Bartram who was less than half her age at just 14 years old. She also met the Charleston plantsman Alexander Garden who was just 24 years old. In 1753, on the land around her family's home, Jane discovered marsh St Johnswort (Hypericum virginicum). Alexander sent it to her the following year, and Jane wanted to name it gardenia in his honor. Unfortunately for Jane, the gardenia name had been used by John Ellis, who had given the name to the Cape Jasmine. Since Ellis used the name first, Jane could not. So gardenia is reserved for the strongly scented Cape Jasmine (Gardenia jasminoides). They are fabulous cut flowers. With their beautiful foliage, they also make effective screens, hedges, borders, or ground covers. In 1758, Walter Rutherford wrote to a friend after visiting Coldingham, and he described Cadwallader, his home and his 34-year-old daughter Jane this way: "We made an Excursion to Coldingham, the Abode of the venerable philosopher Colden, as gay and facetious in his conversation is serious and solid in his writings. From the middle of the woods, this family corresponds with all the learning Societies in Europe…. his daughter Jenny is a florist in botanist. she has discovered a great number of plants never before described and his given their properties and virtues ( in her descriptions).... and she draws and colors them with great beauty… she (also) makes the best cheese I ever ate in America." As for Jane, she is most famous for her only manuscript - a work in which she described 341 plants in the flora of NY, and she illustrated all but one of the different species she described. The genus Coldenia in the borage family is named after Jane's father, Cadwallader Colden. 1804 Today is the birthday of the inventer and manufacturer John Deere. John was born in Rutland, Vermont. When he was four years old, his father returned to England to claim his inheritance. His father disappeared during that trip, and so John was raised by a single mother. As a little boy, John went to school, and at the age of 17, he became an apprentice to a blacksmith. Four years later, John set up his own shop and worked as a blacksmith for a dozen years. But in 1837, times had changed, there were many blacksmiths in the east, and John was struggling to get business. Ultimately, John was facing bankruptcy when he headed west with just $73 in his pocket. After three weeks of traveling, John made it to Grand Detour, Illinois. After settling in, he opened another blacksmith shop in Grand Detour, and seeing that his prospects for business were good, he sent word back to his wife, Demaryius Lamb, to bring their five children and join him at their new home. During his first year in Illinois, John was constantly making the same repair over and over again to the wood and cast-iron plow. The plow had worked well in the eastern part of the United States, where the soil is light and sandy. But, heavy and thick Midwestern farmland broke wooden plows. The farmers of the prairie desperately needed something more heavy-duty. So, in 1838, when he was 34 years old, John Deere developed the first steel plow and the rest, as they say, is history. Fast forward 20 years to 1858, and John Deere was building and selling more than 13,000 plows per year. Almost thirty years later, when John Deere died at the age of 82 in 1886, John's son Charles took over the business. A little over a hundred years later, in 1993, the John Deere Lawn and Garden division alone topped two billion dollars in sales. Today, the John Deere company is worth more than 53 billion dollars. Unearthed Words 1812 Today is the birthday of the English Victorian era author and social critic Charles Dickens. Charles Dickens' personal garden was called Gad's Hill Place. Every day, Charles Dickens cultivated the habit of walking the circuit of his gardens at Gad's Hill Place before sitting down to write his stories. We know from his oldest daughter Mamie that Dickens's favorite flower was the Mrs. Pollock geranium - a tricolor variety that dates back to 1858. The Mrs. Pollock geranium was bred by the Scottish gardener and hybridist Peter Grieve. It's considered a classic geranium with sharply lobed leaves that sport three colors: brick red, gold, and grass green. You've heard the saying, "not your grandmother's geranium"? Well, Mrs. Pollock could very well have been your second or third great grandmother's geranium. Dickens loved to wear geraniums in his buttonhole - and he had a steady supply. He grew them into large beds at gad's Hill, and he also grew them in his conservatory. Here are some quotes about gardens and nature from an assortment of Dickens' 15 novels and short stories: Spring is the time of year when it is summer in the sun and winter in the shade. — Charles Dickens, Great Expectations On the motionless branches of some trees, autumn berries hung like clusters of coral beads, as in those fabled orchards where the fruits were jewels... — Charles Dickens, The Life, and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit Around and around the house, the leaves fall thick, but never fast, for they come circling down with a dead lightness that is somber and slow. — Charles Dickens, Bleak House Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. — Charles Dickens, Hard Times The evening wind made such a disturbance just now, among some tall old elm-trees at the bottom of the garden, that neither my mother nor Miss Betsey could forbear glancing that way. As the elms bent to one another, like giants who were whispering secrets, and after a few seconds of such repose, fell into a violent flurry, tossing their wild arms about, as if their late confidences were really too wicked for their peace of mind. — Charles Dickens, The Personal History of David Copperfield Grow That Garden Library A Rich Spot of Earth by Peter J. Hatch The subtitle to this book is "Thomas Jefferson's Revolutionary Garden at Monticello." The author of this book, Peter Hatch, was responsible for the maintenance, interpretation, and restoration of the 2400 acre landscape of Monticello from 1977 until 2012. Alice Waters wrote the forward to this book. She said, "I first met Peter Hatch in 2009 when he took me around the gardens of Monticello on a crisp, sunny, autumn day. No one knows the land's story better than Peter. Thomas Jefferson's garden, Peter writes, 'was an Ellis Island of introductions, filled with a whole world of hearty economic plants: 330 varieties of 99 species of vegetables and herbs.' I'm so impressed by this biodiversity, which is exactly what our country so urgently needs right now - a vegetable garden that is, as Peter frames it, a true American garden: practical, expensive, and wrought from a world of edible immigrants." The president of the Thomas Jefferson foundation wrote this in the preface to Peters book: "Peter is a man of the earth. Annie Leibovitz Photographed his hands when she came to Monticello. For 34 years, Peter has plunged those hands into the earth on the mountainside of Monticello. Each year, coaxing, wresting, and willing an ever more copious renaissance of Jefferson's peerless garden. Monticello is Jefferson's autobiography, his lifelong pursuit, the greatest manifestation of his genius, And the only home in the united states listed on the United Nations list of World Heritage Sites. We have Peter to thank for devoting his career to the revelation of Jefferson's passion for plants and the significance of our founder's horticultural pursuit of happiness." Peter Hatch opens the book with this quote from Jefferson. It's from a letter he wrote to the Philadelphia Portrait Painter Charles Wilson Peale. Jefferson said, "I have often thought that if heaven had given me a choice of my position and calling, it should have been on a rich spot of earth, well-watered, and near a good market for the productions of the garden. No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth and no culture comparable to that of the garden. Such a variety of subjects, someone always coming to perfection, the failure of one thing repaired by the success of another, and instead of one harvest a continued one thro' the year. Under a total want of demand except for our family table I am still devoted to the garden. But tho' an old man, I am but a young gardener." Peter went on to write that, "Thomas Jefferson's Monticello vegetable garden was truly a revolutionary American garden. Many of the summer vegetables that we take for granted today — tomatoes, okra, eggplant, lima beans, peanuts, and peppers— were slow to appear in North American gardens around 1800. European travelers commented on the failure of Virginia gardeners to take advantage "of the fruitful warmth of the climate" because of the American reliance "on the customary products of Europe": cool-season vegetables. Jefferson's garden was unique in showcasing a medley of vegetable species native to hot climates, from South and Central America to Africa to the Middle East and the Mediterranean. Few places on earth combined tropical heat and humidity with temperate winters like those at Monticello. Jefferson capitalized on this by creating a south-facing terrace, a microclimate that exaggerates the summer warmth, tempers the winter cold and captures an abundant wealth of crop-ripening Sunshine. Peter's book is beautiful. It's lavishly Illustrated and the writing is engaging. The first half of the book focuses on Jefferson's gardening, and then the second half focuses on the development and the restoration of the gardens at Monticello." You can get a used copy of A Rich Spot of Earth by Peter J. Hatch and support the show, using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for under $7. 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CONVENIENT STORAGE: Delivered in a high-quality, reusable storage bag, the mat flattens out when heating up and can also be rolled back up for easy storage. Today's Botanic Spark 2020 Today is a big day for Dr. Jan Salick - a daughter of the great state of Wisconsin - who is being honored with the 2020 Fairchild Medal for Plant Exploration. Jan accepts her award tonight at a black-tie dinner at National Tropical Botanical Garden's (NTBG) historical garden, The Kampong, in Coconut Grove, Florida, the former residence of plant explorer Dr. David Fairchild. The following day she will present a public lecture entitled "Neither Man Nor Nature." Jan is only the second woman to receive the medal. Jan has been an ethnobotanist for over four decades. She…
Full show notes at the publisherToday we celebrate the Italian botanist who introduced coffee and bananas to Europe and the botanist who described new varieties of mums from China on this day in 1822. We'll learn about the man who could see the capabilities of a landscape In the botanist who wrote encouraging letters to one of his students. Today's Unearthed Words Feature sayings and poems about the winter mindset. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that helps you encourage different types of wildlife into your garden. I'll talk about a garden item you'll use every spring if you like to grow plants from seed and then we'll wrap things up with a cute little story that involves loganberries. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Curated Articles The Scent Of Fear – The Aphid Alarm Pheromone Great Post on The Scent of Fear – the aphid alarm pheromone via @Entoprof "Aphids, when perceiving a threat to their neighbors by a predator or parasite, flee the scene rapidly, by flight, if winged, on foot if not, or even by leaping from their host-plant to the ground below. " A Growing Concern: Is It Ever OK To Steal Plant Cuttings? | Life And Style | The Guardian A growing concern: is it ever OK to steal plant cuttings? "At Potted Elephant, the thief cut tendrils of Philodendron, Variegated Monstera and Scindapsus from live plants in his greenhouse – some from Jarrell's personal collection of rare plants." Now, if you'd like to check out these curated articles for yourself, you're in luck, because I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. There's no need to take notes or search for links - the next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events 1617 Today is the anniversary of the death of the 17th-century Italian botanist Prospero Alpini. Alpini introduced coffee and bananas to Europe. Alpini was also the first person to make observations about sexual differences in plants. The male and female flowers of the date palm, for instance, are borne on separate plants. This knowledge allowed Alpini to become the first person to fertilize the female flowers of the date palms artificially. Date palms were popular garden plants in Roman gardens. The fruit is very useful and is the basis for syrup, alcohol, vinegar, and liquor. The genus "Alpinia", belonging to the order Zingiberaceae (Ginger Family), is named for Alpini. Alpinia is also known as the ginger lily. Ginger lilies are perennials and the blooms have a gardenia fragrance. Ginger lilies are a wonderful cut flower. 1822 On this day in 1822, Joseph Sabine ("Suh-BEEN") gave a presentation to the London Horticultural Society. He was describing some new varieties of Chinese chrysanthemums. Eleven different kinds of mums had been imported two years earlier, in 1820, and had been thriving in the society's garden at Chiswick. In 1753, Carl Linnaeus, renowned Swedish botanist, combined the Greek words chrysos, meaning gold with anthemon, meaning flower. Chrysanthemum (Dendranthema grandiflora) is the birth flower for November. In Japan, the highest Order of Chivalry is the Imperial Order of the Chrysanthemum. And National Chrysanthemum Day, aka the Festival of Happiness, has been celebrated in Japan since 910. Chrysanthemum Day is always celebrated September 9th - the ninth day of the ninth month because, in terms of numerology, that day, September 9th, is regarded as an auspicious day. Now, when Joseph Sabine described the Quilled Pink Chrysanthemum in detail for the London Horticultural Society, members had only heard about the Quilled Flamed Yellow variety. The Quilled Pink was exciting. Sabine, would not even recognize modern mums. Although some mums still look like their sister flowers, daisies, mums are being bred to be showier. Regardless of their appearance, mums belong to the Compositae, or daisy, family. And, there's another highlight for Joseph Sabine. He was serving as the Secretary of the Horticultural Society and is remembered for sending David Douglas on his 6-month expedition to North America. Douglas named the Digger Pine, Pinus Sabiniana, in honor of Joseph Sabine. 1783 Today is the anniversary of the death of the renowned landscape gardener Lancelot Capability Brown. In the 1730s, Lancelot ended up at Stowe, working for the great William Kent - the eminent painter and Landscape Architect. The garden at Stowe was a landscape garden with lots of straight lines and formality. The end result was a garden that looked like a painting with an 11-acre lake. The main area of the garden was the Elysian Fields ("uh·li·zhn"); 40 acres featuring buildings and monuments that flank two narrow lakes called the River Styx. The monuments in the garden honor virtuous men of Britain. The time Lancelot spent with Kent at Stowe transformed not only the land but also Lancelot - from a gardener to a Landscape Architect. It was his big break, and it gave him the confidence to set out on his own. After Stowe, Lancelot traveled all over England. When working for clients, he would stare out at the blank canvas of a new project and seek to find the "capabilities" of the Landscape - removing worker's cottages or older gardens when he felt the need to do so. It earned him the unshakeable nickname of Capability. Capability Brown's skill of seeing landscapes and then creating them made him very popular. Everyone with means wanted a Capability Brown landscape - they craved his signature look, his garden designs, and garden temples. What everyone essentially wanted was beauty - and Capability created beautiful gardens. For 19 years, Capability served as the King's Master Gardener. Today, at least 20 Capability gardens still exist and are under the care of England's National Trust. When Lancelot died, the English writer Horace Walpole, sent word to the noblewoman Anne FitzPatrick that, "Lady Nature's second husband," was dead. He also sent a poem about Capability to the poet and gardener William Mason: "With one Lost Paradise the name Of our first ancestor is stained; Brown shall enjoy unsullied fame For many a Paradise, he regained." 1946 The botanist Edgar Anderson wrote to his student Charles B Heiser Jr: "Oh stamp collecting, when will taxonomists ever take any interest in being biologists? Once, when I traveled with E.J. Palmer, I went to a good deal of trouble to get a whole sheet of lily pods, and he threw it away because it made such a nasty looking specimen, and he wasn't certain what species it belonged to anyway." It turns out, this was just one of many letters that Edgar wrote to his student. In 1972, Charles wrote a lovely tribute about Edgar called "Student Days with Edgar Anderson or How I Came to Study Sunflowers." Charles sifted through the many letters he had received from Edgar during his lifetime - they filled up a folder over two inches thick. Over the years, Edgar was an encouraging mentor to Charles, writing, "What an incredible gift good students are…" and "if you are tired of [Helianthus] and don't want to look at 'em any more for a while, why by all means put them aside. Don't let anybody's advice, including mine, keep you from what you are happiest doing." Sunflowers or Helianthus Annuus ("HE-LEE-ann-thus ANN-you-us") are native to North America. When the Russian Tsar, Peter the Great, saw sunflower for the first time in Holland, he fell in love with them and had them brought back to Russia. The Russian public loved sunflowers as well - but not just for their happy flowers. Unlike other cooking oils, the oil from sunflower seeds was approved for use during Lent by the Russian Orthodox Church. By the early 1800s, two million Acres of sunflowers for planted in Russia every single year. Ironically, over the next century, immigrants from Russia would bring sunflower seeds with them when they immigrated to the United States. The Russian hybrids had bigger blooms than the original American varieties. Now, most gardeners attempt growing sunflowers at some point, so if you find yourself wanting to give it a try, here are some tips to consider: First, sunflowers really do need a ton of sun. Don't be stingy with the sunshine and put them in part shade. These are plants that really appreciate all the rays they can get. Second, Sunflowers follow the sun; they exhibit a behavior known as heliotropism. In the morning, the heads will face East, and then the heads will move to track the sun throughout the day. As they mature, they're tracking movement will become less pronounced as the stem loses its flexibility in order to support the large, mature bloom. Third, don't be surprised if you find a few sunflowers reseeding themselves in your garden after your initial planting. It's a lovely surprise and a little memento from that first batch of sunflowers. Finally, once the seeds ripen, the birds will begin to visit, and you'll notice more activity from species like goldfinches - they love sunflower seeds. If you feel inclined, you can dry some of the seed heads to share later with the birds during the cold months of winter. Unearthed Words Here are some words about the winter mindset: Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face. — Victor Hugo, French poet, and writer Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart. — Victor Hugo, French poet, and writer The tendinous part of the mind, so to speak, is more developed in winter; the fleshy, in summer. I should say winter had given the bone and sinew to Literature, summer the tissues and blood. — John Burroughs, American naturalist, and writer, "The Snow-Walkers," 1866 Winter blues are cured every time with a potato gratin paired with a roast chicken. — Alexandra Guarnaschelli ("GORE-nah-shell-ee"), American chef Keep your faith in beautiful things; in the sun when it is hidden, in the Spring when it is gone. And then you will find that Duty and Service and Sacrifice— all the old ogres and bugbears of — have joy imprisoned in their deepest dungeons! And it is for you to set them free — the immortal joys that no one — No living soul, or fate, or circumstance— Can rob you of, once you have released them. — Reverend Roy R. Gibson, Poet & Critic Many human beings say that they enjoy the winter, but what they really enjoy is feeling proof against it. — Richard Adams, English novelist, Watership Down To many forms of life of our northern lands, winter means a long sleep; to others, it means what it means to many fortunate human beings - travels in warm climes. To still others, who again have their human prototypes, it means a struggle, more or less fierce, to keep soul and body together; while to many insect forms, it means death. — John Burroughs, American naturalist, and writer Grow That Garden Library Wildlife Gardening by Kate Bradbury The subtitle to this book is: For Everyone and Everything (The Wildlife Trusts) An easy-to-follow gardening guide endorsed by the Wildlife Trusts and the RHS to help you encourage different types of wildlife into your garden. Kate Bradbury is an award-winning writer who specializes in wildlife gardening. She is the author of The Bumblebee Flies Anyway, she works on BBC Gardeners' World magazine and regularly writes for the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian to name a few. What I love about Kate's book is that she breaks it down by groups of species, and each chapter explains what they require to thrive, what their role in the garden is, and how they contribute to the garden ecosystem. Chapters cover pollinators, birds, and amphibians, wasps, flies, and so on - some will be your favorites, while others will be new to you. Kate offers many plant suggestions. And, don't forget that your garden is a shared space. It's for you AND these other species. Kate hopes you are able to observe the habitats in your garden throughout the year. Ultimately, this is a book about creating a space that's as much for you to relax in as it is for the other species you welcome into it, and about getting to know the wildlife around you. You can get a used copy of Wildlife Gardening by Kate Bradbury and support the show, using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for under $13. Great Gifts for Gardeners Ladbrooke Genuine Mini 4 Hand-held Soil Blocker - Most Popular Soil Blocking Tool! $33.99 Genuine Ladbrooke "Mini 4" soil blocker is the most popular size worldwide. Part of the unique Micro / Mini / Maxi "nesting system" for starting seeds and transplanting starts. (Mini 4, Micro 20, and Cubic Inserts sold separately.) Essential organic gardening product; easy to use and reusable for years. This eco-friendly system saves on plastic pots. Most popular size - makes four - 2" soil blocks. Zinc coated steel will last for years. It is made by Ladbrooke - makers of the highest quality products! Note: these are utilitarian gardening tools. Cosmetic blemishes and water bathing marks made during manufacturing are natural, and in no way alter the functionality of the tool. Today's Botanic Spark When I was researching Edgar Anderson, and reading Charles Heisler's tribute to him. I ran across a little story that involved loganberries. Loganberries (Rubus loganobaccus) grow on vines known as brambles. They smell like raspberries, but they are tart and they have a slightly sweet taste. Loganberries are named for their California creator, James Harvey Logan, who came up with the idea to cross a Blackberry with a raspberry. Sadly loganberries don't have a long shelf life which is why you don't see them in the grocery store very often. If you decide to grow them, most people keep the berries on the vine as long as possible - which makes them more flavorful. Anyway, this talk on loganberries brings me back to Charles Heisler's tribute to Edgar, which was titled "Student Days with Edgar Anderson or How I Came to Study Sunflowers." Charles ended his tribute to Edgar with this adorable little story that included Loganberries among other things and it reminds us that botanists are people too. Charles wrote: "I haven't told you anything about [Edgar's] music sessions. He played the recorder. Nor about the square dances at the 'Barn.' Nor about his cooking. I think one of the worst dishes I have ever eaten was his spam covered with bread crumbs soaked in Loganberry juice — perhaps because he raved about it so. I hope [to have given you] some insight into the character of Edgar Anderson, teacher, and botanist. The latter is the title he chose for himself and his later years at the Missouri Botanical Garden."
Full show notes at the publisherToday we celebrate the savior of the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, and the fir tree described by Meriwether Lewis as "Fir No. 5." We'll learn about the man who discovered a plant that was called "the ugliest yet most botanically magnificent plant in the world" by Joseph Dalton Hooker. And, we celebrate the 124th birthday of the founding of the New England Botanical Club as well as the Landscape architect who helped create the New American Garden. Today's Unearthed Words feature poems about February We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that reveals the Ingenuity of Animal Survival - in and out of our gardens. I'll talk about a lovely gift for a gardener - something that will likely become an heirloom in your garden family. And then we'll wrap things up with the story of the Happy Huntsman's Tree. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Curated Articles Turn To Turnips For Early Vegetables Gardening: Turn to turnips for early vegetables Nancy Szerlag, master gardener and @detroitnews freelance writer, had a chance to try Burpee Gardening @burpeegardens new turnip, 'Silky Sweet'! Terrace Garden Of A Townhouse In Bruges By Piet Blanckaert | House & Garden The magnificent terrace garden in Bruges ("Brooj") by @_houseandgarden Piet Blanckaert says: "Small gardens are a puzzle in 3D. You need all the pieces, big & small, & every centimeter counts. You need less of everything so that you can choose top-quality materials." Now, if you'd like to check out these curated articles for yourself, you're in luck, because I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. There's no need to take notes or search for links - the next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events 1799 Today is the birthday of the British botanist, pomologist, pioneer orchidologist, and flower show organizer, John Lindley. Lindley's dad was a nurseryman, and he ran a commercial nursery in England. Despite his array of botanical talents and knowledge, the family was constantly under financial duress. Growing up in his father's nursery, helped Lindley acquire the knowledge to land his first job as a seed merchant. This position led to a chain of events that would shape Lindley's life. First, he met the botanist William Jackson Hooker. And, second, Hooker introduced him to Sir Joseph Banks. Lindley worked as an assistant in the Banks herbarium. In 1938 after Banks died, when the fate of Kew Gardens hung in the balance, it was Lindley who recommended that the gardens belonged to the people and that they should become the botanical headquarters for England. The government rejected Lindley's proposal and decided to close the garden. But, on February 11, 1840, Lindley ingeniously demanded that the issue be put before the Parliament. His advocacy brought the matter to the people; the garden-loving public was not about to lose the Royal Botanic. And, so, Lindley saved Kew Gardens, and William Hooker was chosen as the new director. From his humble beginnings to his incredible standing in English Botanical History, Lindley is remembered fondly for so many accomplishments. For 43 years, Lindley served as secretary to the Royal Horticultural Society, which is why the RHS Library is called the Lindley Library. And, there are over 200 plant species named for Lindley. There is "lindleyi", "lindleyana", "lindleyanum", "lindleya" and "lindleyoides". Lindley once told his friend, the botanist Ludwig Reichenbach, "I am a dandy in my herbarium." Without question, Lindley's favorite plants were orchids. Before Lindley, not much was known about orchids. Thanks to Lindley, the genus Orchidaceae was shortened to orchid – which is much more friendly to pronounce. And, when he died, Lindley's massive orchid collection was moved to a new home at Kew. Lindley's friend, the botanist Ludwig Reichenbach, wrote a touching tribute after his Lindley died. He wrote, "We cannot tell how long Botany, how long science, will be pursued; but we may affirm that so long as a knowledge of plants is considered necessary, so long will Lindley's name be remembered with gratitude." And here's a little-remembered factoid about Lindley - he was blind in one eye. 1806 Today Meriwether Lewis described a tree he referred to in his journal as "Fir No. 5." The tree in question was the Douglas-fir. Later, on February 9, Lewis added more details about the fir and sketched the distinctive bract of the cone in his journal. On their way back across the northern Rocky Mountains of Idaho and Montana, Lewis and Clark would encounter the inland variation of the species, the Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir. The Douglas-Fir gets its name from the botanist David Douglas, who was the first to grow the tree in England successfully. When Douglas met an early death, his friend and teacher, the botanist John Goldie, planted a Douglas-Fir next to his house to remember his young friend. The lifespan of a Douglas-Fir Tree ranges from 500 to 1,000 years. And, Douglas-Firs are very large trees - reaching heights of 60 feet tall and up to 25 feet wide. In the wild, they sometimes reach over 200 feet tall. This massive tree is too big for residential landscaping. The bark of a Douglas Fir gets thicker over time, and that dense layer of bark enables the tree to survive forest fires with only some blackened bark. 1806 Today is the birthday of the Austrian botanist and explorer Friedrich Welwitsch. Welwitsch found a second home in the country of Portugal, where he served as the director Of the botanic gardens in Lisbon. Welwitsch had some amazing experiences during his lifetime, but the pinnacle was clearly the day he discovered the Welwitschia mirabilis. The mirabilis refers to its unusual form. Portugal had to send him to Africa to collect plants - which he did for seven years. In 1860, Welwitsch discovered a strange-looking plant that is actually a tree - a conifer and a gymnosperm - in terms of botanical classification. The Africans called it "Mr. Big." The Welwitschia is endemic to Namibian deserts, and it's also present on the Namibian coat of arms. When Welwitsch discovered this unique plant which can live for more than 1500 years and bears only two leaves in its entire lifecycle, he was so astonished that he "could do nothing but kneel down and gaze at it, half in fear lest a touch should prove it a figment of the imagination." Imagine a two-tentacled octopus with very long arms and a red floral bouquet for a head, and you have the Welwitschia mirabilis. Welwitschia's two leaves grow continually throughout the life of a plant. The pair of leaves are broad, leathery, and belt-shaped. Incredibly, some specimens, tested with carbon 14, are over 2000 years old. There is a spectacular photo of Welwitsch seated behind a large welwitschia mirabilis. He's wearing a pith helmet, and the plant's leaves are clearly many times longer than Welwitschia's arms and legs, which are mostly obscured by the plant. In 1862, Joseph Dalton Hooker described the plant in The Gardener's Chronicle as "the ugliest yet botanically magnificent plant in the world among centuries-old plants." 1896 Today the New England Botanical Club was founded by seven Professional and ten amateur botanists. The club was established to study New England and Alpine Flora. Dues were set at $2/year. The late 1800s ushered in several scientific organizations - like the American Philosophical Society, the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, the Massachusetts Audubon Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. What distinguished the New England Botanical Club was the fact that it welcomed amateurs as well as professionals. The early meetings were held in member's homes. Charles Sprague Sargent of the Arnold Arboretum was reputed to be a wonderful host. The club began as a gentleman's club; it would not officially admit women until 1968. Focused on botany, the group went on regular field trips - and they published a scholarly Journal called Rhodora. The group was looking for a one-word title, and so they held a vote. The options were Rhodora, Oakesia, Wasonia, Bigelovia, Gayia, and Nova anglia. The name Rhodora was created to reflect the clubs focus on studying the flora in the natural range of Rhododendron lapponicum - with the common name Lapland rosebay. Today, the NEBC is a non-profit organization that promotes the study of plants of North America, especially the flora of New England and adjacent areas. 1935 Today is the birthday of the influential landscape architect and author James Van Sweden. Van Sweden was an early pioneer in developing a new look and feel for American Landscapes, and his style is called The New American Garden. signature elements of the new American Garden are broad sweeps of flowering perennials and wild grasses. In 1975, van Sweden partnered with Wolfgang Oehme, and together they started their firm now known as Uehme van Sweden or OvS. Many gardeners remember that James created a purple Meadow for Oprah Winfrey's South Bend Indiana estate. In his book, architecture in the garden, Van Sweden wrote, "As I pulled up to Oprah Winfrey's front door for the first time, my immediate impression was that her house was divorced from its setting. Built in an elegant French-Chateau style, the house was visibly uncomfortable with the matter-of-fact Midwestern farmland that surrounded it. Nothing had been done to ease the transition from one to the other— the house and the site weren't talking. Over the next four years, we worked together to create an architectural context around the house, including newly-installed terraces and walls. The materials we selected, brick framed with the Limestone, echo the house, yet this architecture also conformed to the surrounding countryside, adopting its long, horizontal lines. In this way, we quite literally pulled out into the site." Van Sweden's books include The Artful Garden: Creative Inspiration for Landscape Design (2011), Architecture in the Garden (2003), and Gardening with Nature (1997). You can get a used copy of James van Swedens books and support the show, using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for under $5. Unearthed Words Here are some words about February: "Probably more pests can be controlled in an armchair in front of a February fire with a garden notebook and a seed catalog than can ever be knocked out in hand-to-hand combat in the garden." — Neely Turner, State Entomologist & Vice Director, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, 1927 - 1968 Come when the rains Have glazed the snow and clothed the trees with ice, While the slant sun of February pours Into the bowers, a flood of light. Approach! The incrusted surface shall upbear thy steps And the broad arching portals of the grove Welcome thy entering. — William Cullen Bryant, American Romantic poet, A Winter Piece I stood beside a hill Smooth with new-laid snow, A single star looked out From the cold evening glow. There was no other creature That saw what I could see-- I stood and watched the evening star As long as it watched me. — Sara Teasdale, American Lyric poet, February Twilight Grow That Garden Library Winter World by Bernd Heinrich The subtitle of this book is: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival. The author of numerous bestselling and award-winning books, Bernd Heinrich, is a professor of biology at the University of Vermont. He divides his time between Vermont and the forests of western Maine. From flying squirrels to grizzly bears, and from torpid turtles to insects with antifreeze, the animal kingdom relies on some staggering evolutionary innovations to survive winter. Unlike their human counterparts, who must alter the environment to accommodate physical limitations, animals are adaptable to an amazing range of conditions. Examining everything from food sources in the extremely barren winter landscape to the chemical composition that allows certain creatures to survive, Heinrich's Winter World awakens the largely undiscovered mysteries by which nature sustains herself through winter's harsh, cruel exigencies. You can get a used copy of Winter World by Bernd Heinrich and support the show, using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for under $9. Great Gifts for Gardeners Okatsune Precision Hedge Shears, 7 5/8" blade, 22" overall length by Okatsune $62.25 These short garden shears are used by professional gardeners throughout Japan. Total Length:21in(535mm) Blade Length:6.9in(175mm) Weight:1lb12oz(800g) The handles are made of slick Japanese White Oak Today's Botanic Spark 1917 On this day, the Happy Huntsman's Tree was planted, which stands beside the Harrington family crypt. The Happy Huntsman's Tree is an Oak tree that honors the 8th Earl of Harrington - Charles Augustus Stanhope, who died on this day at the age of 73. When he died, Charles was one of the largest landowners in England, with estates totaling over 13,000 acres. Charles was the first business person to open a store in London under his own name. Selling fruit from his garden, his store closed after a few seasons. Gardeners would be delighted by his home at Elvaston Castle, which was settled among the most magnificent topiary; trees shrubs and hedges were fashioned into men, animals, pyramids, and fans. Even though one of his arms was useless, Charles was an active person. He was one of the pioneers of polo in England, and he also played as an old man. Vanity Fair published a caricature of him playing polo - sitting atop his horse with his potbelly and white flowing beard. And, Charles was an avid Huntsman. He was a master of the South Knot Hunt for over 30 years. During hunting season, he hunted six days a week. His obituary said that he never missed a hunt unless he happened to be laid up with broken bones from a fall. At Elvaston castle, there was a little workshop where Charles liked to tinker with projects. At the end of his life, Charles was badly burned while working there. He was making a picture frame, and he accidentally bumped his left hand against the pipe of a stove. After treating it with oil, he developed blood poisoning and died. Charles left specific instructions in his will that upon his death, his hounds should be let out to hunt. Family lore says that when Charles was buried, the hounds bounded into the graveyard and gathered around the oak tree near the family crypt. They would not leave and could not be coaxed away. The tree the hounds were fixated on was dubbed the Happy Huntsman's Tree. There's a small plaque beneath it oh today it still stands in the graveyard of Saint Bartholomew's Church Derbyshire ("Dar-bee-shur").
Full show notes at the publisherToday we celebrate the Swiss botanist who started a botanical Dynasty and the man who coined the term osmosis. We'll learn about the American landscape architect who made England his home and cheered on so many gardeners with his book Successful Town Gardening. Today's Unearthed Words feature words about winter. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about hunting for medicinal plants in the Amazon. I'll talk about a garden item to help you get growing and then we'll wrap things up with the early spring warm-up of 1931 - it was extraordinary. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Curated Articles American Gardens: An American Garden In Bath American gardens: an American garden in Bath by Gardens Illustrated @gdnsillustrated What is an American garden? Discover more with our focus on the new garden at the American Museum and Garden in Bath Gardens: Weeds To Love And Loathe | Life And Style | The Guardian Weeds to love and loath, an excerpt from Wild about Weeds by @JackWallington Now, if you'd like to check out these curated articles for yourself, you're in luck, because I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. There's no need to take notes or search for links - the next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events 1778Today is the birthday of the Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle. Candolle named hundreds of plants. His seven-volume monumental work, Prodromus, was an effort to characterize all of the plant families and establishing the basis for the science of botany. He only finished two volumes. Augustin's Candolle descendants would finish Prodromus after extensive and detailed research. His famous son, Alphonse, was born the year Linnaeus died. In 1855, Alphonse was awarded the Linnean gold medal. Augustin's grandson, Casimir, was devoted to the study of the pepper plant family or the Piperaceae ("PIE-per-aye-see-ee"). The most commonly-known species in the family is Piper nigrum ("PIE-purr NYE-grum") - a flowering vine that gives us peppercorns that are ground to become black Pepper. The biggest consumer of Pepper, at almost 20% of the world's total Pepper crop, is the United States. During the middle ages, pound for pound peppercorns was worth more than silver. Augustin de Candolle's great-grandson, Richard Émile, was also a botanist. He died unexpectedly at the age of 51. After his death, the enormous Candolle family herbarium and Library - built over four generations was donated to the city of Geneva. Augustin's great living legacy is the Botanical Garden of Geneva. 1847Today is the anniversary of the death of the French botanist and physiologist Henri Dutrochet. After studying the movement of sap in plants in his home laboratory, Dutrochet discovered and named osmosis. Dutrochet shared his discovery with the Paris Academy of Sciences on October 30th, 1826. Like the cells in our own human bodies, plants don't drink water; they absorb it by osmosis. Dutrochet also figured out that the green pigment, chlorophyll, in a plant is essential to how plants take up carbon dioxide. Photosynthesis could not happen without chlorophyll, which helps plants get energy from light. And chlorophyll gives plants their color. Have you ever asked yourself why plants are green? Long story short, chlorophyll reflects green light, which makes the plant appear green. Dutrochet was a true pioneer in plant research. He was the first to examine plant respiration, light sensitivity, and geotropism (How the plant responds to gravity, ie, roots grow down to the ground.) The upward growth of plants against gravity is called negative geotropism, and downward growth of roots is called positive geotropism. The plant part that responds to positive geotropism is at the very end of the root, and it is called the root cap. So, what makes the roots turn downward as they grow? The root cap - responding to positive geotropism. 1879Today John H. Heinz received a patent for an improvement to Vegetable-Assorters - the machines used for sorting produce like fruits, vegetables, etc. I, myself, have created some excellent vegetable sorters - their names are Will, Emma, PJ, & John. 1912Today is the birthday of the American landscape architect, consummate plantsman, and writer who made England his home - Lanning Roper. When Vita Sackville-West read Lanning's book Successful Town Gardening she wrote, "The book I have been reading, and which has cheered me up so much as to the answers I can in future return, is called Successful Town Gardening by Lanning Roper." Today, Lanning's book is regarded as a classic garden book. Many people use the wintertime as a chance to reconnect with the garden and dream about the following season as they read or reread Successful Town Gardening. Lanning's grandfather was William Hartley Eveleth, who served as the Superintendent of the college grounds for Harvard University and Radcliffe College. Lanning, himself, went to Harvard and graduated in 1933. After Harvard, Landing enlisted in the Navy, and he ended up in charge of division 67, which is where he found himself on D-Day. After D-day, Lanning had a six-week deployment near the great Rothschild estate. He fell in love with the rhododendrons, the woodland, the gardens, and England. He decided to train as a gardener at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and then pursued more training at Edinburgh (ED-in-bruh)." He began working as an editor for the Royal Horticultural Society. And In 1952, Lanning fell in love with a woman named Primrose. Primrose Harley. She was a muralist and a gardener. Her parents had named her Primrose because she was born on Primrose Day, April 19th, 1908. Primrose worked with Lanning on his many landscape projects. When it came to his gardens, Lanning wanted romance. Known as the father of borders, Lanning liked to see flowers spilling into paths - like lavender and roses. He wanted walls to be covered in vines - and more roses. As a designer, Lanning had a knack for creating beautiful hardscapes like paths and walkways. But, Lanning also cautioned about planting too much. He said, "Over-planting is a fault common to most gardeners. If you plant three shrubs that will grow quickly to fill an area where one alone would have been sufficient, two things may happen. If you remove two, the remaining one is in the wrong place. If you leave all three, they perhaps will be poor specimens, lacking the characteristic natural grace of the species." Lanning designed nearly 150 gardens during his career. His work has mostly joined the many gardens that can only be seen through pictures or through the words that sang their praises. In 1987, Jane Brown wrote the only volume on Lanning Roper and his gardens. It it loaded with beautiful images of Lanning's gardens. You can get a used copy of Lanning Roper & His Gardens and support the show, using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for under $6. But hurry, because I predict there won't be many left of this gem in the coming decades. At the end of his life, Lanning was picked to completely redesign the garden at a new estate called Highgrove, which had recently been purchased by Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Camilla Parker Bowles had recommended Lanning; he had beautifully designed her parents' garden in the 1960s. Lanning noted that, "the soil at Highgrove is alkaline, very different to the acid soil of the gardens which Prince Charles is used to at Windsor, Sandringham, and Balmoral where rhododendron and azalea flourish." Lanning said, "Highgrove is ideal for lilac, roses and flowering shrubs, which make some of the prettiest gardens [and] Prince Charles [wanted Highgrove, his first garden,] to be fragrant." Sadly, Lanning never had the chance to do the work, his cancer was taking a toll, and he declined the job. It was Lanning Roper who said, "People like myself are lucky to follow a profession which is so absorbing, satisfying, and pleasurable that at times it is not easy to decide where work ends and recreation begins." Unearthed Words Here are some words about winter: In winter, the stars seem to have rekindled their fires, the moon achieves a fuller triumph, and the heavens wear a look of a more exalted simplicity. Summer is more wooing and seductive, more versatile and human, appeals to the affections and the sentiments, and fosters inquiry and the art impulse. Winter is of a more heroic cast, and addresses the intellect. The severe studies and disciplines come easier in winter. — John Burroughs, American naturalist and nature writer Winter is a season of recovery and preparation. — Paul Theroux, American travel writer, and novelist How many lessons of faith and beauty we should lose if there were no winter in our year! — Thomas Wentworth Higginson, American Unitarian minister, and abolitionist He knows no winter, he who loves the soil, For, stormy days, when he is free from toil, He plans his summer crops, selects his seeds From bright-paged catalogs for garden needs. When looking out upon frost-silvered fields, He visualizes autumn's golden yields; He sees in snow and sleet and icy rain Precious moisture for his early grain; He hears spring-heralds in the storm's 'turmoil He knows no winter, he who loves the soil." — Sudie Bower Stuart Hager, Idaho's Poet Laureate, He Knows No Winter Grow That Garden Library Witch Doctor's Apprentice by Nicole Maxwell The subtitle to this book is: Hunting for Medicinal Plants in the Amazon This memoir features Nicole Maxwell who was hunting for medicinal plants in the rainforest. Despite setbacks and disillusionment, she never lost sight of her goals. Maxwell, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, was scouring the Amazon rainforest for clues to ancient medicinal plants and practices. Maxwell has created an appendix that catalogs all of the plants mentioned in the text, with their scientific names, the names by which they are known locally, and their medicinal uses. This edition also includes a new introduction by the noted ethnobotanist Terence McKenna. "A spirited and engrossing personal narrative, as much about people and places, discomforts, and dangers, the beauty of the jungle." You can get a used copy of Witch Doctor's Apprentice by Nicole Maxwell and support the show, using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for under $6. Great Gifts for Gardeners LED Grow Lights, Full Spectrum Panel Grow Lamp with IR & UV LED Plant Lights for Indoor Plants, Micro Greens, Clones, Succulents, Seedlings $18.44 Full Spectrum Plant Light - equipped with 75 High-power LED chips:47 Red 19Blue 3UV 3IR 3White. NOTE: The UV and IR LEDs are particularly DIM, but it is normal. PANEL SIZE: 12.2 * 4.7 *1.2 inches Wide Uses - This light can be used for both hydroponics and indoor plants in soil, mainly used for small plants, micro-greens, and perfect for you to add as a supplemental side panel during bloom. Easy Set-up - updated hanging kits make these fluorescent lights much more easy to assemble. With good heat dissipation and strength, ABS material body ensures your panel more durable and long-lasting. Lighting Cover: Max 1.2x3ft at 2ft height;Recommend Height: 8-30 inch. Highly Efficient - Estimated monthly cost roughly $3 in electricity (12 hours a day). Package contains: 1x 25W Halogen Equivalent Plant Grow Light, 1x Steel Hanging Kits (with four ropes), 1x Power Cord, 1x User Manual What You Get - 12 Months Warranty plus 30 Days Money Back Guarantee for any reason. You can contact our 24 hours available customer service by clicking "Sold by" on the product detail page or your Amazon order page. Today's Botanic Spark 1931On this day newspapers were reporting a shocking headline from Brainerd, Minnesota: Pansies In Bloom: "A bed of pansies came into full bloom today in a farm garden near Brainerd, the center of a section famous for severe winters. Other February oddities: Lilac trees were budding. Girls were playing tennis. Boys were shooting marbles. Men were pitching horseshoes. The temperature was climbing toward 60 above."
Today we celebrate the man who wrote the Flora of North America from across the pond in London much to the chagrin of American botanists. We'll learn about the Dutch botanist who discovered the phalaenopsis orchid and the coleus on the island of Java. Today's Unearthed Words review some sayings about the month of February in the garden. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that helps us grow African violets. I'll talk about a decorative item for your garden, deck, or porch, and then we'll wrap things up with National Carrot Cake Day and the history and recipes of this favorite dessert. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Curated Articles Hello Yellow Milkweed/Butterfly Flower, View All Flowers: Botanical Interests @botanicalseeds "Bring sunny color into the pollinator garden with 'Hello Yellow' milkweed! Asclepias tuberosa (ah-SKLEE-pee-iss TOO-burr-OH-sah) is usually orange, but this yellow beauty was found in Colorado." Columbus'Carnivorous Collectibles from The Lantern @TheLanterns "A single organism of Sarracenia purpurea, collected by botanist/bryologist William Sullivant - 1840 - one of the few documented pitcher plants that grew in central Ohio." Now, if you'd like to check out these curated articles for yourself, you're in luck, because I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. There's no need to take notes or search for links - the next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events 1814 The English botanist Aylmer Lambert wrote to his peer, and the President of the Linnean Society, Sir James Edward Smith. Lambert was giving Smith a heads up that Frederick Pursh's Flora Americana was published. Five years earlier, Frederick had been working for Benjamin Smith Barton in America. Barton was supposed to process the plants from the Lewis & Clark expedition and prepare a catalog for publishing. For some unknown reason, Barton never got around to doing the work. When Meriwether Lewis realized that Barton hadn't started much of anything, he hired his employee Frederick to do the work. By May of 1808, we know that Frederick had completed all of the tasks that Meriwether Lewis had assigned him. He was eager to get paid the $60 he been promised by Lewis, and the $80 Barton owed him for helping with his herbarium. He was also excited to keep going with the Lewis & Clark project. It seems the mission of sharing the botanical discoveries of the expedition with the public had captured his heart. This is where Frederick's story gets a little murky. It's not clear if he was ever fully paid by Lewis or by Barton. It's not entirely clear why Lewis & Barton couldn't seem to keep the project moving forward. But records do show, that over the next 18 months, two key things happened that caused Frederick to leave America with the Lewis and Clark specimens in tow: Meriwether Lewis died and Frederick Pursh began to despise his boss, Benjamin Smith Barton. For his part, Barton may have grown tired of Pursh's drinking. He wrote of Pursh, "Drinking is his greatest failing." When Frederick Pursh arrived in England at the end of 1811, he reached out to both Sir James Edward Smith and Alymer Lambert about putting together the Flora of North America. Lambert became his botanical fairy godfather; he had a huge personal botanical library, herbarium, and funding. That said, Lambert also provided something Pursh desperately needed: discipline. Pursh was kind of a rough and tough guy with a swarthy complexion and reputed alcohol addiction. Historians say that Lambert made arrangements in the attic of his house, creating a workspace for Frederick. Once he got Frederick up there, Lambert would lock him in for stretches at a time to keep Frederick focused on the project. It was an extreme way to deal with Frederick's demons, but it worked. Now, Smith and Lambert didn't do all of this out of the goodness of their heart. They were enormously interested and what Pursh had brought with him from America: portions of the specimens from the Lewis and Clark expedition. Even with Lambert's resources and lock-ins, it took Frederick two years to complete the Flora of North America. The whole time he was racing to get it published before Thomas Nuttall, who was working on the exact same project back in America. American botanists felt Pursh had pulled the rug out from under them when he took the expedition specimens to England. On December 21st, 1813, Pursh won the race when his 2-volume masterpiece describing all of the plants of North America was presented to the Linnaean Society. In the introduction, Frederick was forthright about his time in America and how he had come to possess the expedition specimens. Giving credit to the work of Lewis and Clark, Frederick created two new genera - Lewisia (loo-WIS-ee-ah) and Clarkia (CLAR-key-ah) for Lewis and Clark. In all, Frederick had received 132 plants from Meriwether Lewis, 70% were brand-new species that were named by Frederick. Today roughly 30% of the Pursh-named plants named in his Flora Americana are still recognized as valid. Lewisia is a little evergreen Alpine plant with a beautiful bloom. They like well-drained soil and are native to the northwest. Lewisia is a perfect pick for a rock garden. Clarkia is a little wildflower primrose that can be grown from seed after the last spring frost. Clarkia prefers to be direct-sowed, and they are perfect for use in mixed borders and Rock Gardens. Today Clarkia hybrids are grown for cut flowers. Link to 1814 Flora Americae Septentrionalis Volume One Link to 1814 Flora Americae Septentrionalis Volume Two 1862 Today is the Anniversary of the death of the German-Dutch botanist with the perfect last name - Carl Ludwig Blume. Born in Germany and orphaned by the age of five, Blume proved to be a bright little boy and a successful student. He studied at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands - a place that would become his Northstar. When he died in Leiden, on this day in 1862, he had become a naturalized Dutch citizen. Scholastically, Blume went the path of most botanists. He first became a physician and he ran an apothecary. In short order, he started botanizing in the Dutch East Indies, specifically on the island of Java, where he was the director of the Botanic Garden. Blume wrote a spectacular book on the collection of orchids that were available on the island. The title page is stunning and it features three native women from Java performing a ceremonial dance. The mountains of Java in the village are in the background, and a garland of orchids frames the stunning portrait. This publication is considered one of the finest works of scientific literature during the early 1800s. In 1825, Blume established the Dendrobium genus of orchids. The genus name is derived from the Greek; "dendron" for tree and "bios" meaning life. The name refers to the epiphytic habit of orchids to grow in trees. Thus, the combination of those two words, dendron and bios, meaning tree-life. And, here's a great story about Blume. During his time in Java, Blume saw what he thought was a group of moths flying in a motionless fashion by a tree. It was an odd vision. But, when he got closer, Blume realized what he thought were moths, were actually orchid flowers. Blume named the species Phalaenopsis amabilis (fayl-eh-NOP-sis ah-MA-bo-lis). In nature, the stems of the phalaenopsis orchid are not clipped to a bamboo pole like they are in when we buy them in the supermarket. Instead, they arch away from the tree they are attached to and sway easily with the Wind. It was the motion of the Orchid flowers swaying in the wind together, that lead Blume to believe he saw an insect and not a blossom. The etymology of the word phalaenopsis comes from the Latin word "phal", which means moth - which is why this Orchid is commonly referred to as the Moth Orchid. Phalaenopsis orchids are native to Southeast Asia. Their popularity has steadily grown because they are so easy to grow and because they bloom indoors all year round. This makes them one of the most popular house plants in the world. Now, should you be tempted this summer to move your phalaenopsis orchid outside; think twice. Just because they are a tropical plant, doesn't mean they want full sun. Phalaenopsis orchids grow in the shade of trees under the tree canopy. They like indirect light, and if you put them in full sun, they will get sunburned. If you are going to move them outside, make sure to put them in a place where they will not get direct sunlight. Sometimes I'll put mine onto my north-facing covered porch. In 1853, Carl Ludwig Blume discovered another popular plant in the mountains of Java: coleus. Coleus bluemei was named in his honor until it was changed in 2006 to Coleux x Hybridus in recognition of all the new hybrid variations. As of 2012, the botanical name for coleus is Plectranthus scutellarioides (Plek-TRAN-thus SKOO-til-air-ee-OY-deez). And, coleus are in the mint or Lamiaceae family. They have that signature square stem and opposite leaves - along with other popular members of the mint family: basil, peppermint, oregano, Salvia, Swedish ivy, and thyme. An early nickname for coleus was painted nettle or flame nettle. Coleus is easy to propagate from cuttings. You can simply pop them in a glass of water, and in a few days, roots will start to form. To encourage your coleus to grow in a more compact fashion, keep pruning them before they bloom. You might remember that the National Garden Bureau made 2015 the year of the coleus. Unearthed Words Here are some sayings about our new month - February: February brings the rain, Thaws the frozen lake again. ― Sarah Coleridge, English author, and translator Why, what's the matter, That you have such a February face, So full of frost, of storm and cloudiness? — William Shakespeare, English author, poet & playwright, Much Ado About Nothing The most serious charge which can be brought against New England is not Puritanism but February. — Joseph Wood Krutch, American writer, and naturalist February is the border between winter and spring. ― Terri Guillemets (gee-ya-MAY), quotation anthologist, Years February is a suitable month for dying. Everything around is dead, the trees black and frozen so that the appearance of green shoots two months hence seems preposterous, the ground hard and cold, the snow dirty, the winter hateful, hanging on too long. ― Anna Quindlen, American author, and journalist, One True Thing Grow That Garden Library YOU CAN Grow African Violets by Joyce Stark The subtitle of this book is: The Official Guide Authorized by the African Violet Society of America, Inc. Kent and Joyce Stork have grown violets for over 30 years. From 1991 to 2004, they wrote a column in the African Violet Magazine, which became the foundation for this book. Kent and Joyce are married and live in Fremont, Nebraska, where they own a business specializing in African violets. Kent and Joyce Stork killed their first violet too! They soon mastered the skills for growing the plant and eventually wrote for the African Violet Magazine, the official publication of the African Violet Society of America, Inc. for over ten years. Their column For Beginners explained the basic elements of growing violets in an entertaining and straightforward way that anyone could understand. Now, these columns have been adapted and edited to provide even the most novice grower with a step-by-step guide, whether the goal is simply to keep violets alive or to exhibit the plants in competitive shows. You can get a used copy of YOU CAN Grow African Violets by Joyce Stark and support the show, using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for under $5. Great Gifts for Gardeners WiHoo 8" Indoor Outdoor Thermometer/Hygrometer for Patio, Wall or Decorative (Bronze) $19.99 Easy to read - The outdoor thermometer decorative easily keep track of the temperature from a distance with bold black dial graphics. Celsius and Fahrenheit - This garden hygrometer digital simultaneous Celsius and Fahrenheit temperature display. Real glass lens - This room indoor thermometer real glass lens, accurate between -40 and 120℉/-40, and 50 °C to accommodate all climates. Amazon's Choice & Amazon Prime Today's Botanic Spark Today is National Carrot Cake Day. Every February 3rd, National carrot cake day is observed. And, you might say it's a great excuse to have our cake and our carrots, too. Akin to banana bread, carrot cake is similar in preparation and texture. It's made, like many quick breads, by separately preparing the wet ingredients and the dry ingredients and then mixing those together. And, carrot cakes generally include ingredients like cinnamon or nutmeg, raisins, or nuts. Carrots are, of course, a root vegetable. They are made up of 88% water, 7% sugar, and a percent each of protein, fiber, and ash. The Greeks and Romans ate carrots, but their carrots were different colors like purple or white. It wasn't until the 17th century that carrots started appearing predominantly as orange. Why? Because the Dutch initially bred the carrot to be orange in order to honor the Dutch royal family - also known as the "House of Orange" in the Netherlands. The orange carrot became so popular that the color became synonymous with the carrot. As for carrot cake, the earliest mentions of it in the newspaper appear in the early 1900s - around 1910. These early carrot cakes were more like little crab cakes - only they were made with carrots, flour, and butter, sweet milk, and so on. By 1912, the San Francisco newspaper, The Call, featured a carrot cake recipe and it advised that only very young, tender carrots be used - along with 2 cups of sugar, a cup of butter, 2 cups of flour, a cup of carrots that were boiled and mashed very finely, a cup of grated chocolate, a cup of chopped walnuts, 1/2 a cup of sweet milk, 4 eggs, 1 teaspoon each of cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. By the end of November, in 1913, a newspapers were running an article called "Carrots and Cakes." It said: "The little carrot, of the plebian vegetable family, moved high last week in the social scale and was in such demand on the grocery orders of so many families that stores ran out entirely, says the Minneapolis Journal. Miss Lilla Frich, supervisor of domestic economy in the public schools, has been telling how carrots may be used for what they are or as substitutes for other things, notably, that carrot pulp makes a good egg substitute in making cakes and hundreds of women who formerly have scorned common truck farm products have been buying them." In the early 1980s, when Pillsbury launched its "Carrot and Spice Cake Mix," they held a contest to discover the earliest published carrot cake recipe, and they were also looking for the best Heritage recipe. Joyce Allen of Wichita Kansas won $100 for sharing her recipe from the 1929 Wichita Women's Club cookbook, and Ethel Amsler of Waco Texas also won $100 for creating a new recipe with Pillsbury's new carrot cake mix. She was riffing off an old family recipe. That old family recipe had been handed down through four generations. She said they didn't have it but twice a year. Ethel's old family recipe for carrot cake calls for white raisins soaked in brandy in addition to adding a cup of black walnuts. If you'd like to get a copy of Ethel Amsler's Heritage Carrot Cake recipe, along with her modern version, I've added them to today's Show Notes, which are available on the we…
Full show notes at the publisherToday we celebrate the man who found a splendid crabapple growing in his nursery and the anniversary of a society that celebrates the flower of the rainbow, We'll learn about the "Grand Lady of Canadian Horticulture" and a Colorado State botanist who fought to protect the Columbine. Today's Unearthed Words, we hear simple poems from a Quaker poet. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about a Woman's Quest for the World's Most Amazing Birds. I'll talk about a garden item that will help you get creative with words in your garden, And, then we'll wrap things up with the incredible story of a gardener who gardened for nine years in a place most gardeners would deem un-garden-able, and he transformed it into a haunting paradise. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Curated Articles Calendula Tincture Recipe - Health and Wellness - Mother Earth Living Here's a Great Calendula Tincture Recipe from Mother Earth Living @mthrearthliving Start simple on your home apothecary with this multi-purpose calendula remedy. This calendula tincture is easy to make and perfect in teas, baths, and astringent solutions. Artichoke: Sow and Grow Guide, Articles & Blogs: Botanical Interests Artichoke: Sow and Grow Guide from Botanical Interests@botanicalseeds: By sowing artichokes early, the plants can be subjected to vernalization (a cold period) of at least two weeks growing at 40°-50°F, which triggers artichokes to form in the season. Now, if you'd like to check out these curated articles for yourself, you're in luck, because I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. There's no need to take notes or search for links - the next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events 1906 Today is the birthday of the nurseryman Melvin Bergeson who, ironically, lived in Fertile, Minnesota. After World War II, an employee of Melvin's named Norris Oftedahl was walking along a row of trees at the nursery. As expected, all of the trees in the row had succumbed to winterkill… except for one. It stood out and caught Norris's attention. It was a little crabapple tree. Norris thought the tree might be a mutant variety and told Melvin to keep his eye on it. Melvin did, and over the years, Melvin took note of the little crab's continued hardiness - which was tremendous - and also the beautiful fruit. Melvin's instincts told him the tree was something special. Melvin christened the tree Red Splendor in honor of the gorgeous fruit. Melvin sold some Red Splendors to customers, and he also sent some Red Splendors to other nurserymen so that it could be trialed. Sadly, when Melvin applied to patent the Red Splendor, he was denied. The government claimed the tree was already in the public domain. Once it was on the market, the Red Splendor captured people's hearts. One of the best features of a Red Splendor Crab is that it doesn't drop fruit over the summer. Instead, the fruit holds on until the following spring. This habit allows the birds and animals to eat from the tree all winter long - which makes for way less clean up of dropped apples (one of the main gripes of apple tree owners.) With all of the Red Splendor's marvelous features, it's not surprising to learn that the University of Minnesota once regarded the Red Splendor Crab as the best plant ever created in the state of Minnesota. Melvin also deserves personal recognition; he was a natural-born marketer and salesman. He came up with clever slogans that were splashed across the cover of his annual nursery brochures like "Let's get it done in '71." The hype around Red Splendor opened opportunities for the tree to appear in venues like the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. And, a Red Splendor even accompanied President Nixon on his trip to China, where it was presented as a gift from America. It's hard to believe after the thrill of the Red Splendor, that Melvin and his wife Olga started their humble nursery during the Great Depression in 1937. Their customers were mostly farmers, and their main product was trees - especially windbreak trees and fruit trees. Today, 83 years later, Melvin's Nursery is run by his grandson, Joe Bergeson. The nursery offers a diverse selection of trees, shrubs, and plants. However, Joe's passion is hybridizing roses. As far as trees are concerned, one of the nursery's top-selling trees is the Ohio buckeye tree, which is grown from a nut. 1920 Today marks the hundredth anniversary of the American Iris Society. The Society started with about 60 eager members. A year later, membership had climbed to nearly 500 members. Today, you can join the Iris Society online at Irises.org. "The Mission of The American Iris Society is to organize and disseminate knowledge of the genus Iris while fostering its preservation, enjoyment and continued development." Iris takes its name from the Greek word for a rainbow, and the Iris is known as the flower of the rainbow. When it comes to scent, the roots of Irises contain their fragrance. Although there are around 300 species of Iris, Bearded Iris and Siberian Iris are two of the most common types of Irises grown. During the Middle Ages, Irises were linked to the French monarchy, and the fleur-de-lis is now a national symbol of France. 1965 Today is the 55th anniversary of the death of Canada's first professional woman plant breeder - a woman called the "Dean of Hybridists" and the "Grand Lady of Canadian Horticulture" - Isabella Preston. When Vita Sackville-West first heard her name, she famously acknowledged, "I must confess I don't know anything about Miss Isabella Preston of Ottawa." Isabella's name had become known internationally as the result of her Lily hybrids. In 1919, Isabella bred the renowned George C. Creelman Hybrid Lily after crossing two Lily cultivars from southern China, a hardy Lily and a fragrant Lily. The Creelman Lily was a stunner; human-sized (it grew about 6 feet tall), and it featured a sweet-scented white bloom with pink speckles on its yellow throat. Isabella named the Creelman Lily after the President of the Ontario Agricultural College. Today, there are no known Creelman Lilies in existence, although people still search for them. Vita would have loved Isabella's practical and hard-won advice. When a colleague asked Isabella what she should do with her rock garden, her advice was fascinating: "Use every bit of rock – Don't be afraid of it. Plant between, atop or alongside. Presently, you will be convinced that flowers need near them the harsh stability of stone." Isabella was a self-taught plant hybridizer. In 1920, she began work at the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa. For almost three decades, she endeavored to create more blooms on more disease-resistant plants. She created over 200 cultivars of six different plants, including Lilacs, Lilies, Crab Apples, Columbine, Siberian Iris, and Roses. Preston Lilacs are named in her honor, and Isabella received many honors for her work. 1990 Today is the anniversary of the death of Colorado State botanist Hazel Schmoll. Hazel was born in a sod cabin in McAlester, Kansas, in 1890. Her family settled in Colorado when she was just two years old. Hazel was the first woman to earn a doctorate in botany from the University of Chicago. Early in her career, Hazel had the exciting opportunity to work with Alice Eastwood. When it came to her beloved Rocky Mountains, Hazel was an active conservationist, and she regularly taught others about the ecology of the mountains. Hazel led the effort to protect the Colorado Blue Columbine Columbine (Aquilegia caerulea). Also known as Rocky Mountain Columbine, Colorado Blue Columbine is a herbaceous perennial with bluish-purple and white blooms that appear spring and early summer. Colorado Blue Columbine can grow up to 3 feet tall with a spread of about 2 feet. The word Aquila is Latin and means eagle, a reference to the claw-like spurs on the blossom. The word Columbine is derived from the Latin word for dove and refers to this little trick: if you tip the flower over, it looks like five little doves huddled together. Columbine. Hazel's favorite flower, the Colorado Blue Columbine, was first discovered on Pikes Peak in 1820. As the state flower, it has significant symbolic meaning to Colorado; the blue represents the sky, the white represents snow, and the gold is a nod to the state's gold mining history, which attracted so many settlers to Colorado. The Colorado Blue Columbine is so beautiful that it actually became a threatened species after people were digging it up for their rock gardens. In 1925, legislation was passed making it illegal to pick the Rocky Mountain Columbine. It was Hazel Schmoll who said, "I hope we can keep some wilderness areas. People need some places where they can get away from the crowds and be refreshed by nature." 2005 Today is the anniversary of the death of the founder of Miracle-Gro plant food Horace Hagedorn. Every year on November 15th, the Horace Hagedorn outstanding philanthropy award is given out on philanthropy day. Horace was a marketing genius and a philanthropist. A resident of Port Washington, Long Island, Horace and his wife Amy were esteemed for their charity. After Horace died, the Amy Hagedorn Foundation distributed close to 50 million dollars to more than 175 nonprofits. Aligned with his enormous spirit of generosity, it was Horace Hagedorn who said, "You can't keep taking away from the Earth. You must give something back." Unearthed Words 1784 Today is the birthday of the prolific English Quaker poet Bernard Barton. One of Barton's most famous poems heralds the spring Crocus. Here is an excerpt: Welcome! Wild harbinger of Spring, To this small nook of earth; Feeling and fancy fondly cling Round thoughts which owe their birth To thee, and to the humble spot Where chance has fixed thy lowly lot. Yet not the Lily nor the Rose, Though fairer far they be, Can more delightful thoughts disclose, Than I derive from thee. The eye their beauty may prefer, The heart is thy interpreter. Thy flower foretells a summer sky, And chides the dark despair By winter's chilling influence flung O'er spirits sunk, and nerves unstrung. Barton also wrote this whimsical poem for children called "The Squirrel." The squirrel is happy, the squirrel is gay, Little Henry exclaimed to his brother, He has nothing to do or to think of but play, And to jump from one bough to another. But William was older and wiser and knew That all play and no work wouldn't answer, So he asked what the squirrel in winter must do, If he spent all the summer a dancer. The squirrel, dear Harry, is merry and wise, For true wisdom and mirth go together ; He lays up in summer his winter supplies, And then he don't mind the cold weather. And, here's an excerpt from Barton's poem called Winter Evenings. The summer is over, The autumn is passed, Dark clouds over us hover, Loud whistles the blast ; But clouds cannot darken, nor tempest destroy The soul's sweetest sunshine, the heart's purest joy. Our path is no bright one, From morning till eve ; Our task is no light one, Till day takes its leave : We'll turn to the pages Of history's lore ; Of bards and of sages The beauties explore : And share o'er the records we love to unroll The " feast of the reason and flow of the soul." Grow That Garden Library Life List by Olivia Gentile The subtitle to this book is "A Woman's Quest for the World's Most Amazing Birds." This book is a loving and beautiful biography of bird enthusiast Phoebe Snetsinger. Phoebe was a 1950's housewife, married with four children, and an avid bird-watcher. When she got diagnosed in her 40's with incurable cancer and given less than a year to live, she started traveling the world, birding, and she never looked back. Phoebe ended up living, after her diagnosis, for another 18 years. Oliva begins this book by explaining the concept of a life list: "Bird-watching, the way most people do it, is a lot like hunting, which is why some practitioners prefer the more active sounding term "birding": you have to know where and when to look for Birds, you have to chase them down, and, when you find them, you have to figure out what species they are— often in just a second or two, before they fly away. Tate, like most birders, kept a " life list" of all the species he'd seen and identified, and he was always looking to add new ones, or "life birds." Olivia continues: "I decided to write some sort of essay on bird watching, and I called a few bird clubs near my home in Manhattan to see what they had going on. One man misunderstood and thought I was interested in joining his Club. He tried to encourage me. " Who knows?" he said. " Maybe you'll be the next Phoebe Snetsinger." the man had never met Phoebe, but he knew all about her— as most birdwatchers do, it turned out— and he told me a little. That was back in 2001, two years after her death, and I've been piecing together her life ever since." You can get a used copy of Life List by Olivia Gentile and support the show, using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for under $3. Great Gifts for Gardeners Wooden Letters - 144-Count Wood Alphabet Letters and Numbers for DIY Craft, Home Decor, Natural Color, Small by Juvale The set contains a total of 144 pieces, with 4-pieces of each alphabet letter and number in a natural wooden color. Also excellent for craft projects, as party decorations, weddings, baby showers, and so on. Put these letters together to spell whatever you want. Use these letters to decorate walls and doors to your liking. Your imagination is the limit. CRAFT WOOD LETTER SET: Contains a total of 144 plywood pieces, with 4 pieces of each letter in the alphabet and number from 0 to 9 in a natural wooden color. EDUCATIONAL: Helps kids learn letters, spelling, pronunciation, and math. WIDE APPLICATION: Use the available letters to spell a certain word or phrase like Happy Birthday, Congratulations, Mr and Mrs, Welcome, and many more. CRAFT USE: Put these letters together to spell whatever you want. Use these letters to decorate walls and doors to your liking. Your imagination is the limit. DIMENSIONS: The wood pieces measure from the smallest to largest, 0.3 x 0.7 inches to 0.7 x 1 inch. Today's Botanic Spark 1942Today is the birthday of the English filmmaker, gay rights activist, painter, poet, and gardener Derek Jarman. Born Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman, gardeners remember Derek for sharing his experiences in the garden intermingled with his thoughts on life. Most gardeners have a sensitivity about them, especially when it comes to attuning to themselves, to others, or to the natural world. Derek was continually examining all of these aspects of life. Toward the end of his life, Derek had found a very small retreat in a place many would find challenging to love: in the only desert in England located in Kent in a place called Dungeness. Derek lovingly called it Ness. It's a hard and harsh place that has an ancient feel. The meaning of name Dungeness is from Old Norse, which means "headland." The French etymology would translate to "dangerous nose." The landscape at Dungeness is referred to as a shingle beach - it's a British way of saying it has a rocky or pebbled shore. It's a curiously understated term that does not adequately convey the harsh reality. A…
Full show notes at the publisherToday we celebrate the botanical illustrator who was wrongfully fired from his first job and the French botanist who spent a month in California with a boatful of Russians. We'll learn about the botanical name of the city where people leave their hearts, and we'll fall in love with a classic garden writer from Bronxville, New York. Today's Unearthed Words feature an English poet who loved gardens and wrote many poems about them. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that talks about the revolution that will save our food. I'll talk about a garden item that I have WAY too many of - but, then again, can you really have too many? I digress. And, then we'll wrap things up with the story of the woman who wrote a flora dictionary anonymously - signing her work very mysteriously with the words "by a Lady." But first, let's catch up on a few recent events. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Curated Articles Good Decisions by @papaver Good Decisions in the garden -Alison Levey ("Lee-Vee") - The Blackberry Garden " I planted them and whispered to the nearby ants 'when you wake up, take the seeds and spread them throughout the garden.'" The Plight of the African Violets — In Defense of Plants The Plight of the African Violets — In Defense of Plants — "their numbers in captivity overshadow a bleak future for this genus in the wild. Many African violets are teetering on the brink of extinction." Now, if you'd like to check out these curated articles for yourself, you're in luck, because I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. There's no need to take notes or search for links - the next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events 1708 Today is the birthday of the botanist and the incomparable botanical illustrator Georg Dionysius Ehret. Georg was born in Heidelberg, Germany, to Ferdinand Christian Ehret, who was a gardener and also had a talent for drawing. He taught his son both skills- gardening and drawing - before he died. Georg made his way to Regensburg. There, he met an apothecary who hired him to draw of specimens from his herbarium and garden. Georg earnestly took on the job, creating over 500 pieces in one year. Taking advantage of his young employee, the apothecary fired Georg and told him he should have completed 1,000 drawings. It was basically the apothecary's way of avoiding paying Georg. After this dreadful experience, Georg made his way to England and worked at the significant botanical gardens - Including Chelsea Physic. Isaac Rand, the first director of the Chelsea Physic Garden in London, told Georg to paint the rare plants in the garden. The uniqueness of the specimens added to the demand for Georg's work. As a result, Georg was on friendly terms with the plant collectors and naturalists of his time. Chelsea was formative professionally and personally for Georg; He married the head gardener's sister-in-law, Susanna Kennet. In The Art of Botanical Illustration, Wilfrid Blunt noted that, "By the middle of the century he had become a popular figure in London society: the highest nobility in England clamored to receive instruction from him," Indeed, the wealthiest woman in England, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (the Duchess of Portland), gladly retained Georg as a drawing instructor. Struck by the luminescence of his work, and ultimately she would buy over 300 of his paintings. In 1737, Georg was hired to draw by Sir Charles Wager, First Lord of the Admiralty. In August of that year, Wagner's personal garden is where Georg first observed the Magnolia grandiflora flowering. The bloom was so inspiring that Georg walked for an hour each way, from Chelsea to Wagner's house (in Fulham), to see and sketch every stage of the Magnolia grandiflora; from bud to full flower. Georg's work provided the world with the first Magnolia to be illustrated in England. Beyond his work in England, Georg traveled throughout Europe in pursuit of his craft. He met Linnaeus in Holland when he was visiting the botanical garden in Leiden. Linnaeus taught Georg exactly how he wanted plants to be dissected and drawn. By this time, Georg felt that his drawings were already aligned with Linnaeus, but the calibration didn't hurt; Georg's work made it possible for Linnaeus to show the differences between plants for his books. When Linnaeus released his catalog of rare plants, "Hortus Cliffortianus," in 1737, it featured 20 meticulous plates made by Georg. As a result of partnering with Linnaeus, Georg understood plant structure on a level that rivaled most botanists. Georg's style of drawing is referred to as the Linnaean style. Ehret's father could have never predicted the impact of teaching his son both gardening and drawing, but the two skills had come together in Georg in an extraordinary way. One expert wrote that, "[Ehret] was the greatest artist-illustrator that Linnaeus had." Today, Georg's work is difficult to source. Given the rarity of an Ehret drawing, they are expensive to acquire; pieces generally start around $1k (if you can find one.) Just this past year, the NYBG organized an exhibit called "Georg Ehret: The Greatest Botanical Artist of the 1700s." They featured 48 Ehret watercolors and engravings. 1781 Today is the birthday of French-German poet, naturalist, and botanist Adelbert von Chamisso ("Sha-ME-So"). Born into a French Noble family, Chamisso's family fled to Germany after the French Revolution. Chamisso is remembered for a number of different accomplishments. His creativity was captured in a novella called Peter Schlemihl's Wonderful History, published in 1814. The story is about a naturalist who travels around the world thanks to a pair of seven-league boots and who sells his shadow to the devil in exchange for a bottomless wallet. Seven-league boots were a common part of European folklore and allowed the wearer to walk seven times further than an average stride, making the wearer possess super-human speed. Chamisso established himself as a Romantic poet with his poem Frauenliebe und leben, The poem's English translation is A Woman's Love and Life and is actually a series of poems describing a woman's love for a man from their first meeting, through their married life together and ultimately to the time after his death. Robert Schumann later set Chamisso's poem to music in his Opus 42. It takes a soprano opera singer 30 minutes to sing all the poems in the Opus from start to finish. After surviving the french revolution and the war between France and Prussia, Chamisso eagerly joined a round-the-world voyage aboard a Russian ship called the Rurik. It would be the greatest adventure of his life. The trip was financed by a Russian Count named Nikolay ("NEE-co-LIE") Rumyantsev ("Roo-myan-sev"), who was eager to find a route around North America by water - which would later be called the Northwest Passage. Chamisso was the ship's naturalist, and Johann Friedrich Eschscholtz was the ship's doctor and botanist. When the Rurik ended up in the San Francisco Bay area in 1816, Chamisso and Eschscholtz ended up exploring in California for about a month. One of his discoveries was the California poppy, which he named Eschscholzia California after his friend, the botanist Johann Friedrich Von Eschscholz. In return, Eschscholz named a bunch of plants after Chamisso - a little quid pro quo. The California Wild Rose (Rosa californica Chamisso and the California Blackberry (Rubus vitifolius Chamisso) are named for Chamisso. In 1903, the botanist Sarah Plummer Lemmon put forth a successful piece of legislation that nominated the golden poppy (Eschscholzia californica) as the state flower of California. During his three year Journey on the Rurik, Chamisso collected over 12,000 species of plants. Today his collection is preserved at the Russian Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg. It was Chamisso who said, "In pain, a new time is born." 1847Today the city of Yerba Buena ("YAIR-Bah Byoo-Nah") is renamed San Francisco. San Francisco was originally known as Yerba Buena - Spanish for "good herb" - a small mint-like plant early explorers found. Over the years, people have left their hearts in San Francisco. The author Rudyard Kipling said, "San Francisco has only one drawback – 'tis hard to leave." Paul Kanter of Jefferson Airplane said, "San Francisco is 49 square miles, surrounded by reality." Ashleigh Brilliant, author and cartoonist, said, "There may not be a Heaven, but there is San Francisco." The writer William Saroyan said, "If you're not alive, San Francisco will bring you to life." 1878 Today is the birthday of one of America's greatest Garden writers and one of the 20th Century's most famous horticulturists, Louise Beebe Wilder. Louise was born into a wealthy family in Baltimore. After marrying an architect named Walter Wilder, they bought a country place - a 200-acre estate in Pomona New York; they called BalderBrae. Louise set about adding fountains, terraces, arbors, walled gardens, and pathways. Her book called "My Garden" shared Louise's experiences learning how to garden at BalderBrae, where one of her first flower beds was bordered with clothespins. At BalderBrae, Louise and Walter created a garden and a stone garden house that was made famous in Louise's book "Color in My Garden" - which came out in 1918 and is generally regarded as her best work. In the book, Louise was the first garden writer to write about gray as a garden color. Louise was also the first person to write about Moonlight Gardens, and she wrote about looking at plants under the light of the Moon. After World War I, Walter and Louise settled in suburban Bronxville, New York. Louise created a personal Eden on a single acre of land complete with stone pillars and a long grape arbor. It was here that Louise began rock gardening. After 1920, most of her garden writing focused on rock gardening. Louise inspired both women and men to rock garden. By 1925, Louise founded a local Working Gardeners Club in Bronxville, and she also had steady work as a garden designer and as a garden writer. Her experiences gave her material for her writing. Louise included so many people from Bronxville in her writing that her columns were referred to by locals as "a Bronxville Family Affair." In all, Louise wrote eleven books about gardening. Her voice is pragmatic and pointed, which is why they were popular; gardeners appreciated her no-nonsense advice. For instance, Louise was not a fan of double flowers. In her book, "The Fragrant Path" from 1932, she wrote: "Some flowers are, I am sure, intended by a wise God to remain single. The hyacinth doubled, for instance, is a fat abomination." Louise wrote for a number of publications, and her writing was published in many prominent periodicals like the Journal of The Royal Horticultural Society of England and the New York Times. House and Garden alone published close to a hundred and fifty articles by Louise. Many of Louise's columns were collected and published as books. A year before she died, Louise was honored with the Gold Medal for Horticultural Achievement from the Garden Club of America. It was the pinnacle moment in her career, and it came as Louise and her children were still grieving the loss of her husband. In the Spring of 1934, Walter had committed suicide after a long battle with mental illness. Louise wrote prolifically about gardening and plants. Her experiences resulted in increasing the awareness of different plant species, gardening practices, and she helped shape the gardens of her time. Louise gave us many wonderful garden quotes. On Snowdrops: "Theirs is a fragile but hardy celebration…in the very teeth of winter." On Rosemary, "It makes a charming pot plant, neat, svelte, with its dark, felt-lined leaves held sleek against its sides. The smell… is keen and heady, resinous, yet sweet, with a hint of nutmeg." On Roses: "Over and over again, I have experienced the quieting influence of rose scent upon a disturbed state of mind." On gardening: "In the garden, every person may be their own artist without apology or explanation. Each within their green enclosure is a creator, and no two shall reach the same conclusion." Louise is buried with her parents in lot 41 in Lakeside Cemetery in Wakefield, Massachusetts. It was a shock to read that her grave is unmarked and to see that it is completely unadorned - without any flowers - nor does it rest under the shade of a tree. Unearthed Words 1782Today is the birthday of the English poet and literary critic Ann Taylor. Her sister Jane was a poet as well. Ann famously said, "The most important thing is to wear a smile." Here's a collection of poems about the garden by Ann Taylor. Come And Play In The Garden Little sister, come away, And let us in the garden play, For it is a pleasant day. On the grass-plat let us sit, Or, if you please, we'll play a bit, And run about all over it. But the fruit we will not pick, For that would be a naughty trick, And very likely make us sick. Nor will we pluck the pretty flowers That grow about the beds and bowers, Because you know they are not ours. We'll take the daisies, white and red, Because mamma has often said That we may gather then instead. And much I hope we always may Our very dear mamma obey, And mind whatever she may say. The Gaudy Flower Poem Why does my Anna toss her head, And look so scornfully around, As if she scarcely deigned to tread Upon the daisy-dappled ground? Does fancied beauty fire thine eye, The brilliant tint, the satin skin? Does the loved glass, in passing by, Reflect a graceful form and thin? Alas! that form, and brilliant fire, Will never win beholder's love; It may, indeed, make fools admire, But ne'er the wise and good can move. So grows the tulip, gay and bold, The broadest sunshine its delight; Like rubies, or like burnished gold, It shows its petals, glossy bright. But who the gaudy floweret crops, As if to court a sweet perfume! Admired it blows, neglected drops, And sinks unheeded to its doom. The virtues of the heart may move Affections of a genial kind; While beauty fails to stir our love, And wins the eye, but not the mind. The Field Daisy I'm a pretty little thing, Always coming with the spring; In the meadows green, I'm found, Peeping just above the ground, And my stalk is covered flat With a white and yellow hat. Little Mary, when you pass Lightly o'er the tender grass, Skip about, but do not tread On my bright but lowly head, For I always seem to say, "Surely winter's gone away." Grow That Garden Library The Seed Underground: by Janisse Ray The subtitle of this book is: A Growing Revolution to Save Food. Ray writes: "There is no despair in a seed. There's only life, waiting for the right conditions-sun and water, warmth and soil-to be set free. Every day, millions upon millions of seeds lift their two green wings." Ray's book takes us to the frontier of seed-saving. She shares beautiful stories from gardeners around the country who are working to preserve our food by growing old varieties, heirlooms, and eating them. Gardeners will love this book because, as a gardener, Ray is relatable, and her stories feature ordinary gardeners who are trying to save open-pollinated varieties of old-time seeds - the true treasures in our Gardens. Ray's book is not just abo…
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