Stay ConnectedThe Daily Gardener is a weekday podcast celebrating garden history, literature, and the small botanical stories that shape how we garden today.
Each episode follows an “on this day” format, uncovering the people, plants, books, and moments that have quietly influenced gardens across time.
New episodes are released Monday through Friday, and each show features a thoughtfully chosen garden book.
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Today we celebrate the Frenchman who designed the very first secateurs or pruners and the Italian orphan who grew up to discover the corpse flower. We'll learn about the Dutch botanist who was trying to figure out what was going on with his tobacco plants and made a significant discovery for science. We'll hear the Autumn Garden Poem that highlights the crimson of the sumac and the woodbine "For the pageant of passing days." We Grow That Garden Library with a cookbook called Flowers in the Kitchen by Susan Belsinger. I'll talk about gathering up your empty containers and pots as well as protecting any ironwork, and then we'll travel back in time to 1875 to hear some thoughts about Autumn Work in the garden. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events. Earlier this month, on October 10th, the world celebrated World Mental Health Day. There was a lovely article featured in Thrive - an organization using gardening to change lives. "As a charity focussed on promoting the health benefits of gardening, Thrive knows how time spent in gardens and nature can bring significant mental health benefits. [They] see and hear how it helps people cope when times are tough." "We see how gardening can reduce stress and anxiety, how the process of nurturing plants can give fragile people a sense of achievement which in turn builds confidence, self-esteem, quality of life and, ultimately, hope." Most gardeners often joke that gardening is cheaper than therapy. But the truth is that gardening is therapeutic. Connecting with nature is restoratives. Monty Don, Gardeners' World presenter, said this about gardening, "However you come at it, whoever prescribes it or gets you to do it, gardening heals." Thrive shared the comments of young people they had worked within the garden. The kids were 12-16 years old with severe psychological and psychiatric disorders like bulimia and anorexia. They worked in the garden and reported: 'Gardening takes my mind off things.' 'I feel happier and less anxious.' 'It has helped me be more sociable and to be able to distract myself when I feel bad.' This is why, at The Daily Gardener, I make a point of giving you ideas and ways to keep connecting with nature all year long - even throughout the winter. It's why I end the show every day with: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day." So, there you go - the best reason to garden - staying physically healthy and mentally healthy. If you see or know of someone struggling, please tell them about the surprising benefits of gardening. Here's a friendly reminder to keep visiting your farmer's markets and local farmers. They still have plenty of excellent produce to buy. Think pears, apples, winter squash, pumpkin, brussel sprouts, broccoli, parsnips, beets, and sweet potatoes. And, if you feel so inclined, bring along an extra hot chocolate or coffee for the sellers, I know they always appreciate that this time of year and who knows? You might just make a new friend. 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 Count Bertrand de Molleville, who was born on this day - 275 years ago - in 1744. During the French Revolution, Molleville escaped to England, where he developed the secateurs or the pruner. He created them to help with pruning grapevines - something he was all too familiar with back home in France. Before the secateurs, a knife or small machete was the primary tool used to prune grapes vines and fruit trees. That said, by 1840, there was actually a riot over the use of the secateurs in a small French town. When the town agricultural committee met to decide whether the secateurs should replace the pruning knife in the vineyards, over 300 farm workers showed up and marched in the streets to protest the decision. The workers felt that the humble secateurs would replace the need for so many vinedressers. Ah, technology. #OTD On this day in 1843 the New England Farmer shared a simple update to the nation: Wisconsin, it is said, will have for sale this year, 1,000,000 bushels of wheat. #OTD Today is the anniversary of the death of Odoardo Beccari, who died on this day in 1920. After growing up an orphan, Beccarri managed to get an education in his native Italy, and he eventually traveled to England to study at Kew. Beccarri was friends with Hooker and Darwin, but he also befriended James Brooke, which meant he was able to spend three years exploring Borneo. During his lifetime, Becarri traveled all over India, Malaysia, and New Zealand. But it was on a little voyage he took to central Sumatra (in Indonesia) in 1878 that Beccarri discovered the plant with which he will forever be associated: the Amorphophallus titanum - or the Titan arum- the largest flower in the world. Seven years later, in 1885, the first Titan arum specimen bloomed at Kew, and when it happened, it created a sensation. Today, the Titan arum bloom still draws thousands of visitors. People love to take a selfie in front of the giant blooming plant. The flower is commonly referred to as the corpse flower as it smells like rotting flesh. In a fascinating article, scent scientists recently identified the compounds that make up that terrible smell. The odor includes aspects of cheese sweat, rotting fish, decomposing meat, and garlic, among even worse items that I won't mention here. And, it takes the corpse flower a decade before it can bloom. The putrid smell is meant to attract beetles and other insects to move pollen between blooming plants so that it can reproduce. Incredibly, the plants only bloom for 24-36 hours before collapsing. Between that first bloom at Kew (back in 1885) and the year 2000, fewer than 50 Titan arum blooms had been recorded. But, in 2016, suddenly dozens of corpse flowers around the world bloomed within weeks of each other. Horticulturists are still attempting to discern the reason for the clustered bloom event. #OTD During this week in 1990, the Longview Newspaper shared a cautionary article about the upcoming flu season. Buried in the story was this reminder: "A hundred years ago, a Dutch botanist discovered a disease-carrying micro-organism smaller than bacteria and called it a virus, the Latin word for poison." The unnamed botanist was Martinus Beijerinck (pronounced "by-a-rink"), who was searching for the reason tobacco plants were dying. In his research, Beijerinck ground up some diseased tobacco leaves and then pressed the juices through a bacteria filter. He was utterly shocked when the filtered, bacteria-free liquid still spread the disease. After reviewing his experiment, Beijerinck concluded that a "contagious living fluid" was the culprit, and he called it a virus. Today, two of the most common viruses are the flu and the common cold. #OTD Today is the 8th anniversary of the death of the botanist Bernard Verdcourt or who died on this day in 2011. For over 60 years, Bernard Verdcourt was known as "BV" to his colleagues at Kew. Verdcourt specialized in East African flora, and he had an unrivaled knowledge of around 4,000 species. He was also an expert on snails and slugs. (Kind of a unique combination of interests). Verdcourt's passion for snails was a hobby he happily cultivated. Somehow he found time to publish work on mollusks in addition to the 1,000 articles he wrote about botany. He wrote all of his 1220 papers and books by hand. Rumor has it that the Kew typing pool felt BV had the second most terrible handwriting at Kew. BV didn't shy away from controversy. He enjoyed bringing adversaries together to watch them work through their issues. He couldn't abide fools or sports. He could be cantankerous, but he was also kind and helpful to young botanists. Unearthed Words Autumn Song Shall we not grow with the asters? - Never reluctant nor sad, Not counting the cost of being, Living to dare and be glad. Shall we not lift with the crickets A chorus of ready cheer, Braving the frost of oblivion, Quick to be happy here? The deep red cones of the sumach And the woodbine's crimson sprays Have bannered the common roadside For the pageant of passing days. These are the oracles Nature Fills with her holy breath, Giving them glory of color, Transcending the shadow of death. - Bliss Cameron, Canadian Poet Laureate Now it's time to Grow That Garden Library with today's book: Flowers in the Kitchen by Susan Belsinger. As Susan reminds us in the intro to her cookbook, "Petals or whole blossoms of many common garden flowers add color, flavor, and drama to simple recipes." Susan incorporates 50 different flowers into her recipes - from Borage and Fennel flowers to Marigolds and Pineapple Sage flowers. Each flower is introduced with a photo followed by growing hints and instructions for preparing them for the recipe that follows. This book came out in 1990. You can get used copies using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for under $2. This book intrigued me so much that I went back and looked at what newspapers were saying about it in 1990. When they featured Susan's book, newspapers shared some of her go-to recipes like: Golden Corn Muffin with Calendula Petals, Herbed Cucumber Dip with Borage Blossoms (the borage supposedly echos the taste of the cucumber), Berries with Sweet Woodruff, Dandelion Mushrooms, Nasturtiums Stuffed with Albacore Tuna, Nasturtiums with Guacamole, and my favorite, Marigold Rice - which I think sounds perfect for the holidays. Today's Garden Chore Todays a great day to gather up your collections in the garden; look for empty containers, pots, and garden ornaments. There are a few things I use outside to keep my extra pots and garden items looking great. First, I like to use ironwork like an old bakers rack or iron stand of some kind for stacking my clay pots. I line the inside of the pot with burlap before stacking the pots, so they don't stick together. Second, for my ironwork, all of that will get one last shot of clearcoat (ideally) before winter sets in. This year, it sounds like the cold is really coming early - just in time for Halloween. Lastly, consider bringing a few items indoors to enjoy during the winter. Some of my favorite pieces are things that weren't necessarily the star of the show outside - but they transform into something wonderfully grounding when you bring them indoors. Think of old cracked containers or items with patina. I love to pair an older, smaller container with one of the robin's nests that survived over the summer. They all come indoors and add a touch of something natural and rustic, which is quite lovely when layered in with the more refined decor of a home. Something Sweet Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart We're going to travel back in time, about 144 years ago, and read William Taylor's thoughts on Autumn Work that he shared in The Nottinghamshire Guardian on this day in 1875. He wrote: WHAT a relief to the flower gardener to bid farewell to the summer of 1875! The work has been quite double that of ordinary seasons; weeds and grass have grown as they never grew before, while the more tender plants in beds have scarcely grown at all. Now and then, we had a gleam of sunshine to cheer and encourage us to make another effort, and again and again, as soon as we began to get a little tidy came a thunderstorm or a hurricane, thwarting all our attempts at neatness. Gardeners, however, never give up for [such] trifles, and it is not till October is here that we acknowledge ourselves beaten. The trees are now putting on their autumnal tints; Elms and Tulip Trees are being arrayed in the brightest of gold, [...] Leaves of every hue are playing about in the gentle breeze as they fall to rustle beneath our feet. What a mistake to run after every leaf with a barrow and a besom as it falls! What a waste of time and a want of taste! Gather them up certainly before they begin to decay on the walks and so discolor them. But, employers, please remember that October is a month in which trimness is impossible out-of-doors, and if it were not impossible, it would still be undesirable. And there is another reason for not insisting on too much trimness in October; it is a month in which the professional gardener has two seasons at once. In one respect, his new year begins somewhere about Michaelmas, the same time as the Russian Violet commences flowering. Forcing has to be prepared for in earnest, planting pushed forward with all possible speed—evergreens first, and fruit trees immediately afterwards. Pruning has also to be finished, with the modern gardener, before Christmas, and where there is much to do must be commenced with early. Currants are already fit for the secateurs; Gooseberries will shortly be, then Plums, Morellos, and Peaches. After the first leaves are ripe, the sooner such trees are pruned, the better. The secateurs, or French pruning-shears, is a very handy little instrument; its total length is about 9 inches, and its weight half a pound. It can be gripped with the whole hand, and consequently does not tire the operator like the ordinary shears; it cuts clean as a knife, and by its aid, the pruner can do his work much faster than with a knife. No one who has used it for one season will go without it till a better instrument is invented, which will probably be some time first. Digging, trenching, potting bedding plants, planting box-edging, laying turf, storing fruit and vegetables, sheltering tender plants, and a multiplicity of other things too numerous to write of, all want doing now, and it is altogether an exceedingly busy month. Gardeners generally have [less work] during August and September. They are enabled to look round themselves at home, and often to make a little tour and pick up useful hints from others of the fraternity; they then begin about October with renewed vigor to work for another year. This year, however, I know many have found it impossible to keep up with their work, and consequently, anything like relaxation has been out of the question. [...] The work is so exciting and so intensely satisfying that it is almost impossible for an enthusiast to think of his health while he is behind with his work, and consequently, many go on till nature can no longer stand it. I would ask employers, then, if they happen to possess an excellent and enthusiastic gardener whom they value, to be careful just now and not tax him too much, for there are some hundreds at this moment which if they had another straw placed on their backs would breakdown. But enough of this. Autumn is here. Bright and breezy autumn, I give you a hearty welcome; you shut out of sight forever our dismal wintry summer; you release me from floricultural millinery, and put an end for a time to my polychromatic disappointments. I go to enjoy my vacation with a spade and a pruning-hook, for the most perfect rest is a change of occupation.—William Taylor. 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 scientist who set the stage for Plant Anatomy and the amazing botanical illustrator Marianne North who traveled the world, capturing exotic flowers with her magnificent oil paintings. We also celebrate Margaret Owen, the English galanthophile and gardener we lost five years ago today. We'll hear some thoughts from Emily Dickinson about Autumn - it's her Nature 27 poem - with the famous line "I'll put a trinket on." We'll Grow That Garden Library with today's book The Daylily by John P. Peat and Ted L. Petit I'll talk about the perennials you can cut back right now and then wrap things up with a sweet story about the rose poem that went viral in 1885. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events. Early this month, Hoodline published an article about Ink Dwell's latest installation as part of their Migrating Mural project. Ink Dwell selected a location at 455 Hyde Stin San Francisco as the site of their next Monarch Mural. The 44-unit, 11-story apartment building was due for a new paint job anyway, so it was the perfect canvas for the project. Imagine an 11-story mural dedicated to the monarch! Ink Dwell has installed similar murals at eight other locations across the country to raise awareness about the declining monarch butterfly population. The project on Hyde street will be the largest installation - covering three sides of the building, and Ink Dwell hopes the mural makes Monarchbutterflies "impossible to ignore." Ink Dwell and its conservation partner, the Xerces Society, work with communities to provide information and educational materials about the butterflies' migration, and the current population declines for pollinators. Gardenista recently shared an excellent article by Barbara Peck called 10 Things Your Landscape Architect Wishes You Knew (But Is Too Polite to Tell You). I'll share 3 of my favorites from this list right now: First, your children will quickly outgrow your space. In the piece, landscape architect Kate Stickle y says: "Your children will outgrow, out-throw, and out-kick your small lawn long before you finish creating your garden, so don't plan your space around them." She suggests that while your kids are young, let them blow off steam in the neighborhood park. Meanwhile, plan an outdoor space for your future teenagers and their friends—one that feels private (but is still within the property lines)." Second, gravel can't replace mulch. Some folks prefer gravel because it stays in place. But, gravel offers nothing nutrient-wise for the soil. Landscape Architects Gretchen Whittier and Kate Stickley suggest "planting ground cover near walkways and giving it time to spread out. You may still need mulch, but perhaps only for one season." Third, a specimen tree won't live forever. "Designing and building your new house around a beautiful specimen tree isn't always the best course of action. Before even starting the design process, consult an arborist to find out the tree's health and longevity." 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 in 1632, the "father of microbiology" Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was born. Leeuwenhoek's interest in making lenses led to his discovery of microbial life. Leeuwenhoek's work set the stage for plant anatomy. #OTD Today is the birthday of the intrepid traveler and botanical artist Marianne North who was born on this day in 1830. Marianne's father was friends with Darwin and Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, who was the director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. When she was 25 years old, Marianne's mother died, and she turned to flower painting as a way to cope with her grief. Fifteen years later, right before she became forty, Marianne's father died. By this point, Marianne was an experienced traveler and painter. She had means and autonomy. Marianne decided to spend the rest of her life traveling the globe to find and paint the exotic flowers of the world. Among her many excursions, Marianne spent a year living in a hut and painting the flowers of the Brazilian forest. She painted the giant redwood trees of California and was heartbroken at their destruction. It was Marianne North who said, "It broke one's heart to think of man, the civilizer, wasting treasures in a few years to which savages and animals had done no harm for centuries." In September 1880, based on the recommendation of her father's great friend Charles Darwin, Marianne visited Australia. As for Marianne, she referred to Darwin as "The greatest man living." Darwin specifically suggested Australia for Marianne because the flora and fauna down under were less known and more unique. Marianne traveled by coach between Brisbane and Sydney, painting at every stop when she lamented, "they never stop where the flowers are!" To make matters worse, the brevity of the overnight stops meant her oil paintings didn't have time to dry completely. During her visit, Marianne painted a tree that would become known as The Marianne North tree. It was a twisted Karri tree located near Pemberton. Marianne single-handedly created over 1,000 pieces of flower art. She became a renowned botanical illustrator with several plant species named in her honor; her body of work has been on permanent display at Kew Gardens since 1882. If you can imagine a gallery of rooms with walls plastered with pieces of art about the size of an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper, you can envision the impact of standing in the Marianne North Gallery. The 832 paintings represent 20 years of travel over five continents and 17 countries, capturing the scenery and flora in vibrant oil color. The North Gallery was paid for by an endowment from Marianne North. In 2016, the BBC aired a documentary about Marianne North called Kew's Forgotten Queen. #OTD Today is the fifth anniversary of the death of Margaret Owen, who died on this day in 2014. Owen was an English farmer and gardener. When she was twenty, Margaret married Godfrey Owen (he had proposed to her in a cattle shed). On their family farm, they raised four children together. They were together for 33 years. But, when Margaret was 53 years old, Godfrey died from a brain tumor. Margaret decided to move out of the farmhouse, and she gave the farm to their son. But she had the idea of keeping an acre of land for herself to create a garden she called "the Patch." With her focus on gardening, Margaret found herself drawn to snowdrops, and she became a galanthophile (an expert on snowdrops). Margaret herself discovered many stunning snowdrops. She named one of the most striking after her husband - calling it the 'Godfrey Owen.' The Godfrey Owen snowdrop is a stunner. It's a double-flowered snowdrop with six outer petals and six inner segments. (Most snowdrops have just three exterior and three inner petals). Margaret also named other plants in honor of her husband. She named an Iris, a Bergenia, and a Guernsey Lily species Godfrey Owen as well. As a plantswoman extraordinaire, Margaret is remembered by many for her "snowdrop parties" which took place on the last Saturday in February. Margaret happily hosted a who's who of English horticulture. The day after the party, Margaret would dig up her snowdrops in the Patch and sell them to her guests and visitors. Then, she donated all the proceeds to the Multiple Sclerosis Society in honor of her sister. Unearthed Words "The morns are meeker than they were, The nuts are getting brown; The berry's cheek is plumper, The rose is out of town. The maple wears a gayer scarf, The field a scarlet gown. Lest I should be old-fashioned, I'll put a trinket on." - Emily Dickinson, Nature 27 - Autumn Today's Grow That Garden Library book recommendation: The Daylily by John P. Peat and Ted L. Petit Daylilies are tough, carefree beauties. They can survive the tropical heat of a Florida garden and the bitter cold of a northern garden. And, daylilies are some of the easiest plants to hybridize. For close to 100 years, Gardeners have been hybridizing their most desirable features in an attempt to create new, more evolved daylilies. Peat and Petit were inspired by Bill Munson Jr.'s classic book on Hemerocallis or the daylily . They review the history of the daylily and share many of the hybrids along with excellent advice for growing, featuring chapters from some of the top daylily authorities from around the world. I love what they mentioned in the preface of their book about gardeners who join daylily clubs and societies. They said that gardeners "come for the flower but stay for the people." This book came out in 2004. You can get used copies using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for under $10. Today's Garden Chore Plants That Should Be Cut Back In The Fall: Hostas Yarrow Peonies Coreopsis Bee Balm Daylilies Iris Something Sweet Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart It was on this day in 1885 that a little poem about a rose by the English poet Henry Austin Dobson appeared in the Leicester Chronicle in England. It was an instant hit and picked up by newspapers around the world. I spent a bit of time piecing together various remnants about the poem online, and I cobbled together a little backstory along with my analysis about this charming piece to help you understand it. Dobson's poem is titled A Fancy from Fontenelle, and it has a long French subtitle, which means "as fas as any rose could remember, no gardener had ever died." The French philosopher and writer Diderot inspired Dobson. In 1769, Diderot wrote a story about something called the Fallacy of the Ephemeral. One of the main characters in the story is named Fontenelle. The Fallacy of the Ephemeral alludes to the false belief held by Fontenelle's garden roses that their gardener is immortal. The roses emerge in the spring, they thrive in the summer and go dormant as fall changes to winter. Through every season, the gardener is always there tending to them. In other words, no rose [has ever lived long enough] to remember the death of the gardener. Along those lines, Dobson's poem is also told from the perspective of the rose. In this case, the rose is vain and self-assured; she incorrectly assumes that she will outlive the old gardener that tends her. Dobson's message reinforces the Fallacy of the Ephemeral. The simple truth is revealed at the end of the poem: beauty fades and time marches on. THE ROSE in the garden slipped her bud, And she laughed in the pride of her youthful blood, As she thought of the Gardener standing by — "He is old — so old! And he soon must die!" The full Rose waxed in the warm June air, And she spread and spread till her heart lay bare; And she laughed once more as she heard his tread — "He is older now! He will soon be dead!" But the breeze of the morning blew and found That the leaves of the blown Rose strewed the ground; And he came at noon, that Gardener old, And he raked them gently under the mold. And I wove the thing to a random rhyme: For the Rose is Beauty; the Gardener, Time. Thanks for listening to the daily gardener, and remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."
Today we celebrate the young botanist who disappeared in Australia 171 years ago and the pioneering female lichenologist who worked for the British Museum but was never officially on the payroll. We'll learn about the French botanist who had a life-long love affair with the trees of North America and the Los Angeles woman who found a trailblazing career in botany after getting a job at an employment agency. We'll hear some beautiful prose about bluebirds in autumn, "they linger like the last leaves on the tree". And, we Grow That Garden Library with the book New Vegetable Garden Techniques by Joyce Russell. I'll talk about harvesting the black walnut and then wrap things up with a bittersweet story about the founder of the Boy Scouts. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events. Andrew van Egmond recently wrote a post on Landezine called Into the Forest. It's about a property in the Netherlands that backs up to a nature preserve and the images are inspiring. What I love about this post is that the owners have made the forest in their garden. There are floating runners that allow visitors to walk above the forest floor, and the long lines make the tall Larch trees seem even grander. There is a feeling of "being a guest in the landscape." "From the living room and the kitchen, you have a poetic view through the big windows into the forest. The play of vertical gestures is the basis for this design. The viewer's perspective is steered towards a group of long vertical trunks of Larches. A composition of horizontal lines and floating boardwalks create a frame which steers the view." Another great story in the world of horticulture recently ran in budburst.org, which is a project of the Chicago Botanic Garden. Budburst aims to understand how plants respond to changes in their environment. Their citizen science activity, Fall into Phenology, is a fun way for everyone to get outside and observe fall changes from around the country. They invite you to join them, watch a plant or tree near you, and then report all your phenology observations to your Budburst Account. They say: "[There's] no need to limit your Fall into Phenology observations to leaf color and drop. Watch for fall flowers, such as asters, and record first flower, or full flower. Seeds and fruiting abound in the fall months. All observation reports - whether life-cycle or one-time events - help understand how plants respond to changes in climate and atmosphere. The goal of this campaign is to collect at least 500 observations from around the country (that's only 10 per state!)." Brevities #OTD Today is the birthday of the Prussian botanist Ludwig Leichhardt who was born on this day in 1813. Leichhardt is remembered for his impressive and arduous collecting efforts in Australia. For his part, Leichhardt loved Australia. He wrote, "I would find it hard to remain in Germany, or even in Europe, now. I would have returned to the scene of my wanderings, to the clear, sunny skies of Australia." In October in 1845, Leichhardt wrote in his diary after losing his work to a fire: "... tears were in my eyes when I saw ...[the] results of my expedition vanish ... my collection had the great advantage of being almost complete in blossoms, fruit, and seed." A year later, in 1846, Leichhardt wrote a letter to his botanist contact and friend the Italian, Gaetano Durando, who was living in Paris. Leichhardt's message conveys the extreme difficulties and dangers faced by the early plant explorers. He wrote, "My dear friend, You have, no doubt, noticed and regretted my long silence...But you must bear this in mind, my good friend, ... it was not my lot to travel all at my ease... Gladly would I have made drawings of my plants, and noted fully all particulars of the different species which I saw; and how valuable would such memoranda have been... [as] four of my pack-horses having been drowned. Botanical and geological specimens thus abandoned—how disappointing! From four to five thousand plants were thus sacrificed..." In the spring of 1848, Ludwig Leichhardt and a small group of explorers began what was to be a two- to three-year expedition across Australia. Shortly after beginning the trek, the entire party vanished with barely a trace. Known as the 'Prince of Explorers,' Leichhardt was 35 when he was lost to time. #OTD Today is the birthday of the lichenologist Annie Lorrain Smith who was born on this day in 1854. Smith was a British fungal biologist specializing in lichens. Her siblings all went by the last name "Lorrain Smith", but Annie published under the name "A L Smith." - - - - - Let's pause for a minute to talk about Smith's favorite topic: lichens. Lichen grow on bark and rocks. They are not plants. When you look at them microscopically, you'll see they are a complex life form that is a symbiotic partnership between a fungus and an alga. The fungus calls the shots and they give the lichen its characteristics. Some lichens even have two fungus. Lichens fall into three primary growth forms: Fruticose or "shrubby", foliose or "leafy," and Crustose or "crusty." Shrubby lichen grows outward. Folios are flat - two dimensional - like a leaf. You can peel them off the tree or rock, and they have a top and bottom side. Crusty lichen grows directly onto the surface and it is so attached that you can't lift them off the rock or tree without destroying them. OK. Back to Smith... - - - - - As a young woman, Smith worked as a governess and science teacher. When she was 34, Smith found herself drawn to reading more about botany, and she went to Imperial College to study under the British Botanist Dr. Dukinfield Henry Scott. Scott recognized Smith's aptitude for the subject, and he made arrangments for her to work at the British Museum (Natural History). It would be her professional home for 46 years. During all of her time at the Museum, Smith worked as an 'unpaid' assistant. Her mentor, Dr. Scott, personally ensured that she was modestly compensated so that she could work without officially being on the museum's payroll. By 1900, Smith was one of the world's leading experts in lichen taxonomy. Smith worked to integrate lichens into mycology. She produced the first workable keys for identifying British lichens. Her 1921 book simply called Lichens was a revelation: "It is so full of matter that one marvels at the […] author in collecting and arranging the work on the various aspects of [lichens] into critical articles and then weaving these articles together … to form a connected whole, which may be read with pleasure and profit, not only by a lichenologist, but also by a general botanical reader." Smith helped found the British Mycological Society and she was also the first female president of that organization. #OTD Today is the anniversary of the death of François-André Michaux, who died on this day in 1855. François-Andre was the son of the botanist, Andrea Michaux. His father named an oak in his honor. When François-Andre was 15 years old, he and his dad set sail for North America. The father and son team established botanical gardens in America and sent seeds and specimens back to France. When Michaux died on this day in 1855, back home in his native France, Asa Gray shared the news in the American Journal of Sciences and Arts. A friend of Michaux shared that he had died from a stroke - but had spent the whole day "planting American trees and directing his journeyman." #OTD Today is the birthday of the botanist Bonnie Templeton who was born on this day in 1906. In 2002, Templeton died at the age of 95. She was a trailblazing female in the field of botany. Her obituary noted her some of her botanical accomplishments which included, "discovering a rare plant on the El Segundo Sand dunes in the 1930s." And although she was born in Nebraska, at the age of 16, she made her way - all alone - to Los Angeles where fate brought her to botany. In the mid-1920s, after working as a waitress and a secretary, she found herself at an employment agency. They had a job working for a botanist who needed help with his extensive private herbarium. By 1929, Templeton was hired as the Curator of Botany at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. She was 23 years old; she would hold this position for over four decades from 1929 to 1970. Templeton also served as an on-call forensic botanist for the Los Angeles Police Department and the poison center. Templeton received her doctorate from Oregon State University. Templeton made three separate gifts to the program at Oregon State, and her endowment has resulted in a new conference room, a herbarium preparation room, an imaging room, and a lectureship. In researching Templeton, I discovered she was ahead of her time. In 1969, she was featured in a newspaper article advocating for the use of native plants in landscaping by California homeowners. And way back in 1943, she advocated what she called "Wild Victory Gardens,"; incorporating wild edibles into everyday cooking. Here's what was reported in The Signalout of Santa Clarita on April 23, 1943: "[The] botanist Bonnie Templeton... has published a list of over 20 common weeds which she says are good substitutes for the common, leafy vegetables ordinarily sold in markets. There are wild mustard and wild radish and wild lettuce and wild rhubarb and curly dock, and cheese plant and pigweed. The ice plant is delicious eaten raw, she says, and the bristle leaved nettle is a good substitute for asparagus. Now all of this is pretty blamed important for Newhall folks, because... wild victory gardens are about the only kind of victory garden possible here when the dry season sets in. Maybe we can induce Bonnie to come up here and [give] a class on wild victory gardeners... and point out all of the edible kinds of wild green sass. Or better still, figure out a way of making a salad bowl out of foxtail." Unearthed Words #OTD Today is the birthday of the nature writer and poet Neltje Blanchan, who was born on this day in 1865. Neltje married Frank Doubleday, and their grandson, Nelson, would go on to be the president of the Doubleday publishing company. Neltje wrote under the pen name Neltje Blanchon ("Nel-jah Blahnchon"), and she especially loved wildflowers and birds. In 1897, she wrote a book called Bird Neighbors. In 1907, Neltje Blanchan wrote that children should get to know birds. She also wrote a book called The American Flower Gardenand also one called Wild Flowers Worth Knowing. Neltje 's works gave us many beautiful nature quotes. Here's one about Spring: "Can words describe the fragrance of the very breath of spring - that delicious commingling of the perfume of arbutus, the odor of pines, and the snow - soaked soil just warming into life. " Then she gave us this lovely quote about the Bluebird in Autumn: "Long after their associates have gone southward, they linger like the last leaves on the tree. It is indeed "good-bye to summer" when the bluebirds withdraw their touch of brightness from the dreary November landscape at the north to whirl through the southern woods and feed on the waxy berries of the mistletoe." Today's Grow That Garden Library Book Recommendation: New Vegetable Garden Techniques by Joyce Russell Joyce Russell has been gardening for forty years, and she's my favorite type of gardener - practical and generous with her knowledge. She has loads of experience growing fruit and vegetables, feeding her family with her garden harvest. Joyce and her photographer husband Ben have collaborated on a few garden books. Their first book, The Polytunnel Book: Fruit and Vegetable all Year Round, is a perennial best-seller. They also released, Build a Better Vegetable Garden in 2016. In NVGT, Joyce highlights 23 projects for gardeners to try on their own. I especially loved the plan of using a carrot clamp for preservation. Joyce shares that a carrot clamp preserves carrots outside for months. It also works for other root vegetables like potatoes, beetroot, and parsnips. Now, creating a clamp is pretty straight forward. You can follow along with the beautiful images in Joyce's book (thanks to Ben, no doubt). To create a clamp, you simply cut the tops of your carrots, leaving about 2.5 cm of the green stem. Lay the carrots in a circle with the tips of the carrot lying pointed to the middle of the ring. Insulate the pile of carrots with straw or rushes. Then cover with soil. Then, when you want a carrot, you make a door by pushing your hand through the layers of soil and insulation. Take out as many carrots as you need. The pile will slump down as you extract your produce. It's a simple, secure outdoor storage that works like a charm. Joyce also offers excellent step-by-step instructions for creating an onion string and garlic plait, how to trial different mulches, how to create simple and effective flappers to scare birds away, how to build a simple frame to protect fruit crops and she offers an excellent basic basil pesto recipe on page 172 - in addition to all of the wonder growing techniques that she shares throughout the book. Today's Garden Chore Celebrate the fall season by harvesting black walnuts. Although the English walnut - with it's more refined look and taste - is still preferred, the black walnut with worth harvesting. Don't forget that harvesting the black walnut is the best part of owning a Black Walnut tree. Just remember to wear gloves when you collect the black walnuts. They have that inky, sooty substance that you can get on your hands when you touch them, and it is hard to get off. Right now, September through October is the time to collect black walnuts. Just gather them as they fall off the tree. When the tree is done dropping black walnuts, then it is time to remove the husks for storing and curing. And, here are a few pointers to keep in mind: Cracking open the shell is not easy. You should know that black walnuts come out in pieces - so if you're expecting a beautiful, intact, brainy-looking walnut after cracking the husk on a black walnut, you'd better adjust your expectations. And, one last caution pertains to the husk of the walnut. Be care disposing of it. It is toxic to many plants. Remember, black walnut tea was a common pioneer herbicide. And, don't mix black walnut castings with your compost. Something Sweet Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart Today is the anniversary of the death of the Englishman Ernest Thompson Seton, who died on this day in 1946. When he was six, Seton's family immigrated to Canada. He grew up in Toronto and found solace in the woods along the Don River. His father was abusive and cruel. When Seton turned 21, his dad presented him with a bill for $537.50. His dad had calculated every dime he had spent raising Ernest - including the fee from the delivery doctor for his birth in 1860. Seton paid his father and then never spoke to him again. To right the wrongs of his childhood, Ernest Thompson Seton founded the Boy Scouts of America in 1910 - he even wrote the very first Boy Scout Handbook. In 1924, Seton starred in a newspaper article called "Face to Face with Ernest Thompson Seton." The reporter met with him in a wooded setting and wrote this about Seton: "Lithe as a cat, he jumped from limb to limb in the tree. Picking up a beetle by the roadside, he began commenting: 'A man who does not love Nature and cannot see in a bird, tree, flower, or insect some kinship, does not seem to me altogether human. [The naturalist] John Burroughs was [there collecting] some wildflowers.. and the woods rang with laughter li…
Full show notes at the publisherToday we celebrate the daughter of a millionaire who found solace in nature and the refreshing approach of one of the country's top naturalists. We learn about the discovery of vanilla (complete with a ravishing recipe for vanilla coffee liqueur from 1974), and we'll commemorate the Doctor's Pit where the botanist David Douglas died. We'll hear the oft-quoted poem that begins, "The scarlet of maples can shake me like a cry of bugles going by," and we Grow That Garden Library with a new book for 2019 called The Sanctuary of My Garden: Poems by Fotoula Reynolds. I'll talk about the last call for bringing your houseplants back indoors and then wrap things up with the sweet story of a botany curriculum for 4th graders in Louisville, Kentucky. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events. I ran across the most delightful wedding story the other day. It was shared in the blog Plans and Presents. It was a wedding that had a garden theme, and it took place at The Asylum Chapel in London. Helen Abraham Photography captured the gorgeous images of this wedding. I shared the post in the Free FB community for listeners of the show. You can check out the full post there. But, here's a quick overview of how the couple (who share a love for gardens and garden history) met from the Bride, Nancy: "As a life-long learner, an avid gardener and fan of early American history, I had embarked upon a trip to follow up the research I had done on the plant exchange between Philadelphia and London in the 18th century, and a botanist named Peter Collinson who had lived at that time in Peckham. Journeying to London, I made contact with people who suggested I get in touch with Derek, as he had written an article about Collinson. Eventually, Derek and I met up, talked endlessly about Collinson, research, and other things. Back in California, we exchanged many emails, and when I was next in London, we met up again, and as time transpired, we spent more and more time together. Derek and I are an older couple, he being in his late 80s and I am in my late 70s. Having been happily single for 40 years, I was never expecting a marriage proposal. But it did happen…" Now for the good part. Here's how Nancy decided to incorporate the garden into her beautiful wedding: "I wanted the flowers of the day to be a peach/pink/apricot color scheme, and I knew they would add a punch of color alongside the black outfit I planned to wear, also coordinating with the colors of the inside of the Chapel. Because of our background, I wanted the Chapel to look like a garden. Rather than have typical flower arrangements, Anya turned Asylum Chapel into an amazing and magical garden, with plots of the garden here and there and a path through the garden to the altar. Even the staff said they had never seen the Chapel look so wonderful." I reached out to Alison over at Plans and Presents to tell her how much I enjoyed her post, and she said: "That wedding was stunning, and it was my honor to feature it." Another great story in the world of horticulture recently ran in the Denver Post. It turns out, there's a fun new collaboration between the Denver Botanic Gardens and Mythology Distillery, a cocktail bar and distillery in the heart of the LoHi neighborhood in Denver. Blake Burger is a horticulturist at the Denver Botanic Gardens, and Scott Yeats is the founder of Mythology Distillery. And, they're also old college buddies from their days back at Colorado State. I love this story so much that I reached out to the Mythology Distillery to learn more. Btw, the bottle of Forager Gin is beautiful. And I love how Mythology tells the story of the gin on their website: "Two Friends, a Distiller, and a Horticulturist …. Forage for a missing ingredient in a garden one mile above the sea. Two pounds of chamomile and elderflower along with three pounds of lemon verbena were all it took to make3,000 bottles of Forager botanical gin. If you're in Denver, you can pick up a bottle of Forager Gin for yourself or as a gift for around $35 from Mythology. Brevities #OTD On this day in 1910, the news out of Pittsburgh announced the creation of a new chrysanthemum named in honor of Henry Clay Frick's only daughter Helen who was 22 years old. The public was invited to view the lovely blossom in Frick's million-dollar conservatory. The newspaper reported that it took Frick's "high-priced gardeners" four years to create the flower. A few years earlier, when Helen became a débutante, her father offered to give her a gift of whatever her heart desired. Helen asked for a park - but not just any park. Helen requested a wilderness park. She wanted a place where the land would remain in a natural state, and she hoped the children of Pittsburgh would use the park to connect with the natural world. Helen's birthday present became known as Frick Park, and today it remains the largest park in Pittsburgh with 561 acres of trails and wooded areas. Helen's request doesn't seem so peculiar once you learn that nature had been a refuge for Helen as a child. When Helen was three years old, her older sister Martha died. Her father called Martha his little "Rosebud," and she died when she was five years old. Martha's death was the result of swallowing a pin. The incident caused two years of painful complications that ultimately led to her death. Then, when Helen was four years old, her father was shot in an assassination attempt. Two days later, her newborn baby brother died. These early losses left Helen's parents grief-stricken and depressed. After her parents died, Helen used her immense fortune to create a 640-acre nature sanctuary in New York State. She also made a point of adding gardens to any of her developments. She also gave money for 1,000 azaleas to be planted in a garden across from the Phipps Conservatory in Schenley Park. A Frick descendant, Martha Frick Symington Sanger, wrote a book about Helen called Helen Clay Frick: Bittersweet Heiress. In the book, Sanger noted that her aunt lived in a moss-covered cottage and rather enjoyed gardening. Helen even performed everyday garden chores like weeding and planting fruit trees. She also had a good understanding of local birds and could identify their songs. #OTD On this day in 1942, the Freeport Journal published a delightful story about the naturalist Edwin Way Teale. Here's what it said, "To most of his neighbors Edwin Way Teale Is known as the man who can spend a solid day In a two-acre field without 1) being on a picnic, or (2) apparently doing a stroke of work. Scientists... assert that his collection of 15,000 photographs of insects—most of them taken in that same two-acre field—is an important contribution to entomology. Edwin Teale himself insists that he's just an amateur who managed to make a hobby pay. ... In college, he had majored in English; entomology was only a word to him. About six years ago," he recounts, "I was writing an article on fishing. I took some pictures of dry flies, and somehow that started me photographing live insects. Soon afterward, neighbors stared when they saw him crawling around his back yard with a magnifying glass. This led him to rent the "insect rights" to a nearby field that contains several apple trees, a patch of swamp, and other features attractive to winged and crawling life. He estimates there are 1,800 varieties of insects in the tract. "It is a universe," Teale says. "Exploring it provides the thrill of travel and adventure." ... Once, he made friends with a praying mantis. He named her "Dinah," and she shared his study for weeks. Finally, Dinah devoured her own arm. Teale had just time to get the picture. Earlier, he had taken her to New York City, where she escaped from his pocket on Broadway. Denizens of that cynical thoroughfare were surprised to see a well-dressed six-footer frantically pursuing a bug." A year after this article, Teale's book By-ways to Adventure: A Guide to Nature Hobbies won the John Burroughs Medal for distinguished natural history writing. Sadly, during World War II, Teale's son, David, was killed in Germany. Teale and his wife began traveling across the country by automobile. The trips help them cope with their grief and became an integral part of Teale's writing. Their 1947 journey, covering 17,000 miles in a black Buick and following the unfolding spring, led to Teale's book North with the Spring. Additional road trips lead to more books: Journey Into Summer, Autumn Across America, and Wandering Through Winter. Wandering Through Winter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1966. And, it was Teale who said: "For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together. For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad." " Any fine morning, a power saw can fell a tree that took a thousand years to grow." "Our minds, as well as our bodies, have need of the out-of-doors. Our spirits, too, need simple things, elemental things, the sun and the wind and the rain, moonlight, and starlight, sunrise and mist and mossy forest trails, the perfumes of dawn, and the smell of fresh-turned earth and the ancient music of wind among the trees." #OTD On this day in 1974, a newspaper clipping from the Star-Gazette out of Elmira New York shared a Recipe for Vanilla Coffee Liqueur. But, before the Recipe was shared, the author took a moment to explain how the signature ingredient, vanilla, was discovered: "In school, I learned that the explorer Hernan Cortes discovered vanilla during the 15th century when he quaffed a cup of hot chocolate at the court of Montezuma. The Aztec Indians made this pungent beverage from the beans of the cacao tree, combined with pods the Spaniards named vanilla. For three centuries, vanilla remained a luxury within reach of only affluent Europeans and Americans. People believed the orchid would only grow in Mexico. Then a French botanist discovered the bee that pollinated the orchid. Eventually, Madagascar became the primary grower of the vanilla orchid, which grows on a coarse vine that requires about three years of pampering before it bears fruit. Vanilla came into its own with the invention of ice cream in the 17th century. Today vanilla is three times as popular as any other flavor." Here is a liqueur sauce that, in my opinion, can transform a dish of ice cream or pudding into an epicurean treat. VANILLA COFFEE LIQUEUR I ½ cups brown sugar, firmly packed 1 cup granulated sugar 2 cups water ½ cup instant coffee powder 3 cups vodka 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract Combine sugars with water. Bring to boil and boil for 5 minutes. Slowly stir in coffee powder. Cool: Pour into jug or jar. Add vodka and vanilla. Mix thoroughly. Cover and let stand at least 2 weeks. Serve over ice cream or pudding or as a flavoring for milk drinks. Yields about 5 cups. #OTD On this day in 2014, the botanist David Douglas was memorialized with a plaque at his death site. The occasion marked the 100th anniversary of Douglas's death. The Oregon Cultural Heritage Commission created the plaque because Douglas was the first scientist to visit the Oregon territory. Douglas scientifically identified hundreds of plants during his lifetime, including the Douglas fir, the state tree of Oregon. In addition to the Oregon contingent, botanists from Scotland, England, and Hawaii placed the plaque at the spot on the Mountain where Douglas died on the Big Island. The locals call it the "Doctor's Pit." Douglas died after falling into a pit designed to trap animals. Tragically, a bull was also in the pit and gored Douglas to death. The site hasn't changed much over the past 180 years. Today, a dirt road leads the occasional visitor near the site. Unearthed Words The scarlet of maples can shake me like a cry Of bugles going by. And my lonely spirit thrills to see the frosty asters like smoke upon the hills. ~ Bliss Carman, Canada's Poet Laureate Today's Grow That Garden Library book recommendation: The Sanctuary of My Garden: Poems by Fotoula Reynolds I love what CS Hughes wrote about Fotoula's book : "They say that poetry is a garden, sometimes wild and unhewn, sometimes carefully tended. Fotoula Reynolds' poems ably demonstrate that - there is always a new and carefully tended bloom, and sometimes something unexpected, that you might think a weed, but I would say, a wildflower gone perhaps just a little astray." Here's an excerpt from her signature poem: The Sanctuary of My Garden: "In the evening of a Mediterranean summer Where the stars wink their Little eyes and the moon Graces us with her Outstanding-ness I have traveled the world Fearlessly in my imagination For a time I am out of reach But you can always find me In the sanctuary of my garden." Fotoula's book is available using the Amazon link in today's Show Notes. It's a paperback and would make a lovely Christmas present. It sells for just $8. Today's Garden Chore It's the gardener's version of "Last Call for Alcohol," and it's "Last Call for Houseplants Ya'll." Seriously, if you are a northern gardener, bring your houseplants inside. The colder it gets, the greater the shock they will experience. When you bring your houseplants inside, spray them down with sharp streams of water, and I like to add a little dawn dish soap to give them a good cleaning. There's a large, old, antique table in the middle of my botanical Library where I place many of my houseplants. The houseplants form the centerpiece of the table. They are ringed by an old typewriter, stacks of garden books, baby pruners, a mister, and some extra pots. I have to say that I love how my houseplants have brought life and fragrance into that space. Then I added a little Alexa dot on the windowsill. I have her play sounds from Nature or the Rainforest. You'd never know it's cold and dreary outside. Something Sweet Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart On this day in 2003, the newspaper in Louisville Kentucky featured an article about a 4th-grade classroom that had turned into a laboratory of botanists. For three weeks, the kids - wearing lab coats - were led down a path of botanical discovery by their student-teacher named Bill Stangel. "In the first week, the children collected and studied leaves and looked at plant parts under a microscope. In week two, they dipped carnations into water [mixed] with food coloring to see the petals change colors. They made guesses about how long it would take for the color to reach the petals, and they discussed how water and nutrients move from the roots to the leaves. ... At the end of the class, the children stood up and sang [to the tune of "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes"] "Stigma, petal, stem, and roots … stem and roots" 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 poet who wrote lustrously of Kubla Kahn's summer garden and the French flower breeder who made our favorite plants even more sumptuous with double-flowers. We learn about the descendant of Olaf Rudbeck, who sought to create a legacy of peace and the rainforest expert who wrote the flora of Mexico. We'll hear a lovely prayer for Autumn from the poet Rainer Marie Rilke. Today's Book Recommendation to help you Grow That Garden Library is A Way to Garden by Margaret Roach. I'll talk about the benefits of buying bagged mulch and then wrap things up with the sweet story of an iconic flower photo from 1967. Before we get going, I want to say thanks for all the well wishes. I finally caught this horrible virus that has been making its way through the family. It started with a sore throat, then body aches, and then a cough with no voice. It knocked me out for over a week and I'm still on the mend. And, I did get my flu shot but it's one of those years I guess. Anyway, I started to use the last few days as I was waiting for my voice to return to incorporate a few new ideas into the show format here so if you're a regular listener you might hear a few new things - you'll have to let me know what you think. So, I had a little growing zone reinforcement situation happen while I was sick. I had put these baby crotons in a planter out front for fall and I know they are a tropical and I should have thought to get them inside when I heard the forecast but they looked so healthy and tough I didn't give them another thought and then bam. Sure enough, that temperature dropped into the thirties overnight and as I was backing out of the driveway this week going to get more cough syrup - what did I see? All the little crotons (about 8 of them - don't worry I got them on sale) were collapsed and dead in the planter. I can't tell you how many times I hear from friends this time of year about a houseplant or tropical that gets left outside and then looks dead and then they wonder if it will come back. The answer is usually probably not. But you know, I get that this is sad and we can kick ourselves but really it's just one more reminder of the constraints we face as gardeners. I know we get by with zone pushing thanks to microclimates and that feels so great when it works, but every now and then I'm actually good with a reminder like this about the limits of my zone. It's kind of grounding. It's like - hey, fall is here and it's serious and in Minnesota that means get your houseplants in by October 5 period. Respect One of the Facebook groups I belong to asked for some good side salad Recipes to bring out to the field for the Harvest crew. The suggestions were so good. But, one, in particular, caught my eye. It was for: Dill Pickle Pasta Salad and the recipe was from the blog Together as a Family. If you love pickles and pickle juice, then this is salad is for you. They wrote: "Dill Pickle Pasta Salad will be an instant favorite! Tender spiral pasta, 2 cups of diced pickles, cheese, and onion covered in an ultra-creamy homemade dill dressing with pickle juice." It is phenomenal! Something different and something the kids actually eat - which is such a bonus. So if you're looking for a fun, new side for your harvest meals, try making the Dill Pickle Pasta Salad: 1 box (16 oz) rotini pasta 1/3 cup dill pickle juice (from the pickle jar) 2 cups chopped baby dill pickles 1 block (8 oz) Colby Jack cheese, cubed small 1 small white onion, finely chopped Creamy Dill Dressing 1 cup mayonnaise 1/2 cup sour cream 1/3 cup dill pickle juice (from the pickle jar) 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill (or 1 tablespoon dried dill) 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon pepper Instructions Cook pasta according to package directions. Don't forget to add some salt to the boiling water before adding the pasta. I add about 1 teaspoon, give or take. Drain pasta and rinse with cold water. Add 1/3 cup of the pickle juice to the drained and rinsed pasta and let it sit while you prepare the rest. (Move the pasta from the colander into a mixing bowl and then add the pickle juice) Chop the dill pickles, and cheese into small cubes/pieces. Finely chop the white onion. Drain the pasta again that was sitting in the pickle juice. Add it to a large bowl along with the chopped pickles, cheese, and white onion. In small bowl, combine all the dressing ingredients and pour over the pasta salad. Stir everything together to combine well. Salad can be eaten right away but I prefer it cold, and if you do too, then cover it and refrigerate it for 1-2 hours. Notes: I would recommend not making this too far ahead of time. For best results serve this salad within a few hours of making it. Either right away or after the refrigeration time. Leftovers do keep well in the fridge (are still delicious) but the dressing thickens up and it's not as "creamy" as when you first make it). Use any dill pickles you want. I prefer the baby dills cause they are already small in shape so it's easier to chop them small. For best taste and texture use the real, full-fat mayonnaise. I prefer Best Foods OR Hellman's brand. If you want some heat then add a pinch (or two) of cayenne pepper to the dressing. Any cheese or pasta can be used in this recipe but after testing it out, rotini and Colby Jack cheese taste the best in this salad. Brevities #OTD Today is the birthday of the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who was born on this day in 1772. Along with his friend, William Wordsworth, Coleridge started the Romantic Movement and was a member of the Lake Poets, a group of English poets who lived in the Lake District of England during the first half of the nineteenth century. Coleridge felt that taxonomy was a sort of poetry. He wrote that taxonomy was "the best words in the best order". In his poem called Youth and Age, Coleridge wrote, "Flowers are lovely; Love is flower-like; Friendship is a sheltering tree;" Kubla Khan's Summer Garden at Xanadu is the subject of Coleridge's 1797 poem Kubla Khan, one of his most famous works. The poem begins by describing Kahn's palace and the garden contrasted with the setting of the ancient Mongolian forest. And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery. #OTD Today is the birthday of the French flower breeder Victor Lemoine, who was born on this day in 1823. We owe a debt of gratitude to Lemoine for enhancing the beauty of so many flowers in our gardens: lilacs, mock-oranges, phlox, peonies, gladiolus, tuberous begonias, geraniums, and deutzias. Around the year 1850, Lemoine borrowed money from his gardener father and began a nursery that survived three generations thanks to his son Emile and his grandson Henri. The Lemoine nursery thrived on land bought in Nancy, France (pronounced "non-cee"). A few years later, Lemoine created his first double-flower; the Portulaca grandiflora or Moss Ross. As with so many of Lemoine's creations, the double-flower created double the beauty. In 1854, Lemoine turned the original five-petaled single blossom of the geranium into a double-flowered stunner he called "Gloire de Nancy" or "Glory of Nancy." Northern gardeners owe Lemoine a debt of gratitude for his work with peonies. He crossed the Paeonia wittmanniana with the Siberian albaflora; creating a peony that could withstand a winter freeze. Lemoine created some of our most memorable heirlooms: the white Le Cygne or Swan peony, the Primevere with creamy white outer guard petals, and packed with canary yellow petals inside, the blush-colored Solange peony, the pink Sarah Bernhardt, La Fee the Fairy peony, and the creamy-white Alsace-Lorraine peony. But, it is the lilac that will forever be associated with Lemoine. Incredibly, Lemoine didn't start working on Lilacs until he was almost fifty. That said, Lemoine's wife, Marie Louise, was his tireless assistant when his eyes and fine-motor skills were failing. She hand-pollinated the little lilac flowers and aided both her husband and her son with hybridizing. Lemoine worked magic with his lilacs. He made them bloom earlier and later. He improved the quality of the bloom, and he expanded their color spectrum. He grew the very first double lilac. By the time the Lemoine nursery closed its doors in 1968, the Lemoine's had bred 214 new cultivars of Lilac. #OTD Today is the birthday of the Swede Alfred Nobel, who was born on this day in 1833. Gardeners are often surprised to learn that Nobel was a descendant of the botanist Olof Rudbeck. Nobel believed in peace and the goodness of humanity. At the same time, he recognized the destructive power of his scientific inventions. After Alfred's brother died, a newspaper accidentally published the obituary under Alfred's name. The experience was a defining moment for Nobel. He decided to craft a legacy of peace and made arrangements in his will to create the Nobel Prizes in Science, Literature, and Peace. The Nobel Prize ceremony is held every year on December 10th on the anniversary of his death. #OTD Today is the birthday of the Mexican botanist Arturo Gómez-Pompa who was born on this day in 1934. As one of the world's top authorities on rain forests, Gómez-Pompa founded the Tropical Research Center. He is remembered for his flora of Mexico and his tireless work on conservation. Unearthed Words Here's a prayer for Autumn from the Prague-born poet Rainer Maria Rilke: "Lord, it is time. The summer was very big. Lay thy shadow on the sundials, and on the meadows let the winds go loose. Command the last fruits that they shall be full; give them another two more southerly days, press them on to fulfillment and drive the last sweetness into the heavenly wine." Today's Grow That Garden Library book recommendation: A Way to Garden by Margaret Roach The subtitle is A Hands-On Primer for Every Season. This book just came out in April of this year and it's one of my favorites. The pictures are to-die-for. If this book doesn't make you want to garden, I don't know what will. I also wanted to read a little excerpt that I found extremely timely. What I love about Margaret is that she is so real about what it's like to garden: "Mad Stash: Overwintering Tender Plants I am asked two questions over and over again by visitors: "Where did you get that plant?" and "Where do you put all those big pots of tender things in winter?" My reply to the second part begins with a question: Are you ready for an adventure? Unless you operate a climate-controlled greenhouse - and even then, if the power fails - matching non-hardy plants to the possibilities of our domestic winter environment, especially in a northern location, is indeed an exploration. I have been experimenting for years with stashing tender plants in the cellar, garage, house, mudroom – wherever I can – to try to turn each purchase into an investment plant. Before I go attempting any real heroics, though... I ask if there's a way to carry over a piece of each instead, as seeds or by taking late summer cuttings and say Coleus or Pelargonium and rooting them - or simply by digging up tubers or bulbs and stashing those?" Today's Garden Chore - Improving your garden one actionable tip at a time. Buy some bagged mulch for handiness and ease. Compared to loose mulch, bagged mulch is less labor-intensive and messy. For people with physical challenges, bagged mulch is way easier to use, stack, and store. Bags of mulch are manageable to carry and cart around. At the end of the season, when just a little mulch is needed here and there, you'll be glad to have a little stockpile. The gardening expert Thalassa Cruso wrote: "The mulch you lay down will protect your perennial plants during the winter and feed the soil as it decays, while the cleaned up flower bed will give you a huge head start on either planting seeds or setting out small plants." Something Sweet Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart It was on this day in 1967 that 100,000 demonstrators attend the March on the Pentagon. It was one of the most massive demonstrations of the Vietnam War. A 17-year-old high school girl named Jan Rose Kasmir walked up to a row of soldiers holding rifles with bayonets. Kasmir courageously stood directly in front of the bayonets. She held a single chrysanthemum bloom in her hands. The little daisy-like flower was the only thing between Kasmir's face and the tip of a blade. This image, known as the flower girl, became one of the most iconic photos of the Vietnam War era. Thanks for listening to the daily gardener, and remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."
Does your Christmas Cactus have red on its leaves? If so, that red is an indication that the plant is stressed out. It could be that it has that color on the leaves when it's blooming because blooming puts pressure on the plant. In general, those leaves will turn a little red if you're watering them too much or If you have them too much sun. One of my oldest Christmas cactuses came from my husband's grandmother that was a very craggy looking. I managed to keep it alive for about a decade and then it was time to start over with a new one. Don't forget that you can propagate your Christmas cactus with the required simply graph one of the leaves The leaves in twisted off you can put the water or you can have a little booty or you can add a little rooting hormone And twisted off you could you can put the cutting in water or you can have a little breathing hormone and put it directly in the soil If you want to keep your Christmas cactus compact now is the time to prune it just take all those little cuttings and get the routing and then share them with friends Brevities #OTD On this day in 1801, the botanist François-Andre Michaux returned to Charleston. François-Andre was the son of the botanist Andrea Michaux. His father named an oak in his honor. Michaux's mom died just a few short weeks after he was born. His father was so despondent, he turned to botany to deal with his grief. Given his position in France, his mentors were the top gardeners in the French Royal Gardens. The expert guidance helped Michaux accelerate his learning. When François-Andre was 15 years old, he and his dad set sail for North America. His father had a very clear goal for his time in America; establish a botanical garden and send specimens back to France. When they arrive, the year was 1786 and the location chosen by Michaux for the garden was on property that's now occupied by the Charleston Area National Airport. Today, as you leave the airport, you'll notice a stunning mural that honors the Michaux's. It includes scenes depicting the rice fields along the Ashley River and the Charleston Harbor where Michaux introduced one of the first camellia plants. In one panel, Andre-François and his father are depicted in the potager or kitchen garden. The mural was installed in 2016. #OTD On this day in 1887 the Los Angeles Herald ran an interview with the superintendent of the botanical gardens William Smith about the senators in Washington during the 1880's who had a passion for plants. Here's what he said: Senator Charles Sumner from Massachusetts was a great enthusiast... He used to tell me that when traveling he would peer out of the car windows by the hour, on the lookout for a beautiful tree, and when his eye for the lovely and symmetrical was satisfied he would go into raptures. ... The last enjoyment I had with him, shortly before he died, was in visiting a favorite elm of his own Boston Common. Senator John James Ingalls, of Kansas, ...is a most devoted student of arboriculture. Some of the most valuable suggestions about distributing plants in the west come from him. Senator William Pitt Fessenden, of Maine, was an ardent apostle [of gardening] all through his long public life. I remember that his wife had a sweet verbena in their home in Maine, of which she was very fond. She watched it tenderly as a child, and Mr. Fessenden shared the feeling so thoroughly that for thirteen sears ho would journey home from Washington to take up the plant in autumn and make another trip in the springtime to set it out. No pressure of public business could make him forget that verbena. It was really a paternal devotion. Senator James A Pearce, of Maryland, was one of the most cultivated botanists ever in Congress. Scarcely a day passed that he did not drop in on me to watch the growth of some favorite plant or some new experiment, and his ideas were always scientific and valuable. And then there was Senator Benjamin Gratz Brown from Missouri, a very warm lover of flowers and a thorough master of their cultivation. During all the time he was in the Senate I don't believe he missed a day at the garden, and we would chat for hours when he felt in the humor. There's another botanist in Congress,... I know the name will surprise you— Senator William Steele Holman, of Indiana ... It seems almost a contradiction that one of his reputation should be a lover of flowers, but he certainly is. No one has been in Congress since I can remember, and that's a long time, with a more hearty and intelligent love for the garden. He is a frequent visitor [of the botanical garden], and you can see from his conversation that he watches every new phase of the science as keenly as he does the money bags of the treasury. It seems to be a mental exhilaration for him to commune with these curious plants from all over the world, and study their hidden life. He is quite as familiar with the botanical names and the habits of plants and flowers as most professional botanists. He picked it up as a recreation and his spare time is nearly all devoted to it. Senator Samuel Sullivan "Sunset" Cox is a first-class botanist, but let me add that he's also the best reader that I ever met. He is a walking cyclopedia on every subject covered by books. ... But then, this doesn't apply to his botany alone; it's the same with everything else. He can learn more in shorter time than any man I ever saw. #OTD On this day in 1899, Augustine Henry wrote to his friend the designer Evelyn Gleeson after meeting Ernest Henry Wilson for the first time. Toward the end of his time in China, Augustine Henry living in the Simao District in the Yunnan Province of China. He knew that the flora of China was an untapped market for European horticulture. Meanwhile, a young botanist named Ernest Henry Wilson was just starting out. Henry wrote to his friend, Evelyn Gleesen, to share the news about his Wilson after their first visit together: I have ... a guest of all the things in the world at Szemao, a Mr. Wilson, late a gardener at Kew, who has been sent out by Veitch's to collect plants or rather their seeds and bulbs in China. He has made his way here to consult with me on best way of procedure and concerning the interesting country around Ichang and he will stay here 2 or 3 weeks. He is a self-made man, knows botany thoroughly, is young and will get on. Henry also shared with Evelyn that he, "would be glad if [Wilson] will continue to carry on the work in China which has been on my shoulders for some years. There is so much of interest and of novelty." Later the same day, Henry also reported back to Kew about the progress of their new, young plant explorer, Wilson: "[He will] do, I think, as he seems very energetic, fond of his botany and level-headed, the main thing for traveling and working in China.... [I wrote] on a half-page of a notebook ... a sketch of a tract of country about the size of New York State [on which I marked the place where I had found the single tree of Davidia involucrata (the Dove Tree or Handkerchief Tree) in 1888. I also provided Wilson with useful information and hints.]" Henry and Wilson stayed close and corresponded for the rest of their lives. Wilson went on to find the Dove tree - but that is another story for a day dedicated to Wilson. As for Henry, when he returned to his native Ireland, his was increasingly concerned with de-forestation in his home country and he began to study forestry. the rate at which that country was being deforested, his interests had turned to the study of forestry. In 1913, he became the first professor of forestry at the Royal College of Science for Ireland. He and his wife, Elsie opened their Dublin home to famous friends like Yeats, George Russell, Erskine Childers and Evelyn Gleeson. Henry is regarded as the father of Irish commercial forestry. #OTD On this day in 1985, Strawberry Fields, a 2 and ½ acre garden memorial in New York City's Central Park, was dedicated to the memory of John Lennon. Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, came up with the idea for the park. She remembered how she and Lennon took strolls through that section of Central Park after they moved to the Dakota nearly 10 years ago. "It is our way of taking a sad song and making it better," said Ono. Originally, the concept called for every nation donate a remembrance to Strawberry Fields. Soon, Ms. Ono and the New York City Parks and Recreation Commission found themselves dealing with trees that couldn't grow in a northern climate. A second request, along with tips about what would survive New York winters, brought 150 specimens from countries around the world; England sent an English Oak tree, Canada a Maple tree. There was one notable exception to the list of participating countries - the United States. Sadly, President Reagan White House never acknowledged the request. The memorial park site was made possible by a $1 million donation from Ono to the city. It didn't cost taxpayers a dime. Unearthed Words "Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn." - Elizabeth Lawrence "October is nature's funeral month. Nature glories in death more than in life. The month of departure is more beautiful than the month of coming - October than May. Every green thin loves to die in bright colors." - Henry Ward Beecher Today's book recommendation: Magic Gardens: Grow In the Dark by Lisa Steinkopf If you want to catch that super helpful interview about all things house plans just head on over to the Still Growing podcast and search for episode 598. Grow in the dark is Lisa's latest book. She's putting the spotlight on 50 of the best healthcare plans that you can grow in dim or dark areas. And Lisa should know since she's made room for over 1000 houseplants thriving in her Michigan home where light is a premium. For six months out of the year gardeners know that having a south-facing window doesn't always guarantee you the best light to grow plants - especially if your window faces an alley or a tree-lined street. And, what's the point of growing in urban jungle if tall buildings are blocking all your sunshine does compact guide designed to look good on your shelf will help you learn to make the most of your light so you can reap the physical benefits of living with plants leases book offers detailed profiles of the plants including tips on watering just right Proper living detailed profiles of the play just write properly potting plants troubleshooting eases also learned which plants are safe around kids and pets but do you live in a shady top floor apartment or a dungeon in the garden level this book will help you grow your plant collection even when the light is a challenge master light did you master much of what you need to know to make your house plants happy Today's Garden Chore As fall dieback sets in, it's a marvelous time to plant climbers and vines. One that should be on the top of your list for shady areas is the Schizophragma hydrangeoides (the Japanese hydrangea vine) or the Hydrangea petiolaris climbing hydrangea. Although the two look similar, they are both Asiatic vines, they are different and once you see them, you'll forever be able to tell them apart. In the Hydrangea, which is more hardy, the flowers create a tiara. In the Schizophragma, the petals are more white and appear individual and not in fours. Gardeners need to know that Schizophragma blooms later in the season. It looks neater and cleaner than the climbing hydrangea. If you plant either vine, be prepared to wait a bit. It takes three years for them to really get going; but once they are established the flower show is spectacular. #OTD On this day in 1931, The Arnold Arboretum sent Beatrix Farrand Schizophragma hydrangeoides (climbing hydrangea) at her summer home called Reef Point. Ferrand gushed: "This grew marvelously up to the second-floor windows on the north comer of the garden house, only outdone in magnificence by two big Hydrangea petiolaris, which clambered to more than thirty feet." Something Sweet Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart On this day in 1947, The Times out of Streator, Illinois, shared a story called Ailment of 2 Boys Solved by Botanist. Here's what it said: "Two eight-year-old boys gave their parents a bad time when they fell victims to raging fevers and hallucinations in which weird animals stalked across the ceiling. The frantic parents summoned psychiatrists, but it was a botanist Dr. [Otto Emery Jennings] of the University of Pittsburgh who finally solved the mystery. Dr. Jennings said yesterday, the boys had nibbled on some jimsonweed found on a vacant lot near their homes. The plant - famed in cowboy songs and history books - has seeds containing a substance used in medicine and which produce fever and delirium." The same weed poisoned many English soldiers at Jamestown Virginia in 1608 as they tried to suppress Bacon's Rebellion. This is why, in addition to being called Jimsonweed (Datura stramonim), it is also called Jamestown Weed or Devil's Snare. In Robert Beverley, Jr's, book about the history of Virginia, he describes the crazy scene at Jamestown: "The Jamestown Weed (which resembles the Thorny Apple of Peru... was gathered ... for a boiled salad, by some of the soldiers sent thither to quell the rebellion of Bacon ... Some of them ate plentifully of it, the effect of which was a very pleasant comedy, for they turned natural fools upon it for several days: One would blow up a feather in the air; Another would dart straws at it with much fury; And another, stark naked, was sitting up in a corner like a monkey, grinning and making [grimaces] at them; A fourth would fondly kiss and paw his companions, and then sneer in their faces ... In this frantic condition they were confined, lest they should, ... destroy themselves — though it was observed that all their actions were full of innocence and good nature. [Although], they were not very cleanly; A thousand such simple tricks they played, and after eleven days returned themselves again, not remembering anything that had passed." Thanks for listening to the daily gardener, and remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."
Last night, I met with my Social Media team and we were having so much fun coming up with designs and quotes and all kinds of things for merchandise for the show. We're putting together t-shirts, tote bags, and stickers. With any luck, we'll have Daily Gardener gear and merchandise ready to go live for you on November 1st. So keep that in mind. If you're a fan of the show, you can add The Daily Gardenermerchandise to your wishlist for the holidays. Stay tuned for updates on that. Brevities #OTD Today is the birthday of the German botanist, Johann Baptist Ziz, who was born on this day in 1779. The genus Zizia, which has three species, was named for him. Zizia plants are one of my favorites; they bloom for a long time and they are a great source of pollen and nectar. Zizia is in the carrot family with stems 1-3 feet tall. The flowers are a compound umbel with many small flower heads. The root of Zizia was used by Native Americans used to treat pain. In the wild, Zizia is found in meadows, the edge of woods, and thickets. In the garden, it's a nice plant for part shade and it makes for a lovely ground cover plant. Zizia aurea is known by the common name Golden Alexanders. Aurea from the Latin word for "golden-yellow". Golden Alexanders are easy to grow and a host plant for the black swallowtail butterfly. They also attract loads of other pollinating insects like the golden Alexanders mining bee—which was named for its special relationship with the Zizia. The early leaves of Zizia aurea have beaded magenta edges which adds to their charm in the garden. In private plant sales over the past decade, Zizia aurea sells like hotcakes. They make a beautiful cut flower. Golden Alexander pairs beautifully with exuberant purple blooms like the False Blue Indigo or Salvia 'May Night'. #OTD Today is the birthday of the English naturalist, William Swainson, who was born on this day in 1789. Swainson subscribed to the quinarian system; a taxonomic theory that grouped animals and plants into groups of five or multiples of fives. He stubbornly adhered to the system even after Darwin's origin was gaining traction. In 1840, Swainson immigrated to New Zealand with his second wife and all but one of his children. He faced numerous setbacks while there, including the fact that many of his belongings, including his books and proofs which were aboard a separate ship, were lost at sea. Once in New Zealand, he struggled financially, survived a fire, and an earthquake. Before he died, Swainson sent a letter to his son Willie. He wrote: "I am much pleased with your increasing fondness for gardening and shall always be happy to send you anything I can spare from this place. A garden as Bacon says 'is the purest of human pleasures,' and truly do I find it so, as in youth, so in age, and no other outdoor recreation is so delightful to me." #OTD Today is the birthday of the Florida botanist Hardy Bryan Croom who was born on this day in 1797. Croom was trained as a lawyer, but since his inheritance from his father was substantial, he never practiced. As Croom matured, he began pursuing specialties like geology, mineralogy, and botany. When it came to botany, there was no botanist Croom admired more than John Torrey with whom he corresponded. In 1834, Croom became an early landowner in Tallahassee. At the time, Florida was still a territory. Hardy Croom loved the Tallahassee region and he set about building a home there for his family. In fact, Croom bought not one, but two plantations with his fortune. As he traveled between them, he would study the exciting natural flora and fauna. One day, as he traveled between the two plantations, Croom was waiting for a ferry along the east bank of the Apalachicola River when he discovered a new tree species and a new little plant growing in the shade canopy. Croom named the tree Torreya taxifolia in honor of his mentor, John Torrey. One of the oldest tree species on earth, the Florida Torreya is also known by various common names, including gopher-wood, yew-leafed Torreya, Torreya wood, savin, stinking savin, and stinking cedar (for the strong odor of the sap and from the leaves and seed when crushed). The local legend is that the Torreya was the Biblical "gopher wood" used by Noah to build the ark. To this day the rare tree grows naturally only in this part of the world; along the roughly 30 mile stretch of the Apalachicola river between Chattahoochee and Bristol. There is another species of the same genus growing in California and it is known as the California nutmeg. In a newspaper account from 1947, the Torreya taxifolia that Croom had planted by the Florida capital building, over a century earlier, was still standing. Disease and aggressive harvesting nearly annihilated the tree species during the 20th century. Since the wood of the Torreya does not rot, it was used especially for fenceposts and shingles, as well as Christmas trees. Only 200 survive today. At the same time Croom discovered the Torreya taxifolia, he discovered another little new plant species. This one would bear his name: the Croomia panciflora. Asa Gray, who was Torrey's assistant at the time, recalled Croom's modesty, saying: "I was a pupil and assistant of ....Torrey when Mr. Croom brought... him specimens...I well remember Mr. Croom's remark.... that if his name was deemed worthy of botanical honors, it was gratifying to him, and [that] it should be born by the unpretending herb which delighted to shelter itself under the noble Torreya [tree]." So, in botany, as in life, Croom grew happily in the shadow of Torrey. In 1837, one day after Croom's 40th birthday, Croom, his wife, and their three children - two girls age 15 and 7, and a son age 10 - all died when the steamboat Home was caught in a hurricane off of Cape Hatteras. Croom's body was never recovered. Tomorrow will be the 182nd anniversary of the disaster which claimed the lives of 90 souls of the 130 aboard the steamboat which had only two life vests. After the HomeSteamboat tragedy, Congress required seagoing ships to carry a life preserver for each passenger. The loss of the entire Croom family created a legal dispute between the remaining family members. The matter remained unsettled for nearly two decades and it hinged on attempting to discern which family member died last; based on eye witness testimony, incredibly the court finally agreed Croom's 10-year-old son was the last to die in the waves of the ocean and the bulk of Croom's estate was passed to his mother-in-law and not to his brother Bryan. Floridians naturally supported the Croom side of the dispute and newspaper reports often said the decision could just as well have been made with an Ouija board. #OTD On this day in 1877, Elizabeth Agassiz, the wife of the naturalist and famous Harvard Professor, Louis Agassiz, met with Longfellow to get his opinion on the first couple of chapters of the Life of Agassiz; her biography of her husband. In Louise Hall Tharp's book about the family, a memory was share that described Elizabeth in the garden: "[She was wearing] a fresh white morning gown, basket and shears in hand, going leisurely, with her rather stately air, from border to border and then coming back into the porch and arranging flowers in different vases. Lemon verbena and heliotrope she always had in abundance, so that the rooms were fragrant with them. ...She had a glass tank on the porch in which she kept pond lilies." Around the same time, her neighbor, Arthur Gilman, stopped over to visit. He couldn't find a suitable high school for his daughter, Grace. It was the beginning of Radcliffe College and Elizabeth would be Radcliffe's first president. Unearthed Words "October's poplars are flaming torches lighting the way to winter." - Nova Bair "Summer is .... better, but the best is autumn. It is mature, reasonable and serious, it glows moderately and not frivolously ... Valentin Iremonger, Finnish writer Today's book recommendation: Growing Herbs from Seed, Cutting & Root by Thomas DeBaggio This book came out in 1995. DeBaggio raised herbs for a devoted clientele at his nursery in Loudon County Virginia. He's known especially for his superb varieties of Lavender and Rosemary. This book is one of my favorites; offering an abundance of step-by-step photographs to ensure success for even brown-thumbed gardeners. And, I love what Jim Wilson wrote in the forward of this book: "Learning about herbs is both simple and complicated. The aroma of one sometimes mimics that of another and several herbs may share a common name." Today's Garden Chore If you have your hens and chicks in pots, today's as good a day as any to bury them. I love to put hens and chicks in herb pots; the pots that have all the little openings on the sides. But if you leave them out over the winter, they will not survive above ground. However, if you put them in a trench and cover them with leaves and mulch, you can dig them up in the spring and discover even more chicks developed overwintering in the trench. Something Sweet Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart On this day in 2009, the botanist Kelly Norris wrote a post about the color of Fall and his favorite plants in a post called Candy Shop. Here's what he wrote: "Today I'd like to share with you some of my favorite "candies" from around the Iowa State University campus... Dream no longer of purple smoketree, the purple blight on the landscape. Instead think a little bigger, heftier, and prettier. American smoketree boasts conspicuous, smoky flower clusters in mid-summer, puffing out like billowy clouds of not-so-pink cotton candy. My next find [is] a colony of dwarf fothergilla (Fothergilla gardenii). These happy companions to daphnes and rhododendrons look sumptuous this time of year with... greens, yellows, oranges, and reds. Perfect for borders or that small bed where you'd like a shrub but don't have [much] room. [A] most elegant specimen [is] Chionanthus virginicus, our native fringetree... Dangling, silvery-white blossoms adorn all limbs of the plant in late spring... The best part of the show comes along in fall when lime green foliage ages to baked gold, providing a glowing backdrop for chocolate chip-like drupes that dangle where flowers once did. Heptacodium miconioides (seven sons flower) [was] dripped in bright pink this morning, thanks to the colorful sepals left behind from the white flowers that finished several weeks ago. [They are]... sweet to look at! My last plant of note is a red twig dogwood (Cornus sericea). I know…what could be so fascinating about the most overplanted dogwood in American history? Just take a look at this amazing specimen's fall color... Even the most ordinary plants can earn their keep when you take a moment to look past what makes them ordinary... Thanks for listening to the daily gardener, and remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."
Mark from Little Prince nursery and I became friends on Facebook over the past month. I was immediately taken with the images on his feed, which is so full of the most beautiful blooms. His dahlias were to die for. Anyway, at some point I gave him a call and we were talking away and Mark asked if he could send me some plants. Um... yay! They arrived right as we were headed up to the cabin, so I grabbed the box and brought it along. I unwrapped my new plants this morning and I'm sharing the video in the Facebook Group- so you can check it out there. I just wanted to say a word about ordering plants through the mail. That used to be such a crazy concept. But, our attitudes toward shipping have changed. Most us get things in the mail that we never dreamed we would get shipped to us. My groceries and toiletries get shipped to the cabin free now courtesy of Walmart. (The groceries aren't free but the shipping is.) My point is, that shipping has become the norm; it's only natural that plants would make their way into the process. The chief concern when shipping plants is how to send plants in a responsible and effective way without having to charge a fortune for shipping. I think Little Prince has cracked that code. Anyway, check out the video in the FB group- you'll get to see the lovely view to the lake ; it was simply pastoral today - the perfect Fall day. Then, watch as I unpack the box from Little Prince. It's so much fun - you'll see the wonderful unique specimens Mark sent, the superb packaging, and my method for acclimating newly shipped specimens. With any luck, the video will make you feel brave enough to order some for yourself. By the way, this not a sponsored post. This is just Mark being Mark, and me loving plants. Check out the Little Prince website and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to give them a call. Little Prince's customer service is so good, you'll feel like you are getting the royal treatment! Brevities #OTD Today is the birthday of the colonial botanist John Clayton who was born on this day in 1773. Clayton's home in Virginia was called "Windsor". He created an excellent botanical garden, (and one of the first for this country), at Windsor. Five hundred of Clayton's herbarium specimens were referenced for the "Flora Virginica" and were compiled by Gronovius with along with input from Carl Linnaeus.
#OTD Today is the birthday of the gardener, nurseryman, and expedition sponsor, Joseph Knight, who was born on this day in 1778. Knight was a gardener to George Hibbert and he was also a private nursery owner - and a very successful one. His ability to sell plants and feature plants in his welcoming showroom was tremendous. When John Claudius Loudon visited Knight's nursery in 1831, he wrote: "The effect on entering is excellent; the termination of the telescopic vista being [a] bronze vase... which is about 6 ft. in diameter and weighs several tons, [and] is painted blue on the inside, ... has a very cheerful and elegant appearance." Loudon reported on a number of plants at Knight's nursery. On the rhododendron , he wrote: "So abundant is the honey secreted by [the rhododendron] that when they are shaken it falls from them like large drops of rain." On the Knight's orangery, he wrote: "The mandarin orange, [is] remarkable for its perfume as well as its flavor. It separates from the rind like the kernel of a nut from its shell, without any trouble of peeling or paring, and has been very appropriately designated by the Chinese as the aristocrat of the orange family... In 1829 after Hibbert retired, Knight received his entire collection of plants which he added to his nursery called "Knight's Exotic Nursery. Knight used his nursery as a training ground for young gardeners. At the time, Knight's nursery was truly one of the best in the world. In addition, Knight was able to obtain plants from explorations he sponsored. Knight had a knack for tending to new plants and Knight's nursery was a frequent source for specimens featured in the latest botanical magazines. A little over two decades later, in 1856, Knight's nursery was bought by John Gould Veitch and became the world-famous "Royal Exotic Nursery" after he bought it. But we remember Joseph Knight for introducing rhododendrons from Nepal, azaleas from China and the Robin Redbreast bush to the gardens of England. #OTD On this day in 1805, the botanist Robert Brown returned from a four year expedition to Australia after having found thousands of new plant species. His work brought him fame and professional opportunities. Brown became the librarian of the Linnean Society. His knowledge of new plant species made it possible for him to write breakthrough papers and books that had to do with plant classification and Australian flora. Brown also became the Librarian for the Banks herbarium and he enjoyed the friendship and trust of Joseph Banks. When Banks died in 1820, he left everything to Brown - his herbarium, his library and even his house. #OTD On this day in 1868, Cornell University welcomed the very first class of students to the rural campus overlooking Lake Cayuga in Ithaca, New York. An agricultural land grant university, Cornell was endowed by Ezra Cornell, one of the founders of Western Union Telegraph Co. There's a funny little story that tells when Ezra Cornell said "any field, for any person", someone else said: "But then everyone will want to come here." Cornell replied, "Not when they find out where it is." If you happen to be in Ithaca during the growing season, the Botanical Gardens at Cornell University are well worth a visit. Below Cornell's campus, is Llenroc, the home that was commissioned by Cornell for himself and his family. Sadly, he died just before it's completion. And, in case you're wondering, yes, Llenroc is Cornell spelled backwards! It was Ezra Cornell who said: "Idleness is to the human mind like rust to iron." Unearthed Words #OTD Today is the anniversary of the death of the American physician, poet and humorist, Oliver Wendell Holmes, who died on this day in 1894. "What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." "Youth fades, love droops, the leaves of friendship fall; A mother's secret hope outlives them all. " "But friendship is the breathing rose, with sweets in every fold." Today, when garden writers write about pests in the garden, they often include this quote by Holmes: "On every stem, on every leaf,... and at the root of everything that grew, was a professional specialist in the shape of grub, caterpillar, aphis, or other expert, whose business it was to devour that particular part." In 1889, Louise Chandler Moulton published her book of poetry called In the Garden of Dreams. She sent a copy to Oliver Wendell Holmes and he wrote her back in a letter dated December 29, 1889: "I thank you most cordially for sending me your beautiful volume of poems. They tell me that they are breathed from a woman's heart as plainly as the fragrance of a rose reveals its birthplace. ... I cannot help feeling flattered that the author of such impassioned poems should have thought well enough of my own productions to honor me with the kind words I find on the blank leaf of a little book that seems to me to hold leaves torn out of the heart's record." Holmes was clearly a sentimentalist. In his poem about the "dear days" of his youth called "No Time Like the Old Time," he wrote: "There is no time like the old time, when you and I were young, When the buds of April blossomed and the birds of springtime sung!" Today's book recommendation: Gardening with Foliage First by Karen Chapman and Christina Salwitz Over the years, Karen Chapman and Christina Salwitz have designed hundreds of gardens. The two met at an event where Christina was presenting on interesting foliage combinations. Karen was sitting in the audience and felt an immediate connection, because Christina's work was so aligned with her own - they both appreciated unique and interesting - even uncommon plant combinations. They quickly realized they had been traveling parallel paths as designers and writers - they were true horticultural kindred spirits. So, their collaboration on Foliage First was a natural output of their connection. I had the great opportunity to interview Karen and Christina on Episode 603 of the Still Growing Podcast. I mention at the top of that show that Karen and Christina are passionate about something they call the foliage framework. This is their starting point for designing a garden and they know that it requires a little bit of discipline, a little bit of focus, and lots of practice. Instead of focusing on the shiny objects - blooms or artistic elements - Karen and Christina know the best foundation for a garden begins with foliage. Well planned gardens feature foliage that offers year-round color, texture, and interest. Add in blooms and art, and you have a lovely garden. Karen and Christina's book is expertly organized with color coded pages by season: Spring and Summer, Fall and Winter; and also by exposure: Shade or Sun. What's it like when you get two designers to share 127 Dazzling Plant Combinations that Pair the Beauty of Leaves with Flowers, Bark, Berries, and More in a single book? Nirvana. This book is for the true garden geeks or the landscape designers on the look for new, practical ideas. Learn How to Design a Garden with Foliage First with Karen Chapman and Christina Salwitz. Today's Garden Chore Pot up bulbs for Spring forcing now. You can pot up a variety of bulbs right now. I like to put together pots with a nice mix- hyacinths, tulips, and crocus. I place them pretty close together in the pots and then they can either go in the refrigerator in the garage, in a cold frame, or in a trench outside. If you use a trench, cover the pots with leaves or straw so that you can easily retrieve them in January or February. Something Sweet Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart On this day in 1930, the newspaper in Union Missouri published a little story called "Unique Loyalty" about a little boy who was helping some plant explorers: "A story was told of a party of English botanists who were spending a summer in the Swiss Alps collecting specimens of rare beauty and considerable value. They started out one morning from a small village and after several hours climb came to a precipice overlooking a green valley dotted with a peculiar flower which examined through field glasses proved to be of unusual value. From the cliff, on which the party was standing, to the valley, was a sheer drop of several hundred feet. To descend would be impossible and to reach the valley from another approach would mean a waste of several hours. During the latter part of their climb a small boy had attached himself to the party end had watched with interest the maneuvers of the botanists. After discussing the situation for several minutes, one of the members of the party turned to the boy and said, 'Young fellow, if you'll let us tie a rope around your waist and lower you over this cliff so that you can dig up one of those loose plants for us, and let us pull you back up without harming the plant, we will give you five pounds.' The boy looked dazed for un instant, then ran off apparently frightened at the prospect of being lowered over the cliff by a rope. But within a short time, he returned - bringing with him an old man bent and gray, with hands gnarled and callused by hard labor. Upon reaching the party of botanists the boy turned to the man who had made the proposal and said. 'Sir, this is my father. I'll go into the valley, if you'll let mv father hold the rope!' The boy probably had confidence in the ability of the botanists to hold the rope, but he had FAITH in his father's protecting care." Thanks for listening to the daily gardener, and remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."
Every autumn, we owe a debt of gratitude to our trees. They give our gardens the best gift: leaves. Over the past decade, there's been a resurgence of interest in the restorative power of leaves in the garden. For some gardeners, this is new news. Yet, we've known about the wonderful contributions of leaves in the garden for a long time. As proof, here's a little post from the The York Daily out of York Pennsylvania on October 23, 1879: "Fallen leaves make excellent compost for the garden." And, theSunday News out of Lancaster, Pennsylvania from November 16, 1952, wrote this: "Many city gardeners and suburban farmers... now realize the value of leaves as fertilizer and mulching material and are glad to take the leaves off the Street Departments hands... This helps solve the problem of what to do with the fallen leaves, but it doesn't help the raking aches." Brevities #OTD Today is the birthday of the English watercolorist and founding advocate of the picturesque landscape, William Gilpin, who was born on this day in 1762. As an early headmaster and vicar of the Cheam School, Gilpin taught vegetable, as well as ornamental, gardening to the students. In 1777, Gilpin became the parson at the Boldre church of St. John the Baptist in the New Forest district of Hampshire. The church dates back to the 11th century. Gilpin was a fount of knowledge about the area surrounding Boldre Church and its flora and fauna. Gilpin served as the Boldre church parson until his death in 1804 at the age of 80. Gilpin is buried, alongside his wife, in the church cemetery beside an old maple tree. His inscription reads: "It will be a new joy to meet several of their good neighbors who now lie scattered in these sacred precincts around them." Gilpin would travel around the English countryside, creating beautiful watercolors of the landscape and keeping journals where he refined his thoughts on the picturesque landscape . Gilpin filled his sketchbooks with drawings and observations on landscapes and how to paint them. Gilpin wrote, "In order to color chastely and harmoniously, use only 3 tints: red, yellow, and blue..." Gilpin's accounts of his travels were published in guidebooks and created popular interest in natural beauty and the picturesque landscape. Gilpin's bestselling book, "Observations on the River Wye: And Several Parts of South Wales, Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty: Made in the Summer of the year 1770" (often referred to as the River Wye guidebook), brought scads of tourists to the area during the 18th century. Gilpin wrote: "Every distant horizon promises something new; and with this pleasing expectation we follow nature through all her walks." During his time, Gilpin was an arbiter of artistic taste, and he thought that artists should try to find the most "picturesque" view of a landscape. Gilpin didn't enjoy artificial creations and lines in the garden. He was a fan of more natural-looking landscapes that were often savage and less domesticated. To Gilpin, the best landscapes offered ruins and mountains along with trees. Gilpin's watercolors were created on site and he wasn't opposed to using a little artistic license to make the scene more compelling; adding a little bridge or tree or making a ruin ever more ruinous. In 1786, Gilpin wrote, "A ruin is a sacred thing. Rooted for ages in the soil; assimilated to it; and become, as it were, a part of it ..." A simple way to remember the picturesque style, is to remember that Gilpin was a painter and he was seeing the landscape with "a painter's eye". The picturesque was a view that was worthy of being painted and Gilpin said it was "that kind of beauty which is agreeable in a picture." The bottom line is that the images were designed to get your attention. Gilpin wrote: "Our eyes are only glass windows; we see with our imagination." Gilpin was the first president of The Royal Watercolor Society and he is remembered for his books including one of his most popular called "Forest Scenery" which included 45 watercolors and descriptions of trees and shrubs; and instructions for how to capture a picturesque effect through the clumping of trees. Gilpin adored trees. He wrote: "It is no exaggerated praise to call a tree the grandest and most beautiful of all productions on earth!" For instance, the "roan-tree" was noted for having "glowing berries". Rowan was the common name for the Mountain Ash, also known as "the witch" or "quickening-tree". The origin of the word rowan comes from a german word meaning "to redden" and it refers to the little, red berries. On the other hand, Gilpin was not a fan of the Hawthorn, writing that it had , "little claim to picturesque beauty... It is but a poor appendage. Its shape is bad. It does not taper and point like the Holly, but is rather a matted, round, heavy bush. Its fragrance indeed is great ; but its bloom, which is the source of that fragrance, is spread over it in too much profusion." In 1832, Gilpin published Practical Hints upon Landscape Gardening: with some remarks on Domestic Architecture, as connected with scenery,which ran to a second edition in 1835. He wrote it because he said he felt there was little "practical information" in the books available at the time. One of my favorite parts of the book is where he discusses how to get a client to support ideas for their Landscape. "It has ever appeared to me, that a very essential part of an improver's duty is to explain to the proprietor the principles upon which he suggests any plan of improvement. This, during the progress of the work, not only enhances the pleasure of the proprietor, and assists his general taste, but it also ensures his future care, through the periodical prunings and thinnings which must of necessity take place." Gilpin encouraged landscapers, (he referred to them as improvers), to educate their clients, to overcome objections and prejudices. To Gilpin's view, educating customers was sufficient; once they understood the general design, they would surely come around. More quotes from Gilpin: "The picturesque eye, in quest of beauty, finds it in almost every incident." "The pleasures of the chase are universal. A hare started before dogs is enough to set the whole country in an uproar." #OTD On this day in 1777, Caspar Wistar treated the wounded during the battle of Germantown and decided he would pursue medical training. Wistar ("Wiss-Star")is the names of The Wistar Institute; the nation's first independent biomedical research center. Today, they focus on cancer, infectious disease & vaccine research to benefit human health. The botanist Thomas Nuttall gave the name Wisteria to the genus in honor of Caspar Wistar. Some people pronounce it "Wis-star-ia" to reflect the proper spelling of Casper Wistar's last name. #OTD Today is the birthday of the Master Collector of Botanists, John Hendley Barnhart who was born on this day in 1871. Barnhart was an American botanist who specialized in the biographies of other botanists. Like many botanists, Barnhart came to botany through medicine. After training to be a doctor, he never practiced medicine and instead turned his full-time attention to botany. Barnhart is remembered for his work at the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) where he served as the Bibliographer of the Garden from 1913 to 1942. An amateur genealogist, his famous biographical index of botanists included over 20,000 cards. Barnhart's strength was Input; he collected vast amounts of information, stored it, and retrieved it for experts when called upon. His obituary stated that scientists all over the world leveraged Barnhart for their research. An article featured in The Nebraska State Journal from December 12, 1919 had a fascinating headline, "Famous Botanists Who Never Breathed". "Dr. Barnhart declares that the subjects of eleven biographical sketches of botanists in Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American biography are figments; that their births, their names, their voyages, their scientific adventures and their numerous books, so solemnly given by title and number of volumes, existed only in the mind of some falsifier of the human record. For instance, an Alexander Daniel Koehler, who, inspired by Humboldt, came to America, lived for seven years at Santa Fe, explored South America and wrote, among many other works, "Flora Brasiliensis," published in four volumes in Berlin in 1821-23." Barnhart believed that the eleven fake botanist biographies were the work of one person... but we don't know who or why they did it. The was another fun newspaper account of Barnhart. This one was from The Brooklyn Daily Eagle from April 27, 1934. It gave an account of a lecture by Barnhart on the wild flowers of North America. He said, "... buttercups and bright red columbines that once covered the countryside are in increasing danger of extinction as a result of the depredations of motorists. The only flowers free from danger are those which, like water lilies and marigolds, are naturally difficult of access. The purplish-white blossoms of mountain laurel are generally conceded to be the loveliest of North American wild flowers. Drosera, (commonly known as the sundews) the only carnivorous Northern flower, that trips and devours tiny insects by means of sticky, porous leaves, is a demure, deceptive yellow blossom. The coy trillium and the strange, bloated pitcher flower are among the curiosities of this part of the world, while the airy white flower genially named Dutchmen's breeches looks the most nonchalant. Certain flower names, like those of the rose and the lily, have come down to us almost unchanged since ancient times, and are practically similar in all European languages." Unearthed Words "Come said the wind to the leaves one day, Come o're the meadows and we will play. Put on your dresses scarlet and gold, For summer is gone and the days grow cold." - A Children's Song of the 1880's "Trees enrich our lives throughout the year. They reassure us with the rustle of their leaves, give us shade to soothe our overheated bodies and they bring delight to us when we watch birds nest in their boughs. However, it is only during the fall that they wave flamboyant foliage that seems to demand our attention." - Blue Ridge Parkway: A Guide to Trees Today's book recommendation: The Urban Homestead by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen The 2010 book is the updated version of the best-selling classic. It features a dozen new projects. The New York Times said this book was the "contemporary bible" on Urban Homesteading. This book is an excellent resource. It's an idea book and that gives you the tools to get started on path to self-sufficiency. It offers fantastic examples of how, no matter the size of your space, you can support yourself and your family in an environmentally-responsible way. The authors, Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen, are creators of the blog Root Simple, a green living and self-reliance resource for homesteaders, urban and otherwise. They live in Los Angeles. Today's Garden Chore Thoroughly wash and inspect your houseplants before bringing them back indoors. My houseplants get a nice spa day in the kitchen sink when they come back inside for the winter. First, they get a little time to acclimate to the temperature inside before they get their turn at the sink. Then I wash the leaves with sharp streams water and a little dawn dish soap. And don't forget about the bottom and sides of the pot; no need to track in extra dirt or insects. Something Sweet Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart Today's show started with a little Monologue about leaves, and I thought I'd share this adorable little advertisement from WC Landon and Companyin the Rutland Daily Herald out of Vermont From September 27, 1927: Whether You Save Your Leaves for excellent cover for garden and lawn or whether you burn them you need a good rake to get them together. Here are four different kinds, all good The Japanese Sweep Rake, light and handy, but not for heavy work.......$1.00 The Wood Lawn Rake with 24 teeth, for heavy work .......$1.00 The Hoover Wire Lawn Rake is much favored at ....... 75c The Brume Rake with flat steel teeth, shaped like the Japanese Sweep, priced at .......$1.00 So, there you go. That's a sweet, little summary of Rake options in Vermont in 1927. Thanks for listening to the daily gardener, and remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."
I always write down little things the kids say that strike me as funny or sweet. Here's a little blast from my past on this day in 2010: At bedtime tonight, PJ told me he wanted to bring cold lunch to school. I told him no because we have paid for hot lunch. (Apparently many kids in his class bring cold lunch.) I told him that they probably bring cold lunch because they have allergies and their mommies don't want them to get sick. So, then PJ told me he had allergies too... he said "I'm allergic to pumpkins". I said "really." He said yes. I said "Well then you won't have fun on Halloween because there are pumpkins all over that night". LONG PAUSE while his jaw drops. Heavy sigh. "You caught me mom. I was just trying to trick you." Pumpkin allergies... at the time I thought that was a made-up thing. While this story is super sweet, there are folks who are actually allergic to pumpkin. Typically, they are allergic to the seeds. That said, other parts of the pumpkin can negatively effect the body. People with allergies who touch the pulp or the seeds can get dermatitis or even hives. If they smell pumpkin cooking, sensitive people can have an allergic response from the vapors. And, kids with pumpkin allergy can feel sick just from carving a pumpkin. Uninformed parents can easily dismiss coughing and wheezing during pumpkin carving time as signs of a cold. Thanks to Starbucks and other retailers, our society goes a little crazy for all things Pumpkin Spice this time of year - the Pumpkin Spice Latte actually has a little pumpkin puree in it. But just know, there is such a thing as pumpkin allergy and be sensitive to folks have it. Brevities #OTD Today is the anniversary of the death of the botanist Luis Nee who died on this day in 1807. Luis Née was a Frenchman living in Spain. He worked at the Madrid botanic garden and he botanized in the mountain ranges of Spain. Nee went on an expedition to South America in 1789. When he collected in Chile, he discovered the Lapageria rosea which is now the national flower of Chile. Lapageria rosea plants, are also known as Chilean bellflowers. They are named after the Empress Josephine Lapagerie, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. #OTD Today is the birthday of the German botanist, Frederick Lueders, who was born on this day in 1813. On November 13, 1843 Lueders was botanizing along the Columbia river in Oregon. He'd been collecting specimens for three years. He had just encountered the explorer John Freemont, when all of his work, which was secured in a canoe nearby, was drawn into the rapids. Lueders plunged into the river and managed to retrieve only a copy of the Flora by Torrey and Gray. The devastating loss was recorded in Freemont's journal who wrote: "In the natural concern I felt for his misfortune, I gave to the little cove the name of Lueders' Bay." For Lueders part, the loss of his specimens was devastating. However the loss of his instruments and his correspondence with Asa Gray and Dr. Englemann was almost too great. Lueders determined his best course of action was to return home. He traveled south around the tip of Chile and then onto England. It took him a year to return to Hamburg a year after his mishap on the Columbia. Lueders didn't stay in Germany long. In fact, he returned to America within the next year. By 1851, he had made his way to Wisconsin; he spent the rest of his life in Sauk City and he dabbled in astronomy. A biographical sketch said that in his old age, Lueders was devoted largely to his flowers. #OTD On this day in 1807, the botanist Frederick Pursch visited David Hosack. Hosack was happy to have Pursch collect specimens from all around the United States for him. He wrote, "I shall have a very industrious and skillful botanist [begin] to collect from different parts of the Union." #OTD On this day in 1856 John Torrey's Office at the Mint was described in the NY Daily Times. When Torrey was 57, he made the decision to leave Princeton after 24 years of teaching botany and he went to work for the Mint; it would be the last step in his long career. The description of the room where the bullion was measured is quite fascinating. It said: "During the process of ... gold and silver are... weighed on ... scales. Floors are covered with iron gratings which are removed at stated periods, flooring beneath carefully swept and particles of precious metal separated from the dust." Torrey 's quality of life improved while he worked at the Mint; he could leave work by 3pm and be home in time to work in his herbarium a couple of hours before dinner. #OTD On this day in 1883, Charles Sprague Sargent wrote to Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker with an update on the Arnold Arboretum: "The Arboretum is getting on at last. ..Roads, belts, grades, etc. are making grand progress & I really begin to see daylight ahead. We have in the nurseries an immense stock of plants &certainly the largest number of living species ever collected togetheron this side of the ocean." ' Unearthed Words From the Poetical Birthday Book for October 3rd, from 1887: "Her lips like foxgloves, pink and pale, Went sighing like an autumn gale; Yet, When the sunlight passed by, They opened out with half a sigh. Her smile, the last faint vesper light As swoons the eve to sleep away, Remaining through the summer night A lamp of love by which to pray. ~ Meta Orred, English Author & Poet All will pass like smoke of white apple trees Seized by the gold of autumn. I will no longer be young. ~ Sergei Yesenin, Russian lyric poet, born on this day in 1895 In moral philosophy, it is useful, I believe, to think about plants." ~ Philippa Foot, philosopher, born (1920) and died (2010) on this day. Today's book recommendation: Montrose by Nancy Goodwin This book was the obvious selection for today because it was published on this day back in 2005. It's one of personal favorites. Montrose is Goodwin's personal biography of her garden and I love everything about it. I love the illustrations; beautiful line drawings with pastel coloring. Absolutely gorgeous. I love that Goodwin organizes her book by month. I thought I'd read you an excerpt from her chapter on October... You can get used copies using the Amazon link in todays Show Notes for just $4. Today's Garden Chore It's time to stop watering your Christmas Cactus. Put your cactus through a mandatory dry spell for the next 30 days for better bud set. So, don't water it until the first week in November. Here's a few other tips to help you with your Christmas Cactus:
Something Sweet Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart #OTD Today is the anniversary of the death of George Dexter Butler who died on this day in 1910. Butler was born in 1850 in Grundy County, Illinois. He grew up in Iowa. Like many, he ended up going West California. In 1896, he was admitted the bar in California and then he began the practice of law. And, then, here's the part from the Madrono Vol. 1, No. 13 from November, 1928, that got my attention: "George Butler's passion for botany had always been such that he did not dare trust it. Therefore, on coming to California he determined to let the science of botany entirely alone. If he gave himself to it at all he feared that his proper profession as a lawyer would be largely or too much neglected and that his first obligation, the support and education of his family, would suffer. [When his old friend, Dr. Engelmann wrote him] he was much puzzled in mind as to what he should do... The letter, therefore, he deliberately ignored. In 1906 he chanced to be in a bookshop in Oakland where his eye caught sight of a second-hand copy of Jepson's Flora." The time for botany had come. He quickly made up for lost time and he went collecting in every direction. He built a herbarium on his property, he started buying floras, and he worked like crazy on building his collections. What he was really hoping to do was to build a county herbarium. But, sadly, on this day in 1910, Butler had a stroke and passed away. After Butler died, his herbarium was given as a gift to the University of California. At the time, it was regarded as the most complete flora of Siskiyou County. Thanks for listening to the daily gardener, and remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."
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