Stay ConnectedThe Daily Gardener is a weekday podcast celebrating garden history, literature, and the small botanical stories that shape how we garden today.
Each episode follows an “on this day” format, uncovering the people, plants, books, and moments that have quietly influenced gardens across time.
New episodes are released Monday through Friday, and each show features a thoughtfully chosen garden book.
Copyright: Copyright ©2019-2020, Jennifer Ebeling|The Daily Gardener All rights reserved
Today we celebrate the plant named in honor of Queen Victoria and the President of Peru and Bolivia. We'll learn about the Mother of Balboa Park and how the world seed bank was saved during WWII. We'll hear the Garden Poem that celebrates the end of the apple-picking season. We Grow That Garden Library with a book from the author who was pulled out of her grief by nature walks with Marion Satterlee. I'll talk about an on-trend and portable way to display your houseplants, and then we'll wrap things up with a set of botanical stamps that commemorated the bi-centenary of Captain Cook's first voyage to New Zealand. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events. How to lift and divide herbaceous perennials Now's the time for all good men to come to the aid of their... Whoops - nope - Really now is the perfect time to lift and divide perennials with @GWmag - It's not too late! Dividing or not - you should check out the garden in this video. Swooning now... 11 things to know about the Agius Evolution Garden Here's a Behind the Scenes Look at Kew's Brand New Garden called the Agius. Learn about the mulch @kewgardens makes for the garden, the pergola that supports 26 roses & the drought-resistant asterids - like sages, olives, and rosemary. What to grow in a medieval herb garden - English Heritage Blog Medieval Herb Gardens grew the tried & true herbs. Learn more about Sage, Betony, Clary Sage, Hyssop, Rue, Chamomile, Dill, Cumin, & Comfrey in this post by @EnglishHeritage featuring a beautiful pic of @RievaulxAbbey Never Underestimate the Intelligence of Trees Gardens are plant communities that need these pillars of protection- yet many gardens are treeless. As gardeners, we should plant Micro Forests. Dr. Suzanne Simard - Professor of Forest Ecology: Older, bigger trees share nutrients w/ smaller trees & they pay it back later. @NautilusMag 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. So there's no need to take notes or track down links - the next time you're on Facebook, just search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Brevities #OTD On this day in 1849, the very first Victoria cruziana flowered in a custom-built greenhouse at the Duke of Devonshire's estate at Chatsworth. After that initial bloom, the other specimens began blooming as well. And, one of the blossoms was, appropriately, given to Queen Victoria (Santa Cruz Water Lily). The Victoria cruziana is an exotic plant. It is named in honor of two people: Queen Victoria & Andres de Santa Cruz, President of Peru & Bolivia, who sponsored the expedition where the plants were first collected. In the wild, Victoria cruziana is native to open waters in northern Argentina and Paraguay. Sadly, the Victoria cruziana is endangered due to deforestation. Although in recent years, the Santa Cruz Water Lily has been returning by the hundreds in the Salado River in Paraguay. Locals take tourists out to see them in little canoes. Victoria cruziana produces enormous lily pads that can grow up to 2 meters or almost 7 feet wide. Today, greenhouses grow the Santa Cruz Water Lily from seed. In cultivation, pollination takes place by hand in the evenings when the plant is flowering. But in its native habitat, the pollination process of the Santa Cruz Water Lily is a fantastic spectacle: When the big flower bud initially opens - it is pure white and it emits a pineapple aroma. Then, as night falls, the flower goes through a chemical change that causes it to heat up.The pineapple scent and the warmth draw flying scarab beetles who venture far into the depths of the flower to find feast of starch. It's likeThanksgiving in there. While they are feasting through the night, the morning sunlight causes the flower to close up, and the feasting scarab beetles are trapped inside. During the day, the flower goes through a tremendous transformation. The pineapple scent goes away, and the flower turns from pure white to pink - all in the course of a single day. What's more, the sex of the flower changes from female to male. When the Santa Cruz Water Lily flower opens again on the second night, the scarab beetles are ready to go, and they fly off, covered in pollen to find the next freshly opened pineapple scented female flowers. Isn't that incredible? Now the underside of the giant Amazonian water lily, Victoria cruziana, is quite something to see. It consists of this intricate vaulted rib structure, which is perfectly designed by Mother Nature. The air pockets give it the buoyancy and allow it to handle the load of the enormous lily pad. Those ribs are what allows the lily pad to float. This pattern so inspired Joseph Paxton that he incorporated it into his design for Crystal Palace in 1851. And, to illustrate the strength of the lily pads, there's a famous old photo from the 1800s that shows five children sitting on top of individual lily pads - one of them looks to be about three years old, and she's sitting on a rocking chair that was put on top of the Lily pad, and they are all just calming staring into the Camera. It's quite the image. There is one more surprise for people who get the chance to really study the giant water lily. Everything except the smooth top surface of the lily is ferociously spiny to protect it from being eaten by nibblers under the water. Back in July, I shared a video in the Facebook Group for the Show from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh which showed their Senior Horticulturist, Pat Clifford, teaching an intern, how to remove older Giant Water Lily pads so the pond doesn't get overcrowded. Using a pitchfork, Pat carefully folded the giant lily pad first in half, then quarters, and then once more. Then he stabbed the large folded pad with the pitchfork, hoists it in the air to let the water drain out, and then flops this huge beast of a pad down on the edge of the pond. Then, the camera zooms in to reveal the incredibly savage thorns that grow on the underside of the lily pad and all down the stem of the plant. For folks who watch that video, It is a shock to see how vicious the thorns are - rivaling any rose. #OTD Today is the birthday of American botanist, horticulturist, and landscape architect Kate Sessions, who was born on this day in 1857. As a young woman, Kate had traveled to San Diego to teach, but she ended up following her passion and bought a local nursery in 1885. Before long, Kate owned a flower shop as well. And, she didn't leave her teaching roots behind. Kate is remembered for going from grammar school to grammar school, teaching thousands of young children basic horticulture and botany. In 1892, she managed to convince the City of San Diego to lease her 30 acres of land to use for growing in Balboa Park so that she could grow plants for her nursery. The arrangement required Session to plant 100 trees in balboa park every single year in addition to another 300 trees around the city of San Diego. Over a dozen years, Kate planted close to 5,000 trees, forever changing the vista of San Diego. The Antonicelli family, who later bought Kate's nursery, said that Kate was tough and plants were her whole life. "When she would go out on a landscape job, rather than put a stake in the ground, she had these high boots on, and she'd kick heel marks in the ground, and that's where she would tell the guys to plant the trees." Thanks to her nursery and connections, Session planted hundreds of cypress, pine, oak, pepper trees, and eucalyptus. And although she never married or had any children, it was thanks to her dedication to the trees of San Diego that Sessions became known as The Mother of Balboa Park. But there is one tree that Sessions will forever be associated with, and that is the jacaranda, which is a signature plant of the city of San Diego. Sessions imported the jacaranda, and she propagated and popularized it - it which wasn't difficult given its beautiful purple bloom. In September of 1939, Kate broke her hip after falling in her garden. The following march, newspapers reported she had died quietly in her sleep, "At the close of Easter Sunday, when the broad lawns, the groves, the canyons, and the flower beds were aglow with a beauty that has become her monument." #OTD On this day in 1941, Hitler gave a speech where he said that "Leningrad must die of starvation." The following year, that's nearly what happened as hundreds of thousands starved to death in the streets of Leningrad. People were so desperate, that some people attempted to eat sawdust. As the Nazis arrived in St Petersburg, the dedicated scientists at the Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry locked themselves inside the seed vault to protect the world's seed collection, which was housed in bins that went from the floor to the ceiling in 16 rooms. The workers came up with a strategy where no one was allowed to be alone with the seed. They were always paired up, and they guarded the collection in shifts. The siege lasted for 900 days, and one by one, the people in the vault started dying of starvation. In January 1942, Alexander Stchukin, a peanut specialist, died at his desk. And, ironically, as he was guarding rice, the Botanist Dmitri Ivanov also died of starvation. When the siege ended in the Spring of 1944, nine scientists had starved to death while defending the world's seeds. #OTD On this day in 1974, the University of North Carolina at Wilmington dedicated the Bluethenthal Wildflower Preserve. The 10-acre preserve is in the middle of the campus and is home to a marvelous example of unique native plants like the Venus flytrap, sundew, and white and yellow jasmine. An article reporting on the preserve said, "In this hurly-burly rush-around world of ours, there are still those who care about the natural beauty of the area and about preserving it for future generations." #OTD On the same day in 1974, London's famous flower, fruit, and vegetable market moved from Covent Garden to Battersea. In 1661, King Charles II established Covent Market under a charter. After an incredible transformation from a 9-acre pasture in the heart of London, the streets and alleys of Covent Garden served as a market for Londoners for 305 years. Back in 1974, 270 dealers were buying and selling 4,000 tons of produce every day, as well as flowers and plants worth $28.8 million. One newspaper reported that when a trader was asked if he would miss the location of the old market, he replied, "We deal in fruit and vegetables, not sentiment." Covent Gardens was the spot where Professor Henry Higgins met a flower seller named Eliza Doolittle in "My Fair Lady." And, in Dicken's story, "The Old Curiosity Shop," a stranger went to the Covent Market, "at sunrise, in spring or summer when the fragrance of sweet flowers is in the air, overpowering even the unwholesome streams of last night's debauchery and driving the dusky thrush, whose cage has hung outside a garret window all night long, half-mad with joy." Unearthed Words "My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree Toward heaven still, And there's a barrel that I didn't fill Beside it, and there may be two or three Apples I didn't pick upon some bough. But I am done with apple-picking now. Essence of winter sleep is on the night, The scent of apples: I am drowsing off." - Robert Frost, After Apple Picking Today's book recommendation: How to Know the Ferns by Frances Theodora Parsons Parsons was an American naturalist and author, remembered most for her book on American wildflowers. But her book, How to Know the Ferns, is also a favorite and it's a personal favorite of mine. One of the reasons I'm a huge Parsons fan is because of her incredible life story. After her first husband and baby died, Parsons finally broke her grief when her friend Marion Satterlee managed to get her to take nature walks, which rekindled her love for wildflowers. In 1893, Fanny published her famous book, How to Know the Wildflowers. It sold out in five days and was a favorite of Theodore Roosevelt and Rudyard Kipling. Three years later, in 1896, Fanny married a childhood friend, a professor, politician, and diplomat, James Russell Parsons. The following year, Fanny gave birth to their son. Parsons was not well off, so Fanny wrote today's book, "How to Know the Ferns" in an effort to financially help her family. In the first page of the book, Parsons shares this beautiful quote about ferns by Henry David Thoreau: "If it were required to know the position of the fruit dots or the character of the indusium, nothing could be easier than to ascertain it; but if it is required that you be affected by ferns, that they amount to anything, signify anything to you, that they be another sacred scripture and revelation to you, helping to redeem your life, this end is not so easily accomplished." A year after Ferns, Fanny gave birth to their only daughter, Dorothea, who tragically died at two and a half years old five days before Thanksgiving in 1902. Three years later, Fanny's husband, James, was killed when his carriage collided with a trolley car. A widow for the second time, Fanny published this poem in Scribner's Magazine in 1911: When Laughter is Sadder than Tears. The marshes stretch to the dunes and the dunes sweep down to the sea, And the sea is wooing the meadow which waits with an open door; Then a melody sweet to the hearer floats up from the murmuring lea Till the sea slips seaward again and the land is athirst as before. And athirst is the heart whose worship is not the worship of yore, Whose visions no magic can conjure, whose plenty is suddenly dearth; And parched as the desert the soul whose tears no grief can restore, Whose laughter is sadder than tears and whose grief is as barren as mirth. The days are alive with music, the nights their pleasures decree; The vision the morning fulfills is the dream that the evening wore, And life is as sweet to the living as the flower is sweet to the bee, As the breath of the woods is sweet to the mariner far from shore. But singing and sweetness and laughter must vanish forevermore, As the petals fall from the flower, as the waters recede from the firth, When hopes no longer spring upward as larks in the morning soar, Then laughter is sadder than tears and grief is as barren as mirth. Friend, if shaken and shattered the shrine in the heart that is fain to adore, Then forsake the false gods that have held you and lay your pale lips to the Earth, That in her great arms she may take you and croon you her melodies o'er, When laughter is sadder than tears and grief is as barren as mirth. Today's Garden Chore Enjoy a portable and dazzling spot for your houseplants by repurposing a bar cart. Bar carts are super trendy once again, and they offer gardeners a stylish space for displaying houseplants. If you get a cart with glass shelves, light can filter through to plants on the bottom shelf as well. Or, you can use the bottom shelf to store extra soil, horticultural charcoal, pots, and other gear. I've had tremendous luck sourcing bar carts on Facebook Marketplace. I recently put a gold cart in my botanical Library. It's a mid-sized oval cart, and it holds about a dozen small houseplants for me - from Swedish Ivy to a variety ferns. I have to say, my little glass misting bottle looks extra elegant on the bar cart. And remember, if you happen to find a metallic cart - whether it's gold or silver - those are all considered neutrals in interior design. And, don…
Full show notes at the publisherToday we celebrate the Landscape Architect, who left a mark on over 50 towns in the United States.
We'll learn about The Botany Man, who helped start The Sierra Club.
We'll hear beautiful words about the mists of November from two of the world's best nature writers.
We Grow That Garden Library with the book written by the wife of the author of Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web.
I'll talk about getting your outdoor rugs cleaned, and then we'll wrap things up with the story of an award-winning botanical writer who was once tutored by Nathaniel Lord Britton.
But first, let's catch up on a few recent events.
1. Here's a very helpful video tutorial on How to Make a Compost Bin for Next to Nothing from Richard Spencer @RS_Garden_Care. I really like the simplicity and functionality of this.
2. Excellent Hedge Planting Advice from Buckingham Nurseries. It made me of that saying... The best time to plant a tree (or a hedge) was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.
3. Here are Six Hardy Annuals to Sow in Autumn for a beautiful Spring & Summer from @theenglishgarde Think California Poppy, Centaurea, Borage, Love-in-a-Mist, Calendula, & Clary sage. I'd also add Cornflower and Larkspur!
Book Winner: Kathy Brown
The Garden in Every Sense and Season by Tovah Martin
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. So there's no need to take notes or track down links - the next time you're on Facebook, just search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.
Brevities
#OTD Happy Winter's Day! In the Old English poem of the Anglo-Saxon Calendar known as the Menologium, November 7th is considered to be the first day of winter - 'Winter's Day.'
According to the poem, winter has 92 days, lasting from November 7th to February 6th.
#OTD Today is the birthday of the American landscape designer Warren H Manning who was born on this day in 1860.
The day Manning was born, his father recorded the moment in his diary:
"At five minutes past 12 this morning, we had a son born to us. He is strong and healthy to all appearances. I set Hackett at work to dig the hole while I planted the Elm tree to commemorate the day that our first child was born. I think that there should be a tree planted at the birth of every child so that in the after times it may be seen which is most useful."
Manning's dad was undoubtedly proud of his son, who worked on design projects in almost every state in the country. Manning started out as an apprentice to Frederick Law Olmsted before going out on his own. Ultimately, Manning designed on all types of properties, from estates to golf courses and everything in between. All told, his portfolio included over 1,600 projects. One of the signature aspects of Manning's practice was promoting "Wild Gardens." Wild gardens appealed to Manning because they were more affordable (at least initially) for his clients compared to formal gardens. Adding wild spaces meant that Manning would generally get an opportunity to follow up on his projects as they usually needed some fine tunings. Then, third, many of Manning's private wild garden designs ended up becoming a gift to the community. And Manning was always thrilled to see more natural areas transitioned into public spaces.
The Birmingham artist and Landscape Architect Frank Hartley Anderson gave a moving tribute to Manning upon his death:
"Fifty other towns and cities today arc better places to live because of the vision of Warren H. Manning. Eleven hundred communities, in part, were made pleasanter places through his 50 years of wholehearted service."
#OTD Today is the anniversary of the death of The Botany Man Willis Linn Jepson, who died on this day in 1946.
Carved on his tombstone are the following words:
"Profound Scholar, Inspiring Teacher, Indefatigable Botanical Explorer, ... In the ordered beauty of nature, he found enduring communion."
When Jepson was 25, he created the Sierra Club along with John Muir and Warren Olney.
During Jepson's junior year at Berkeley, he decided to start a diary. His diaries became known as his field books. Like many botanists, Jepson was an archivist at heart, and he recorded everything - not just dates, but as much as he could. It was a practice Jepson never abandoned and resulted in over fifty Jepson field books.
In 1894, Jepson began to think seriously about creating a Flora of California.
As long as he was working on the flora, Jepson thought he might as well create a herbarium, which he considered to be his legacy.
Although Jepson often said he disliked common names, he came up with many on his own. He once named a plant Mountain Misery after suffering the after-effects of walking through it.
By the early 1900s, automobiles were becoming mainstream, but Jepson warned,
"You must still go afoot if a real botanist. No field botanist should become soft and travel only in an auto."
Jepson had started numbering plants for his flora in 1899. His last specimen was No. 27,571 - the Salsola kali - a little plant commonly known as Prickly Russian Thistle. Jepson collected it on October 28, 1945. Earlier that year, Jepson suffered a heart attack when he attempted to cut down a dead Almond tree on his ranch. Sadly, he never fully recovered, and on this day in 1946, Jepson passed away.
Jepson impacted many botanists. One was Mary Bowerman, who was one of Jepson's doctoral students. She wrote once,
"Little did I know, 65 years ago, that my senior project would become my life's work."Another botanist influenced by Jepson was George Dexter Butler. Butler's story is unusual. He was trained as a lawyer, but his passion was botany. Yet, he put his botanical efforts aside to raise his family. But when he was 56, he passed by a book store in Oakland. The store had a copy of Jepson's Flora. His time to pursue botany had come, and the trigger was that little book written by Willis Lynn Jepson.
#OTD A year ago today, we said goodbye to Irvin M Williams, who died on this day in 2018 at the age of 92.
Williams served as Chief Horticulturist at the White House from 1962 to 2008, becoming the longest-serving gardener in White House history. Williams helped develop the Rose Garden during the Kennedy administration. He once said that the Merion bluegrass that made up the famous White House lawn as "the best grass you can have."
Unearthed Words
Today is the birthday of the poet Ruth Pitter who was born on this day in 1897As a gardener herself, Ruth had an excellent understanding of flowers. Pitter once shared that she liked to write her poetry only after she finished bother her chores and her gardening.
My favorite book by Pitter is The Rude Potato. It's is a very witty and entertaining collection of poems about gardens and gardeners.
Here's a verse from Ruth Pitter about November from her 1941 book called The Diehards: "All in November's soaking mist We stand and prune the naked tree, While all our love and interest Seem quenched in the blue-nosed misery."On this day in 1855, Henry David Thoreau was writing about the November mist as well:
"Another drizzling day, — as fine a mist as can fall... My thoughts are concentrated; I am all compact. The solitude is real, too, for the weather keeps other men at home. This mist is like a roof and walls over and around, and I walk with a domestic feeling... The world and my life are simplified. What now of Europe and Asia ?"
Today's book recommendation: Onward and Upward in the Garden by Katherine White
After Katherine separated from her first husband, she married E.B. White, who was the author of three beloved children's books, Stuart Little (1945), Charlotte's Web (1952), and The Trumpet of the Swan (1970). In the early 1930s, Katherine and E.B. bought a farmhouse in North Brooklin, Maine. By the end of the decade, they moved there from New York. White began writing garden pieces for The New Yorker in 1958. Onward and Upward in the Garden (1979) is her only book, edited and published posthumously by her husband E.B. White. Gardeners especially enjoy EB White's tenderly written preface to his gardener wife.
You can get a used copy and support the show, using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for $3.
Today's Garden Chore
Get your outdoor rugs cleaned.
Sonny had an accident in the front room this week. When the carpet cleaner arrived, I asked if they could clean the outdoor rugs, and even the natural fibered welcome mat got a makeover with a quick professional clean. It was the perfect first step toward getting the house ready for the holidays. Next week is all about putting together containers and pots for the holidays.
Something Sweet Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart
On this day in 1967, The Daily Times out of Salisbury, Maryland, reported the death of botanist and author Norman Taylor who died on November 5th.
Taylor immigrated from England with his parents when he was a little boy. He was very sickly and was not able to stay in school. In his early 20's, Taylor was hired to work at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) by Nathaniel Lord Britton. It was a lucky break for Taylor as Brittain became his personal tutor in Botany, taking Taylor along on expeditions to the Caribbean.
Taylor also worked as the curator of plants at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. There, he came up with the idea of a Garden Dictionary. It brought Taylor accolades and popularity.
His obituary in The Daily Times shared what Taylor considered one of his most significant endeavors:
"Besides writing over a dozen books and articles by the score on botany, Mr. Taylor is responsible for what he considered a "terrific undertaking." This was the amount of work required in framing 33,000 botanical definitions for Webster's New International Dictionary, second edition, published by Houghton, Mifflin Co. 1933-36."
Thanks for listening to the daily gardener, and remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."
Today we celebrate the Versailles botanist who started organizing plants in a new way but kept his method a secret. We'll learn about the young New Yorker and garden writer who met the perfect botanical illustrator for her garden books in the hospital as she was battling influenza. We'll hear some glorious thoughts on November from the author of "Butternut Wisdom." We Grow That Garden Library with a book that helps us grow more by going vertical in our gardens. I'll talk about burying your cold-hardy succulents, and then we'll wrap things up with the intrepid botanist who discovered a plant that's still almost too good to be true - the blue poppy. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events. Modern Monochromatic Wedding at Baltimore's Sagamore Pendry Hotel @ruffledblog shared this gorgeous @lemonlime_event Modern Monochromatic Wedding at Baltimore's Sagamore Pendry Hotel. Gardeners will love the green/white floral arrangements. And you MUST check out the bride's bouquet. That air plant!! https://buff.ly/2oFnKjj What is a Vegan Garden? I must confess I didn't fully appreciate all that it entails - so hats off to Garden Teacher Plews Garden Design @plewgd for a thorough and thoughtful explanation. Great article in @PsychToday by @peterbongi called Saffron for Emotional Health. Studies show the stigma & the petal of Saffron (Crocus sativus) are helpful for calming, mood support & more. And, love the Charlemange quote about herbs at the beginning... https://buff.ly/2WBvKyp Garden Betty share a really lovely post called A Guide to Saving and Storing Seeds As your end-of-season crops start to fade, now's the time to save the seeds from your favorite plants so you can grow them again next year! Here's a foolproof guide to show you how from @gardenbetty #gardenchat #gardening #growyourown https://buff.ly/2RzMpiN 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. So there's no need to take notes or search for links - the next time you're on Facebook, just search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Brevities #OTD Today is the anniversary of the death of the French naturalist and botanist Bernard de Jussieu who died on this day in 1777. Jussieuwas a French botanist who developed the first natural classification of flowering plants. Today, there's a metro station near the botanical garden in Paris that is named in honor of the Jussieu family - which boasted five members over several generations as notable botanists. Bernard and his brother Antoine were both botany professors in Paris. Bernard was the stronger botanist, and there's a famous story about his incredible dedication to botany: One time, after botanizing in Lebanon, Bernard was sailing back to France. Of course, drinkable water onboard a long voyage home would have been a precious commodity. Yet, Bernard Jussieu purportedly shared his precious water with a little Lebanon Cedar seedling he was bringing home. He wanted to plant in the Royal Garden, and he was determined to bring the little tree back alive to Paris. The French say the seedling lived to be over 200 years old and eighty feet high. As for Bernard Jussieu, in 1759, he was brought to Versailles to develop the Royal Botanical Garden at the Petit Trianon. Unassuming and laid back, Bernard quietly began arranging the plants in the garden in a new way. Jussieu's system of organizing plants into a more natural order was revolutionary at the time and also something he wouldn't disclose to others. However, Bernard did put together a catalog of the plants in his garden. Bernard recognized a kindred spirit in his nephew, Antoine-Laurent. Bernard trained him for four years, and when he came of age, Bernard confided his methods of plant classification. As a result, Antoine-Laurent's work was an extension of his Uncle Bernard's ideas around grouping plants. It took Antoine-Laurent Jussieu almost twenty years of refinement and perfecting of his Uncle's work, but he finally published his work on natural classification as the Bastille was falling in 1789. In Genera Plantarum, Antoine-Laurent Jussieu kept Linnaeus' binomial nomenclature, but he grouped plants by genera and then into families. He called his system natural and strived to let nature be his guide. Today, many plant families can be attributed to Jussieu. #OTD Today is the birthday of the botanist and garden writer Alice Lounsberry who was born on this day in 1868. (Note: Online accounts, based on a Who's Who biography have the date of her year of birth as 1873 - which is incorrect as she was already two years old on an 1870 census with her brother and parents.) Lounsberry was a New Yorker, and she developed a love for botany as a young girl. In her mid-twenties, she was already serving as a board member for the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG). Lounsberry is forever linked to her friend and collaborator - the Australian botanical illustrator, Ellis Rowan. In the late 1890s, Rowan (b. 1848) decided to travel to New York. She caused a bit of a sensation during her first trip to the States a few years earlier. This trip was no different - except that after her arrival, Rowan contracted influenza, and she needed to be hospitalized. New Yorkers, like Lounsberry, read about Rowan's illness, and they sent cards and flowers to her hospital room to cheer her. But Lounsberry had an enormous sense of admiration for Rowan, and she felt she needed to do something more personal. So, Alice personally brought a box of fresh-picked wildflowers to the hospital and gave them to Rowan's nurse. Rowan was thoroughly charmed by the bouquet and the card which read, "From one flower seeker to another - and an admirer of your work." The following day, Alice visited Rowan. Even though Alice was twenty years younger than Rowan, the two hit it off. They spent an entire afternoon discussing botany and their work. When Alice offered to show Rowan where she liked to botanize for wildflowers, it was the incentive Rowan needed to get her health back on track. When Alice invited her to illustrate a book on Wildflowers she had been asked to write, their fates as writer and painter were jointly sealed. Together, they produced three books: "A Guide to the Wild Flowers" (1899) describing around 500 wildflowers. "A Guide to the Trees" (1900) describing nearly 200 trees & shrubs. And, "Southern Wild Flowers & Trees" (1901) where Alice wrote in the preface: "To learn something of the history, the folklore and the uses of southern plants and to see rare ones growing in their natural surroundings, Mrs. Rowan and I traveled in many parts of the south, exercising always our best blandishments to get the people of the section to talk with us. Through the mountainous region we drove from cabin to cabin, and nowhere could we have met with greater kindness and hospitality." While they were working on their book on Southern Wildflowers, Alice and Rowan's time together was marred by tragedy. They were surrounded by the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains when a telegram came for Rowan. Her only son, Eric, had died in South Africa. He was 22 years old. After finishing these books, the two went their separate ways. After working with Rowan, Alice continued to write - but without Rowan's artwork, her books failed to attract the same level of popularity. After suffering a stroke, Alice Lounsberry died at the age of 81 on November 20, 1949. Unearthed Words Walking down the country road this morning, I noticed the swamp in late fall has lovely colors. The chalky purple of the wild blackberry canes, the cinnabar of frosted weeds, and the garnet of oak seedlings seem like music. Farther on, the cutover fields have variations on the theme of brown, from tawny to copper. Squirrels go a-marketing under the hazel bushes, for, under the burs, the satiny brown nuts begin to show. A fawn-colored rabbit hops ahead along the grey stone wall, and a pheasant leads three females toward the thicket. As I pass the neighbor's old red barn, the smell of dried hay is as sweet as honey. Pumpkins and cabbages and smoky hubbard squash lie in the garden. Blue smoke rises from a pile of burning cornstalks. "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness," Keats called it, and also, "Think not of spring, thou has thy beauty too." -Gladys Taber, The Best of Still Meadow Today's Grow That Garden Library book recommendation: Vertical Vegetables by Amy Andrychowicz The subtitle to this book is Simple Projects that Deliver More Yield in Less Space. Going vertical is something I love to do indoors in small spaces - but as Amy shows us in this book, it's a strategy that works brilliantly in our gardens as well. Amy points out that when you grow upward rather than outward, you will double or triple the yield from your small-space garden. Not only does growing vertically not only potentially increase your yield, but also it also gets your plants off the ground - increasing airflow, reducing the risk from soil-borne disease, and making a crouch-free harvest. Vertical Vegetables is packed with valuable information. Amy includes lists of plants that are best suited for vertical growing. The book is packed full of beautiful DIY garden projects anyone can do thanks to step-by-step instructions. Beyond the trellis, Amy shares what you can grow vertically using cages, stakes, tee-pees, a classic obelisk, or pergolas in addition to providing creative plans for even more functional structures. Today's Garden Chore It's time to have a funeral: Bury your pots with hardy succulents like Hens and Chicks and Sedums. In a Northern garden, you cannot leave your cute little pots with these cold-hardy succulents sitting out in the garden. They won't make it - or should say - they won't make it above ground in a pot. To avoid the heartbreak of having to re-buy them and the hassle of repotting them, I simply gather up all my pots - terra cotta, iron, strawberry pots, etc. - collecting them in a cleared area by the water feature. I'll add in my succulent wreath form as well. Then I bury them under a couple of bags of wood mulch. Sheltered under the mulch, the plants continue to grow until the first hard freeze. In the spring, I dig out my pots and then return them to their homes throughout the garden. Something Sweet Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart #OTD Today is the birthday of the British plant collector and explorer Frank Kingdon Ward who was born on this day in 1885. During the beginning of the twentieth century, Frank Kingdon Ward went on twenty-four Indiana-Jones-like expeditions throughout Tibet, China, and Southeast Asia, in search of rare and elusive species of plants. Among his many accomplishments, Ward found the legendary Tibetan blue poppy. Ward's accounts of his adventures are captivating. In 1942, he arrived inNew Delhi after a 500 hundred mile walk over mountains and through jungles. The newspaper account said: "A thin, wiry little man in his 50s, Captain Kingdon-Ward...decided that the Japanese were getting too close for comfort so he loaded two 60-pound bags of rice on two mules... But instead of taking the short road through the Chaukan pass, [he] decided to travel the 500 mile mule trail through Tibet... [Kingdon-Ward tramped] knee-deep in snow [and] crossed the Himalayas at the 14,500-foot pass.... [He said] "It was a pleasant walk and [my] reward is in the finding of dazzling flowers never seen before. You know they may always blush unseen unless you manage to take them back and make them grow where others can admire them. They are a little bit of the enchantment of Asia transplanted into England or America. It is satisfaction enough if you can feel in an industrial age like the present that you have brought home a little beauty for others to enjoy." Thanks for listening to the daily gardener, and remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."
Today we celebrate the botanist who created the second botanical garden in the United States and the botanist who was a dear friend to Asa Gray and was with him as he saw first hand one of the most sought after plants of the 1800s. We'll hear some words about the falling leaves and autumn senescence. We Grow That Garden Library with a book that is so gorgeous that some folks buy copies to cut out the pages to frame them. I'll talk about the three things you need to do to winterize your pressure washer, and then we'll talk about a troublesome otter in Vancouver. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events. Who doesn't want MORE Small Garden Design Ideas on a Budget? I stumbled on a great video about this very topic by Alexandra Campbell @midsizegarden, who is the brains behind the middle-sized garden. What I love about Alexandra's video is that she culls the best tips from top garden designers she's interviewed over the years. Find out how to save money and still get the garden you'll love. The designers share tips like designing off of the house or a tree, making your boundaries look smart, and the secret benefits of using a large pot instead of buying lots of little pots. Alexandra has pulled together a handy set of clips with commentary. It's a great video. Plus, I love her voice... Boy, did Tom Brown @headgardenertom pick some wonderful plants for November in his article for Gardens Illustrated called "Best flowers and plants for November." There are beautiful photographs of these plants and flowers from Jason Ingram in this great post from @GdnsIllustrated. There's plenty for gardens across all different growing zones. Northern Gardeners should check out Rosa 'Geranium' and Acer griseum - they both caught my eye. The Irish Florist, Lamber de Bie, shared a post called A Romantic Garden Wedding at Waterford Castle. You know those breathe/calming apps? This is basically that - but with flowers. Check out @Lamber_de_Bie & @WaterfordCastle on a private Island SE of Ireland. Lamber's woodland birch arch includes blue & pink summer hydrangea & tall plumes of pampas grass. It's a unique combination, and it's just incredible. 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.So there's no need to take notes or track down links - the next time you're on Facebook, just search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Brevities #OTD Today is the anniversary of the death of the botanist Humphrey Marshall who died on this day in 1801. The Marshalls were cousins to the Bartrams - their mothers were sisters. John Bartram was known as the "Father of American Botany, and he ignited Humphrey's love of native plants. John had established the country's first botanical garden. In 1773, after Marshall inherited his family estate and a sizable inheritance from his father, he created the country's second botanical garden. He incorporated natives, naturally, but also exotics. Marshall forged a friendship with the British botanist John Fothergill who paid Marshall for his plant collecting. Fothergill was a collector and a connector, introducing Marshall to many of Europe's top botanists and a growing list of customers. Marshall's contacts helped him source new plants for his botanical garden. And Twenty-five years before Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis & Clark on an expedition to the west, it was Humphrey Marshall who first made the suggestion - in 1778, 1785, and 1792. He really wanted the United States to sponsor an expedition to explore the west. A fellow friend, Quaker, and botanist, Joseph Trimble Rothrock wrote this about Marshall: "The earth abounds in beauty, all of which is open to his chastened senses. He revels in the sunlight and the breezes. The songs of the birds fall, welcome, into his ear. The colors of the flowers attract him." Marshalltown Pennsylvania was named in honor of Humphrey Marshall. In 1785, Marshall published the very first American essay on trees and shrubs. Humphrey Marshall is also known as the "Father of American Dendrology" (or the study of woody plants, trees, and shrubs). The genus, Marshallia, is named in honor of Humphrey Marshall. #OTD On this day in 1896, the newspaper out of Buffalo, New York, reported that the John Redfield herbarium was looking for a home. John H Redfield was born in Middletown, Connecticut, in 1815. In 1836, Redfield became friends with Asa Gray after joining the Lyceum of Natural History in New York, where Gray was the Librarian and Superintendent. The remained life-long friends. When Redfield married in 1843, he moved to Philadelphia and worked for his Father-in-law's company making wheels for the railroad. During his free time, Redfield went on plant hunting expeditions with Asa Gray and other botanists. During the 1840's Gray was trying to locate a plant called the Shortia galacifolia (commonly known as Oconee bell). Andre Michaux had found the plant and had sent it back to Paris. In 1839, when Gray was in Paris on behalf of Harvard, he found a cabinet of unidentified plants, and there was Michaux's plant - the Oconee bell. Gray named the plant Shortia in honor of the Kentucky botanist, Charles Wilkin Short. Gray made two serious attempts in 1841 and 1843 to find the spot where Michaux had found the Shortia, but both failed. Soon every botanist wanted to find the Shortia. In 1863 Charles Short died - and still no Shortia. Botanists dealt with constant comments like "Found Shortia yet?" In May of 1877, a North Carolina teenager named George Hyams was walking beside the Catawba River when he spied a plant he couldn't name. His father was an amateur botanist, and he sent the specimen to a friend. A specimen made it to Gray, who could be heard crying 'Eureka' when he found it. In 1879, Gray organized a group to see the Shortia. Along with his dear friend, John Redfield, Gray brought his wife, Charles Sprague Sargent, and William Canby. Sure enough, they found the Shortia growing in the spot Hymans found it. It was an honor for Redfield to be there with his old friend. Redfield devoted most of the final 20 years of his life to the herbarium of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. During Redfield's lifetime, botanists would visit Torrey if they were in New York, Asa Gray, if they were at Harvard or in Boston, and John Redfield when they passed through Philadelphia. It helped that people genuinely liked Redfield; his botanist friends noted his "strong yet tender character" when they wrote about him in his obituary. Redfield's work at the Academy was both worker bee and preservationist. In the early 1800s, Philadelphia had been a major botanical hub in the country. Redfield made sure the early botanical work was indexed and mounted, preserving the precious botanical history of the city of brotherly love. Unearthed Words "Nature is, above all, profligate. Don't believe them when they tell you how economical and thrifty nature is, whose leaves return to the soil. Wouldn't it be cheaper to leave them on the tree in the first place?" - Annie Dillard, author "Saw the rainbow in the heaven, In the eastern sky the rainbow, Whispered, "What is that, Nokomis?" And the good Nokomis answered: "'Tis the heaven of flowers you see there; All the wild-flowers of the forest, All the lilies of the prairie, When on earth they fade and perish, Blossom in that heaven above us." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Song of Hiawatha Today's book recommendation: Botanicum by Katie Scott and Kathy Willis I got my own copy of this book just last week, and it immediately became one of my favorites. And, it's a beautiful coffee table book with stunning pictures and heavy paper - although it actually was written for kids ages 8 -12. Don't let that dissuade you. It really is a remarkable book, and it's chock-full of information. Just seeing it on my ottoman in the family room makes me so happy. In fact, some people buy copies of this gorgeous book to cut the pages out to frame them. So just a quick heads up - they sell a Botanicum poster book too. The cover is spectacular. OK - now let me tell you about it. This book came out in 2017 and is part of Big Picture Press's Welcome to the Museum series. Botanicum is a brilliantly curated guide to plant life. The text was written by Kathy Willis, the director of science at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, England. Botanicum also features artwork from the fabulous Katie Scott of Animalium fame. Botanicum is designed to make you feel like you are having a museum experience - visiting a fascinating exhibition about the world of plants -from perennials to bulbs to tropical exotica. Like any excellent exhibit, Botanicum offers a beautiful feast of botanical knowledge complete with superb cross-sections of how plants work. This is an excellent gift book for the holidays or gift for yourself. It's undoubtedly one of my unexpected favorites this year - a treasure of art and botanical information. You can get a used copy and support the show, using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for under $20. Today's Garden Chore Take 5 minutes and winterize your pressure washer. If your pressure washer is gas-operated, you need to start with this step: First, add a fuel stabilizer to the gas tank. Then run the engine for 2 minutes to get the stabilizer to circulate through the engine's system. If your pressure washer is electric, you begin the process here (gas pressure washer, continue): Second, hook up the pressure washer to your garden hose. Let it run to clean the detergent out of the system. Turn off the water and remove the garden hose and then spray it until no more water comes out of the system. Finally, add anti-freeze "Pump Saver" to pump inlet if the temperatures are going near or below freezing, so that your pressure washer doesn't freeze up. Something Sweet Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart Finally, this past week, the Global News shared a story called Koi Tremble in Fear as Otter makes a reappearance in the Vancouver Chinese garden. "Nearly a year after a hungry otter began decimating the koi population at Vancouver's Chinese Gardens... The Vancouver Park Board said Saturday the otter was spotted in the koi pond on Wednesday morning after the carcasses of three koi were found. Park board staff began draining the pond that same day to transfer the remaining koi to a temporary holding area off-site. It's not yet known whether this otter is the same one that ate 11 of the garden's 14 prized koi fish in November of last year, including a prized 50-year-old fish named Madonna." When I shared this story in the Facebook Group, I wrote: "There Otter be a law!" In all seriousness, for pond owners, there's nothing worse than losing your koi. You should watch the measures the park is taking to prevent animals from getting into the pond area. It's pretty intense. And, it just goes to show that whether you're a big public garden or a small private garden, dealing with critters like this can require ingenuity and hard work and even then - there are no guarantees. Thanks for listening to the daily gardener, and remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."
Today we celebrate fall through the eyes of a writer and naturalist from the year 1855 and the botanist honored with building on the University of Glasgow. We'll learn about the Indian botanist who bred a new species of sugar cane and the Arizona Palm - yes, it does exist! We'll hear some November Poems. We Grow That Garden Library with a book that helps us savor the garden through our five senses. I'll talk about the task some gardeners regret forgetting and then share a little story about the botanist who ended up becoming one of the most prolific orchid hunters. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events. Saturday morning, I woke up to a snow-covered garden. Winter is gaining on us... but don't despair. I found a lovely video clip from Katie Rushworth @queenofspades00 over at Silverline Tools, who shares that there are plenty of ways to add color to your winter garden. You can watch along in her video as she plants a colorful border and uses evergreens and semi-evergreens. She adds a lovely heuchera and huecherella. Next, she uses a beautiful false bamboo or Nandina and pittosporum for interest and texture. Then, she incorporates a Pyrrhus into the back of the border as well as a Sibirica dogwood. Katie points out that the more exciting foliage you can source, the more dynamic your border will become. Next up, Mary Ellen Ellis @gardenknowhow shared a great post over the weekend called How Many Kinds Of Ginkgo Are There? Well, the answer is lots! I love the Fairmount, the Majestic Butterfly, and the Lacy Ginkgo. "Fairmount. This is a columnar ginkgo, meaning its growth habit is narrow and upright. This is a good choice for narrow spaces with plenty of vertical room. Majestic Butterfly. This type has variegated leaves, green streaked with yellow. It is also a smaller tree at just 10 feet (3 meters) high at maturity. Lacy Ginkgo. The lacy cultivar is so-called for its leaves, which have a textured edge that gives the appearance of lace." Finally, as trends go, Houseplants are Hot! I found a great post that was reshared from last Dec by @batesbn and featured in the blog Greenhouse Management called Houseplant Comeback.The subtitle was: Tech-savvy Millennials are reviving the houseplant market. How will the latest indoor foliage trends affect growers and retailers in 2019 and beyond? The article featured @gardenmedia Katie Dubow: "Whether we're doing it consciously or subconsciously, we're putting more greenery in our homes because we're spending more time inside." "[Last year], the National Initiative for Consumer Horticulture (NICH) developed a series of infographics to promote the proven health and wellness benefits of houseplants. The #PlantsDoThat campaign illustrated how indoor plants can improve test scores in classrooms, lower blood pressure in hospitals and increase productivity in the workplace. "We started the #PlantsDoThat campaign to show people what houseplants actually do in their everyday lives," says Day, who is also the chair of the commercial council for NICH. "These benefits resonate with Millennials because they want something that does more than just look pretty." 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. So there's no need to take notes or track down links - the next time you're on Facebook, just search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Brevities #OTD On this day in 1855, Henry David Thoreau wrote in his journal: "The winter is approaching. The birds are almost all gone. The note of the 'dee de de' sounds now more distinct, prophetic of winter, as I go amid the wild apples on Nawshawtuct. The autumnal dandelion sheltered by this apple-tree trunk is drooping and half-closed and shows but half its yellow, this dark, late, wet day in the fall... Larches are now quite yellow, — in the midst of their fall... When I look away to the woods, the oaks have a dull, dark red now, without brightness. The willow-tops on causeways have a pale, bleached, silvery, or wool-grass-like look." #OTD On the same day Thoreau was recording his autumnal observations, the English botanist Frederick Orpen Bower was born (in 1855). Bower became the Regius chair of botany at the University of Glasgow, "Glass-go." When he arrived, the department consisted of two rooms and a small attic space for the herbarium. When Bower lectured, he had to vie for a lecture hall with other departments and faculty. In 1901, the University completed a new botany building, which was technically Britain's first botanical institute. As part of the University's 450th-anniversary celebration, Sir Joseph Hooker opened the building. It was renamed in the 1990s to honor Bower and became known as the Bower Building. On October 24, 2001, the Bower building was significantly damaged by a fire. The losses included first editions of Darwin's Origin of the species, as well as works from both Hooker and Bower. Many of the oldest botanical manuscripts and books were impacted because they were stored on the third floor under the roof space. After almost four years of continuous work, the building reopened in November 2005. #OTD Today is the birthday of the Indian botanist EK Janaki Ammal who was born on this day in 1897. She was born in Kerala and studied in numerous colleges in India and received her masters and doctorate at the Unversity of Michigan. Before Ammal's work, the sugar cane grown in India didn't grow well and wasn't sweet. After her schooling, Ammal worked at a sugar cane breeding station, and she began experimenting with varieties of sugar cane. Although she faced significant jealousy and discrimination from her male counterparts, Ammal managed to create a variety of sugar cane that grew well in the climate of India and it was sweet. It made India a significant grower of sugar cane. #OTD On this day in 1984, the Arizona Republic newspaper shared an article by Vic Miller, a professor of agriculture at Arizona Stale University, about the history of the native palm of Arizona. The article starts this way: "Yes, we do have a native palm. Seeds of it were collected in Arizona; taken to Belgium and grown in a nursery; [observed] and named by a German botanist, but it is called the California fan palm." The mystery about the California Fan Palm was not whether it existed but where it came from - California or Arizona. The article continued: "In 1976, ... researchers published an article ... stating that there was [an area where] native palms [grew naturally] in Arizona... on Castle Creek, about a mile north and west of Castle Hot Springs. This discovery helped solve a 100-year-old mystery. [Here's the backstory:] In 1879, a German botanist, Herman von Wendland, named our [Arizona] palm Washingtonia filifera in memory of George Washington. He had seen the plants growing in a nursery in Belgium. Seeds from which these were grown had been collected in America. But from which state had the seeds been collected? Three years earlier, in 1876, the German botanist Georg Drude wrote that the seed was collected in Arizona, along the Colorado River. Then, the [Italian botanist, Dr. Francesco Franceschi, also said that the seed was] from Arizona. But the Stanford botanist and herbarium curator, Samuel Parish, disagreed because the area where the seeds were collected was supposedly near Prescott. According to Parish, this was "a region of pines rather than of palms." Thus he insisted that the seeds had to come from California. Now, what Parish didn't realize, was that there actually were groves of Arizona palms - only 38 miles from Prescott - at Castle Creek. So how did the Arizona Palm seeds end up in Belgium? Well, it turns out, the 1870's stagecoach line went right along Castle Creek to Prescott Arizona and then onto Santa Fe New Mexico. In September 1872, the Czech botanist and Extreme Orchid Hunter Benedict Roezl was in that part of the Southwest on his way to Mexico. He likely bought some of the ripe purple fruit of those Castle Creek Arizona Palms when fellow travelers were selling them. Then, he sent the fruit on to Germany with his other specimens. Unearthed Words "November's sky is chill and drear, November's leaf is red and sear." - Sir Walter Scott "Listen ... With faint dry sound, Like steps of passing ghosts, The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break free from the trees And fall." - Adelaide Crapsey, 1878-1914, November Night Today's book recommendation: The Garden in Every Sense and Season by Tovah Martin I am a huge Tovah Martin fan, and this book does not disappoint. First, I have to share what Michelle Slatalla of Gardenista wrote about this book (it's so good - it's printed right on the cover!) "Reminds us that the best way to get to know a garden is through our senses. Don't expect to make it through many pages before you feel an urge to run outdoors to reintroduce yourself to your own landscape." This book is one of my favorites, and I'm thrilled to share it with you today - at the start of November - a month where we count our blessings and are thankful. Martin's book is about that - being present and aware - as well as so genuinely grateful for our gardens. Gardens are so much work. But don't forget they are the muse to so many of our dreams. We get so much joy from them and, if your in a Northern Garden like I am, the time we get to spend in them is so minimal. In Tovah's book, she shares 100 essays that are divided into the four seasons; but then each season is divided into the five senses - sight, smell, sound, touch, and taste. Let me share a few excerpts from her section on autumn: Sight "Gone to Seed" "Look closely, and you'll realize that seed heads are fascinating. Also, they aren't usually as glam as flowers. They're intricate little packets carefully designed to ensure tomorrow for whatever sedum, mountain mint, aster, marigold or echinacea they plan to disperse." Sound "Crunch Time" "You might say my affinity for rakes is just the sour grapes of a 90-pound weakling unable to pull a ripcord effectively. And you might be right. But there is something infinitely fulfilling about unearthing the herbaceous peony with its tawny blush leaves still intact and rejoicing because I will be enjoying its color for another few weeks." Touch "Get a Grip" "Some women have an arsenal of shoes at their beck and call. A stack of gloves placed by the door is more my speed. The collection includes mud gloves, leather gloves, lined gloves, driving gloves, gauntlets, and wool gloves... Wear the wrong gloves in autumn, and your hands are going to suffer. " Touch "Underground Assets" "I have a conspiracy theory linking chiropractors to the autumn planting bulbs trend." Tovah Martin is such an excellent writer - conversational and witty - and the photography in this book is beautiful. Today's Garden Chore Don't forget to shut the water off to your spigots; you don't want frozen water to burst your pipes.
Disconnect the garden hoses from the spigots and bring the spray nozzles into a warm space so that they can be used next year. Something Sweet Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart You might be wondering what happened to Benedict Roezl, the botanist who sent the Arizona Palm seeds back to Germany and then Belgium. Here's the rest of his story: Once he got to Mexico, Roezl started a business out of growing a nettle called the Boehmeria nivea, which produces a fiber that can be harvested. He had built a machine to extract the fiber from the Boehmeria and brought it to an exhibition. When someone asked if his machine could to extract fiber from an agave, Roezl attempted to try it. Tragically, his hand got caught in the machine and was crushed. The accident changed his life. Roezl left his business and began collecting plants full-time. Roezl collected over 800 orchids from Mexico and South America, along with thousands of other plants like agaves and cacti. In Columbia, he discovered the Zambia Roezlii; the tallest and oldest orchid of all. Even though Roezl was 6'2" tall, and used an imposing iron hook for a hand, during his collecting days, Roezl was robbed 17 times and, once, even attacked by a jaguar. Roezl collected for a nurseryman named Sander for 40 years. At the end of his life, Roezl returned to Czechoslovakia. His country welcomed him home with open arms, and the Russian czar honored him. After he died at home in his bed, his funeral was attended by the Austrian emperor. Today, there is a handsome statue of Roezl in Prague. It's located on the southern end of Charles Square. Thanks for listening to the daily gardener, and remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."
Today we celebrate the botanist who is considered the Father of Taxonomy and the young Landscape Architect who learned by taking weekly walking tours of gardens. We'll learn about the botanist who saved Kew Garden and the most famous garden designer you've never heard of. We'll listen to a little garden folklore for November and an amusing poem about daylight savings. We Grow That Garden Library with today's book which features the gardens of Russell Page, and you can get it on Amazon for under $4, which is highway robbery - or Landscape robbery in this case. I'll talk about digging up those dahlias and then share the super cute story about a young botanist and the housekeeper who was sure he was up to no good. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events. National Fig Week It's the start of National Fig Week which runs through the 7th of November. All of the figs that are growing in the United States are growing in the Central Valley of California where 28 million pounds of figs are harvested every year. It was Captain Bligh, who is honored as the planter of the very first fig in Tasmania back in 1792. The Greek word for fig is syco. It's why one species of the fig tree is called the sycamore. Fig trees are in the ficus genus and the Mulberry family. The popular house plant, the rubber plant, is also a species of ficus. And, figs are the sweetest of all fruits. They are made up of 55% sugar. Today Fine Gardening shared a great post called Treasures in the November Garden, and it featured posts from a gardener named Carla Zambelli Mudry Carla shared beautiful images from her November garden, where she commented that the fall witch hazel had started blooming, and her Sochi tea plant is still producing lovely white flowers. The post features pictures of her witch hazel in bloom. Gardeners have soft spots for the delicate yellow spidery flowers of the witch hazel. The common Witch Hazel virginiana can grow in zones 3 - 8. Sochi tea Camellia sinensis is hearty in zones 7 to 10. Now, to make the tea, the leaves are harvested. But again, as with the witch hazel, it's the beautiful blooms of this camellia that will steal your heart. This post was part of Fine Gardening's garden photo of the day. If you'd like to share your garden with Fine Gardening, you can send them 5 to 10 images of your garden to GPOD (which is short for a Garden picture of the day) at Fine Gardening.com (GPOD@FineGardening.com) along with a few comments about the plants in the photos. You can share anything your successes and failures funny stories or favorite plants. Finally, my good friend, Kathy Jentz, over at Washington Gardener Magazine, shared 10 Things To Do With a Pumpkin After Halloween. Her list is so great I wanted to share with you here: 1. Compost it. 2. Puree and cook it. 3. Make it into a birdfeeder. 4. Turn it into a planter. 5. Use it as a serving bowl for soup. 6. Pickle the peel. 7. Apply a face mask. 8. Make doggie treats. 9. Wash and roast the seeds. 10. Save a few seeds to grow another pumpkin next year! 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. So there's no need to take notes or track down links - the next time you're on Facebook, just search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Brevities #OTD Today is the anniversary of the death of Carl Linnaeus, who died on this day 1783. Thirty years earlier, on May 1st, 1753, the publication of his masterpiece Species Plantarum changed plant taxonomy forever. It gave Linnaeus the moniker Father of Taxonomy; his naming system is called binomial nomenclature. And, it was Linnaeus himself who said: "God created, Linnaeus ordered." One side note worth mentioning is how Linnaeus' collection ended up leaving Sweden and finding a home in London: When Linnaeus died in 1778, his belongings were sold. Joseph Banks, the president of the Linnean Society, acted quickly, buying everything of horticultural value on behalf of the society. Linnaeus' notebooks and specimens were on a ship bound for England by the time the king of Sweden realized Linnaeus' legacy was no longer in Sweden. He sent a fast navy ship in pursuit of Banks' precious cargo, but it was too late. And so, Linnaeus's collection is in London at the Linnaeus Society's Burlington House. And, it was Joseph Banks who secured the legacy of Linnaeus. Banks spread Linnaeus's ideas across the globe, which was easier for him to accomplish since he was based in London, the hub for the science of botany. #OTD Today is the birthday of Charles Eliot, who was born on this day in 1859. Eliot was the son of a prominent Boston family. In 1869, the year his mother died, his father Charles William Eliot became the president of Harvard University. In 1882 Charles went to Harvard to study botany. A year later, he began apprenticing with the landscape firm of Frederick Law Olmsted. As a young landscape architect, Eliot enjoyed visiting different natural areas, and he conducted regular walking tours of different nature areas around Boston. In his diary for 1878, Eliot did something kind of neat; he made a list. It was basically what we call a listicle nowadays. He titled it "A Partial List of Saturday Walks before 1878". Isn't that fabulous? As a young architect, Eliot spent 13 months touring England and Europe between 1885 and 1886. The trip was actually Olmsted's idea, and it no doubt added to Eliot's appreciation of various landscape concepts. During this trip, Eliot kept a journal where he wrote down his thoughts and made sketches of the places he was visiting. Eliot's benchmark was always Boston, and throughout his memoirs, he was continually comparing new landscapes to the beauty of his native landscape in New England. Eliot's story ended too soon. He died at 37 from spinal meningitis. Since Eliot had been working on plans for The Arnold Arboretum, he'd gotten to know Charles Sprague Sargent. So, it was Sargent who wrote a tribute to Eliot and featured it in his weekly journal called Garden and Forest. Eliot's death had a significant impact on his father. At times, the two had struggled to connect. Charles didn't like it when his dad got remarried. And, their personalities were very different, and Charles could be a little melancholy. When Charles died, his dad, Charles Sr., began to cull through his work and he was shocked to discover all that he had done. In April 1897, Charles Sr. confided to a friend, "I am examining his letters and papers and I am filled with wonder at what he accomplished in the 10 years of professional life. I should've died without ever having appreciated his influence. His death has shown it to me." Despite his heavy workload as the president of Harvard, Charles Sr. immediately set about compiling all of his son's work and used it to write a book called Charles Eliot Landscape Architect. The book came out in 1902, and today it is considered a classic work in the field of landscape architecture. #OTD Today is the anniversary of the death of the botanist John Lindley who died on this day in 1865. Lindley was a British gardener, a botanist, and an orchidologist. He also served as secretary to the Royal Horticultural Society for 43 years. This is why the Lindley Library at the RHS is named in honor of John Lindley. Lindley's dad owned a nursery and an orchard. And Lindley grew up helping with the family business. In 1815, he went to London. He became friends with William Jackson Hooker, who, in turn, introduced Lindley to Sir Joseph Banks, who hired Lindley to work in his herbarium. When Banks died, the fate of the Royal Botanic Gardens was put in jeopardy. Banks' death corresponded with the death of King George III, who was the patron of the garden. These deaths created an opening for the British government to question whether the garden should remain open. To explore their options, the Government asked Lindley, as well as Joseph Paxton and John Wilson, to put together a recommendation. Ultimately, Lindley felt the institution should be the people's garden and the headquarters for botany in England. The government rejected the proposal and decided to close the garden. On February 11, 1840, Lindley ingeniously demanded that the issue be put before the Parliament. His advocacy brought the matter to the publics' attention; the garden-loving British public was not about to lose the Royal Botanic. And, so, Lindley saved Kew Gardens, and William Hooker was chosen as the new director. Lindley shortened the genus Orchidaceae 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. As for Lindley, there are over 200 plant species named for him. There is "lindleyi", "lindleyana", "lindleyanum", "lindleya" and "lindleyoides". And here's a little-remembered factoid about Lindley - he was blind in one eye. #OTD Today is the birthday of the British gardener, garden designer, and landscape architect Russell Page who was born on this day in 1906. His full name was Montague Russell Page. Page's is known for his book called The Education of a Gardener. The book is a classic in garden literature. In it, Page shares his vast knowledge of plants and trees and design. The book ends with a description of his dream garden. In the book, there are many wonderful quotes by Page. Page wrote: "I know nothing whatever of many aspects of gardening and very little of a great many more. But I never saw a garden from which I did not learn something and seldom met a gardener who did not, in some way or another, help me." First published in 1962, Page's book shares his charming anecdotes and timeless gardening advice. He wrote: "I like gardens with good bones and an affirmed underlying structure. I like well-made and well-marked paths, well-built walls, well-defined changes in level. I like pools and canals, paved sitting places and a good garden in which to picnic or take a nap." and "If you wish to make anything grow, you must understand it, and understand it in a very real sense. 'Green fingers' are a fact, and a mystery only to the unpracticed. But green fingers are the extensions of a verdant heart." Page is considered the first modern garden designer. Like Piet Oudolf, Page used flowers to create living, natural paintings. And although he designed Gardens for the Duke of Windsor and Oscar de la Renta, it was Russell Page who said: "I am the most famous garden designer you've never heard of." Page designed the Gardens at the Frick Collection in New York City in 1977 In 2014 when the Frick was making plans to expand, they initially considered demolishing the Page garden. After a year of facing public backlash in support of the garden - which was something the museum never anticipated - in May 2015, the Frick decided to keep the garden. During the year of debating the fate of the garden, the Frick indicated that they believed the garden was never meant to be a permanent part of the museum. But, all that changed when Charles Birnbaum, the founder of the Cultural Landscape Foundation, decided to do his homework. Birnbaum discovered an old Frick press release from 1977, where they proudly introduced the Page landscape as a permanent garden. Birnbaum shared his discovery on the Huffington Post, and thanks to him, the 3700 square-foot Page garden lives on for all of us to enjoy. Unearthed Words If there's ice in November that will bear a duck, There'll be nothing after but sludge and muck. ~English folk-lore rhyme, first printed c.1876 "In spring when maple buds are red, We turn the clock an hour ahead; Which means each April that arrives, We lose an hour out of our lives. Who cares? When autumn birds in flocks Fly southward, back we turn the clocks, And so regain a lovely thing That missing hour we lost in spring." - Phyllis McGinley, Daylight Savings Time Today's Grow That Garden Library book recommendation: The Gardens of Russell Page by Gabrielle Zuylen and Marina Schinz Schinz and van Zuylen researched and photographed all of Page's best work, both early and late, and some now no longer extant. They share some of his private files and unpublished writing and help us get to know Page and his work more keenly. The book shares over 250 photographs that capture the exceptional beauty of Page creations in England, America, and throughout continental Europe. I love the tidbit about Page that is shared in the introduction: "In his youth, he had wanted to be a painter, but acquaintances in Paris intent on making gardens helped change his direction. In later years, when he was asked whether he was more of a plantsman or a designer, his answer was understated: "I know more about plants than most designers and more about design than most plantsmen." In fact, he had an exceptional understanding, knowledge, and feel for, plants allied to a strong sense of architecture." This book came out in 2008. You can get used copies using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for under $4. Today's Garden Chore If you've had your first frost, that's the signal to gardeners to dig up their dahlia and canna tubers and get them stored for next spring. Once they are out of the ground, I brush them off; removing any extra soil, and then I put them in a basket or a container with plenty of perlite and keep them on a nice cool, dark shelf in the basement storage room. The perlite keeps the tubers dry and allows them to breathe. Something Sweet Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart When I was researching John Lindley, I stumbled on an adorable story about him. Lindley arrived in England when he was a teenager. Naturally, he needed a place to stay, so Hooker graciously took him in and gave him a room at his home called Halesworth. The story goes that, over the course of a few weeks, the Halesworth housekeeper had observed that Lindley's bed was always neat as a pin. It was clear he never slept in it. The housekeeper immediately began to wonder what Lindley was doing and where was he sleeping. She began to worry that he might not be the kind of person they wanted living at Halesworth. When her worry got the best of her, she brought the matter to Hooker's attention. Anxiety is contagious, and the housekeeper's concern made Hooker worry. So, he confronted Lindley and asked him to account for his unused bed. Lindley calmly explained that he was hoping to go to Sumatra to collect plants. In anticipation of the physical difficulties of plant exploration, Lindley had been spending every night sleeping on the boards of the hardwood floor in his room. Lindley got to keep living at Halesworth. He wrote his first book there called Observations on the Structure of Fruits. He never made it to Sumatra. Thanks for listening to the daily gardener, and remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."
Full show notes at the publisherToday we celebrate the gardener who had his home and garden trashed by the Russian Czar and the poet who wrote one of his most famous poems under the plum tree in his garden. We'll learn about the American Landscape Architect who never lived to see the big park he dreamed of, and we'll learn about the horticulturist who created the first International Flower show in NYC. We'll hear the October Poem about woodbines (or honeysuckle). We Grow That Garden Library with an herb-based cookbook. I'll talk about late-season cover crops (and no, it's not too late), and then we'll have a witty article about shortening tall sunflowers. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events. The midwife and physician Tieraona Low Dog over at Medicine Lodge Ranch recently wrote a post called 4 Important Herbs for Women and Their Health. The list may surprise you: raspberries, nettles, ladies mantle, and sage. With regard to raspberry and nettles, Dr. Low Dog recommends using the leaves to make a tea. With the nettles, in particular, Dr. Low Dog cooks them just like she would spinach. She steams the nettles for 15 minutes and then sautés them in a little olive oil with garlic and salt. Dr. Low Dog reminds us that the Latin word for lady's mantle Alchemillastems from the Arabic word for alchemy. Historically people believed lady's mantle leaves were a fantastic source of water. Like the raspberry and nettles, this herb can be used as an herbal tea. Last but not least, sage should be used by women who are making the transition into their sage years. Sage can ease the symptoms of menopause like hot flashes and night sweats. And a cup of sage tea can help you sleep at night. So, bottom's up. In honor of Halloween, I wanted to share this fun post from Art's Nursery Garden & Homethat was shared back in 2014 the title of the post was 10 excellent plants with black foliage Here's the list: Black Lace Elderberry Sambucus 'Black Tower' Black Mondo Grass Black Scallop Ajuga Dark Horse Weigela Fine Wine Weigela Brunette Snakeroot Ninebark Platt's Black New Zealand Flax Purple Copper Beech Rebecca van der Zalmdid an excellent job describing all of these plants in this post. If you'd like to check out her detailed descriptions of each of these plants, just head on over to the Facebook group for the show - The Daily Gardener Community- and search for the words "black foliage." On this day in 2011, the United Nations reported that the world population had reached 7,000,000,000. Twelve years earlier, on this day in 1999, the newspaper out of Appleton Wisconsin reported that the population had reached the 6,000,000,000 mile mark - so we gained 1 billion In a dozen years. In that newspaper article, a botanist from the University of Wisconsin shared the state of botany. About Wisconsin, in particular, the botanist warned that in 20 or 30 years and will have the climate of Iowa much drier and warmer. According to current projections, the global population will hit 8 billion in 2024. And it will reach 9 billion by 2042. 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. So there's no need to take notes or track down links - just head on over to the group the next time you're on Facebook - just search for The Daily Gardener Community- and request to join. Brevities #OTD Today is the birthday of the English Gardner and writer John Evelyn who was born on this day in 1620. Evelyn kept a detailed diary for 66 years, and hehad an excellent understanding of trees. In 1664, Evelyn wrote a treaty called A Discourse of Forest Trees. It was basically an appeal to his fellow countrymen to plant trees. The English Navy was growing, and they desperately needed timber to build more ships. Over his lifetime, Evelyn updated his Discourse of Forest Trees a total of three more times; the final edition was released immediately after his death. In honor of Thanksgiving, which is now less than a month away, let me share this excellent quote by Evelyn about the benefits of chestnuts: "Chestnuts are delicacies for princes and a lusty and masculine food for rustics, and able to make women well-complexioned." Evelyn had a devoted passion for gardening. And, here's a little known fact: Evelyn was the first garden author to publish a book about salads (or Sallets). Listen to the benefits of salad as described by Evelyn: "By reason of its soporiferous quality, lettuce ... still continues the principal foundation of the universal tribe of Sallets, which is to cool and refresh, besides its other properties... including beneficial influences on morals, temperance, and chastity." (FYI: Soporiferous means Inducing or tending to induce sleep. Some lettuce secretes lactucarium - a milky fluid found in the base of the lettuce stems. It is known as lettuceopium because of its sedativeand pain-relieving properties. It has also been reported to promote a mild sensation of euphoria.) It was John Evelyn who wrote: "The gardener's work is never at end, it begins with the year and continues to the next. He prepares the ground, and then he plants, and then he gathers the fruits." "Gardening is a labour full of tranquility and satisfaction; natural and instructive, and as such contributes to the most serious contemplation, experience, health and longevity." Bear in mind Evelyn's appreciation for the amount of work a garden requires as I tell you this little story about him. In 1698, John Evelyn had owned his estate for 40 years. Everyone who knew it said it was magnificent - both inside and out. It was decorated to the nines. Of all that he owned, Evelyn's garden was his pride and joy. That year, the Russian Czar, Peter the Great, brought an entourage of 200 people to England to visit William III. In a gesture of hospitality, William volunteered John Evelyn's home to host the Czar and his people during their visit. Evelyn and his wife graciously moved out to give the Czar his privacy. Well, it wasn't long before Evelyn's servants began sending him urgent messages begging him to return. When Evelyn came home, he walked into a nightmare. The whole estate had been trashed. Priceless paintings had served as dartboards. His floors were ruined, windows were smashed; even the garden was destroyed. The servants told how the 6'8 Czar had played a game with his friends where they put him in one of Evelyn's wheel barrels and then raced him through the garden beds; crashing into walls, trees, and hedges. It was a complete disregard for the sanctity of Evelyn's garden. For twenty years, Evelyn had nursed along a hedge of holly that had turned into a glorious living wall. It was ruined. The party even managed to knock down part of the stone wall that surrounded the garden. It must have been a scene akin to the movie Animal House. Evelyn immediately sent word to the king about what had happened and arrangements were made straight away to move the czar to other lodgings. King William settled with Evelyn to have his property restored - his home needed to be gutted and rebuilt from the floors up. John Evelyn was 78 years old when this happened to him. I'm sure there was no amount of restitution that could restore the years of love he had spent in his garden. He lived for another 8 years before dying in 1706. #OTD Today is the birthday of the English romantic lyric poet John Keats who was born in 1795. During his short life, (Keats died from tuberculosis at the age of 25), his poems didn't make much of a mark. But after his death, Keat's reputation grew and today he is considered one of the world's most beloved poets. Keats wrote his famous Ode to a Nightingale after hearing a nightingale singing in his garden. History records that Keats was sitting under a plum tree and he scribbled the lines to the poem in a notebook. Then, he tore the pages out and they are now preserved in a museum. Another famous poem by Keats is Ode to Autumn. Keats came up with this poem 200 years ago while walking to the hospital of St. Cross. The most famous verse is: "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun." My personal favorite verse is: "Later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease." Keats reflected on his Ode to Autumn in a letter to his friend, John Reynolds, saying: "How beautiful the season is now — How fine the air. A temperate sharpness about it. Really, without joking, chaste weather — Dian skies — I never liked stubble-fields so much as now — Aye better than the chilly green of the Spring. Somehow, a stubble-field looks warm — in the same way that some pictures look warm. This struck me so much in my Sunday's walk that I composed upon it." Today, you can visit the John Keats home. It's an impeccable white, Georgian villa and it is the place where Keats wrote many of his best-loved poems. If you're ever in London, just search for Keats House and gardens. It has awesome reviews on Trip Advisor. #OTD Today is the birthday of Andrew Jackson Downing who was born on this day in 1815. Downing was an American horticulturist and the author of The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America which came out in 1845. He also served as the editor of a magazine called The Horticulturist. Regarded as one of the founders of American Landscape Architecture, Downing used his work in The Horticulturist magazine as a platform for advancing his pet causes. It was Downing who first came up with the idea for a New York park. His dream became the park we know today: Central Park. Downing also advocated for individual states to create schools devoted to agriculture - that hope became a reality as well. In 1846, when the National Mall in Washington DC was run down and neglected, it was Downing who came up with plans to revive the space. Downing's plans were in vivid contrast to the original plans for the mall. When the Frenchman Pierre Charles L'Enfant designed the mall in 1791, he had envisioned a grand avenue. Downing's vision was simpler. He was not a fan of the rigidity or formality found in European gardens. Downin g wanted to create a public museum of living trees and shrubs or at least that's what he called it. Instead of a grand avenue, Downing designed four separate parks that were connected by curving walkways and featuring many different trees. Sadly, Downing's plans were never fully funded or carried out. In the summer of 1852, Downing boarded a steamship called The Henry Clay. At some point, the steamship got into a race with another boat called The Armenia. When the steamship began to overheat, a fire broke out in the engine room. Onboard The Henry Clay happened to be a woman Downing had dated before his marriage. When he jumped in the water to save this woman, she panicked and couldn't stop flailing around and they both drowned. Before Downing had attempted to save the woman, he had thrown deck chairs off of the top of the boat. Downing thought the chairs could be used by people as flotation devices. He was right. As fate would have it, Downing's wife Carolyn survived the disaster by holding on to one of those deck chairs. It was a small consolation to her for the loss of her husband. Downing was just 36 years old when he died. #OTD Today is the anniversary of the death of Richard Morris Hunt who was an American architect during the gilded age. Gardeners know Hunt for his collaborations with the Frederick Law Olmsted. They worked together on the Vanderbilt mausoleum and the Chicago world's fair. Their ultimate collaboration occurred in Asheville, North Carolina, where they worked together to design the gardens, house, and manor village for the Biltmore Estate. When he was alive, Hunt wanted to elevate public taste in design and the arts, but he was also flexible enough to meet them where they were. It was Richard Morris Hunt who said, "The first thing you've got to remember is that it's your clients' money you're spending. Your goal is to achieve the best results by following their wishes. If they want you to build a house upside down standing on its chimney, it's up to you to do it." #OTD On this day in 1913, the horticulturist Charles Totty received a medal from the New York Horticultural Society for developing a new rose called "Shell Pink Shawyer." Totty immigrated to the United States from England. He was known as CH to his friends Totty was a shrewd businessman. On April Fools' Day 1903 he bought a greenhouse business in Madison New Jersey. Then he opened up a florist shop Called Totty's flowers on Fifth Avenue in New York. Totty was responsible for establishing the First International Flower Show in New York City. Totty himself won thousands of awards at American flower shows and he was credited with introducing the chrysanthemum to America. Totty's success was owed in part to the support of his wife and their daughter Helen. In 1930, at the beginning of the great depression, Totty spoke to a group of New England flower growers. He encouraged growers to "pull up your belts and go to it," continuing to grow their businesses during the depression. Totty said that, "it was up to the growers to open up new avenues for their products and that publicity stunts that gave away flowers cheapened [the industry]. He cautioned that no other trade gave away anything of value so why should florists?" In 2017, the century-old Shakespeare-themed garden at the College of Saint Elizabeth was in desperate need of a makeover. In researching the history of the garden, the school discovered that it had been visited by Charles Totty, who heaped praise on the garden's design saying: "No Shakespeare garden in the world, not even the one at Avon, the birthplace of the poet, quite reaches the beauty and perfection of ... St. Elizabeth's." Unearthed Words "Corn and grain, corn and grain, All that falls shall rise again." - Wiccan Harvest Chant Woodbines in October As dyed in blood, the streaming vines appear, While long and low the wind about them grieves; The heart of autumn must have broken here And poured Its treasure out upon the leaves. ~ By Charlotte Fiske Bates Today's Grow That Garden Library book recommendation: The Best of Thymes by Marge Clark This book is part of my Marge Clark cookbook collection. Her recipes are wonderful and her cookbooks are beautiful. The 410 pages in this cookbook incorporate herbs from the garden. Clark was a gardener, so her cookbooks include all kinds of growing information and plant history. Clark's recipes are organized by the main herb used. Her Lemon Verbena pound cake and her Roasted Marinated Pepper Salad are personal favorites of mine. This book came out in 1997. You can get used hardcover copies using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for under $4. Today's Garden Chore Plant Late-Season, Cold Hardy Cover Crops in your kitchen or herb garden. If you've never tried a cover crop, you're in for a treat. Cover crops keep the soil aerated and they add a layer of protection to your beds in freezing weather. Best of all, cover crops add nutrients and nitrogen back into the soil. They're one of the best shoulder season activities you can do in your garden. Even when you have a cold fall like we do this year. You can still plant cover crops late - even after the first frost. Thankfully, cover crops germinate quickly - think 7-10 days. So amp up your soil health with cover crops now - your kitchen garden will thank you in the spring. Something Sweet Reviving…
Full show notes at the publisherToday we celebrate the impressionist Landscape painter who included kitchen gardens as a subject and the botanist who gave a speech in 1916 about his four rules of home landscaping. We'll learn about the English botanist who saved many varieties of Japanese cherry from extinction and the botanist who braved the destruction of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake to save plant specimens. We'll hear the Poem called "A Song of October" that debuted in 1890. We Grow That Garden Library with THE book on She Sheds. I'll talk about making a simple leaf compost bin, and then we'll wrap things up with a poignant diary entry by the quintessential southern gardener Elizabeth Lawrence. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events. Mother Earth News recently shared a post called When Age and Illness Invade the Homestead. The article asks this question: "How do you cope when long-term illness or a chronic health condition, even just aging, becomes a factor?" Gardeners need to consider:
The Guardian just shared the results of research that shows that a healthy diet means a healthy planet. The research showed that, "fruit, vegetables, beans, and whole grains were best for both avoiding disease and protecting the climate and water resources." Michael Clark at the University of Oxford, who led the study, said: "Choosing better, more sustainable diets is one of the main ways people can improve their health and help protect the environment." So there you go: growing your own food, gardening, is not only good for you - it's better for the planet. Finally, Gardenista just shared an excellent article called 10 Perennial Gardens Inspired by Piet Oudolf. Oudolf's signature look includes soft drifts of grasses combined with striking perennials that look good even in winter. Oudolf's goal is getting all of it to work together to create dream landscapes that evoke a natural look. Gardenista did a great job of sharing ten images of different gardens that understand the Oudolf formula, and they created installations inspired by his work. When it comes to picking which perennials to include in the garden, Oudolf sees perennials through a lens that is focused on architectural elements. He's looking at the shape and the lines of the plant - but he's also incorporating the full life cycle of the plant. He wants to incorporate the way perennials look not only in early spring and summer but also in the fall and even in the winter. Seed heads, pods, dried blossoms, and stems; these are all embraced and part of the plan. So don't be too quick to tidy everything up in the garden. Especially when it comes to winter gardens, you've got to leave enough standing so that you have something to look at. If you'd like to learn more about Oudolf, I shared a great video in the Facebook Group from PBS that was featured in April of this year. The reporter, Jeffrey Brown, met with Oudolf at his home in the Netherlands to discuss his work. 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. So there's no need to take notes or track down links - just head on over to the group the next time you're on Facebook, just search for: The Daily Gardener Community and request to join. Brevities #OTD Today is the birthday of Alfred Sisley, who was born on this day in 1839. Sisley was an impressionist landscape painter. He painted landscapes almost exclusively, and he especially loved natural, untouched scenes. Gardeners enjoy his paintings called A Garden Path and The Kitchen Garden. #OTD Today is the birthday of the botanist George Plummer Burns who was born on this day in 1871. Burns was the chairman of the UVM botany department. He also had served as the superintendent of the park department for Burlington, Vermont. When I was researching Burns, I stumbled on a newspaper clipping from 1916, which shared a speech he gave to the Rutland Woman's Club called Landscape Gardening for the Home. He gave four rules for landscaping: "1.Avoid straight lines; 2. Keep open spaces; 3. Plant in mass; 4. Use common sense. Burns gave this advice about shrubs: Do not use a shrub simply because a man wants to sell it to you. Do not use a shrub or tree simply because your neighbor has one, and if you do, do not use it in the same way. After the house is built shrubs should be planted around the base to soften the lines. Next, a hedge should be placed around the' lot so that the owner, in looking from his place, can see the skyline and have the immediate surroundings hidden. In that way, a person owns as far as he can see. And, we get a little glimpse into Burns' personal preferences when he said: Never spoil a lawn by cutting a circular bed and filling it in with cannas. Such art is like putting a da ub of paint on a beautiful picture. Cannas are all right in their place but not in beds on a lawn. Shrubs should always be planted in mass and never should a single root be set; not one rosebush but 20 should be set out." #OTD Today is the birthday of the British botanist Collingwood "Cherry" Ingram, who was born on this day in 1880. Since he was a child, Ingram was obsessed with cherry blossoms. He spent most of his adult life devoted to their cultivation and preservation. In 1926, Ingram traveled to Japan, hoping to find new varieties of cherry trees. Instead, Ingram witnessed a sharp decline in cherry diversity. The usual suspects played a role: loss of habitat and a lack of attention. But there was also a more significant danger posed by a new, pervasive ideology. As it turned out, the Imperial stance had changed, and the emperor wanted his people to grow just one variety of cherry ina symbolic way to unite the nation of Japan. At the time, the preferred cherry blossom was the pink Somei-yoshino. The emperor had outlawed all white-blossomed cherry trees. The new law was especially tragic to Ingram, who was partial to the white-blossomed cherry tree. In response to Japan's declining cherry diversity, Ingram personally cultivated and grew 50 varieties of cherry that were slowly phasing out on the Island of Japan. Wisely, Ingram brought specimens home with him to the island of England, where Ingram's work with cherries made him a world expert. Thanks to Ingram's foresight and preservation efforts, he was able to reintroduce the Great White Cherry Tree to Japan. #OTD Today is the anniversary of the death of the Canadian American self-taught botanist Alice Eastwood who died on this day in 1953. Eastwood is remembered for saving almost 1500 specimens from a burning building following the San Francisco earthquake in 1906. Afterward, she wrote about the specimens that didn't make it: "I do not feel the loss to be mine, but it is a great loss to the scientific world and an irreparable loss to California. My own destroyed work I do not lament, for it was a joy to me while I did it, and I can still have the same joy in starting it again." An account of Eastwood's heroics was recorded by Carola DeRooy, who wrote : "On the day of the 1906 earthquake, Alice Eastwood, curator of botany at the California Academy of Sciences, rushed straight into the ruins of downtown San Francisco as a firestorm swept toward her beloved Academy building. Arriving to find the stone steps dangerously crumbled, she and a friend nevertheless climbed the metal spiral staircase to the 6th floor with a single-minded mission: to rescue what she could of the largest botanical collection in the Western United States, her life's work. Eastwood saved 1,497 plant type specimens from the Academy but lost the remainder of the collections to the all-consuming fire. Just three days later, she joined Geologist GK Gilbert to inspect a fault trace resulting from the earthquake, north of Olema, within what is now the Point Reyes National Seashore." That moment with Gilbert at the fault line was memorialized forever in a captivating photo featuring Alice standing next to the surface ruption of the fault line. Eastwood was 47 years old when the quake hit in 1906. After the fire, Eastwood set her mind to rebuilding the herbarium, and over the next four decades, she collected 300,000 specimens. She retired as the curator at the age of 90. Eastwood was the protégée of the botanist Kate Brandegee. Unearthed Words The alder wears its scarlet beads, The clematis its downy seeds, The sumach's deepening ruby gleams, The birch in hues of topaz beams; In golden bars through leafy doors The sunshine falls on forest floors, While the warm air with balsam breathes A spicy odor from the trees. The softened light, the veiling haze, The calm repose of autumn days, Steal gently o'er the troubled breast, Soothing life's weary cares to rest ~Phebe A. Holder, "A Song of October," in The Queries Magazine, October 1890 It's time to Grow That Garden Library with today's book recommendation: She Sheds Style by Erika Kotite The subtitle of this book is Make Your Space Your Own, and it came out a year ago on October 2nd. Erika's book is eye-candy and ideas and inspiration for anyone who has ever wanted their own little place in the garden. You could say, Erika shed's light on the topic of She Sheds. :) Whether you already have a shed or are still dreaming of one, this book is a total charmer. It's filled with incredible photos of outbuildings that women have turned into the ultimate garden space, a She Shed. The decorating ideas are perfect for those gardeners looking to brighten up their workspace or increase the functionality of their She Shed. Erika shares how to incorporate architectural details and style. She shares ideas for color palettes. There are dozens of projects in this book as well - from repurposing old furniture to installing personalized art for your shed. Another fantastic feature of the book is that Ericka has gathered hundreds of tips from She Shed owners from around the country. Best of all, Erika is a former editor for Romantic Homes/Victorian Homes. So, her photos have that floral, romantic quality to them. She Sheds are notoriously creative and intelligent spaces - often serving multiple purposes - and always evolving. How lovely it is, to have a book like this, that shares some of the best ideas and She Shed spaces from around the country. Today's Garden Chore If you have extra leaves, make a simple leaf compost bin. Leaf mold is an excellent way to improve your soil. It is also an excellent weed suppressant and mulch. To make your bin, simply place four tall garden stakes in the ground and then use netting or burlap to wrap around the outside of the stakes. As you add leaves into the bin, make sure to layer in some moisture by watering the leaves. Watering the leaves helps stimulate decomposition. You can also add some coffee grounds while you're at it - if you feel so inclined. Then, in the spring, you'll have wonderful compost for your garden. Something Sweet Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart Bonaro Overstreet once wrote, "Autumn asks that we prepare for the future —that we be wise in the ways of garnering and keeping. But it also asks that we learn to let go—to acknowledge the beauty of sparseness." This little saying had me thinking of the gardener Elizabeth Lawrence. In late October of 1935, Elizabeth was visiting her father in the hospital. She wrote the following poem in her notebook during her visit: My father lies dying, And all that he has said Begins to sprout, Begins to grow. Is branching overhead. My father lies dying, And all that he has said Will bud and blossom and bear fruit Long after he is dead. Samuel Lawrence lived another nine months after Elizabeth wrote these words. He passed away on July 16, 1936. Thanks for listening to the daily gardener, and remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."
Today we celebrate the botanist who was allowed to tend a garden while he was a prisoner in the Tower of London.
We'll learn about the Pioneer botanist of Tennessee and the botanist who used his love of trees to shape an optimistic view of humanity. We'll also celebrate Jamie Taggert, the young Scottish botanist, who set out on this day in 2013 for Vietnam but sadly never returned to his beloved home at the Linn Botanical Garden. We'll hear the Carl Sandburg poem with the famous line, "no beautiful thing lasts"
We Grow That Garden Library with today's book which is all about mixing up a special batch of seeds for a natural garden that doesn't require buying any small plants.
We'll talk about some ideas for a Garden-Themed Thanksgiving and then we'll close the show with some Autumn-inspired Ayurvedic principals for the Gardener.
But first, let's catch up on a few recent events. The blog of the award-winning Landscape team of Warnes McGarr @warnesmcgarr recently shared a very beneficial post called "Five things to consider before redesigning your garden." As a northern gardener, I love what they say right at the beginning of their post, which is that the coming colder months should be used to make plans for the garden. The design team encourages us to ask this question: "Do you use your garden enough, or is it an afterthought?" With this question in mind, they share some considerations for any garden redesign project: reducing the size of your lawn, adding a garden room, investing in a wood-fired oven, and keeping wildlife in mind when you select plants for your garden. Meanwhile, Gardens Illustrated reported on How to Prepare the Garden for Winter, and they shared a few useful tasks to tackle right now. In addition to general tidy up, suggestions like using a power washer to clean your stonework, setting up your bird feeders (something we discussed yesterday) as well as cleaning and culling through your pot collection are excellent activities to accomplish as we transition into winter. 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. So there's no need to take notes or track down links - just head on over to the group - and join. Brevities #OTD On this day in 1618, Sir Walter Raleigh was executed. On the orders of King James, Raleigh had been a special prisoner at the Tower of London for thirteen years. During his time in the tower, Raleigh was allowed to tend a small apothecary garden in the courtyard below. Raleigh used his garden to grow exotic plants and plants from the new world. He also used the herbs to experiment with medicines. Last year marked the 400th anniversary of Raleigh's death. In celebration, Raleigh's "Lost Garden" was installed at the Tower of London. The garden is planted with herbs, flowers, and fruits that are historically appropriate for the time Raleigh was at the Tower. Historical records show that Raleigh created numerous cordials and herbal remedies. He once incorporated borage, rosemary, marigold, saffron, juniper berries, lemons, red roses, and red gilly to create a cordial for new mothers. #OTD On this day in 1908, The Tennessean newspaper reported that the botanist Thomas G. Harbison was in Nashville to collect a specimen of the clematis gattingeri for Harvard. The gattingeri clematis was regarded as a very rare plant that had been discovered by Augustin Gattinger. Gattinger was known as the "Pioneer Botanist of Tennesee". He had been born in Munich, Germany in 1825, but had immigrated to the united states in his twenties after being kicked out of the University of Munich for seeking more liberty for Germans and for celebrating George Washington's birthday. Gattinger served in the Union Army during the civil war, and he became a country doctor. He also started studying botany, and Gattinger counted many prominent botanists as friends. Gattinger is remembered for his published works, which include The Flora of Tennessee and Medicinal Plants of Tennessee.
Gattinger's entire 50,000 specimen herbarium was donated to the University of Tennessee in 1890. Sadly, in 1934, the collection was destroyed in a fire. In the preface to his Flora of Tennessee, Gattinger wrote: "While the pursuit of botany never brought me any financial advantages, I acknowledge that it was a mighty protector in keeping me out of the way of social corruption, and it gave me many hours of the purest enjoyment of life and brought me into friendly relations with many excellent men and women." #OTD Today is the anniversary of the death of the botanist William Henry Chapman who died on this day in 1970. Chapman was an American botanist, and his area of specialty was pomology or fruit. As a professor, Chapman taught at Cornell and later at UC Berkeley and UC Davis, where he was the Dean of Agriculture. A Biographical Memoir of Chandler, written by Jacob Biale, includes an excerpt from a 1941 speech given by Chandler, where he reflected on the merits of studying plants. He said, "The material we work with has character," "[Chandler believed that] trees and plants... exerted an influence on the behavior of the people who tended them." Chandler wrote that, "The emblem of my faith is the tree and its system of dormant buds. ... Because of this reserve of dormant buds, a tree is ... dependable in a destructive world. It can be broken into pieces... and will grow new parts to replace the lost ones. "...The tree symbolizes my faith in humanity ... For I know, there are many dormant buds in human society also." #OTD On this day in 2013, Jamie Taggert, the young Scottish botanist, set out on a solo Plant Expedition to Vietnam. Jamie grew up with his botanist father, Jim, and tended the garden his dad founded - the Linn Botanic Gardens that overlooks Loch Long on Cove Bay in Scottland. The ancestors of Hugh Grant once owned the estate. The Linn Botanic Garden is home to almost 4,000 plant species. Back in 2013, Jamie was beginning his third plant-hunting expedition. It was his first solo trip, and he was planning to explore the mountains of Northern Vietnam - a place he had botanized on an earlier trip. When he arrived in Vietnam, he sent his dad a text to let him know he had arrived. On the morning of Halloween, he checked into a guest house and then took a taxi to the National Park of Fansipan - the tallest mountain in Vietnam. A tea seller at the base of the mountain watched Jamie walk toward the mountain. She would be the last person to see Jamie alive. Over two years later, a Vietnamese farmer found Jamie's body at the bottom of a waterfall. Jamie apparently died attempting to scale the slippery rocks. Rob Curran wrote an excellent article about Jamie's story in Believer Magazine. He writes that many people have asked: "What was he thinking?" Why did Jamie take such a risk for plants? Curran concludes his article this way: "What was he thinking? He was thinking of Menzies and the great Scots explorers. He was thinking of Mother Nature on the run from climate change and high-capacity cable cars. He was thinking of the beauty of the flower he had just discovered, and whether anyone else would ever see it. For what is the act of discovery if not leaving the safe foothold of the known to reach into the abyss?" Unearthed Words Autumn Movement by Carl Sandburg I cried over beautiful things knowing no beautiful thing lasts. The field of cornflower yellow is a scarf at the neck of the copper sunburned woman, the mother of the year, the taker of seeds. The northwest wind comes, and the yellow is torn full of holes, new beautiful things come in the first spit of snow on the northwest wind, and the old things go, not one lasts. It's time to Grow That Garden Library with today's book: Sowing Beauty by James Hitchmough The subtitle for today's book is Designing Flowering Meadows from Seed, and that is indeed what makes Hitchmough's approach unique and different. James has come up with his way of combining seeds to significant effect. The result is a beautiful garden; grown entirely from seed. There's no need to purchase starter plants from nurseries and no need to scour plant sales. James is a professor of horticultural ecology at the University of Sheffield his work centers around developing novel approaches to planting design. As a researcher and a practitioner, James prioritizes both aesthetics and function. His ecological plantings strive to accomplish both; his plants are beautiful, layered and naturalistic. Hitchmough has worked to find mixes that can hold their own and exist for years in the garden - and also resist weeds. Best of all, Hitchmough shares his seed mix recipes in the book, and they are shared for a variety of growing zones. Today's Garden Chore Start thinking about ways to have a Garden-themed Thanksgiving. After Halloween, the little pumpkins, squashes, and gourds begin to go on sale. But they will last for months if they are kept in a cool, dry, space. Your Thanksgiving tablescape can feature these classic elements, but you can also incorporate other garden-inspired items into your tablescape. This year, consider adding a yule-log - an actual log that you can decorate with mosses, air plants, and succulents. Crotons offer beautiful autumnal colors. Jade plants provide architecture and plumpness, a perfect accent for your Thanksgiving table. Another wonder item that I stumbled on a few years ago - and managed to find for you online today - is a cast iron mini tree stand. This is such a fun way to bring nature indoors. In this case, you can take a nature walk and look for a beautiful tree branch that you can display using the cast iron mini tree stand. You could even turn the tree into a centerpiece for your Thanksgiving table or a thankful tree for your Thanksgiving tradition. You can decorate it with ribbons or with little notes that count your blessings. I searched and searched online to find the little tree stand, and I found it on the website Antique Farm House. They sell the cast iron mini tree stand as a set of four. So, go ahead and buy the set for $24, and then you have three extra lovely little stands that you can use as gifts over the holidays. Something Sweet Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart Mother Nature has blessed us yet again with a change of seasons. The fall season is a season of movement and transition. We are transitioning from hot to cold and wet to dry. Ayurvedic health and wellness experts tell us that this is the time of year when, like the garden, we also need to change to achieve balance. So, here are some other activities that can benefit gardeners as we transition out of our gardens and into our homes. Take time to ground yourself by increasing the amount of stillness in your day. Our gardens are a natural place of stillness and silence for us. Even when we are weeding, we are grounded and quiet. And we are focused on a single point of connection with the earth. The work in the garden is not like other work we perform. To make up for this loss of grounding and stilling work, adding in more opportunities for stillness can bring calm and a sense of balance. Curl up in your favorite chair. Fill a corner of a room with houseplants and sit beside them. Imitate your plants and add stillness to your day. Add warmth to counter the cold, dry air; eat warm foods. Dig out your crockpot so you can have a warm, cooked meal every day. Enjoy warm drinks like coffee and herbal teas. Enjoy spices and herbs that are warming like cinnamon and ginger. Microgreens of basil and mustards are very warming as well and happily grow on the kitchen counter. At bedtime, a little cup of warmed milk with a pinch of nutmeg or cinnamon and sugar is a lovely way to end the day. Finish some of your remaining garden tasks indoors. If you have items you need to go through, bring them indoors where it's warm and where you have a sink you can fill with warm soapy water. Clean off the cobwebs and the grime. Go through your aprons and your gloves. Tidy up the bins that have been catchalls in the potting shed or garage - where you hang your hat in the garden. I recently washed up some pots and baskets along with some miscellaneous junk I had on my garden shelf outside the front door. Somehow, it was easier to address the clutter by evaluating the items inside a warm house than standing or sitting out in the wind and cold. So there you go; three tips to aid our transition into Fall - as we walk out of our gardens and into the shelter of a warm home. Thanks for listening to the daily gardener, and remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."
Today we celebrate the Swiss botanist known as the father of geographical botany and the American botanist who went on a 500-mile nature walk for her honeymoon.
And, just in time for Halloween, we'll learn about the botanist who followed in her father's footsteps to study slime mold.
And, we're coming up on the 200th anniversary of the botanist who climbed Pike's Peak and discovered the Blue Columbine, also known as the State Flower of Colorado. We'll hear one of my favorite poems about Octob er with the line, "The leaves by hundreds came." We Grow That Garden Library with a beautiful book from one of the country's top gardens: Philadelphia's Chanticleer.
I'll give you some helpful tips to attract birds to your garden over the winter, and then we'll wrap things up with a Scottish garden that is also a living work of art. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch shared last week that the Missouri Botanical Garden is gearing up to break ground this January on a $92 million brand new visitor center.
It will be called the Jack C Taylor Visitor Center in honor of the Taylor family, who donated the lead gift for the project. Jack Crawford Taylor founded the Enterprise Rent-A-Car Company. Taylor left a legacy of philanthropy. Taylor gave a $30 million gift to the Missouri Botanical Garden to fund global plant research - which is the most significant gift ever given to a U.S. botanical garden. The new Jack C Taylor Visitor Center is slated to open in the Spring of 2022. California's Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) has a fantastic tradition of environmental stewardship.
Last week they put together a great video with tips on how to get started with composting.
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. So there's no need to take notes or track down links - just head on over to the group - and join. Brevities #OTD Today is the birthday of the botanist Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle, who was born on this day in 1806 the year Linnaeus died. He was the son of the Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle. Candolle's ground-breaking book, Origin for Cultivated Plants begins, "It is a common saying, that the plants with which man has most to do, and which rendered him the greatest service, are those which botanists know the least [about]." Candolle set about correcting that gap in understanding, which had persisted for 50 years. In 1885, The Glasgow Herald reminded readers, "At the commencement of the present century but little was known respecting the origin of our cultivated plants.... Alexander von Humboldt in 1807 said : 'The origin, the first home of the plants most useful to man, and which have accompanied him from the remotest epochs, is a secret as impenetrable as the dwelling of all our domestic animals. We do not know what region produced spontaneously wheat, barley, oats, and rye. The plants which constitute the natural riches of all the inhabitants of the tropics the banana, the papaw, the manioc, and maize have never been found in a wild state. The potato presents the same phenomenon.'" Candolle named growing regions and came up with climate classifications. Gardeners use them today when we refer to growing zones. Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle is known as the father of geographical botany, and Harvard botanist Asa Gray remarked, "De Candolle's great work closed one epoch in the history of the subject and [Sir Joseph] Hooker's name is the first that appears in the ensuing one." Alphonse devised the first code of botanical nomenclature - the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature is its descendant. These laws ensure that no two species of plants have the same name. The botanical name is always in Latin. #OTD Today is the 175th birthday of the botanist Katherine Brandagee who was born on this day in 1844. Brandagee was the third woman to enroll at Berkeley's medical school and the second woman to be professionally employed as a botanist in the US. While getting her MD at Berkeley, Kate had learned that plants were the primary sources of medicine. Botany intrigued her, so she dropped the mantle of physician to pursue botany. Five years later, she was the curator of the San Francisco Academy of Sciences herbarium. There, Kate personally trained Alice Eastwood. When Kate moved on, Alice was ready to take her place; Kate was a phenomenal mentor. During her time at the academy, in surprise development at the age of 40, Kate had "fallen insanely in love" with plantsman Townshend Brandegee. Equally yoked, their honeymoon was a 500-mile nature walk - collecting plant specimens from San Diego to San Francisco. The couple moved to San Diego, where they created a herbarium praised as a botanical paradise. In 1906, when an earthquake destroyed the Berkley herbarium, the Brandegees single-handedly restored it by giving the school their entire botanical library (including many rare volumes) and their plant collection, which numbered some 80,000 plants. Thanks to Townshend's inheritance, the couple was financially independent, but they were also exceptionally selfless. The Brandegee's followed their plants and books to Berkley, where Townshend and Kate worked the rest of their lives pro bono. Botanist Marcus Jones said of Kate, "She was the one botanist competent to publish a real [book about the native plants of California]." But Kate had delayed writing this work. Kate was 75 when she fell on the University grounds at Berkley - she broke her shoulder. Three weeks later, she died. #OTD Today is the birthday of the original Queen of Slime Molds, Gulielma Lister, who was born on this day in 1860. Gulielma was born into a Quaker family in England, and her family and friends called her Gulie. Her mom and dad were a classic match of opposites. Her mother was a right-brained creative - an artist - and her father was a left-brained scientist who was the world authority on slime mold. Gulie studied at home and learned from both her parents. The Lister family home was called Sycamore House, and it was located on Leytonstone High Road. She spent her summers at the family summer house in Lyme Regis. Both houses just happened to be near nature areas rich with slime mold. Slime molds are pulsing giant amebas that slowly move through soil or along the tree trunks hunting for their food. Gulie called them "[her] creepies"! Gulie ended up shadowing her father, and she became very involved with his work. Together, Gulie and her father prepared the world's primary study on Slime Mold. Drawing from skills she learned from her mom, Gulie painted many gorgeous watercolors of her slime mold specimens. When her father died in 1908, Gulie was ready to fill his shoes as the world authority on slime mold. Over her lifetime, Gulie helped found the British Mycological Society and served as it's president twice in 1912 and 1932. Gulie was among the first women fellows of the Linnean Society. #OTD Today is the anniversary of the death of the botanist Edwin James who died on this day in 1861 As a young man, James compiled the very first Flora of Vermont plants. James went on one of the first expeditions of the American West from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains. He discovered the mountain Columbine, Aquilegia caerulea, which ultimately became known as the Colorado Blue Columbine and the State Flower of Colorado. An account of James' climb of Pikes Peak on July 13, 1820, stated: "A little above the point where the timber disappears entirely, commences a region of astonishing beauty . . . covered with a carpet of low but brilliantly flowering alpine plants. . ." James' words, "a region of astonishing beauty," became the title of a 2003 book on the botanical history of the Rocky Mountains by Roger Lawrence Williams. After the expedition, James married and settled in Burlington, Iowa. His home was part of the Underground Railroad. James died in 1861 after an accident. There is a monument to James on Pike's Peak, and the Des Moines County Medical Society planted Rocky Mountain Blue Columbine on his grave in the Rock Springs Cemetery. Newspaper accounts said the location of Edwin James' grave was in the most picturesque part of southeastern Iowa. Unearthed Words October's Party "October gave a party; The leaves by hundreds came- The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples, And leaves of every name. The Sunshine spread a carpet, And everything was grand, Miss Weather led the dancing, Professor Wind the band." - George Cooper, American Poet George Cooper remembered for his happy song lyrics, which were often set to music written by Stephen Foster. Today's book recommendation: The Art of Gardening by R.William Thomas & The Chanticleer Gardeners This lovely book came out in 2015, and the subtitle is Design Inspiration and Innovative Planting Techniques from Chanticleer. Chanticleer is a 35-acre public garden outside of Philadelphia, and it is regarded as one of America's top gardens. Chanticleer has a staff of six gardeners, and each gardener is responsible for the design, planting, and maintenance of a section of the garden. Thus, this book was written by all of the different gardeners. As the garden's Executive Director likes to say, "Chanticleer is essentially a large demonstration garden. Our guests take away ideas on how to garden in their own home spaces." This is the perfect book for the off-season. It's a book that is loaded with beautiful photos and fantastic ideas that are great for planning next year's new landscaping projects. This is a beautiful book for browsing and dreaming - and would make a lovely gift for the holidays. I love what the Executive Director R William Thomas says in the introduction about the value of walking through the garden. He wrote: "[The son of the garden's founder, Adolf Rosengarten Junior, began each day with a walk around the garden accompanied by his corgi. He greeted the staff, encouraged them to work hard, grabbed a snack at the Apple house, and reviewed the property. I, too, begin each day with a walk around the garden with my corgi. It's much more than a lovely stroll. It's an inspection tour, a remembrance of what the property was, and most important, a meditation on what it can be. I stop frequently looking both up close and into the distance. What does this part of the garden look like to a first-time guest? Is it as good as it can be? How will the area look in a month? In three months? A year? In a decade? Could this bed be better? Is it time to try something new? Should this path be moved? Is that tree going to block the view in 20 years? Would a tower draw guests up the Bulb Meadow, the hill above the Asian Woods? Can we illuminate steps to improve accessibility? Do all the garden areas hold together as one garden? I also pull a few weeds clear the spillways, prune an occasional branch, pick up the litter, and check the restrooms." Great questions and a great practice to follow in our own gardens. Today's Garden Chore It's time to start planning food and feeders for winter birds. This is a great week to get your feeders ready to go before the holidays set in. One of the best tips I ever received from a fellow birder was to invest in a variety of feeders and foods; the diversity will draw a community of birds to your garden in the winter. Right as I'm putting away the Halloween decorations, I'll make a point to wash and set up my feeders. During the summer, I'm more focused on providing sources of water. But in the winter, I try to make sure my feeders are in spots that I can get to - especially if I need to make a path with the snowblower. A few other considerations would be to purchase a de-icer for your birdbath. I have a friend that likes to use a heated dog dish as a source of water instead of a birdbath. I've used both and either work great. And here's a final tip for you. My folks always save smaller dead trees, shrubs, or brush to position near their feeders so that the birds have a nearby place to take cover. Evergreens, branches, and twigs provide needed shelter and protection. Finally, pat yourself on the back if you've incorporated berry-producing trees and shrubs like serviceberry, dogwood, and viburnum. You'll be rewarded with even more birds over the years, like the Cedar Waxwing - one of my favorites. Something Sweet Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart Today is the birthday of the Scottish poet, artist, and gardener Ian Hamilton Finlay who was born on this day in 1925. Finlay created a one-of-a-kind garden that incorporated sculptures, words, architecture, and poetry. Finlay named his garden Little Sparta and the garden itself is considered a living piece of art. Finlay's poetry is incorporated into the art at Little Sparta. One especially poignant piece is a one-word poem with a long title - a form of poetry Finlay pioneered. In the garden, there is a small engraved plate that shares the long title, followed by a single word that makes up the poem. Here it is: "One orange arm of the world's oldest windmill Autumn" Thanks for listening to the daily gardener, and remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."
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