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Today's Show Notes
In the garden, January is a month of plans more than action. Seed catalogs pile up. Lists are made. Dreams are revised.
So it's a fitting day to remember the people who made gardens possible — not always by planting them, but by supporting, studying, and sometimes stubbornly defending them. Some legacies grow slowly. Some arrive as books. Some are simply the decision to protect a piece of ground so others can learn from it.
Today's Garden History
1644 Henry Danvers, the 1st Earl of Danby, died.
Danvers is remembered by gardeners not for the plants he grew, but for the garden he made possible. In 1621, he founded what would become the Oxford Botanic Garden — the oldest botanic garden in Britain.
At the time, the land he donated lay opposite Magdalen College and had once served as a Jewish burial ground. Danvers conveyed five acres to the University of Oxford "for the encouragement of the study of physic and botany." It was an act of vision rather than speed. The garden wasn't fully planted until the 1640s, and Danvers did not live to see it flourish.
But he ensured its future — having the ground raised, enclosed by high stone walls, and endowed through his will so it could be maintained long after his death. Gardeners understand this kind of legacy. Not every garden is planted for the present. Some are planted for people we will never meet.
The gateway of the Oxford Botanic Garden still bears an inscription dedicating the space to the glory of God, the honor of the king, and the use of the academy and the republic — a reminder that gardens have long stood at the intersection of science, belief, and public good.
1907 Thomas Serle Jerrold died.
Jerrold was trained as a gardener at Chatsworth, under Sir Joseph Paxton — the same Paxton who would later design the Crystal Palace for the Great Exhibition of 1851. During Jerrold's apprenticeship, Paxton was sketching ideas that would change architecture, while teaching young gardeners how to grow things well.
Jerrold went on to become a writer who believed gardens should be practical as well as beautiful. His books carried titles that gardeners immediately understood: The Garden That Paid the Rent, Our Kitchen Garden, and Household Horticulture. He spent years living in Canada, returned to England late in life, and left behind not only books, but a philosophy — that gardens are meant to sustain households, not just impress visitors.
Unearthed Words
1985 Eliot Wadsworth II of White Flower Farm offered one of those lines gardeners tend to repeat forever.
"My appetite for new plants is like most people's appetite for macadamia nuts."
Every gardener understands this. You don't need another plant. But somehow, you always have room for just one more.
Book Recommendation
The Winter Garden by Richard Rosenfeld
The Winter Garden is a thoughtful, seasonal book that invites gardeners to slow down and notice what winter reveals: structure, light, patience, and the quieter forms of beauty that don't announce themselves in bloom.
It's a perfect January companion — a reminder that winter isn't an interruption, but part of the cycle. When flowers are gone, the garden shows its bones: the lines of paths, the rhythm of trunks and branches, the way low sun changes everything. The book meets you there, in that pared-back landscape, and makes you feel less like you're "waiting" and more like you're watching.
For gardeners who keep walking outside even in cold weather, it's the kind of book that sharpens attention. It helps you notice what's still happening — what's holding, what's resting, what's quietly preparing — and it leaves you with a steadier, calmer sense that the garden is still very much alive.
Botanic Spark
1820 Napoleon Bonaparte, exiled on the island of Saint Helena, was reported to have taken up gardening.
It makes sense. Confined, restless, and stripped of power, he turned to the small control a garden allows — arranging paths, directing plantings, taking an interest in what grew and where. Gardening gave him something immediate and living to tend.
But the story doesn't end peacefully. That same day, Napoleon reportedly shot Count Bertrand's goat after the animal wandered into the garden and ate his plants.
Even in exile, even in reflection, Napoleon remained… Napoleon.
The episode is funny, yes — but it's also revealing. Gardens ask for patience. They ask for restraint. And not everyone, even great historical figures, is equally suited to those lessons.
Final Thoughts
Wherever you are, whatever you're planning, may you find something today worth tending.
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener.
And remember, for a happy, healthy life, garden every day.

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January is a quieter season in the garden. The beds are resting. The work is mostly invisible.

This is the time of year when gardeners turn to stories — to the people who noticed plants closely, saved what mattered, and carried knowledge forward, even when it would have been easier to let it go.

Today is full of those stories.

1859 Alice Eastwood was born.

Alice Eastwood would become one of the most important botanists in American history — not because she sought attention, but because she understood how easily plant knowledge can be lost if no one tends it.

Her early life was unsettled. After her mother died, Alice and her sister were placed in a convent while her father moved west. What steadied her was learning — and later, walking.

When Alice began studying plants seriously, she did so the way many gardeners do: by going where plants grow naturally and paying attention.

In Colorado, she climbed into the Rocky Mountains, collecting alpine plants and learning which species thrived in exposure and which needed protection.

Her careful work brought her to California, where she met Katherine Brandegee, curator of botany at the California Academy of Sciences. Together with her husband, Townshend Brandegee, Katherine edited a journal called Zoe, named for the Greek word meaning life.

Zoe was a working journal, not a polished one. It gave field botanists a place to publish discoveries about western plants at a time when much of that flora was still being named and understood.

New species. Corrections. Observations. This was where the real work appeared.

Alice Eastwood did not just write for Zoe. She helped sustain it.

1893 When the Brandegees retired, Alice became curator of botany at the Academy, a position she would hold for more than fifty years.

Then came the 1906 earthquake.

The Academy burned. Cabinets collapsed. Thousands of specimens were nearly lost.

Alice climbed the damaged stairways herself, rescuing what she could — and then rebuilt the herbarium almost from scratch, traveling tirelessly to restore what had been destroyed.

Gardeners understand that instinct. When something precious is lost, you do not abandon the garden. You begin again.

2000 The botanist G. Ledyard Stebbins died at the age of ninety-four.

Stebbins helped explain something gardeners observe every season: that plants change gradually, shaped by environment, variation, and time.

His work gave botanists a way to understand plant evolution not just as theory, but as something visible in fields, hillsides, and gardens themselves.

He once said he simply pointed out what plants had been showing us all along.

In today's Unearthed Words, we explore the etymology of the word January, which takes its name from Janus, the Roman guardian of thresholds — the figure who looks both backward and forward at once.

It is a fitting image for the garden at this time of year.

January's birth flower is the snowdrop, one of the first blooms to appear while winter still holds firm. In folklore, the soft green markings on its inner petals are said to be a promise — a sign that warmth will return.

Here is a snowdrop verse to hold onto:

"The snowdrop, in purest white array,
First rears her head on Candlemas Day."

The gardening year does not begin with abundance. It begins with courage.

The New Romantic Garden: Classic Inspiration, Modern Mood by Jo Thompson

If you are gardening mostly by imagination right now, this is a winter-perfect recommendation.

The New Romantic Garden celebrates gardens shaped by feeling as much as function. These are gardens built for atmosphere, reflection, and beauty — places where restraint matters as much as abundance.

It is a book to read slowly, perhaps by the fire, letting it influence how you think about gardens long before you step back into the soil.

And finally, here's something sweet to ignite the little botanic spark in your heart.

2001 The Detroit Free Press shared the story of Harris Olson, a man whose personal mission was to turn everyone he met into a gardener — preferably, a daylily gardener.

With his warm smile and battered gray truck, license plate reading "Mr. Daylily," Harris was widely known in the Detroit area for his volunteer work and his plant breeding.

He hybridized daylilies and peonies, naming varieties for the people he loved.

For forty-five years, he served as volunteer head gardener at the Congregational Church of Birmingham. Under his direction, the nine-acre grounds became an arboretum-like landscape filled with peonies, daylilies, roses, hostas, and other perennials.

Even when his health declined, Harris refused to stop gardening. When he could no longer weed himself, he sat in a lawn chair while others worked the beds, offering commentary and encouragement.

"Life isn't worth living unless you can pull a weed," he liked to say.

Gardeners like Harris remind us that tending plants is often just an excuse to tend people — generously, patiently, and for as long as we are able.

Wherever you are, whatever season you are in, may you find something today worth tending.

Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener.
And remember, for a happy, healthy life, garden every day.

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Botanical History On This Day

1868 The botanist and garden writer Alice Lounsberry is born in New York City.

1885 The renowned British botanist and explorer Frank Kingdon-Ward was born in Manchester, England.

Grow That Garden Library™ 

Read The Daily Gardener review of Favorite Poems for the Garden by Bushel & Peck Books 

Buy the book on Amazon: Favorite Poems for the Garden by Bushel & Peck Books 

Today's Botanic Spark

1836 Martha Turnbull, mistress of Rosedown Plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana, penned the first entry in what would become a remarkable 59-year chronicle of life and gardening in the antebellum South.

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Historical Events
1763 Birth of William Cobbett, English writer, Member of Parliament, and farmer. 
In Parliament, Wlliam fought for agrarian reform. He did this through his regular writings called Rural Rides, where he shared what he saw while taking horseback rides throughout rural England.
William never forgot his rural roots, and he was a lifelong gardener.
He once wrote,
How much better during a long and dreary winter, for daughters, and even sons, to assist, or attend, their mother, in a green-house, than to be seated with her at cards, or, in the blubberings over a stupid novel, or at any other amusement that can possibly be conceived.
And he also wrote, 
If well-managed, nothing is more beautiful than the kitchen garden.
 
1845 Birth of Wilhelm Friedrich Philipp Pfeffer, German botanist and plant physiologist.
Wilhelm was born in his father's apothecary. He grew up and learned every aspect of the business, which had been in his family for generations. One of his childhood friends noted,
In those days, it was not yet customary to obtain drugs in cut and powdered form; thus, he spent hours cutting roots and herbs and pulverizing dried drugs with a heavy pestle in a mortar.
In addition to life at the A=apothecary, Wilhelm loved collecting plants in the Alps. His early study of plants and his natural curiosity set the stage for his in-depth plant experiments as an adult. In terms of plant physiology, he's remembered for the Pfeffer pot or pepper pot to measure osmotic pressure in plant cells.
 
1874 Birth of Karl Foerster, German plant breeder, writer, and garden designer.
When Karl turned 18, he took over his family's Berlin nursery, which was a bit of a mess. Karl quickly streamlined the business by simplifying his plant inventory.
Although Karl loved all plants, he was especially drawn to tough, low-maintenance, hardy perennials. Karl used three factors to determine whether a plant would be sold in his nursery: beauty, resilience, and endurance.
Today, Karl is most remembered in Karl Foerster Grass. The story goes that Karl was on a train when he spied the grass growing along the tracks. Karl frantically pulled the emergency brake, stopped the train, and quickly collected the specimen that now bears his name. In 2001, Karl Foerster grass was the Perennial Plant of the Year.
Karl's plant standards and his appreciation for low maintenance spaces with year-long seasonal interest helped shape the New German Garden Style of garden design.
A Karl Foerster garden had some signature plants: grasses, delphinium, and phlox. Naturally, all of these plants were favorites in Karl's breeding work.
Karl once wrote,
Grasses are the hair of mother earth.
And he also wrote,
A garden without phlox is not only a sheer mistake but a sin against summer.
Karl lived to the ripe old age of 96.
And looking back, it's staggering to think that Karl spent nearly nine decades gardening, and it was Karl Foerster who said,
In my next life, I'd like to be a gardener once again. 
The job was too big for just one lifetime.
 
1892 Birth of Vita Sackville-West, English author and garden designer.
In 1930, Vita and her husband, the diplomat, and journalist Harold Nicolson, bought Sissinghurst Castle - at least what was left of it. Together, they restored the house and created the famous garden, which was given to the National Trust in 1967.
Vita explored the depths of her own creativity as she shaped the gardens at Sissinghurst. When she came up with the idea for a Sunset Garden, she wrote,
I used to call it the Sunset Garden in my own mind before I even planted it up.
Vita's Sunset Garden included flowers with warm citrus colors, like the yellows, oranges, and reds of Dahlia's Salvias Canas and tulips.
Vita also created a White Garden – one of the most difficult Gardens to design, maintain and pull off. Why is that? Well, the main reason is that, after flowering, most white blooms don't age well; they turn brown or yellow as they wither and die on the plant. But I have to say that ten years ago, I did help a friend install a white garden. And when it was in bloom, it really was spectacular.
During World War II, there came a point when Vita and Harold were convinced that a German invasion of Britain was likely. Vita planted 11,000 daffodils, a message of defiance to the enemy.
In 1955, Vita was honored with the Veitch Memorial Medal. She died seven years later in 1962.
She once wrote,
The waking bee, still drowsy on the wing, 
Will sense the opening of another year 
And blunder out to seek another spring.
 
Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation
The Art of Edible Flowers by Rebecca Sullivan 
This book came out in 2018, and the subtitle is Recipes and ideas for floral salads, drinks, desserts, and more.
This sweet little book is a fun little recipe book of the many ways flowers can be incorporated into drinks and edibles.
Recipes include a Rose and Lavender Cocktail Syrup, a Jasmine and Green Tea Ice Cream, Lavender and Orange Cheesecake, Pumpkin Carpaccio with Mustard Flower Sauce, Artichoke Flower with Borage Butter, Fermented Elderflower Fizz and a soothing Poppy Milk.
The recipes are simple, creative, and elegant.
This book is 80 pages of edible, beautiful, tasty blossoms.
You can get a copy of The Art of Edible Flowers by Rebecca Sullivan and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for $12.
 
Botanic Spark
1902 Birth of Luis Barragán, Mexican architect and engineer. In 1980, he won the Pritzker Prize, the highest award in architecture. In 1948 he designed and built his own home with cement after being inspired by local modernist architecture. In 2004, the Luis Barragan house was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In addition to architecture, Luis loved landscapes. He once wrote,
I don't divide architecture, landscape and gardening; to me they are one.
And he also wrote,
A garden must combine the poetic and he mysterious with a feeling of serenity and joy.
 
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Historical Events
1746 Birth of André Michaux (books about this person), French botanist and explorer.
André grew up on a royal farm in Satory south of Versailles. His father trained both he and his brother in horticulture, and after his father died, André carried on at the farm. André married a prosperous farmer's daughter from a nearby farm named Cécile Claye. A month shy of their first wedding anniversary Cécile delivered a son, Francois-André. Later in life, André would name an oak in his son's honor.
Tragically, Cécile died after the delivery. André battled through the next decade by studying horticulture. His friend, the naturalist Louis-Guillaume Le Monnier ("Lew-ee Ghee-ohm Lew-moh-nay"), urged him to focus on exotic plants, and the great botanist Bernard de Jussieu gave André a solid understanding of botany. The next step for André was travel.
In 1786, André was asked to go to North America. As a single father, he brought François-Andre, then 15, along with him. André's mission was to establish a botanical garden in America. The goal was to set up a botanical clearinghouse of sorts and send seeds and specimens back to France. André established his nursery on the land where the Charleston Area National Airport exists today. In fact, at the Charleston airport, there is a stunning mural installed in 2016 that honors Andre and his son. In one panel, Andre-François and his father are depicted in the potager or kitchen garden. The central scene shows the rice fields along the Ashley River and the Charleston Harbor, where Michaux introduced one of the first Camellia plants.
Native to Asia, Camellias are small, evergreen flowering trees or shrubs, and Camellias are in the Theaceae or tea family, which is why Camellias are commonly called tea plants.
In Floriography ("FLOOR-EE-ah-grah-FEE") or the language of flowers, the Camellia represents love and loyalty. Camellia blossoms are beautiful and come in various colors, sizes, bloom times, and forms. And, best of all, Camellias are long-lived and can grow for 100 to 200 years.
Finally, here are two fun facts about the Camellia:
In California, Sacramento is nicknamed the Camellia City, and the Camellia is the state flower of Alabama.
 
1836 Birth of Sir Michael Foster, English physician, and iris breeder. He's regarded as the father of iris cultivation.
In the late 1800s, Michael became the first person to crossbreed new varieties of Iris. He started his work with purple and yellow iris and made a beautiful blend by the third generation.
Soon Michael had large wild iris specimens arriving from all over the world. He found that missionaries could be a great help to him. They sent Trojana, Cypriana, and Mesopotamica varieties from the Near East.
In time, Michael's iris creations had bigger flowers and grew taller. He crossed Irises in every conceivable way, and he once wrote to the plant breeder William John Caparne, "In hybridizing, be bold."
Michael once said,
Nature is ever making signs to us; she is ever whispering to us the beginnings of her secrets.
 
April 26, 1970, Elizabeth Lawrence (books by this author) reflected on the spring, writing,
This spring, I was asked if I am bored. How can anyone ask that of a gardener? No Gardener could ever be bored, for ...
Every season is new and different from all those that went before. 
There always is something new in bloom, something expected and something unexpected, something lost that is found, and there is always disappointment, but being sad is not the same thing as being bored.
"It acts like spring, but I dare not hope," Carolyn Dorman wrote on Saint Valentine's Day.
"It was about this time in 1899 that the temperature here in Northern Louisiana was 20 degrees below… God spare us, daffodils are beginning now, and Magnolia Alba Superba will soon be in bloom." 
It is the white form of Magnolia x soulangiana that Caroline calls "alba superba". She thinks it more beautiful than the Yulan.
In my garden the Yulan (Magnolia denudata) and two of its hybrids M. x soulangiana and M. x veitschii, came into bloom together on March 8th. I can't think of when, if ever before, all three have bloomed at once when the weather was warm but not hot, when there was no frost and no rain, and when only a few petals were whipped off by wind.
 
Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation
Private Gardens of Santa Barbara by Margie Grace
This book came out in 2020, and the subtitle is The Art of Outdoor Living.
Margie is a two-time-named International Landscape Designer of the Year. She has worked in the field for over three decades, and she is the perfect host to showcase these magnificent private gardens in Santa Barbara, which is often called the American Riviera. 
This book features eighteen gardens designed by Margie and representing a range of spaces from large estates to surf retreats.
This is an elegant coffee table book - a total escape - to the lush spaces of Santa Barbara's private gardens, and they are water-smart, maintenance-smart, and fire-smart.
This book is 256 pages of incredible private California gardens showcased by one of the country's top designers.
You can get a copy of Private Gardens of Santa Barbara by Margie Grace and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for $28.
 
Botanic Spark
1897 Birth of Joseph Pla (books by this author), Spanish journalist and a popular author.
His seminal work, The Gray Notebook, was a diary he wrote in 1918 during the onset of the Spanish flu pandemic. Joseph was a law student at the University at Barcelona, but when the school shut down, he was forced to return home to Palafrugell ("Pala-frew-yay") on the coast of Spain. Realizing he would rather be a writer than a lawyer, he kept a journal to improve his writing skills. It was Joseph Pla who once said,
Cooking is the landscape in a saucepan.
 
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Historical Events
1849 Birth of Luther Burbank (books about this person), American botanist and horticulturist.
During his 55-year career, Luther developed over 800 varieties of plants. He is remembered for many plants, including the Shasta daisy and the white blackberry.
A russet-colored variant of a Luther potato became the world's predominant potato in food processing and was called the Russet Burbank Potato. Luther hoped the potato would help revive Ireland's potato production after late blight destroyed potatoes all across Europe.
Luther once said,
Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine to the mind.
 
1858 On this day, Robert Fortune (books about this person) left for his fourth trip to China.
Months earlier, he had sent thousands of tea seeds to the United States.
The Americans didn't feel they required Fortune's oversight to cultivate the plants, although the distribution of the little seedlings wasn't very strategic.
Most of the seeds and plants were distributed via members of congress from southern states who sent the plants home to their farming constituents.
James Rion of South Carolina wrote,
In the fall of 1859, I received from the Patent Office, Washington, a very tiny tea plant, which I placed in my flower garden as a curiosity. It has grown well, has always been free from any disease, has had full outdoor exposure, and attained a height of 5 feet, 8 inches There cannot be the least doubt but that the tea plant will flourish in South Carolina.
Two years later, the start of the Civil War derailed those early hopes for tea production in the United States.
 
1865 On this day, Edmund Hope Verney received a letter.
By this point, Edmund had been botanizing Vancouver Island for three years. All throughout his expedition, he was gobsmacked by the beauty of the landscape - especially during spring and had written,
I cannot believe that any part of the world can show a greater variety and number of wildflowers than this.
As much as he could, Edmund sent specimens back home to Claydon in England. Occasionally, he would get discouraged if he didn't hear back - sometimes not even a thank you.
But on this day, 1865, Edmund's stepmother wrote with words of praise,
Your seeds are excellent - just what we wanted - the Colony is celebrated for its Pines and Cypresses. 
The Bishop says bulbs, too. 
If [possible], perhaps you can bring some with you - all lilies are valuable.
 
Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation
The Art and Science of William Bartram by Judith Magee
This book came out in 2007, and it's one of the best authoritative books on William Bartram.
William was an eminent artist and naturalist, and he was one of the first people to explore the flora and fauna of the American Southeast between 1773 and 1777. Bartram's work was sent to his patron back in London, and today the London Natural History Museum houses most of William Bartram's drawings.
Judith's book showcased for the first time all sixty-eight Bartram drawings from the Natural History Museum, along with other pieces from his contemporaries.
This book also shares some of Bartram's writings and letters, proving that Bartram was influential during his lifetime and a beacon for the next generation of American naturalists. Bartram's work had an impact beyond the world of science. Wordsworth, Coleridge, and other writers found in the significance of Bartram's drawings and writing a source of inspiration.
Bartram accomplished so much during his lifetime, especially because he was entirely self-taught. Bartram's humility and compassion made it possible for him to spend time with Native Americans during his explorations. He became an authority on the birds of North America. In 1773, William collected and propagated seeds from the Franklinia or the Franklin tree. The tree survives today, thanks to William Bartram.
This book is 276 pages of William Bartram's life and contributions in the context of modern scientific thinking.
You can get a copy of The Art and Science of William Bartram by Judith Magee and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for $46.
 
Botanic Spark
2001 On this day, The Baltimore Sun shared a story called Maryland's Mr. Grass Plantsman: Kurt Bluemel ("Blu-MEL") by Nancy Taylor Robson.
Nurseryman and landscaper Kurt Bluemel had dealt with groundhogs, rabbits, and rapacious deer. 
But nothing in his career prepared him for the destructive powers of elephants and giraffes. 
"They are like organic lawnmowers!" he [said]. 
Kurt Bluemel (the company) is one of the largest, most extensive wholesale growers of ornamental grasses in the nation, which is why six years ago the Disney company asked him to help design, supply and plant the 125 acres of Savanna at its new Animal Kingdom in Florida. 
He assumed the animals would graze the landscape, so he was careful to avoid poisonous plants. 
But, he was unprepared for their voraciousness. 
"We planted acacias they have very long thorns as part of the permanent landscape, but the giraffes ate them down to the ground. Thorns and all!" 
Another surprise was the soil or lack of it. 
"Florida only has sand," he says. 
"It's like hydroponic growing. As soon as you stop giving things water and fertilizer, they stop growing. 
But with food and water, in three months, the vegetation was unbelievable! 
We miscalculated planting distances as a result." 
Kurt died of cancer in 2014 at the age of 81. He was known as Mr. Grass and The King of Grasses after a lifetime spent championing ornamental grasses and perennials to bring nature, movement, and vibrancy to the landscape.
 
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Historical Events
1810 Birth of William Griffith, English botanist and naturalist.
By the time a young William arrived at the botanical garden in Calcutta, he was eager to make his mark. But he clashed with the old ways of running the garden established by Nathaniel Wallich.
When Nathaniel departed to tend to his deteriorating health, William was put in charge of the garden. In his youth and inexperience, he acted in haste and he executed a complete renovation of the garden. For instance, there was an avenue of gorgeous Cycas trees that was a signature element of the garden and beloved by visitors, but William had the entire avenue removed. And in his singular focus on organizing plants by classification, he sacrificed beauty and common sense. Plants that were happy under the canopy of established trees and shrubs were suddenly exposed to the harsh Indian sun, and they burned and perished out in the open. In a little over two years, the garden bore no resemblance of its former glory.
In September of 1844, William married his brother's wife's sister - Emily Henderson. By the end of the year, William quit his post and left the Calcutta botanical garden for good. Together, William and Emily returned to Malacca in Southwestern Malaysia, but William got sick on the voyage. He had languished for ten days and then died from hepatitis. He was 34.
Meanwhile, back at the Calcutta Botanical Garden, it's hard not to imagine the shock Nathaniel Wallich experienced when he returned to the garden in the summer of 1844 and saw the complete devastation in every bed and every planting in every corner of the garden. Nothing was untouched - it had all been changed.
Nathaniel shared his grief in a letter to his old friend William Hooker:
Where is the stately, matchless garden that I left in 1842?
Is this the same as that?
Can it be?
No–no–no!
Day is not more different from night that the state of the garden as it was from its present utterly ruined condition. But no more on this.
My heart bleeds at what I am impelled daily – hourly to witness.
And yet I am chained to the spot, and the chain, in some respects, is of my own making.
I will not be driven away.
Lies, calumnies, every attempt... to ruin my character – publicly and privately... are still employed – they may make my life miserable and wretched, they may break my heart: but so so long as my conscience acquits me... so long will I not budge one inch from my post.
 
1847 Birth of Henry Frederick Conrad Sander, German-English orchidologist and nurseryman.
When he was 20, Conrad met the Czech plant collector Benedict Roezl. The two men struck up an idea for a business that left Benedict free to explore and collect plants and Conrad focused on selling the specimens.
Conrad set up shop in St. Albans, and Benedict was soon sending shipments of orchids from Central and South America.
After his successful arrangement with Benedict, Conrad expanded his operations. He soon had over twenty collectors gathering specimens and was growing orchids in over sixty greenhouses. Europe's top collectors and even royalty stopped by to examine Conrad's inventory.
Soon known as the King of Orchids, Conrad wrote a two-volume masterpiece on every variety of orchid. He named his book Reichenbachia in honor of the legendary orchidologist Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach.
In return, Reichenbach honored Sanders by naming the "Queen of Philippine Orchids" Vanda Sanderiana, which the locals called the waling-waling orchid. The waling-waling is considered one of the rarest, most beautiful, and most expensive orchids, and it is also one of the largest species of orchids in the world.
Orchids are some of the world's oldest flowering plants, producing the world's tiniest seeds. A single Orchid seedpod can contain three million seeds! Orchids are also the largest family of flowering plants in the world. With over 25,000 species, Orchids represent about ten percent of all plant species on earth, and there are more orchids on earth than mammals and birds!
Now, once they are germinated, Orchids can take five to seven years to produce a flower. And if you look at the orchid bloom closely, you'll see that the blossom, like the human face, is perfectly symmetrical, which only adds to their visual beauty. And, by the time you are buying that Orchid at Trader Joe's, it is likely already decades old. But never fear, Orchids are long-lived and can reach their 100th birthday.
The vastness and complexity of orchids can be frustrating. Charles Darwin grew so discouraged writing his book about orchids that he wrote to a friend,
I am very poorly today and very stupid and hate everybody and everything.
 
1949 On this day, the Santa Cruz Sentinel out of California, published a lovely story about an upcoming Arbor Day celebration that would plant trees to honor Luther Burbank.
In a bittersweet gesture, Nurseryman Joe Badger was personally planting a flowering plum tree. Joe's plum tree will be planted in Mrs. Burbank's garden at Santa Rosa, Calif, near the spot where her husband is buried.
Burbank's widow said,
"No, there will be no wreath-laying on Luther Burbank's grave... Laying a wreath is only a ceremony... It doesn't make things grow." she said.
Instead, she and Nurseryman Joe Badger, who as a youngster stole plums from the Burbank experimental gardens, will plant a flowering plum tree adjoining the Redwood highway, where passersby can enjoy it.
The flowering plum was developed by her husband. He gained world fame with his Burbank potato, his spineless cactus, and many other horticultural achievements.
Her husband now lies buried under a huge Cedar of Lebanon tree in a simple unmarked grave. Beside him lies his white dog, Bonita, who was his constant companion until Burbank died in 1926.
Burbank requested that no marking be placed above his burial place. Instead, he was buried beneath his Cedar of Lebanon. He, himself, had planted the seed sent by a friend in Palestine.
He had said,
"When I go, don't raise a monument to me; plant a tree."
 
Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation
The Art of Outdoor Living by Scott Shrader
This book came out in 2019, and the subtitle is Gardens for Entertaining Family and Friends.
For anyone who wants to live well in their garden, here is a guide to creating stylish and livable outdoor spaces--for entertaining, playing, and relaxing.
Scott Shrader is a California landscape designer who has an intuitive ability to connect his outdoor landscape creations with the heart of the home. His designs are known for their sense of flow, style, and serenity. Scott's specialty is creating lush outdoor rooms where meals and company can be enjoyed at your leisure. Scott's blending of the indoors and the outdoors can be seen in these twelve gorgeous properties highlighted in this book.
Scott also shares his tips for keeping guests happy outdoors and he breaks down how planning ahead makes outdoor spaces comfortable, inviting places you don't want to leave.
This book also features some essays where Scott shares in-depth observations on all aspects of outdoor living and gardens including topics like sustainability, lifestyle, and paths.
This book is 240 pages of making outdoor spaces comfortable places for cooking, entertaining, playing, and relaxing.
You can get a copy of The Art of Outdoor Living by Scott Shrader and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for $26.
 
Botanic Spark
1862 Birth of Norman Rowland Gale, English poet, storyteller, and reviewer.
His best-known poem is The Country Faith, which ends with this verse:
God comes down in the rain,
And the crop grows tall—
This is the country faith,
And the best of all!
In his book A Merry-Go-Round of Song, there is a poem about fairies. Norman wrote,
If you could pierce with magic eyes
The secrets of the lavender,
You'd find a thousand Fairylings
A-perching there, with folded wings.
And pouring sweetness into her.
 
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Historical Events
1606 Birth of Edmund Waller (books about this person), English poet, and politician who was one of the longest-serving members in the English House of Commons.
Edmund is remembered for his carpe diem or "seize the day" poem, Go, Lovely Rose (1645), in which the rose must relay an urgent message: that time is short, that she is beautiful and that he loves her. 
Go, lovely rose!
Tell her that wastes her time and me,
That now she knows,
When I resemble her to thee,
How sweet and fair she seems to be. 
 
1616 Birth Mathias de l'Obel ("ma-TEE-us dew Lew-bell"), Flemish physician and botanist.
Mathias practiced medicine in England, and he was the first botanist to recognize the difference between monocots and dicots.
Today we remember Mathias de l'Obel ("LEW-bell") with the Lobelia plant. Before researching Mathias, I pronounced obelia as "LOW- beel- ya." But now, knowing the French pronunciation of his name, I will say it "LEW-beel-ya." It's a subtle little change (LOW vs. LEW), but after all, the plant is named in Mathias's honor.
Now, for as lovely as the Lobelia is, the common names for Lobelia are terribly unattractive. They include names like Asthma Weed, Bladderpod, Gagroot, Pukeweed, etc. Vomit Wort, and Wild Tobacco. These common names for Lobelia reflect that Lobelia is very toxic to eat.
Despite its toxicity, Lobelia is one of the sweetest-looking plants for your summer containers. This dainty annual comes in pink, light blue, and royal blue. Personally, every year, I buy two flats of light blue Lobelias. But no matter the color you choose, lobelias are a favorite of pollinators. The delicate blossoms frequently host bees, butterflies, and moths, which only adds to their charm.
 
1880 Birth Muriel Wheldale Onslow (books by this author), English biochemist. She researched flower color inheritance and pigment molecule biochemistry.
Muriel married a fellow biochemist named Victor Onslow. Victor was actually the son of royalty - his dad was the fourth Earl of Onslow.
When Victor was a student at Cambridge, he was paralyzed from the waist down after diving off a cliff into a lake. Victor's physical limitations did not stop Muriel from loving him. Even though they were married for only a little over three years before Victor's untimely death, Victor and Muriel's love story was one of mutual admiration and respect. When Muriel recorded her memoir of Victor, she wrote that he was a man of amazing courage and mental vitality; and that he was an inspiration to their peers in biochemistry.
Muriel worked with snapdragons, which come in a range of flower colors including green, red, orange, yellow, white, purple, and pink - and now even bicolor and speckled. The snapdragon was the perfect subject for Murial's work. Muriel's coloration research resulted in four major papers on snapdragon color inheritance and worldwide recognition.
In 2010, the Royal Institution in England sponsored a play about four female biochemists - including Muriel Onslow. The play was called Blooming Snapdragons.
Snapdragons or Antirrhinum majus ("ant-er-EYE-num MAY-jus") are beloved cottage garden flowers. They are a cousin to the foxglove. Snapdragons are happiest when planted early, in cool weather. They will bloom their hearts out all summer long. Then, if you cut them back in August, you will get a second flush of color in the fall. 
 
1899 Birth of Yury Karlovich Olesha (books by this author), Russian and Soviet novelist. He was part of the Odessa School of Writers and is considered one of the greatest Russian novelists of the 20th century. Here's an excerpt from his book, Envy (1927):
"Once he raised his arm to show his friends the back of his hand, where the veins were laid out in the shape of a tree, and he broke out in the following improvisation:
"Here," he said, "is the tree of life. Here is a tree that tells me more about life and death than the flowering and fading of tree gardens. I don't remember when exactly I discovered that my wrist was blooming like a tree…but it must have been during that wonderful time when the flowering and fading of trees still spoke to me not of life and death but of the end and beginning of the school year! It was blue then, this tree, blue and slender, ...and turned my metacarpus's entire landscape into a Japanese watercolor…
"The years passed, I changed, and the tree changed, too.
"I remember a splendid time; the tree was spreading. The pride I felt, seeing its inexorable flowering! It became gnarled and reddish-brown—and therein lay its strength!
...But now, my friends! How decrepit it is, how rotten!
"The branches seem to be breaking off, cavities have appeared…
It's sclerosis, my friends! And the fact that the skin is getting glassy, and the tissue beneath it is squishy —
isn't this a fog settling on the tree of my life, the fog that will soon envelop all of me?" 
 
Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation
Terrain by Greg Lehmkuhl
This book came out in 2018, and the subtitle is Ideas and Inspiration for Decorating the Home and Garden.
And yes, in case you're wondering, this is the same Terrain as in the historic nursery set in southeast Pennsylvania.
Terrain is a nationally renowned garden, home, and lifestyle brand with its own signature approach to living with nature. It's an approach that bridges the gap between home and garden, the indoors and the outdoors. An approach that embraces decorating with plants and inviting the garden into every living space.
That blurring of the outdoors and the indoors makes this book such a delight for gardeners. The book is loaded with gorgeous photos of ideas, projects, tips, and applications. There are tons of ideas for flower arranging beyond simple bouquets. You'll learn to use branches and wild natural elements like a pro. There are beautiful container gardens, wreaths for all seasons, preservation tips with glycerin, forcing branches, decorating with natural elements, and so many doable gorgeous ideas for every season of the year.
This book is a whopping 400 pages of a master class on decorating with nature and bringing the best of the garden indoors.
You can get a copy of Terrain by Greg Lehmkuhl and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for $10.
 
Botanic Spark
1878 Birth of Edward Thomas (books by this author), British Poet. Edward's mentor was Robert Frost, and a trip to see Frost inspired his most famous poem, October. Like Henry David Thoreau, Edward loved simplicity in his work and life. 
There are two verses I wanted to share with you today. The first is from his poem Cherry Trees.
The cherry trees bend over and are shedding
On the old road where all that passed are dead,
Their petals, strewing the grass as for a wedding
This early May morn when there is none to wed.
The second is an excerpt from his poem, The Manor Farm (1878)
Over the land freckled with snow half-thawed
The speculating rooks at their nests cawed
And saw from elm tops, delicate as flowers of grass,
What we below could not see, Winter pass.
 
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Historical Events
1717 Birth of Catharina Helena Dörrien ("Durr-ee-in"), German botanist, writer, and artist.
After the death of her parents, Catharina became a governess for the Erath ("AIR-rit") family in Dillenburg. Sophie Erath was a childhood friend of Catharina's, and Anton Erath was an attorney; they became Catharina's second family.
While teaching the Erath children, Catharina turned to nature to teach almost every subject. Catharina even wrote her own textbooks, heavily focused on botany and the natural world.
As the Erath children grew, Catharina focused on her botanical work. Anton helped her gain membership to the Botanical Society of Florence - something unheard of for women of her time. Catharina would go on to be a member of the Berlin Society of Friends of Nature Research and the Regensburg Botanical Society in Germany.
When Catharina was alive, Dillenburg was part of the Orange-Nassau principality. And Catharine's 496-page flora called Flora for Orange-Nassau was published in 1777. Catharina not only used the Linnaean system to organize and name each specimen, but she also named two new fungi ("funj-eye") - two little lichens - she named major Doerrieni ("Durr-ee-en-ee") and minor Doerrieni- an extraordinary accomplishment for a woman during the 1700s.
As for her botanical illustrations, Catharina created over 1,400 illustrations of local flora and fauna. Yet, these masterpieces never made it into her flora.
Instead, Catharina's botanical art became an heirloom passed down through the generations of the Erath family. In 1875 a few pieces of Catharina's work were shown at an exhibition.
However, fifteen years later, a large collection of paintings by Johann Philipp Sandberger was bought by the Museum of Wiesbaden. Johann was a dear friend of Anton Erath's, and today, his work is considered to be copies of Catharine's original watercolor masterpieces.
Still, Sandberger's pieces are precious because they give us a glimpse of Catharine's breadth and depth of talent. Without Sandberger, all would be lost because the bulk of Catharine's work has been lost to time. The curator Friedrich von Heinbeck once said that the precision of Catharine's brush strokes was like that of an embroiderer who stitched with only the finest of thread.
 
1848 Birth of Augustus Saint Gaudens ("gaw-dens") (books about this person), American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts generation. He is remembered for his stunning Civil War monuments, including a work called Abraham Lincoln: The Man. 
In Augustus Saint Gaudens, biography, Reminiscences, he wrote,
What garlic is to salad, insanity is to art.
The Frick museum has a medallion carved by Augustus. He was a fan of Robert Louis Stephenson, and the two met toward the end of Stephenson's life. The medallion has an inscription: Stevenson's poem Underwoods (1887), which reads:
Youth now flees on feathered foot
Faint and fainter sounds the flute 
… Where hath fleeting beauty led? 
To the doorway of the dead 
Life is over, life was gay
We have come the primrose way.
 
1877 Birth of Lenore Elizabeth Mulets, children's author, poet, and teacher 
Born Nora Mulertz in Kansas, Lenore's mother died when she was ten, and so she was raised by her uncle.
In addition to teaching, Lenore was a marvelous children's author. Her books were always charming, and her titles include Stories of Birds, Flower Stories, Insect Stories, and Tree Stories, just to name a few.
In the preface to Flower Stories, Lenore wrote,
When the flowers of the field and garden 
lift their bright faces to you, 
can you call them by name 
and greet them as old acquaintances? 
Or, having passed them a hundred times, 
are they still strangers to you?
And in her book Stories of Birds, Lenore wrote:
Such a twittering and fluttering there was when this news came.
 
Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation
Stylish Succulent Designs by Jessica Cain 
This book came out in 2019, and the subtitle is & Other Botanical Crafts.
Jessica wants to teach you how to elevate your succulent creations and learn the tricks you need to know to create professional-quality succulent arrangements made simple!
Jessica is the creator and owner of "In Succulent Love." She is a native of San Diego, the succulent capital of the world, and she fell in love with making succulent arrangements after working with succulents with her grandmother.
Jessica's DIY guide teaches how to makeover forty creative projects using many varieties of succulents, air plants, and other easy-care botanicals.
This book is 176 pages of creating beautiful and lush succulent designs that are simple to make and will last for months. 
You can get a copy of Stylish Succulent Designs by Jessica Cain and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for $2.
 
Botanic Spark
1958 On this day, The New Yorker published gardener and garden writer Katharine White's (books about this person)review of garden catalogs. 
It was the first time a garden catalog received a published review, and it was an immediate hit.
Readers wrote in to request the name of the author since Katharine had signed off with only her initials, KSW. Katherine was married to EB White - the author of Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little. 
But the garden writer Elizabeth Lawrence (books about this person) figured out that KSW was Katherine, and she sent her a letter a month later. The two women would exchange correspondence about gardening for the rest of their lives.
Here's an excerpt from Elizabeth's letter:
I asked Mrs. Lamm if you were Mrs. E. B. White, and she said you were. So please tell Mr. E. B. that he has three generations of devoted readers in this family...
Have you the charming Barnhaven catalogs? (Gresham, Oregon). 
You should, even if you don't want rare primroses.
And do you know Harry E. Saier? Dimondale, Michigan. I subscribe to his Garden Magazine too. Used to be free, now a dollar a year ...comes four times a year, if it comes.
 
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Historical Events
1533 Birth of Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (books by this author), also known as Lord of Montaigne, French Renaissance philosopher. He was a prolific writer and was famous for his anecdotes. He once wrote,
I want death to find me planting my cabbages, neither worrying about it nor the unfinished gardening."
 
1828 On this day, Frederick William Beechey (books about this person) wrote to William Jackson Hooker (books about this person) to apologize for sending an inferior collection of specimens. He explained that the expedition's collector opted to play the violin seven hours each day instead of exploring and gathering plants.
 
1844 The New England Journal published a little notice about a use for the milky sap of Sumac:
[It] is the best indelible ink that can be used. 
Break off one of the stems that support the leaves, and write... 
In a short time it becomes a beautiful jet black, and can never be washed out.
 
1877 Birth of André Simon (books by this author), French wine merchant, wine expert, and writer. In The Concise Encyclopedia of Gastronomy (1952), André wrote,
Beans... possess over all vegetables the great advantage of being just as good, if not better, when kept waiting, an advantage in the case of people whose disposition or occupation makes it difficult for them to be punctual at mealtime.
 
Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation
Hill House Living by Paula Sutton
This book came out late in 2021, and the subtitle is The Art of Creating a Joyful Life.
Paula's book is a delight. It's part antique-hunting, part gardening, and part a celebration of the seasons.
A beloved British design and fashion influencer, Paula left her busy life in London at age 50 and started over in a gorgeous cottage home in the country.
Paula likes to say she traded catwalks for dog walks (she has a beautiful lab) and couture for manure.
A master of styling with vintage treasures in the home and outside in the garden, Paula shares all of her top tips and tricks for bargain hunting, repurposing, and incorporating old and new in a way that feels fresh, simple, and stylish.
As a person, Paula is positive, generous, and authentic. You will love following her on social and having a little bit of her genius right on your bookcase, coffee table, or bedside table (which is where mine is as I write this ;).
You can get a copy of Hill House Living by Paula Sutton and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for $15.
 
Botanic Spark
1865 Birth of Arthur William Symons (books by this author), British poet, critic, and magazine editor. Here's an excerpt from his poem, Lillian, which appreciates the green powers of the hot-house:
This was a sweet white wildwood violet
I found among the painted slips that grow
Where, under hot-house glass, the flowers forget
How the sun shines, and how the cool winds blow.
 
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Historical Events
1872 Birth of Anna Gilman Hill, Director of the Garden Club of America (1920-1926) and assistant editor of the Club's Bulletin (1921-1945). Anna and her husband own an estate in East Hampton called "Grey Gardens," which was purchased by the American socialite Edith Bouvier Beale. Anna once wrote,
Above all, in your absence, do not allow the children, the ignorant visitor, your husband, or your maiden aunt to play the hose on your poor defenseless plants.
 
1943 Birth of George Harrison (books about this person), English musician and singer-songwriter, and lead guitarist of the Beatles. His original song compositions include While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Here Comes the Sun. Sometimes referred to as the "Quiet Beatle," George relished his life out of the spotlight and said,
I'm not really a career person. I'm a gardener, basically...
Sometimes I feel like I'm actually on the wrong planet. It's great when I'm in my garden, but the minute I go out the gate, I think, 'What the hell am I doing here?"
 
1989 On this day, The Age newspaper out of Melbourne, Australia, ran a story about a brand new play written by Suzanne Spunner called "Edna for the Garden." The play featured the charismatic Australian gardener, designer, conservationist, and writer Edna Walling. During her lifetime, her garden design clients would say to their friends,
You must have Edna for the garden.
The familiar saying inspired the name of the play.
 
Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation
Secret Gardeners by Victoria Summerley
This book came out late in 2017, and the subtitle is Britain's Creatives Reveal Their Private Sanctuaries.
This book features the private gardens, the secret gardens, of some of Britain's most famous artists. In all, twenty-five gardens are featured in this drop-dead gorgeous book. You'll get to see the gardens of Andrew Lloyd Webber, Anish Kapoor, Jeremy Irons, Cath Kidston, Terry Gilliam, Prue Leith, Ozzy Osbourne, Sting, Julian Fellowes, and Rupert Everett, just to name a few.
For the most part, these private sanctuaries - these great spaces - are not for public consumption. Without Victoria and Hugo's book, these gardens would remain hidden; they would remain secret gardens. But thankfully and generously, they all agreed to be part of this incredible book.
In the introduction, Victoria reveals how she and Hugo have connected with these beautiful spaces. They've done a couple of great books together:  
Secret Gardens of the Cotswolds (2015)
Great Gardens of London (2019)
Victoria writes,
When planning this book, Hugo Ritson Thomas and I did not set out to feature famous people who had lovely garden. Our original concept was a book on artist's gardens, looking at how those who had some training or background in the visual arts organize their outdoor spaces.
We were all very enthusiastic about the idea, but realized that it might have a broader appeal if we included people who were involved in the performance arts as well.
I'm often asked how I choose the garden for my books. The answer is that I don't — Hugo does. I have a power of veto… but Hugo is the one who persuades people to open their gates and let us in. 
How he does this I have no idea. I am firmly of the belief that Hugo could persuade St. Peter to open the gates of heaven... If our publisher decided to... commission a book on the Garden of Eden.
Hugo and Victoria make a lovely garden book team. Hugo's indelible images transport us to these wonderful spaces, and Victoria helps us appreciate them on a much deeper level than we would otherwise without her lovely commentary.
When you pick up a Victoria Summerly/Hugo Rittson Thomas book, you know it's going to be beautiful, you know that the gardens will be world-class, and you know that you're buying a book that is not for the bookshelf. It's way too pretty for that. This is a book that is set out so that when you walk by, you're tempted to stop and to read it — or when someone visits your home, they see that beautiful book and fall in love.
This book is 272 pages of gorgeous, sublime, unforgettable, imaginative, secret gardens that are sure to knock your socks off.
You can get a copy of Secret Gardeners by Victoria Summerley and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for $30.
 
Botanic Spark
1881 Birth of Olive Mary Edmundson Harrisson, British horticulturist.
In 1898, Olive was the top student at Swanley Horticultural College and placed first on her exams with 285 points. By rights, she should have earned a spot at the RHS garden in Chiswick, £5,000, and a scholarship. But Olive was born just a bit too early because the RHS declined to recognize Olive's accomplishment since they were still an all-male institution.
Women made up 10 of the top 25 test scores for 1898. So, two Marys, three Ethels, one Jessie, a Lillian, a Eunice, and an Ada, would not have been able to work at the RHS either.
Olive's story was uncovered by a researcher at the RHS Lindley Library and then picked up by the BBC. The media attention led to a connection with Olive's descendants, who confirmed Olive's lifelong love of gardening.
After her exam, Olive did eventually find work as a gardener. In 1901, she worked for the Cadbury family (the Cadbury's loved their gardens). Once she married in 1904, Olive stayed home to raise her family. Olive died in 1972 in Seattle.
 
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1801 On this day, America lost one of its pioneering botanists, Humphry Marshall, the "Father of American Dendrology."

1869 Ellen Shipman, a woman who found her voice in the whispers of flowers and her strength in the structure of garden walls, is born.

Read The Daily Gardener review of Garden Favorites by Warren Schultz, Rebecca Atwater and Rick Darke

Buy the book on Amazon: Garden Favorites by Warren Schultz, Rebecca Atwater and Rick Darke

1857 Ida Tarbell is born - a woman who would become known for exposing Standard Oil's monopolistic practices but who found her greatest peace tending to her beloved Connecticut farm.

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Historical Events
1743 Birth of Joseph Banks (books about this person), English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences.
Joseph is best known for his study of Australian flora and fauna as the botanist on board the Endeavor with Captain James Cook.
Before returning to England, Cook worried the Endeavor wouldn't make it around the Cape of Good Hope.
In a fateful decision, Cook brought the ship to Batavia, a Dutch colony, to fortify his boat. Batavia was rife with malaria and dysentery. As a result, Cook lost 38 crewmembers. Joseph and fellow botanist, Daniel Solander, became gravely ill but managed to survive. Even as they battled back from illness, they still went out to collect specimens.
As gardeners, we owe a great debt to Joseph. When he returned to England, Joseph Banks advised George III on creating the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew.
And, in 1778, when Linnaeus died, Joseph acted with haste to buy Linnaeus's belongings on behalf of the Linnaeus Society. When the king of Sweden realized Linnaeus' legacy was no longer in the country, he sent a fast ship to pursue the precious cargo. But Joseph was too quick, and that's how Linnaeus's collection came to reside in London at the Linnaeus Society's Burlington House and not in Sweden.
Earlier this month, there was breaking news that the HMS Endeavor was discovered lying at the bottom of the Newport Harbour in the United States. In 1778, 35 years after the Endeavor brought Joseph Banks and Captain Cook to Australia, the ship was sold. HMS Endeavor was renamed Lord Sandwich, and then during the Revolutionary War, the British deliberately sunk her off the coast of Rhode Island.
 
1955 Birth of Steve Jobs (books about this person), founder of Apple.
A lover of simplicity and elegance, Steve once said,
The most sublime thing I've ever seen are the gardens around Kyoto.
 
To Steve, the ultimate Kyoto garden was the Saiho-ji ("Sy-ho-jee") - and most people would agree with him. The dream-like Saiho-ji garden was created by a Zen priest, poet, calligrapher, and gardener named Muso Soseki ("MOO-so SO-sec-key") in the 14th century during the Kamakura ("Comma-COOR-rah") Period.
The Saiho-ji Temple is affectionately called koke-dera or the Moss Temple - a reference to the over 120 moss species found in the garden.
Steve Jobs wasn't the only celebrity to find zen at Saiho-ji - David Bowie was also a huge fan.
And when it comes to design, there's a Steve Jobs quote that garden designers should pay attention to, and it goes like this:
Design is a funny word. 
Some people think design means how it looks. 
But... if you dig deeper, it's really how it works.
 
1963 On this day, The Anniston Star out of Anniston, Alabama, published a little retrospective on the adventures of Joseph Rock, the great Austrian-American botanist, and explorer, who had passed away almost three months earlier in Honolulu at 79.
Joseph was born in Austria but ended up immigrating to the United States and eventually settled in Hawaii, where he was beloved. He became Hawaii's first official botanist. Before he died, the University of Hawaii granted Joseph an honorary doctor of Science degree.
In addition to plants, Joseph had a knack for languages. He cataloged and transcribed Chinese manuscripts and wrote a dictionary of one of the tribal languages. He had an enormous intellect and was multi-talented. In addition to being a botanist, he was a linguist. He was also regarded as a world-expert cartographer, ornithologist, and anthropologist.
From a gardening standpoint, Joseph Rock introduced blight-resistant Chestnut trees to America. He also brought us more than 700 species of rhododendron. Some of his original rhododendron seeds were successfully grown in the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Joseph spent much of his adult life - more than 20 years - in southwestern China.
There were many instances where he was the first explorer to enter many of the locations he visited. Joseph became so embedded in the country that there were many times that his counterparts in other parts of the world thought that he might have died in the Tibetan or Yunnan ("YOU-nan") mountains.
And so it was on this day that The Anniston Star shared a few of Joseph's most hair-raising adventures, including this little story called Night Amid Coffins.
Two of Dr. Rock's expeditions (1923-24 and 1927-30) were sponsored by the National Geographic Society. Reporting on the first of these in September 1925. National Geographic Magazine. Rock [was] trapped by bandits in the funeral chamber of an old temple in a small settlement north of Yunnanfu. While the small army he had hired for protection kept the brigands at bay, the explorer (Rock) sat amid coffins, with two .45 caliber pistols (one in each hand), and his precious plant collection nearby. By morning, the bandits had disappeared, though Dr. Rock noticed several heads hanging from poles outside the village.
 
Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation
Claudia Roden's Mediterranean by Claudia Roden
This book came out late in 2021, and the subtitle is Treasured Recipes from a Lifetime of Travel.
A legendary cookbook writer, anthropologist, and regional cuisine expert, Claudia Roden ("Roe-din") began traveling the Mediterannean when her kids left home. She traveled extensively through the area and fell in love with Mediterranean food. And in this book, Mediterranean means favorites from France, Greece, Spain, Egypt, Turkey, and Morocco.
Claudia knows the slight differences that make the flavors of these regions. Listen to how the ingredients - like herbs, vegetables, and citrus - get used in different places.
Claudia writes:
Despite the similarities, there are distinct differences.
Where the French use cognac, Sicilians use Marsala, and Spaniards sherry.
Where Italians use mozzarella, Parmesan, pecorino or ricotta; the French use goat cheese or Gruyère ("groo-yair"), and the Greeks Turks Lebanese and Egyptians use feta or halloumi ("huh-loo-mee").
Where an Egyptian or Syrian would use ground almonds or pine nuts in a sauce, a Turk uses walnuts.
Crème fraîche is used in France, where yogurt and buffalo-milk cream are used in the eastern Mediterranean.
In the northern Mediterranean, the flavors are of herbs that gow wild;
in the eastern and southern Mediterranean, they are of spices, flower waters, and molasses.
In Turkey they flavor their meats with cinnamon and allspice, in Morocco they use cumin, saffron, cinnamon, and ginger.
While a fish soup in the French Midi includes orange zest and saffron, in Tunisia it will have cumin, paprika, cayenne, and cilantro leaves.
It's as if the common language of the Mediterranean is spoken in myriad dialects.
 
Claudia grew up in Egypt. She was born there in 1936. She also spent lots of time with extended family in France and Spain. The cookbook shares some of her personal stories as well.
Claudia's dishes are a little bit of everything - simple to sophisticated. But the recipes take center stage and speak for themselves - magnified by spectacular photography.
Recipes range the gamut from appetizers to desserts and include:

• Focaccia
• Tapenade
• Fresh Goat Cheese with Herbs and Olives
• Roasted Cheese Polenta Cubes
• Green Olive, Walnut, and Pomegranate Salad
• Yogurt Soup with Orzo and Chickpeas (Perfect For Summer!)
• Hot Chilled Cream of Beet and Yogurt Soup
• Citrus Salad with Greens
• Winter Arugula with Pancetta and Grapes
• Roasted Celery Root Sweet Potato and Carrot with Tarragon Vinaigrette,
• Potato Omelette
• Chicken with Grapes
• Chicken with Apricots and Pistachios

This book is 320 pages of what Josep Pla called cooking: the Landscape in a saucepan
You can get a copy of Claudia Roden's Mediterranean by Claudia Roden and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for $25.
 
Botanic Spark
1749 Birth of Mary Eleanor Bowes (books about this person), English Countess of Strathmore, grandmother of John Bowes, and ancestor to the late Queen Mother.
After her father died when she was 11, she became the wealthiest and most educated woman in England. After the death of her first husband, she was tricked into marrying a man who abused her nearly to death more than once. But before this torturous time in her life, she loved learning, she loved collecting, and she loved botany.
Her father created an amazon garden at the family's beloved Gibside estate in Northumberland. For Lady Eleanor, botany was not only a genuine passion but a way to stay connected to her father and his legacy.
Lady Eleanor was very interested in plant exploration and the latest plant discoveries. She had hothouses installed at Gibside and at Stanley House in London near the Chelsea Physick Garden.
She hired the Scottish botanist, William Paterson, to collect plants on Cape of Good Hope in South Africa during four expeditions between 1777 and 1779.
Lady Eleanor came up with some unique ways to showcase her love of botany.
Around 1780, she commissioned an extraordinary mahogany botany cabinet that featured long drawers on the side of the cabinet for dry specimens and live specimens. The side of the cabinet flipped down to create a little desktop and to make it possible to access the drawers. The front of the cabinet was adorned with holly swags and seven medallions with the heads of great men like Shakespeare, Theophrastus, and Alexander Pope.
The cabinet also had a bottom shelf that would have had a lead-lined tray for plants. The lead-lined legs of the cabinet had taps and would have held water. The water could have been used for the live plants sitting on the tray or perhaps the humidity somehow helped preserve the dried specimens. Obviously, the combination of water and wood never works well, but nonetheless, that was the original design idea. Up until the 1850s, the cabinet was known to hold some of her most prized herbarium specimens, but after Lady Eleanor's death, they were lost to time when the cabinet was sold.
The other unique botanical element Lady Eleanor enjoyed was an adorable little plant theatre at Gibside. The theater was essentially a little alcove or niche recessed into the brick wall that wrapped around the garden. The niche was then filled with prized potted plants. Today there is an adorable pale blue painted wooden frame around the alcove with the words "Plant Theatre "written across the top of the frame.
During her disastrous and tortured second marriage, which lasted for nearly a decade, Lady Eleanor was forced to give up her botanical endeavors and almost everything she enjoyed in life. In the end, one of her maids helped her escape her husband.
Lady Eleanor became the first woman to keep her property after divorce. Shortly thereafter, she signed her properties over to her eldest son - including her most precious possession: her beloved Gibside and its garden - her father's legacy.
 
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Historical Events
1756 Birth of the handsome and tall Swedish botanist, Pehr Loefling.
Pehr met Carl Linnaeus at the University of Uppsala, where Carl was his professor. Early on, Carl dubbed Pehr his "most beloved pupil," and he started calling Pehr "the Vulture." Carl came up with the moniker after observing that Pehr had an intuitive way of finding plants and observing the most minute details of plant specimens.
After graduating, Carl recommended Pehr for an opportunity in Madrid. Pehr landed the position, learned Spanish, and was soon called Pedro by his friends. In short order, Pehr joined a Royal Spanish Expedition to South America. His mission was to find and learn about an improved cinnamon species. Two years into the trip, Pehr was botanizing in Venezuela when he died of malaria on the banks of the Caroní River. He was buried beneath an orange tree. He was 27 years old.
By the end of the year, over half of the expedition's men would be dead from disease compounded by hunger and fatigue.
When Linnaeus heard the news about Pehr, he wrote to a friend,
The great Vulture is dead.
 
1801 Birth of William Barnes (books about this person), English polymath, writer, and inventor. He wrote over 800 poems and had familiarity with over 70 different languages. The English writers Thomas Hardy and Edmund Gosse visited William on his deathbed. Edmund later wrote that William was
dying as picturesquely as he lived...
We found him in bed in his study, his face turned to the window, where the light came streaming in through flowering plants, his brown books on all sides of him save one, the wall behind him being hung with old green tapestry.
 
Any gardener who loves their garden has likely thought about the day they'll have to say goodbye. William wrote about that moment in a little poem called To a Garden—On Leaving It.
Sweet garden! peaceful spot! no more in thee
Shall I ever while away the sunny hour.
Farewell each blooming shrub, and lofty tree;
Farewell, the mossy path and nodding flower:
I shall not hear again from yonder bower
The song of birds, or humming of the bee,
Nor listen to the waterfall, nor see
The clouds float on behind the lofty tower.
My eyes no more may see, this peaceful scene.
But still, sweet spot, wherever I may be,
My love-led soul will wander back to thee.
 
1870 Birth of Adolph G. Rosengarten, Sr., American businessman. His family pharmaceutical company would become part of Merck in the 1920s. In 1913, Adolph and his wife Christine wanted to escape the heat of Philadelphia and find a place suitable for a country home. They settled on a piece of land in Wayne, Pennsylvania, and commissioned their former friend and classmate Charles Borie to design the house and Landscape architect Thomas Sears to work on the terraces. After 1924, the family lived there year-round.
Adolph named the estate Chanticleer as a tongue-in-cheek nod to "Chanticlere" in William Makepeace Thackeray's The Newcomes (1855), wherein the estate was "mortgaged up to the very castle windows." Adolph always said he sympathized with the fictional Chanticlere owner from the novel.
The etymology of Chanticleer means rooster, and that's why there are so many rooster motifs at Chanticleer (books about this garden).
Today the public garden at Chanticleer is among the best in the United States. The grounds occupy 35 of the 50 acres owned by the foundation. The garden opened to the public in 1993. The job of maintaining and designing Chanticleer now falls to seven full-time horticulturists who strive to preserve and improve a garden that's been called America's most romantic and creative garden.
 
1939 Birth of Phyllis Theroux (books by this author), American writer and journalist. She grew up in San Francisco following World War II. She once wrote,
I think this is what hooks one to gardening: it is the closest one can come to being present at creation.
 
Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation
The Flower Hunter by Lucy Hunter
This book came out late in 2021, and the subtitle is Seasonal flowers inspired by nature and gathered from the garden.
Lucy Hunter is a floral whisperer. She knows how to create beauty - true, artistic, Raphaelian, dreamy, sumptuous beauty.
For a first book, Lucy has given gardeners quite a gift.
Gardeners love nothing better than chatting with other gardeners and seeing their gardens.
How do you do this? Why do you grow that? What do you do with this flower?
In The Flower Hunter, Lucy Hunter welcomes us to a year in her North Wales garden. And trust me; you want to see what Lucy is doing with the beauty she finds in her own backyard.
Lucy is generous with her step-by-step tutorials. She inspires with her essays on working with natural elements. She's funny, too. And Her photography is top of the top.
Even if you feel no match for Lucy's level of mastery, she manages to help connect the reader to the well of creativity, the tiny spark of inspiration that each of us possesses.
As gardeners, we see the beauty in the every day. We know how to find peace in nature. Lucy extends that serenity and joy and puts it to work in creating more than just exquisite floral arrangements. She also demonstrates other projects like drying flowers for a fall wreath, making natural dyes (easier than you think), and creating your own journal (more fun than you think!).
Lucy Hunter has two decades of floral, photography, and landscape design experience. She is a naturalist at heart. She is an edge-softener, an evocateur, a seasonal transition lover, a rose lover and guru, a believer in potential, and a pathfinder to your own creative voice.
You'd better believe that her Instagram is amazing. You can follow her @lucytheflowerhunter.
This book is 208 pages of Lucy Hunter doing what Lucy Hunter does best: florals, beauty, softness, nature, and sparks.
You can get a copy of The Flower Hunter by Lucy Hunter and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for $25.
 
Botanic Spark
1892 Birth of Edna St. Vincent Millay (books by this author), American lyrical poet and playwright.
Gardeners know many of Edna's verses like:
April comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.
I would blossom if I were a rose.
I will be the gladdest thing under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one.
 
But there's a touching little poem of Edna's that was published posthumously. that I thought I'd end the show with today. It's a lovely spring poem called, If It Should Rain. The American actress Kathleen Chalfant once said that her friend Sloane Shelton would repeat the last three lines before going to sleep at the end of particularly hard days.
If it should rain --(the sneezy moon
Said: Rain)--then I shall hear it soon
From shingles into gutters fall...
And know of what concerns me, all:
The garden will be wet till noon--
I may not walk-- my temper leans
To myths and legends--through the beans
Till they are dried-- lest I should spread
Diseases they have never had.
I hear the rain: it comes down straight.
Now I can sleep, I need not wait
To close the windows anywhere.
Tomorrow, it may be, I might
Do things to set the whole world right.
There's nothing I can do tonight.
 
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Historical Events
1564 Birth of Galileo (books about this person), Italian astronomer, physicist, engineer, mathematician, and philosopher. Galileo believed that the book of nature was "written in the language of mathematics." He recognized the complexity and the simplicity of that language when he wrote,
The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do. 
 
1803 Birth of Karl Friedrich Schimper, German botanist and poet. He was born into a family of scientists. His mother was a botanist. At university, he befriended botanists, Alexander Braun and Louis Agassiz.
Karl made several keen scientific observations. He proved the association between the golden angle and the Fibonacci numbers. Karl also devised a theory of phyllotaxy which explained the serial addition of new leaves on a stem appearing in a spiral.
And after studying mountain landscapes, he began questioning how enormous rocks came to be positioned on the foothills of the Alps. Realizing the many-ton slabs could have only been moved by ice, he began devising a theory of an ice age - something he called an eiszeit.
Karl was a poet at heart, and he revealed his theory in a  light-hearted 22-stanza  poem - an Ode to the Iceage to honor Galileo on their shared birthday. One verse says,
Ice of the Past! Of an Age when frost
In its stern clasp held the lands of the South
Dressed with its mantle of desolate white
Mountains and forests, fair valleys and lakes!
 
In his book Humans: from the beginning, Christopher Seddon acknowledged Karl's discovery. He wrote:
2,588 million years ago... the Earth entered an Ice Age.
Cooler, arid conditions alternated with warm, wet conditions as ice sheets ebbed and flowed in higher latitudes...
This alternation between a cooler and a warmer climate has continued right up to the present day...
In fact the warm spells – interglacial periods – are no more than breaks in an on-going ice age...
The term Eiszeit ('ice age') was coined in 1837 by the German botanist Karl Friedrich Schimper.
 
1876 Birth of Ernest Henry Wilson (books by this author), English plant collector and explorer. He introduced over 2000 plant species from Asia to the West. Of the regal lily, he wrote,
Tis God's present to our gardens... 
Anybody might have found it, but — 
His whisper came to me.
 
On his first trip to China, Ernest located the lost Dove tree, Also known as the Handkerchief Tree. He brought the tree to England in 1899. Ernest found the yellow Chinese poppy, the Regal lily, rhododendrons, roses, and primulas on his second trip.
During that second trip, Ernest's leg was crushed in a landslide. His leg was splinted with his camera tripod. But before Ernest could be moved, a mule caravan came upon Ernest and his party. Ernest was forced to lie down on the narrow trail and let some 40-50 mules step over him on their way across the mountain. Ernest himself marveled at this experience, and he later said,
The sure-footedness of the mule is well-known, and I realized it with gratitude as these animals one by one passed over me - and not even one frayed my clothing.
 
A year later, Ernest could walk without crutches, but not with a limp - something he called his lily limp. He once reflected,
The regal lily was worth it and more.
 
Grow That Garden Library™ 
Book Recommendation
Sanctified Landscape by David Schuyler
This book came out ten years ago in 2012, and the subtitle is Writers, Artists, and the Hudson River Valley, 1820–1909.
David's book, the Sanctified Landscape, is about the first iconic American landscape: the Hudson River Valley. The title references a passage written by landscape painter Thomas Cole. 
In the early 1800s, the picturesque Hudson was home to writers and artists like Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and Thomas Cole. As far as the artistic community was concerned, there was no better place on earth. But the landscape was not immune to the changes happening in the country at large. The artist community in the Hudson Valley were among America's earliest conservationists and did their best to protect their slice of Eden.
The Catskill and Hudson Valley remain a beloved areas of the country. David's book adds context and images that provide a deeper appreciation for the beauty and inspiration found in this Sanctified Landscape.
You can get a copy of Sanctified Landscape by David Schuyler and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for $15. 
 
Botanic Spark
1843 Birth of Russell Herman Conwell, American Baptist minister, lawyer, and founder of Temple University in Philadelphia. He once wrote,
I ask not for a larger garden, but for finer seeds.
 
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1715 Birth of Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, Duchess of Portland, British aristocrat, naturalist, plant lover, and botanist. Her family and friends called her Maria. She and William Bentinck had five children; one of their sons became prime minister twice. When William died after their 27th anniversary, Maria threw herself into her passion: collecting.

As the wealthiest woman in England, she cultivated an enormous natural history collection. She hired two experts to personally attend each item: the naturalist Reverend John Lightfoot and the Swedish botanist Daniel Solander. There was so much activity at Maria's Buckinghamshire home; it was called the hive. Maria shared her collections in her Portland Museum. In 1800, Maria received a beautiful red rose dubbed The Portland Rose from Italy. Today, all Portland Roses are descended from the original rose gift.

1893 On this day, the territory of Oklahoma officially recognized Mistletoe as the State Flower. The decision was made fourteen years before Oklahoma officially became a state.

A symbol of Christmas, Mistletoe grows throughout southern Oklahoma and can be found growing in the tops of hardwood trees. Since it can be challenging to reach, Mistletoe is often shot out of trees with a shotgun.

Oklahoma was the first state in the country to adopt a State Flower. But over the years, Mistletoe became an increasingly controversial choice. The tiny flowers are almost invisible to the naked eye, and Mistletoe is actually a semi-parasitic subshrub. And so, after 111 years, Oklahoma selected the red Oklahoma rose, Rosa odorata, as its new State Flower in 2004.

1896 On this day, the Burlington Free Press in Vermont published an account of the winter meeting of the state botanical club.

During the Meeting, the Reverend JA Bates gave a presentation. He began his speech by telling of a boy who wrote a paper titled The Snakes of Ireland. The piece began, There are no snakes in Ireland.

As the Reverend began to speak, he bluntly pointed out the obvious: botany is not taught in schools.

In 1896, Reverend Bates said that "only one in forty students have studied botany." Then he attempted to explain why botany was not taught:

First, most of the teachers are poorly prepared for teaching botany. And second, botanists are conservative and conceal the charms of their study behind the long Latin names.

William Morris's Flowers by Rowan Bain

This book came out in 2019, and the author Rowan Bain is the senior curator at the William Morris Gallery.

Born in 1834 to a wealthy family, William was the leading figure of the Arts and Crafts Movement. As a designer, William Morris remains popular, and his designs have a timeless quality in terms of their appeal.

William grew up on the edge of Epping forest. He played and sketched in the family garden. At college, he became inspired by John Ruskin and the art and architecture of northern Europe, William ditched a plan to pursue life as a clergyman, and he started to pursue art.

As industrialization was taking hold, Morris sought to counter the smoke and grime advancement with design and art that celebrated the beauty of medieval times.

A singular talent, Morris collaborated with artisans, craftsmen, and people from many different trades. Today his carpet, fabric, and wallpaper patterns remain aesthetically captivating. The majority of Morris's work is based on nature and gardens. Trees, plants, and flowers figure prominently in his designs and patterns.

In this book, Rowan guides us through Morris's floral designs and his inspiration, which includes his own gardens at the Red House in Kent; sixteenth- and seventeenth-century herbals; illuminated medieval manuscripts; late medieval and Renaissance tapestries; and a range of decorated objects - including artifacts from the Islamic world.

This book is gorgeously illustrated with over one hundred color illustrations of Morris's centuries-old work and is sure to delight and inspire gardens still today.

You can get a copy of William Morris's Flowers by Rowan Bain and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for $15.

1856 Birth of Eliza Calvert Hall (books about this person), American author, women's rights advocate, and suffragist from Bowling Green, Kentucky. In Aunt Jane of Kentucky, she wrote:

Each of us has his own way of classifying humanity.

To me, as a child, men and women fell naturally into two great divisions:
those who had gardens and those who had only houses.

...The people who had gardens were happy Adams and Eves
walking in a golden mist of sunshine and showers,
with green leaves and blue sky overhead,
and blossoms springing at their feet;
while those others, dispossessed of life's springs, summers, and autumns,
appeared darkly entombed in shops and parlors
where the year might as well have been a perpetual winter.

And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.

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Botanical History On This Day

1745 The English botanist John Bradby Blake [BRAD-bee BLAKE] is born.
Though he lived a tragically short life - dying at just twelve days after his 28th birthday - John left behind an extraordinary legacy that bridges East and West through botanical art and discovery.

1877 William Rickatson Dykes [RICK-et-sun DYKES] is born in Bayswater, London.
Though he began his career as a classics teacher at Charterhouse School, it
was his passion for irises that would ultimately define his legacy.

1884 Harry Ferguson is born near Dromara [droh-MAR-ah] in County Down, Ireland.
While we often think of gardening in terms of hand tools and intimate connections with the soil, Ferguson revolutionized how we cultivate the earth on a grand scale.

Grow That Garden Library™ 

Read The Daily Gardener review of My Favorite Plant by Jamaica Kincaid

Buy the book on Amazon: My Favorite Plant by Jamaica Kincaid

Today's Botanic Spark

1994 Garden writer Barbara Pleasant just finished writing her article about extending summer's joy through winter by bringing our beloved bedding plants indoors.
The article appeared in the Montgomery Advertiser in Montgomery, Alabama, the following day on November 5th.

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Historical Events
1758 On this day, Carl Linneaus (books about this person), the man known as the "father of modern taxonomy," was feeling his age, which was fifty. He was also battling another bout of depression, and his Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day was poured out in words he wrote to his former pupil and friend, Abraham Bäck:
I cannot write more today; 
my hand is too weary to hold a pen. 
I am the child of misfortune. 
Had I a rope and English courage, 
I would long since have hanged myself. 
I fear that my wife is again pregnant. 
I am old and grey and worn out, and my house is already full
of children; who is to feed them? 
It was in an unhappy hour that I accepted the professorship; 
if only I had remained in my lucrative practice, all would now be well. 
Farewell, and may you be more fortunate. 
 
1766 Birth of Benjamin Smith Barton (books about this person), American botanist, naturalist, and physician. Benjamin worked as a Professor of Natural History and Botany at the University of Pennsylvania, where he authored the very first textbook on American Botany. In 1803, at Thomas Jefferson's request, he tutored Meriwether Lewis in botany to get him ready for the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Benjamin was no doubt excited for Meriwether's prospects. In 1798 Benjamin encouraged his fellow man to "add luster to their names" by looking for new medicines through plant discoveries. He wrote,
The volume of nature lies before you: it is hardly yet been opened: it has never been pursued...
[The] man who discovers one valuable new medicine is a more important benefactor to his species than Alexander, Caesar, or a hundred other conquerors.
 
2018 On this day, British botanists and horticulturalists Rod and Rachel Saunders were murdered by terrorists during their work in the oNgoye Forest.
The couple led extraordinary lives committed to scientific advancement and had spent decades seeking to better understand the natural world - especially the world of Gladiolus.
In the 1970s, they established Silverhill Seeds in Cape Town, the result of their lifelong dedication to collecting and studying rare South African plants.
At the time of their deaths, they were nearing the end of their mission to find and photograph every known species of Gladiolus in South Africa; they had only one flower left to find and photograph. In the wake of their deaths and without the help of their missing laptops and notes, a small dedicated team of people completed Rod and Rachel's project. The book Gladiolus of Southern Africa was the result. Professor Fiona Ross wrote in the forward,
Rod and Rachel always intended to dedicate the book to the tortoises they saved from Road deaths. We do not know what they would have said in their dedication, but to honor their intentions, this book recalls the tortoises. 
Historically gladioli symbolize courage. In contemporary floral or, they also represent perseverance and Remembrance, A fitting tribute to rod and Rachel's lives and work.
 
Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation
Fruit Trees for Every Garden by Orin Martin 
This book came out late in 2019, and the subtitle is An Organic Approach to Growing Apples, Pears, Peaches, Plums, Citrus, and More.
Orin is the long-time manager of the renowned Alan Chadwick Garden at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
This book won the book award from the American Horticultural Society.
Orin is a pragmatic plantsman, and his book is a genuinely useful resource for any budding fruit grower. The photos are beautiful, and the ease with which Orin shares his wisdom makes the reader want to plant a mini-orchard ASAP.
If you have any desire to grow your own healthy, bountiful fruit trees, then Orin's book is a must-have.
You can get a copy of Fruit Trees for Every Garden by Orin Martin and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for $16.
 
Botanic Spark
1882 Birth of Winifred Mary Letts, English writer. Gardeners often quote her thoughts on spring:
That God once loved a garden, we learn in Holy writ. 
And seeing gardens in the Spring, I well can credit it.
Winifred also wrote a poem about spring called Spring the Cheat, one of many poems she wrote about WWI. Winifred examines the season of rebirth (spring) with the never-ending season of loss that comes with war.
O exquisite spring, all this — and yet — and yet —
Kinder to me the bleak face of December
Who gives no cheating hopes, but says — "Remember."
 
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Historical Events
1769 Birth of Samuel Thompson (books about this person), American self-taught New Hampshire holistic doctor, and herbalist. In 1809, he was tried and acquitted for the murder of Ezra Lovett after treatment with lobelia inflata, a herb commonly called puke weed that he regarded as a key to treating disease. Despite his iconoclast approach to medicine, Samual's herbal remedies and vapor baths were popular, and his followers were known as Thompsonians. In addition to lobelia, Samuel primarily used herbs like barberry bark, red clover, and cayenne. In his New Guide to Health (1833), Samuel wrote,
I have made use of Cayenne in all kinds of disease, and have given it to patients of all ages and under every circumstance that has come under my practice... It is no doubt, the most powerful stimulant known, but its power is entirely congenial to nature, being powerful only in raising and maintaining that heat on which life depends.
 
1830 Birth of Henry Arthur Bright (books by this author), English gardener and writer. Henry began a diary, which would become a book called A Year in a Lancashire Garden. In February 1874, Henry was doing what gardeners do this time of year: cleaning up and editing the garden for the new season, looking through garden catalogs, and mulling over unappreciated plants - like the humble spring Crocus.
But all things are now telling of spring. We have finished our pruning of the wall-fruit; we have ...sown our earliest peas… We have been looking over old volumes of Curtis's Botanical Magazine and have been trying to get... old forgotten plants of beauty, and now of rarity. We have found enough, however, to add a fresh charm to our borders for June, July, and August...
I sometimes think that the Crocus is less cared for than it deserves. Our modern poets rarely mention it, but in Homer, when he would make a carpet for the gods, it is of Lotus, Hyacinth, and Crocus.
 
1944 Birth of Alice Walker (books by this author), American novelist, short story writer, poet, and social activist. In 1982, she published The Color Purple, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. In her book, In Search of Our Mother's Garden (1983), Alice wrote,
In search of my mother's garden, I found my own.
 
Grow That Garden Library™ 
Book Recommendation
The Wardian Case by Luke Keogh
This book came out late in 2020, and the subtitle is How a Simple Box Moved Plants and Changed the World.
When Australian Luke Keogh ("Key-oh") set out to tackle the topic of the Wardian case, he was working in Munich on an Anthropocene Exhibit and curating a piece about how goods had been moved around the globe. This topic led him to the topic of the Wardian Case. Wardian Cases are a great topic, and original Wardian cases are getting harder and harder to find.
For all their miraculous functionality, Wardian cases are actually quite simple. They essentially are wood boxes with a glass top. The box could be filled with potted plants or be layered with bricks, moss, and soil and then have plants potted directly into the box.
Luke's book is a look back at not only the cases but the inventor of the Wardian case and the man they were named for: Nathanial Bagshaw Ward. Nathaniel's story began in 1829 when he was struggling to grow plants. He lived close to the London docks, and there was a lot of air pollution, which wasn't suitable for plants or people. Anyway, Nathaniel was a life-long naturalist, and he decided that he wanted to create this perfect environment for a moth to grow in. So he settled on using a large bottle, and then he put the moth pupa in the bottle along with some plants. As he was waiting for the moth to hatch, he realized that he had a beautiful little fern growing in the little biosphere he created, and he was suddenly struck by how well the fern had grown in that sealed environment (as opposed to his home garden). And that was the inspiration for the Wardian case, which was essentially the precursor to the terrarium.
Nathaniel experimented for years before finally creating a Wardian case that could be used on ships and long voyages and make it possible for explorers to bring back live specimens. His first case went all the way to Australia. Ward waited for seven months for the ship to return, and he was pleased to hear from the captain that his case was a grand success. In fact, halfway through the journey, the plants were doing so well that they had to prune back some of the growth during the voyage.
In his book, Luke shares many fascinating stories about Ward and his cases and how they transformed plant exploration, food, and the world. For instance, Ward was passionate about having windowsill boxes in the homes of the lower class so that they could grow plants in their home. Luke's book offers wonderful insights, history, images, and maps of trade routes to help contextualize the importance of this simple and yet profound invention.
You can get a copy of The Wardian Case by Luke Keogh and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for $25.
 
Botanic Spark
1874 Birth of Amy Lawrence Lowell (books by this author), an American poet of the imagist school. In 1926, she posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for a collection that included her popular poem Lilacs.
In Madonna of the Evening Flowers, Amy wrote:
You tell me that the peonies need spraying,
That the columbines have overrun all bounds,
That the pyrus japonica should be cut back and rounded.
You tell me these things.
 
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener
And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.

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Historical Events
1809 On this day, Thomas Jefferson (books about this person) wrote to his friend and favorite nurseryman, Bernhard McMahon.
At the time, Jefferson was counting the days until he retired from the White House.
From Jefferson's letters, it's clear that he was looking forward to spending more time in his garden.
The previous July, Jefferson had written McMahon and confided:
Early in the next year I shall ask [for] some cuttings of your gooseberries 
and [I'll also] send a pretty copious list for...the best kinds of garden seeds and flowers. 
I shall be at home early in March [and plan to] very much devote myself to my garden… 
I have the tulips you sent to me in great perfection, also the hyacinths, tuberoses, amaryllis, and artichokes.
 
And so, when Jefferson wrote to McMahon on this day - a month before leaving office - he was following up with the list of plants he wanted at Monticello ("MontiCHELLo"). As you might imagine, Jefferson's letter reads the same as any written by an avid gardener in pursuit of new stock:
Sir
I have been daily expecting some of the large hiccory nuts from Roanoke… 
but they [have] not yet arrived.   
I must now ask [a] favor of you 
to furnish me with the [items mentioned below] for the garden, 
which will occupy much of my attention... at home. 
…If you will be so good as to send them by the stage 
which leaves Philadelphia on the 1st of March… 
they will come in time for me to carry on to Monticello. 
I salute you with esteem.
Th: Jefferson

• Chili strawberry
• Hudson strawberry
• Some of the fine gooseberry plants of which you sent me the fruit last year
• Some roots of Crown imperials(Fritillaria imperialis - a dazzling and unique member of the Lily (Liliaceae) family)
• lilium convallarium (lily of the valley)
• Auricula
• Sea kale, or Crambe maritime
• One gallon of Leadman's dwarf peas (mentioned in your book page 310)

 
1823 John Galvin was born. An English-American born in Kent, he mastered his grandfather's nursery business in Ireland before immigrating to America with his mother at 18.
After working for several nurseries in New England, including the property owned by Thomas Motley which would eventually become the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard, John went on to beautify Boston as the City's Forester. John's greatest legacy was transforming old circus grounds and a playground into the Boston Public Garden. After the Massachusetts Public Garden Act was passed in 1856, George Meacham was hired to design the park. But it was John Galvin, and his crew who installed the trees, shrubs, flowers, and turf.
Outside of his work for the city, John opened the very first retail florist shop in Boston, making life much easier for him and his customers. Before John's flower shop, Bostonians had to order their roses and other cut flowers by mail. They would put their orders in little post boxes that John had placed in various stores around the city. It was a cumbersome process. John named his business John Galvin & Co., and the work became a family affair as John's wife and seven children helped the business prosper. Over time, the middle child, a son named Thomas, took over the business, and he became a successful gardener, landscape designer, and florist in his own right.
John was a beloved member of many Boston social and charitable groups. He embraced his Irish heritage and loved dancing jigs and reels. One obituary noted that his favorite Irish song was Malony Don't Know that McCarthy is Dead, sung to the tune of the Irish Washerwoman.
Two years before he died, at the age of 76, the April 6th, 1899 edition of the New England Florist shared a little story about John. They wrote,
The veteran florist John Galvin, the father of Thomas W Galvin, had his pocket picked on the street the other day - March 31st, we believe. But [he] knew nothing about it until told by a friend whom [John] suspected of trying to spring an April Fool's on him. [That is,] until he found his pocketbook with $70 in cash missing.
[But in a stroke of good fortune,] the thief, while being chased by the police, [dropped the pocketbook.] [John's ownership] was ascertained [after finding] his name marked [inside].
The moral is to get $70 in your pocketbook and then be sure your name is on it.
 
1944 On this day, Del Monte ran an ad supporting the quality of their canned and jarred fruit over homegrown. 
Despite prior marketing in support of Victory Gardens, on this day Del Monte floated a pitch to consumers on this day during WWII that featured a woman holding a can of peaches saying,
I learned the hard way all right! — and believe me, since I put up fruit of my own I appreciate Del Monte quality more than ever!
 
Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation
Treasures of the Mexican Table by Pati Jinich
This book came out late in 2021, and the subtitle is Classic Recipes, Local Secrets.
This is Pati's third cookbook. It follows two previous cookbooks that were very well received: Pati's Mexican Table: The Secrets of Real Mexican Home Cooking and Mexican Today: New and Rediscovered Recipes for the Contemporary Kitchen.
Born and raised in Mexico City, Pati Jinich ("Hee-nich") hosts her PBS television series Pati's Mexican Table, which is going on its tenth season and has won numerous awards, including James Beard Awards and Emmys.
In her latest cookbook book, Treasures of the Mexican Table, Pati is sharing heirloom recipes that have been held onto in families for generations. These recipes utilize vegetables like peppers, onion, garlic, and countless herbs straight from the garden. If Chipotle's success indicates the popularity of Mexican food, then Pati's Treasures will be sure to please - taking center stage on your outdoor dining tables this summer. Pati's cookbook is a hefty work - 416 pages and weighing in at almost three pounds.
Inside, you'll find history and tradition, as well as cherished family recipes covering every category of cooking from soups to tacos, quesadillas, burritos and tamales and salsas, pickles, guacamole, beans, rice, and pasta, just to name a few.
You can get a copy of Pati Jinich Treasures of the Mexican Table by Pati Jinich and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for $23.
 
Botanic Spark
1819 Birth of John Ruskin (books by this author), Victorian-era English art critic, watercolorist, and philanthropist.
John's love of nature is reflected in much of his writing. John wrote:
Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty.
 
John also recognized that beauty and utility didn't always go hand in hand. He once observed,
Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies, for instance.
 
John's named his home and garden Brantwood. The name Brantwood is Norse; Brant means steep. Situated on a wooded highpoint overlooking a lake, today Brantwood is administered by a charitable trust.
As with most gardens from time to time, John's own garden experienced times of neglect. By the end of the summer in 1879, John wrote,
Looking over my kitchen garden yesterday, I found it [a] miserable mass of weeds gone to seed; the roses in the higher garden putrefied into brown sponges, feeling like dead snails; and the half-ripe strawberries all rotten at the stalks.
 
As for his legacy, there's one famous garden saying from John Ruskin that has remained popular through the years:
Kind hearts are the garden,
Kind thoughts are the roots,
Kind words are the blossoms,
Kind deeds are the fruit.
 
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener
And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.

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Historical Events
1688 Birth of Cadwallader Colden (books about this person), Scottish-American physician, botanist, and Lieutenant Governor of New York. The genus Coldenia in the borage family is named for him. After arriving in the United States in 1718, Cadwallader and his wife raised ten children in Queens on their Coldenham estate. His fifth child was a girl named Jane, and early on, she expressed interest in botany. Cadwallader could not resist teaching her the topic. He opened up his library to her, shared his correspondence with her, and allowed her to be present when the family was visited by many of the leading botanists of the time, like John Bertram. Today Jane is remembered as America's first female botanist. Cadwallader was so proud of Jane that he once wrote to a friend,
I (have) often thought that botany is an amusement which may be made greater to the ladies who are often at a loss to fill up their time… I have a daughter (with) an inclination... for natural philosophy or history… I took the pains to explain to her Linnaeus's system and put it in English for her. She [has] grown very fond of the study… Notwithstanding that, she does not understand Latin. She has already (written) a pretty large volume in... the description of plants.
 
1812 Birth of Charles Dickens (books by this author). The English Victorian-era writer and social critic had a garden at Gad's Hill Place, and he walked around the garden every day before writing. Charles' favorite flower was the Mrs. Pollock geranium (1858). The bloom is a classic geranium, bred by the Scottish gardener and hybridist Peter Grieve. Charles grew geraniums in his garden and conservatory at Gad's Hill. He even wore geraniums on his lapel. Charles' novels contain many garden references.
In Hard Times, he wrote,
Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else.
And in Bleak House, he wrote:
I found every breath of air, and every scent, and every flower and leaf and blade of grass and every passing cloud, and everything in nature, more beautiful and wonderful to me than I had ever found it yet. This was my first gain from my illness. How little I had lost, when the wide world was so full of delight for me.
 
1880 On this day, Henri Frederic Amiel (books about this person), Swiss philosopher and poet, wrote in his journal:
Hoarfrost and fog, but the general aspect is bright and fairylike and has nothing in common with the gloom in Paris and London, of which the newspapers tell us. This silvery landscape has a dreamy grace, a fanciful charm, which is unknown both to the countries of the sun and to those of coal smoke. The trees seem to belong to another creation, in which white has taken the place of green…. No harshness anywhere -- all is velvet. My enchantment beguiled me out both before and after dinner. 
 
Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation
Green by Ula Maria
This book came out in 2020, and the subtitle is Simple Ideas For Small Outdoor Spaces.
Jason Ingram did a lovely job capturing beautiful images of these enchanting outdoor vignettes designed by Ula Maria.
Ula Maria is a young landscape designer from Lithuania. She won the RHS Young Designer of the Year Medal back in 2017.
In her book, Green, Ula is determined to reveal a simple truth about dealing with outdoor spaces: you don't have to be a plant guru to have a beautiful and functional outdoor space. There are styles and types of gardens to suit every individual.
In this book, Ula focuses on outdoor spaces that are on the smaller side. Do you want to install a tiny Oasis on the balcony of your apartment? No problem. Are you looking to add a touch of the Mediterranean to your garden space and incorporate more color and vibrancy into an outdoor dining room? Well, Ula has you covered.
Ula shares some of her favorite plants, and she divides them into functional areas like plants that can be used for structure or interest, et cetera.
Stepping outside the comfort zone of your home and into the unknown of the outdoors may seem daunting at first. But remember that, unlike interior spaces, even the best gardens are never truly finished and are often frayed around the edges.
This sentiment is something that Ula embraces, saying, "that's the beauty of nature." 
Ula's book is 176 pages of doable ideas and encouragement to get your creativity flowing regarding your 2022 outdoor spaces - whether they're around your home or out in the garden,
You can get a copy of Green by Ula Maria and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes.
Note: I saw that a few used copies were going for around $4, but you'll need to act quickly if you want to get one at that price.
 
Botanic Spark
1867 Laura Ingalls Wilder (books by this author)was born.
The writer, Marta McDowell, profiled Laura in one of her recent books, and she shed new light on Laura as a naturalist in one of her blog posts. She wrote,
Long before she was a writer. Laura Ingalls Wilder was a gardener and farmer growing food for the table and raising crops for sale.
In early February of 1918, over a hundred years ago, this month, Laura Ingalls Wilder used her writing talents to encourage people to garden in an article that she wrote for a local newspaper. Laura wrote,
Now is the time to make a garden. 
Anyone can be a successful gardener at this time of year and I know of no pleasant, her occupation these cold snowy days than to sit warm and snug by the fire making a garden with a pencil and a seed catalog. 
What perfect vegetables do we raise in that way? Best of all, there is not a bug or worm in the whole garden and the work is so easily done. 
How near the real garden of summer approaches the ideal garden of our winter fancies depends upon how practically we dream. and how hard we work. 
 
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener
And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.

Today in botanical history, we celebrate Laurel Hill and Root Crop Preservation in 1835.
We'll also remember the botanist who discovered the Titan arum and a little poem about the November garden by Louise Driscoll.
We'll hear an excerpt from Pomegranate Soup.
We Grow That Garden Library™ with a beautiful garden book from 2016.
And then we'll wrap things up with a look back at a charming garden column from 1999.
 
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"Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast."
And she will. It's just that easy.
 
The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter
Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:

• A personal update from me
• Garden-related items for your calendar
• The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week
• Gardener gift ideas
• Garden-inspired recipes
• Exclusive updates regarding the show

Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf.
 
Gardener Greetings
Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org
 
Facebook Group
If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community.
So, there's no need to take notes or search for links.
The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join.
I'd love to meet you in the group.
 
Curated News
Circulating Specimens: History | herbariumworld.wordpress.com | Maura Flannery
 
Important Events
November 16, 1776
On this day, around 7 am Hessian troops allied with the Britsh opened fire on the American revolutionaries on Laurel Hill in Philadelphia. Laurel Hill is not named for the plant called Laurel. Laurel Hill was originally part of the Joseph Sims estate, and Joseph went by "Laurel," the property was named Laurel Hill in his honor.
Mountain Laurel is botanically known as Kalmia latifolia in honor of the Finnish botanist Pehr Kalm.
After his expedition to North America in the mid-1700s, Pehr correctly predicted that the American colonists would eventually rebel.
Laurel Hill became America's first National Historic Landmark Cemetery.
 
November 16, 1835
On this day, the Hartford Courant wrote a piece called Gardener's Work For November.
It is now quite time to [preserve] the roots and ...Mr. McMahon's method of preserving roots is as follows:
Previous to the commencement of severe frost, you should take up, with as little injury as possible, the roots of your turnips, carrots, parsnips, beets, salsify, scorzonera, Hamburg, or large-rooted parsley, skirrots, Jerusalem artichokes, turnip-rooted celery, and ...horseradish…
On the surface of a dry spot of ground, in a well-sheltered situation, lay a stratum of sand two-inches thick, [the place the root crops], covering them with another layer of sand, (the drier the better,) and…continue to layer about of sand and roots till all are laid in…
then cover the heap or ridge [with] a good coat of straw, up and down as if thatching a house.
 
November 16, 1843
Birth of Odoardo Beccari, Italien botanist.
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 could 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, a 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 recent fascinating article, scent scientists 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 unmentionable compounds.
The putrid smell is meant to attract beetles and other insects to move pollen between blooming plants so that they can reproduce. It takes the corpse flower a decade before it can bloom. 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 fifty 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.
 
November 16, 1920
On this day, The Buffalo Times shared a poem by Louise Driscoll that had appeared in The New York Times called November Garden. Here's the first and last verse.
In my November garden,
I found a larkspur blossoming, 
A lovely, radiant blue thing. 
It swayed and shone, 
And did not seem to know
It was alone 
In my November garden. 
Where dry, dark leaves are falling 
And all the birds have flown.
The birds and Summer went 
A way that no man knows.
But here is honey that
No bee will find. 
No bird will linger at 
This larkspur cup.
This grace the butterfly 
Has left behind.
Summer went away
And gave it up
Yet it is bravely blue
Swinging there alone 
As if to challenge you!
 
 
Unearthed Words

It is the pomegranate that gives Fesenjoon its healing capabilities. The original apple of sin, the fruit of a long-gone Eden, the pomegranate shields itself in a leathery crimson shell, which in Roman times was used as a form of protective hide. Once the pomegranate's bitter skin is peeled back, though, a juicy garnet flesh is revealed to the lucky eater, popping and bursting in the mouth like the final succumber of lovemaking.
Long ago, when the earth remained still, content with the fecundity of perpetual spring, and Demeter was the mother of all that was natural and flowering, it was this tempting fruit that finally set the seasons spinning. Having eaten six pomegranate seeds in the underworld, Persephone, the Goddess of Spring's high-spirited daughter, had been forced to spend six months of the year in the eternal halls of death. Without her beautiful daughter by her side, a mournful Demeter retreated to the dark corners of the universe, allowing for the icy gates of winter to finally creak open. A round crimson herald of frost, the pomegranate comes to harvest in October and November, so Fesenjoon is best made with its concentrate during other times of the year.
― Marsha Mehran, Pomegranate Soup
 
Grow That Garden Library
Plant by Phaidon Editors 
This book came out in 2016, and the subtitle is Exploring the Botanical World.
This book is gorgeous. You might remember it - it's got a black background and then a simple blossom design. Each of the leaves is made with a different type of fabric which makes for a magnificent cover.
Now, of course, like all Phaidon books, this book is so visually appealing from the cover to the inside of the book. The whole point is to show the beauty and the diversity of plants through 300 works of botanical art that date back from ancient times all the way to modern times.
You'll see plants and flowers and the entire botanical world portrayed using a variety of different mediums.
Phaidon did a great job of curating all of these images. This is the first book to pull together botanical art across so many different media types and from such a broad timeline and every corner of the globe.
Of course, in this book, you're going to see beautiful botanical art, but then you're also going to get lots of expert information about the pieces of art and the plants that are depicted.
Phaidon is known for putting together high-level, very specialized books. And in this case, to tackle this broad topic of plants, they pulled together all kinds of experts, museum curators, horticulturists, historians, botanists, and more. Then they had each of them contribute their expertise in creating the text for this book.
I love what Gardens Illustrated wrote about this book:
"A dazzling collection of more than 300 images of plants that brings the evolution of botanical art right into the 21st century... Alongside old favorites, such as Redoute and Mary Delany, there is much here that is both unfamiliar and arresting... An extraordinary collection." 
This book is 352 pages of botanical art that gives us a new appreciation and understanding of plants and their role in our history and culture.
You can get a copy of Plant: Exploring the Botanical World by Phaidon Editors and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $17.
 
Today's Botanic Spark
Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart
November 16, 1999
On this day, The Columbus Telegram shared a column by Elizabeth Coblentz  - an Old Order Amish woman who handwrote her column by lantern light in her Indiana home.
November is now on the calendar, and we are still having beautiful days in the 70s. The laundry is drying well out there on the clothesline, and work is continuing in our garden. 
I have been taking the celery, carrots, red beets, cabbage, and pumpkins out from the garden today. Hopefully, the weather will stay nice, and some vegetables will grow even larger. 
To the reader who sent me radish and turnip seeds to plant: I did plant them in August, and we are now feasting on them. They are very good and tender, which was surprising considering our hot, dry summer. 
I put some leftover small potatoes in the ground, and the yield was good. I should have put more sweet potato plants in the ground, but at least we have enough for a good taste this winter. We'll be glad for all this hard work in the garden during the long, cold, dark days of January when we can open those canning jars and taste the bounty of summer. 
Sunday evening, we planned a favorite around here for supper: tacos. 
We had a large gathering, but having family over is the best of times. Those sweet, precious grandchildren are always welcome here, so the house was full of children. We all enjoy a taco supper. The tomatoes, mangoes (peppers) and onions used on the tacos were all from our garden. Canned hamburger was browned for the tacos, and there was lots more to feast on because everyone else brought a covered dish. As the family gets bigger and older we have to use larger containers now. 
Here is a good dessert to use those beets from the garden:
 
Red Beet Chocolate Cake 
1 1/2 cups sugar 
3 eggs 
1 cup oil 
1 1/2 cups cooked, pureed, fresh beets 
2 (1 ounce) squares of unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled 
1 teaspoon vanilla 
1 3/4 cups flour 
1/2 teaspoon salt 
1/2 teaspoon baking soda 
sifted confectioner's sugar

• Mix flour, soda, and salt. Set aside.
• Combine sugar, eggs, and oil in a mixing bowl. Stir vigorously. (People who use electric mixers can use them here at medium speed for 2 minutes.)
• Beat in beets, chocolate, and vanilla.
• Gradually add dry ingredients, beating well after each addition.
• Pour into buttered 9-inch by 13-inch cake pan.
• Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or till cake tests done when a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in pan.
• Cover and let stand overnight to improve flavor. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

PS. You can put cream cheese icing on instead of powdered sugar.
 
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener.
And remember:
"For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today in botanical history, we celebrate nutmeg, some flower recommendations for a green garden, and the rebirth of the NYC flower show after a ten-year hiatus.
We'll hear an excerpt from some writing by Ray Bradbury.
We Grow That Garden Library™ with a beautiful book by Bunny Williams.
And then we'll wrap things up with the fate of Empress Josephine's copy of Pierre-Joseph Redoute's botanical watercolors known as ''Les Liliacees'' (''The Lilies'').  
 
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"Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast."
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The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter
Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:

• A personal update from me
• Garden-related items for your calendar
• The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week
• Gardener gift ideas
• Garden-inspired recipes
• Exclusive updates regarding the show

Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf.
 
Gardener Greetings
Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org
 
Facebook Group
If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community.
So, there's no need to take notes or search for links.
The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community where you'd search for a friend... and request to join.
I'd love to meet you in the group.
 
Curated News
First NYC Tree Canopy Study Shows Growth as Storms and Budget Cuts Threaten Gains | thecity.nyc | Rachel Holliday Smith
 
Important Events
November 15, 1843
On this day, the New England Farmer ran a little blurb about the Nutmeg Tree.
The nutmeg tree flourishes in Singapore, near the equator. It is raised from the nut in nurseries, where it remains till the fifth year when it puts forth its first blossoms and shows its sex. It is then set out permanently. The trees are planted thirty feet apart, in diamond order a male tree in the center. They begin to bear in the eighth year, increasing for many years, and they pay a large profit. There is no nutmeg season. Every day of the year shows buds, blossoms, and fruit, in every stage of growth to maturity. The nutmeg is a large and beautiful tree, with thick foliage and of a rich green color. The ripe fruit is singularly brilliant. The shell is glossy black, and the mace it exposes when it bursts, is of a bright scarlet, making the tree one of the most beautiful objects of the vegetable world. 
Well, this article from 1843 was correct. Nutmeg trees can actually grow to be about 65 feet tall. They bear fruit for six decades or longer - so they're very productive. The fruit of the nutmeg tree resembles and apricots.  
And by the way, in case you're wondering the nutmeg is not a nut, it is a fruit - and that's why people with nut allergies can enjoy nutmeg because it's not a nut.
Now the botanical name for nutmeg is Myristica fragrans. The etymology of the word Myristica is Greek and means "fragrance for anointing", which gives us a clue to one of the ways that nutmeg was used in ancient times.
You may have heard that nutmeg is illegal in Saudi Arabia. According to the journal of medical toxicology, nutmeg can be toxic and in Saudi Arabia, they consider nutmeg to be a narcotic.  Nutmeg is not allowed anywhere in the country unless it's already incorporated into some type of pre-blended spice mix.
 
November 15, 1981
On this day, Henry Mitchell wrote an article for the Washington Post called Blooms in the Boxwood in which he shared some of his favorite plants to grow in a primarily-green garden.
Regarding the Japanese anemone, Henry wrote,
It abides a good bit of shade and never looks better than against a background of box and ivy. The delicate-looking (but tough as leather) flowers are like white half-dollars set on a branching stem about four feet high, with a yellow boss of stamens in the middle. Its leaves all spring from the ground, like large green polished hands, so it looks good from spring to fall, and in winter you tidy it up and the earth is bare (sprigs of the native red cedar or holly can be stuck in…
Regarding bugbane, Henry wrote,
...named for its supposed baneful effect on bugs... Its foliage is as good as or better than that of the anemone, and in October it opens its foxtail flowers (a quite thin fox, admittedly) on firm thin stems waist to chest high. The flowers are made of hundreds of tiny white florets, somewhat like an eremurus or a buddleis, only more gracefully curving than either. Against a green wall it is very handsome; gardeners who sometimes wonder what is wrong with marigolds and zinnias, reproached for their weedy coarseness, need only consult the bugbane to see the difference in elegance. 
For Chrysanthemums, Henry advises:
As fall comes, you might indulge in a white cushion chrysanthemum. Chrysanthemums in my opinion cannot be made to look very grand or elegant, so I would not overdo them. Of course, they are fine for specialists who like to grow hundreds of different sorts, but I am speaking of just a green garden with a touch of white. Then you come again to the white Japanese anemones and bugbanes.
 
November 15, 1984
On this day, The New York Times announced the return of a Spring Flower Show for the city.
The International Flower Show ended, after over 10 years of exhibiting in the Coliseum, because of increasing costs and the demise of estates that recruited their garden staffs to create and grow exhibits,
The new show's exhibition space will be 60,000 square feet, as against the 200,000 square feet provided by the Coliseum. An advantage of the new flower show's layout is that it will be on one floor.
Larry Pardue, executive director of the Horticultural Society of New York, sponsor of the show, said: 
''It will be unlike any show in the country. Rather than view a series of small gardens, visitors will be totally immersed in two huge gardens, 76 feet by over 100 feet long. It will be designed to be an emotional experience.''
By all accounts, the 1985 flower show was a huge success and was visited by more than 83,000 people.
Larry Pardue became the Sarasota, Florida executive director of the Marie Selby Botanic Gardens, which specialized in orchids, bromeliads, and other epiphytes.
 
Unearthed Words
One day many years ago, a man walked along and stood in the sound of the ocean on a cold sunless shore and said,
"We need a voice to call across the water, to warn ships; I'll make one. I'll make a voice that is like an empty bed beside you all night long, and like an empty house when you open the door, and like the trees in autumn with no leaves. A sound like the birds flying south, crying, and a sound like November wind and the sea on the hard, cold shore. I'll make a sound that's so alone that no one can miss it, that whoever hears it will weep in their souls, and to all who hear it in the distant towns. I'll make me a sound and an apparatus and they'll call it a Fog Horn, and whoever hears it will know the sadness of eternity and the briefness of life."
The Fog Horn blew.
― Ray Bradbury, The Fog Horn
 
Grow That Garden Library
A House by the Sea by Bunny Williams
This fantastic book came out in 2016 and it is all about Bunny's marvelous, Caribbean home called La Colina.
This book is a beautiful coffee table book and what's really neat about this book is that each chapter is written by her friends. So Bunny has one friend write about the architecture and then another friend discusses the collections and another friend talks about the cooking and the food. Then Paige Dickey, the garden writer, toured the gardens and writes this wonderful essay about Bunny's beautiful gardens at La Colina.
Of course,  if I wasn't a huge bunny Williams fan if I didn't have her book called An Affair With A House or her book On Garden Style,  I maybe would be tempted not to get this book. But I am a huge bunny Williams fan and I know that everything she does is done with so much beauty, grace, and style that I could not resist getting a copy of this book.
Then once I learned that Paige Dickey was the person that got to review the gardens? Well, then I had to get my copy of this book.
This beautiful book would make a great Christmas present. The photographs are absolutely incredible.
I'll tell you a few of my favorite things from the garden section of this book. There is an entrance to the cactus garden that features all of this blue pottery and in each one of these blue pots is a cactus which makes for a stunning entrance to her cactus garden.
There's also a gorgeous stone shell fountain at the end of the swimming pool and it's covered in vine. In fact, Bunny is known for her use of vines in the garden - something to keep your eyes peeled for if you get this book because you'll see her use of vines throughout the garden. Bunny not only has vines climbing up structures, but they also just ramble around and kind of make their way - softening a lot of the hard edges in the garden.
The hardscapes are absolutely to die for and there's an avenue of Palm trees in this over-the-top, incredible garden. The entire property is just truly breathtaking.
This book is 256 pages of Bunny Williams in the Caribbean and it's a must-have if you enjoy Bunny Williams and her work.
You can get a copy of A House by the Sea by Bunny Williams and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $20.
 
Today's Botanic Spark
Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart

November 15, 1985
On this day, The New York Times announced the auction of Empress Josephine's copy of Pierre-Joseph Redoute's botanical watercolors for ''Les Liliacees'' (''The Lilies'').
Now the speculation in this article was that the auction could go from being five minutes long to five hours or longer. They had no idea who was going to ultimately win this particular auction and they estimated that Redoute The Lilies would go for anywhere from $5 to $7 million.
Now this work was extra special because it was commissioned by Marie Antoinette. In fact, there's a famous story that Marie wanted to make sure that Redoute was as good as what she had heard and so she summoned him to come to her chambers in the middle of the night, one night and when he got there, she ordered him to paint her a cactus on the spot. He did and so obviously he proved his worth to her and he began painting many of the flowers that were in the Royal Gardens.
Now Josephine Bonaparte was a huge lover of the gardens. She loved the flowers. She loved all of the new, exotic flowers from the tropics so she was always looking for new, beautiful blossoms to put in the Royal garden and of course, she was a huge Redoute fan.
This impressive Redoute collection became hers and was passed on through her family line until 1935 when the collection was auctioned off in Zurich. Since that time it was held in a vault, in a bank as part of a family trust.
Now, when it came to this particular auction, the reporter for this article spoke with a London dealer named Peter Mitchell who specialized in flower paintings and stressed the important significance of this work. He felt it was so unusual to have all of these originals still intact and still so beautiful and he expressed his concern that the collection might be bought by a syndicate, which basically means that a group of people would get together to buy the collection and then split it up. Thus, everybody in the syndicate would get their share of the collection.
To cut the suspense, that's exactly what ended up happening.
I checked the New York times for the result of this sale and here's what they wrote.
"The sale lasted only three minutes. It was one of the fastest ever for such an expensive property. And the price achieved was the 10th highest for work purchased at an art auction house. 
''I have $5 million against all of you on the phone and most of you standing,'' John L. Marion, Sotheby's president, said from the rostrum. ''Is there any advance on $5 million? I give you fair warning - sold for $5 million.'' The 10 percent buyer's commission brought the total selling price to $5.5 million.
Now the gentleman that represented the syndicate said that he thought the collection was worth $20 million and so he was thrilled with his purchase. He also gave a little insight into the syndicate, which was made up of executives from different companies, there was also a shopping mall developer, partners in law firms, commodities traders, as well as every major investment bank in New York. He said that. 75% of them wanted the watercolors for themselves (they wanted to own a piece of Redoute's botanical art) while the other 25% were using it purely for investment.
And so that was the fate of Pierre Joseph Redoute's The Lilies collection of botanical watercolors that had been owned by Empress Josephine Bonaparte.
Today for you and I, we can purchase copies of Redoute's work on Etsy for around $20.
 
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener.
And remember:
"For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today in botanical history, we celebrate a German-American botanist who reached out to Queen Charlotte, an American poet who found inspiration in nature and the father of ecology.
We'll hear an excerpt from The Sugar Queen - a great fiction book.
We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that's part of a wonderfully informative series from the RHS.
And then we'll wrap things up with a little story about the glory of Kansas gardens in November.
 
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The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join.
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Curated News
The Almanac A Seasonal Guide to 2021by Lia Leendertz 

Mercy Park garden adds 3 new sculptures | The Joplin Globe | Emily Younker
 
Important Events
November 3, 1766
On this day, a young botanist named  William Young returned to America after receiving the title of the Queen's botanist.
William Young was born in Germany, and he immigrated to the United States when he was just a little boy at the age of two.
His family settled in Philadelphia and eventually became neighbors to one of America's first botanists, John Bartram.
Growing up, William spent a great deal of his childhood exploring Bartram's gardens. Bertram even encouraged him to pursue botany, and he took him along on some collecting trips.
By all accounts, William was a smart and self-directed young man. When he was in his early twenties, he decided that he wanted to get the attention of the brand new Queen of England, Queen Charlotte.
Charlotte was the bride of George III, and William put together a little parcel for her - a little gift of seeds - along with a letter (no doubt congratulating her on her wedding and introducing himself as an American botanist.)
Charmed by William's thoughtful gift, Charlotte decided to summon William to England. She wanted him to come to England to study botany for a year and then return to America to collect plants on behalf of the royal family. And so that's exactly what William Young ended up doing.
When he left America, he had no formal training in botany. He was, however, full of potential and eager to learn. This opportunity in England was an extraordinary chance for William to learn the science of botany from the worldwide center for botanical research: England.
At the same time, this series of events caused a bit of jealousy and a shock in the American botanical community. John Bartram himself was an old man by the time this happened for William, and he made comments along the lines of, "Hey, I've been in America, collecting and cultivating for decades, and I've never received an offer like this."
And so many of the American botanists really couldn't believe William's good fortune. His trip was essentially like winning a botanist lottery with the promise not only of training but steady work and support from a generous, well-funded patron.
Despite Charlotte's hopes for William, his peers were dubious of William's ability to measure up to the task. While William was passionate about botany, he hadn't demonstrated any particular acumen or success that should have garnered the kind of opportunity that had come his way. The bottom line was, they didn't think William had it in him.
Yet, William's critics were not entirely fair. After all, William had been bold enough to send that package of seeds to the new Queen. And he was smart enough to leverage his German heritage when he wrote to her. Charlotte had German heritage as well, and when she first came to England, she surrounded herself with other Germans who spoke her language and shared her history, customs, and culture. Summoning William to England was just another example of Queen Charlotte making herself feel more at home away from home.
When William arrived in England, he was in his early twenties. He had a huge learning curve to conquer when it came to his new station in life. He had no idea what it was like to be in front of royalty or how to behave in Royal circles.
Of course, William didn't have a ton of life experience as a young person in his twenties. So, he performed exactly as one might imagine he would: dazzled by the luxury and lifestyle, he quickly began racking up bills. With each passing month, he found himself deeper in debt until he ended up arrested and in jail for the large debts that he owed.
Incredibly, it was the Queen who bailed him out - but not before sending him home to Philadelphia with the hopes that he could still perform as a plant collector in America.
And so it was on this day. November 3 in 1766, that William returned to America with his new title as botanist to the King and Queen. Instead of being humbled by his financial misdeeds, William returned proud and haughty. He strutted about under the auspices of his Royal appointment, but his behavior didn't endear him to his American peers.
They heard the rumors about how William had acted when he was in England and they were turned off by his peacocking and attire. In a letter to the botanist Peter Collinson, John Bartram wrote,
"I am surprised that Young is come back so soon. He cuts the greatest figure in town and struts along the streets whistling, with his sword and gold lace."
And then Bartram confided that William had visited his garden three times, feigning respect and bragging about his yearly pay from the Royal family, which amounted to 300 pounds sterling.
Now William was no fool, and it's clear that he craved acceptance from his peers. At the same time, he was probably aware of how some of his peers truly felt about him. But he did not dwell on this conundrum and focused on his work. He still had collecting to do for the King and Queen, and he needed to mend fences on that front if he ever hoped to make it as a botanist. And so, he set off for the Carolinas, where he spent an entire year collecting plants. Then, he carefully and quite expertly packaged up all of the plants that he had found and traveled back to London - personally bringing all of these plants to the King and Queen and hoping to get back in their good graces.
Although William arrived in England only to be refused to be seen by the King and Queen, he still managed to make his trip a resounding success. By shepherding rare, live plants in wonderful condition from the Carolinas to England, he impressed English collectors.
And there was one plant in particular that really helped to repair and save William's reputation, and that was the Venus Fly Trap. William brought many live specimens of the Venus flytrap to England, and as one might imagine, the plant caused a sensation.
Without the flytrap, there was probably little that William could say to restore his reputation. So in this sense, his plants, especially the Venus flytrap, did the mending and the PR work for him. What William did was essentially no different than an apologetic spouse who brings their partner flowers after a fight. That's exactly what William did on this trip when he returned and presented the Venus flytrap to England.
One other fact about this trip is that William proved himself to be an expert plant packer. Clearly, one of the biggest challenges for early botanists was keeping specimens alive - that was really hard to do. Dead specimens didn't garner anywhere near the attention or pay of living plants. William's skill in this area underscores just how intelligent and thoughtful William could be. A 1771 letter to Humphrey Marshall detailed William's packing technic:
William Young sends his plants very safely by wrapping them in moss and packing them pretty close [together] in a box. He ties the moss in a ball around the roots with a piece of packthread...It's very surprising how well they keep in this manner. 
William's method differs little from the way plants are packaged and sent by mail today.
William ends up devoting his life to botany. He returned to American and collected plants in the Carolinas, returning to England when he had a full shipment. William mastered his collecting strategy over his lifetime - returning again and again to the Carolinas, scouring the wilderness for rare plants like the Venus flytrap that had brought him so much success.
Along the way, William continued to struggle financially as he paid his debts. But by the end of his life, William was able to get his affairs in order, and he actually died a fairly wealthy man. Tragically, he died young at the age of 43.
In December of 1784, William decided to set out once again for the Carolinas. Unbeknownst to him, he was going on what would become his final collecting trip. He never did reach the Carolinas. He only made it as far as Maryland, where he collected along a waterway known as Gunpowder Falls, where he fell into the river and died after being swept away by the current. His body was found about seven weeks later.
 
November 3, 1794
Birth of William Cullen Bryant, American poet.  
William drew inspiration from the natural world. He once wrote a lovely verse about roses:
Loveliest of lovely things are they,
On earth, that soonest pass away.
The rose that lives its little hour
Is prized beyond the sculptured flower.
William also wrote about the month of November in a little poem called A Winter Piece. 
...When shriek'd
The bleak November winds, and smote the woods,
And the brown fields were herbless, and the shades,
That met above the merry rivulet,
Were spoil'd, I sought, I loved them still,—they seem'd
Like old companions in adversity.
 
November 3, 1841
Birth of Eugenius Warming, Danish botanist.
Eugenius was one of the founders of modern plant ecology. He's credited with writing the first ecology textbook with his book, Oecology of Plants: An Introduction to the Study of Plant Communities (1895).
 
Unearthed Words
She went to the window. A fine sheen of sugary frost covered everything in sight, and white smoke rose from chimneys in the valley below the resort town. The window opened to a rush of sharp early November air that would have the town in a flurry of activity, anticipating the tourists the colder weather always brought to the high mountains of North Carolina.
She stuck her head out and took a deep breath. If she could eat the cold air, she would. She thought cold snaps were like cookies, like gingersnaps. In her mind, they were made with white chocolate chunks and had a cool, brittle vanilla frosting. They melted like snow in her mouth, turning creamy and warm.
― Sarah Addison Allen, The Sugar Queen
 
Grow That Garden Library
Genealogy for Gardeners by Simon Maughan  and Dr Ross Bayton
This book came out in 2017, and the subtitle is Plant Families Explored & Explained.
Anything that has genealogy and gardening in the title is a book that I'm interested in.
Before I get into this particular review, I should mention that this book is part of one of my favorite garden series by the RHS. So in this series is the book Latin for gardeners as well as botany for gardeners.
And now this book Genealogy for Gardeners is designed to help you explore and understand plant families - and plant family trees, which to me is even more exciting.
Now you may be wondering why. Well, I think the authors do a great job of explaining that in the preface to their book. They write,
While most of us think of plants, that's belonging to one big happy family. The fact is they don't. There are hundreds of different plant families, which botanists have cleverly grouped together using what they know of family histories and genealogy and now, of course, DNA to bring some sense and order to more than a quarter of a million different plant species. 
But why should this matter to you as a gardener, aside from just wanting to become more knowledgeable about plant families?
Well, here's the explanation from the authors:
Plant families are all around us. Whatever the time of year, go for a walk and look for wild or garden plants. You'll be surprised at how many plant families are represented within a small radius of your home. Even in your own garden, there will be a fantastic genealogy of plants. 
Thanks largely to the efforts of plant collectors and horticulturists who brought the plants into cultivation from the four corners of the world. 
When it comes to being a good gardener making connections is what it's all about. And if you are faced with a strongly acidic soil, and know that rhododendrons will grow, then you can broaden your planting ideas to include other plants in the same family, such as Heather. Mountain Laurel, leather leaf, blueberries, and others. If you are designing with plants, you may know that all plants and a particular family, and share certain features, which enables you to mix displays effectively and extend your range. 
Now that is a very compelling reason to get to know your plant families.
One of the things that I love about this particular series of books is that the illustrations are incredible. The editors have pulled images of botanical art that truly are the best example of some of these plants. The beauty of these books, including the cover, just is not rivaled.
In fact, the minute I spot these books, they just have a look and a feel to them - I know immediately that it's part of this series from the RHS. These books are in my office on a special little bookshelf of books that I reference all the time, and this little series from the RHS is such a gem. This particular book about plant family, garden, genealogy - Basically the genealogy of plants-  is one that I go back to again and again, and again. So this is a fantastic book.
As I mentioned, the illustrations are great. It is very clearly laid out.
They've really done the heavy lifting when it comes to simplifying this material, making it very understandable and accessible. And yet, they do not dumb it down. That's not what this book is about.
If you want a book on this topic that is exceptionally clear And is a delight to read, then this is the book that you've been waiting for.
So, whether you're a landscape designer, a horticulture student, or just an amateur gardener, Genealogy for Gardeners will help you better understand and utilize plant families in your garden.
This book is 224 pages of plant families and plant family trees - and it's part of one of the top garden book series on the market today.
You can get a copy of Genealogy for Gardeners by Simon Maughan and Ross Bayton and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $20.
 
Today's Botanic Spark
Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart
November 3, 1903
On this day, The Cherokee Sentinel (Cherokee, Kansas) published this heartwarming blurb about the gardens in the Heartland of America. Here's what they wrote:
It's November, and gardens and flowers are as green and beautiful as in summer. Verily, Kansas is an American Italy and the garden spot of the world. 
Well, I don't know how true that was, and I question whether that was written for the benefit of enticing immigrants to come to Kansas.
Nevertheless, I found it very sweet, and I thought it was a great way to end the show today.
 
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener.
And remember:
"For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today in botanical history, we celebrate the botanical name of the Saguaro Cactus, a Russian writer and mystic, and November potpourri.
We'll hear an excerpt from Tom Perrotta's best-selling 2011 book.
We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that celebrates the Islamic Garden.
And then we'll wrap things up with some hip Book Recommendations from 1975.
 
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Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:

• A personal update from me
• Garden-related items for your calendar
• The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week
• Gardener gift ideas
• Garden-inspired recipes
• Exclusive updates regarding the show

Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf.
 
Gardener Greetings
Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org
 
Facebook Group
If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community.
So, there's no need to take notes or search for links.
The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join.
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Curated News
Getting Happier with Horticulture: The Healthy Benefits of Gardening | gradynewsource.uga.edu | Gianna Perani
 
Important Events
November 2, 1902
On this day, Nathaniel Britton, one of the founders of the New York Botanical Garden, wrote to the industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie asking for permission to name a genus of Giant Cactus native to Arizona and northern Mexico in his honor.
Three days later, Mr. Carnegie's secretary responded:  
"Mr. Carnegie has yours of November 2nd and asks me to say he is greatly honored by the proposal and will do his best to live up to it." 
And so, the majestic Saguaro ("suh-GWAR-oh") Cactus, the largest cactus in the United States and a plant synonymous with the American West, was christened the Carnegiea gigantea.  
Saguaros can live for over two centuries. The Saguaro root system has one large tap root accompanied by a very intricate and shallow root system that lies within the top three inches of the soil. Any precious drops of rain are guided down to the ground beneath its mighty arms.  After thirty-five years of life, Saguaro's produce a white night-blooming flower that is bat-pollinated. Saguaros begin to develop their arms after reaching the age of fifty. The average Saguaro weighs three tons.
The largest Saguaro ever recorded was called "Granddaddy." Granddaddy stood forty feet tall, had over 52 limbs, and was estimated to be three hundred years old.
 
November 2, 1906
Birth of Daniil Andreyev ("Da-NEEL An-drave"), Russian writer, poet, and mystic. He wrote a book called The Rose of the World over eight-and-a-half years as a prisoner in a Stalin prison camp.
Daniil once wrote,
"Perhaps the worst will never come to pass, and tyranny on such a scale will never recur. Perhaps humanity will forevermore retain the memory of  Russia's terrible historical experience. Every heart nurses that hope, and without it life would be unbearable."
Daniil had uncanny powers of recall and memory. He was also a voracious reader and grew his personal library to over 2,000 books by the time he was arrested in 1947. Daniil suffered from a spinal defect and wore an iron corset while in prison to cope with the pain.
Daniil began having mystic experiences as an adolescent. His first poem was called The Garden. In 1949, at the Vladimir high-security prison, Daniil started to have regular spiritual encounters and visions. And so he used those experiences to write Rose of the World at night. He had his final transcendent revelation in November of 1953 and then finished the book after his release from prison in 1957. And then, Daniil kept the book to himself - hiding it from the government in order to keep it from being destroyed.
Daniil's Rose of the World remained hidden before finally getting published in 1991 under Gorbachev. The Rose of the World was an instant bestseller. Daniel H. Shubin wrote the latest English translation in 2018.
Shubin writes that,
"[Daniil] Envisioned the reign of rows of the world on Earth in the twenty-third century, the future Epoch being a golden age of humanity, whose essence will develop… into a close connection between God and people. It includes a society that consists of a worldwide ecclesiastical fraternity."
Daniil himself explained Rose of the World this way:
Rose of the World can be compared to an inverted flower whose root is in heaven, while the petal bowl is here, among Humanity, on Earth. Its stem is the revelation through which the spiritual sap flows, sustaining and strengthening its petals... But other than the petals, it also has a pith; this is its individual teaching.
 
November 2, 1954
On this day, The Journal Herald (Dayton, Ohio) ran a little snippet on the wonder of Potpourri from the November garden.
The November garden has her odors. In most instances, they are not so beguiling as those of spring and summer, yet they are far from displeasing. 
There is the sharp, vinegary tang that rises from leaves, sodden and cold. 
There is the odor of soil on which frost has laid whiteness; an odor, which seems different from that of earth newly turned in spring. 
There is the pungence that rises from rotting apples and pears; and the heavy fragrance which issues from the chrysanthemum leaf and blossom. 
Occasionally a flower remains whose breath is that of July. Even though the hand of chill has pressed heavily on the garden, the sweet alyssum has summer perfume. And a rose, spared, has a scent which speaks nostalgically of June. 
But in the main, the odor of the November garden is distinctive, sharp, penetrating, and has something of that element of age, which cannot be associated with redolence but rather with a potpourri.
 
Unearthed Words
She felt strong and blissfully empty, gliding through the crisp November air, enjoying the intermittent warmth of the sun as it filtered down through the overhanging trees, which were mostly stripped of their foliage. It was that trashy, post-Halloween part of the fall, yellow and orange leaves littering the ground.
― Tom Perrotta, The Leftovers
 
Grow That Garden Library
The Art of the Islamic Garden by Emma Clark
This book came out in 2011 - so an oldie, but goodie. (It's already ten years old.)
And here's what Emma wrote at the beginning of this book:
Even a glimmer of understanding of traditional Islamic art and architecture clearly reveals that its beauty is not simply surface decoration, but is a reflection of a deep knowledge and understanding of the natural order and of the divine unity that penetrates all of our lives. Studying Islamic art and architecture and completing a master's thesis on Islamic gardens and garden carpet at the Royal college of art opened my eyes to the meaning of art. 
Understanding something of the religion of Islam in general and Islamic art in particular, it became clear that all art to a greater or lesser degree should be a vehicle of hope. 
It should remind us what it means to be human of our place in the universe and our role as is said in Islam as God's vice-regent on earth.
And then she writes, and bear in mind; this is 2011:
In the increasingly difficult times in which we live, it is good to be reminded that gardens and nature, transcend nationality, race, religion, color, and ideology. The Islamic garden is not only for Muslims, it's beauty is apparent to  everyone. 
In her book, Emma offers an introduction to the design, the symbolism, and the planting of the traditional Islamic garden. Emma also gives some practical tips if you're interested in creating an Islamic garden for yourself.
Emma points out that we all have different starting points for our gardens. We have different garden sizes and situations (urban garden or a country garden), obviously different climates and soils, etc.  And so, she spends a couple of chapters offering up ideas for plants and trees and shrubs that you might want to consider incorporating into an Islamic-inspired garden.
Now there is a pattern to Islamic gardens. They're often constructed around a central pool or fountain with four streams flowing symbolically to the earth's four corners.
My favorite part of this book is exploring the symbolism behind Islamic art and gardens. And by the way, there is a magnificent chapter in this book that is all about the prince of Wales carpet garden. It's just spectacular.
Now this book is out of print, and I predict that copies of this book will only get harder to get as time goes on. So if you have any interest, you should make sure that this one gets on your list.
You can get a copy of The Art of the Islamic Garden by Emma Clark and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $26.
 
Today's Botanic Spark
Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart
November 2, 1975
On this day, The New York Times Around the Garden segment recommended some new garden books.
Some bright newcomers have been added to the trowel‐watering can library. Here they are. 
Masakuni Kawasumi spent three years in this country adapting his Japanese methods of bonsai growing to American species of trees. His "Bonsai With American Trees" ($10, Kodansha International) is the result, an excellent basic primer...
Tapeworm plant, living stones bead vine, spiderweb, and polka dot are a few of the off‐beat plants described in "Fun With Growing Odd and Curious House Plants" Virginie and George Elbert ($8.95, Crown). The odd‐sized book, 6½ x 11 inches, gives brief biographies and how‐to‐grow tips for many unusual house plants, delightful changes from the tried‐and‐true.
And while on the subject of fun, there is Jack Kramer's "How to Identify & Care for House Plants" ($8.95, Doubleday). The fun comes in matching line‐drawings and silhouettes to the author's organizational key. Though probably not meant to be a puzzle book, it is. ...a plant number 8‐1‐3 turns out to be none other than a cattleya orchid.
Thalassa Cruso, television "lady of the trowel" has done it again. This time she is telling about "Making Vegetables Grow" ($8.95, Knopf), one of her best with chatty helpful tips on bringing the crop in abundantly. 
Light gardens are booming, especially among those who have dark apartments and want some greenery indoors. "The Complete Book of Houseplants Under Lights" by Charles Marden Fitch ($9.95, Hawthorn) updates the hobby and is full of ideas. 
Joining the series of "state" books on wildflowers by John E. Klimas Jr., is "A Pocket Guide to the Common Wild Flowers of New York" ($5.95, Walker). Compact tuck in a backpack, Descriptions are in everyday language, not botanist's twang.
Environmental awareness has come full circle with "Organic Flower Gardening" by Catherine Osgood Foster ($12.95, Rodale Press). An organic gardener's book on raising flowers? Mrs. Foster explains why, 
"One is for the sake of the bees, wasps and other beneficial insects and butterflies … another good reason is to protect the birds … the most important is that you avoid starting chain reactions in the environment from poisonous chemical sprays and dusts you might introduce." 
And for winter reading by the fireplace, here are a few: 
"A Gardener Touched With Genius, The Life of Luther Burbank" by Peter Dreyer ($10, Coward, McCann & Geoghegan): 
"The Best of American Gardening" by Ken and Pat Kraft ($10, Walker), a clip hook of garden tips gleaned from 100‐year‐old seed catalogues; 
"The Plant Hunters" by B. J. Healey ($8.95, Scribners), a brief biography of discoverers of exotic species from the 17th century to the present.
And for reference; "Ornamental Grasses" by Mary Hockenberry Meyer ($9.95, Scribners), an excellent well-illustrated guide to this unusual group of plants. 
"The Personal Garden, Its Architecture and Design" by Bernard Wolgensinger and Jose Daidone ($30, Van Nostrand Reinhold), beautifully illustrated with design concepts from European, Western and Japanese gardens. 
"Plant A Tree" by Michael A. Weiner ($15.95, Macmillan) subtitled, "A working guide to regreening America." 
Good reference book for city planners, libraries, and schools on tree planting and care, nationwide. Florida, Texas, and California where the avocado is grown commercially, the trees do not start flowering until six years old, or sooner if grafted. One rare exception was reported by Barbara Stimson, a gardener in Maine, who wrote in a recent Letters to the Editor, Flower and Garden, that her indoor avocado did flower, but no fruit, when it was about two years old and four feet high.
 
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener.
And remember:
"For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today in botanical history, we celebrate a wealthy gardener and Apothecary whose garden became his legacy, a ​​pioneering Landscape architect who left his mark on the world in his all-too-short life, and the fine fine fun that can be had dying flowers - a hobby that's been around for quite a longe time.

We'll hear an excerpt from a book by a Quaker woman who spent a year tending sheep.

We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about flowers in all their glory, and it takes us inside the Secret World of Plants...

And then we'll wrap things up with a little poem written by an American writer, and it's a little poignant - so kleenex should be on standby.

"If you're the first of November, you're Scorpio. A large reporter of his owne Acts. Prudent of behaviour in owne affairs. A lover of Quarrels and theevery, a promoter of frayes and commotions. As wavery as the wind; neither fearing God or caring for Man.'

'Better,' said Lymond coldly, 'to be stung by a nettle than pricked by a rose."

― Dorothy Dunnett, Checkmate

Maggie Dietz poem

1995  Rosemary Verey's Making of a Garden

1995 The Unsung Season: Gardens and Gardeners in Winter: Sydney Eddison, Karen Bussolini

2001 A Garden from Hundred Packets of Seed by James Fenton

What plants would you choose to grow, given a blank slate of a garden, and given the stipulation that everything you grow in this garden must be raised by you from seed?

2009 Jane Colden: America's First Woman Botanist Paperback – November 1, 2009

Interview with Lee Smith, Southern Writer | Southern Environmental Law Center

1944 Here's a short clip with writer Lee Smith about the importance of the natural world for writers and inspiration.

In the video Lee says that the South does have a very strong literary tradition that is grounded in place and specifically a rural place.

Lee says the land is so important to southern writing.

Land not only shows up in southern stories but also in southern music and southern culture.

Lee tells how her father used to fight her when she tried to get him to leave the mountains and move to her home in North Carolina

and so he would always say

I could never leave the mountains

he said I need me a mountain to rest my eyes against

and

That resinates with lee who went on to say that there's

something in the

contemplation of mountains

of nature  of natural places

that leads us to think of things that are really important

that leads us to think of the real questions and

issues and things that people need to be working on.

And so Lee, like many of us, gets her inspiration from

the natural world

To borrow her phrase,

I need me a garden to rest my eyes against...

November 1, 1666
Birth of James Sherard, English apothecary, botanist, amateur musician, and composer.

His older brother, William, was also a botanist.

James served as an apprentice to an apothecary named Charles Watts at Chelsea Physic Garden. He later followed his entrepreneurial instincts and started his own business, which made him quite wealthy.  In August of 1716, he wrote that,

"the love of Botany has so far prevailed as to divert my mind from things I formerly thought more material."

After retiring, he purchased three residences - two manor homes and a place in London. At his London residence, he established a garden and began collecting and cultivating rare plants.

Around the time his garden was becoming one of England's top gardens, James's brother William invited the German botanist Johann Jacob Dillenius to visit England. Dillenius created an illustrated catalog that described the plants cultivated in James's collection in London. The English botanical writer Blanche Henrey called Dillenius's book,

"the most important book published in England during the eighteenth century on the plants growing in a private garden."

Today, the walls of the Herbarium Room at the Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum are graced with the illustrations from Dillenius's book - so the plants in James Sherard's beautiful garden live on in that marvelous place.

November 1, 1859
Birth of Charles Eliot, American landscape architect.

In his brief career, Charles established principles for regional planning and natural systems for landscape architecture. He also helped set up the world's first land trust and the Boston Metropolitan Park System. He was a prolific writer and observer of nature and Landscapes. His work set the stage for conservancies across the world.

Charles was born into a prominent Boston family. In 1869, the year his mother died, his father, Charles William Eliot, became the president of Harvard University.

In 1882 Charles went to Harvard to study botany. A year later, he began apprenticing with the landscape firm of Frederick Law Olmsted.

As a young landscape architect, Charles enjoyed visiting different natural areas, and he conducted regular walking tours of different nature areas around Boston. In his diary, Charles made a charming list titled, "A Partial List of Saturday Walks before 1878".

Early in his career, Charles spent 13 months touring England and Europe between 1885 and 1886. The trip was actually Olmsted's idea, and it was a great training ground for Charles's understanding of various landscape concepts. During this trip, Charles kept a journal where he wrote down his thoughts and sketches of the places he was visiting. During his time in Europe, Charles's benchmark was always Boston. Throughout his writings, he continually compared new landscapes to the beauty of his native landscape in New England.

Charles's story ended too soon. He died at 37 from spinal meningitis.

Before his death, Charles had worked with Charles Sprague Sargent to plan The Arnold Arboretum. When Charles died, Sargent wrote a tribute to him and featured it in his weekly journal called Garden and Forest.

Charles's death had a significant impact on his father, Charles Eliot Senior. At times, the two men had struggled to connect. Charles hadn't liked it when his dad remarried and, their personalities were very different. Charles, the architect, could be a little melancholy.

After Charles died, his dad, Charles Sr., started culling through his son's work.

In April 1897, Charles Sr. confided to a friend,

"I am examining his letters and papers, and I am filled with wonder at what he accomplished in the ten years of professional life. I should've died without ever having appreciated his influence. His death has shown it to me."

Despite his heavy workload as the president of Harvard, Charles Sr. immediately set about compiling all of his son's work. He used it to write a book called Charles Eliot Landscape Architect. The book came out in 1902, and today it is considered a classic work in the field of landscape architecture.

November 1, 1883
On this day, the Brown County World (Hiawatha, Kansas) published a little blurb that said,

A distinguished botanist has found that by simply soaking the stems of cut flowers in a weak dye solution, their colors can be altered at will without the perfume and the freshness being destroyed.

On the first day of November last year, sacred to many religious calendars but especially the Celtic, I went for a walk among bare oaks and birch. Nothing much was going on. Scarlet sumac had passed, and the bees were dead. The pond had slicked overnight into that shiny and deceptive glaze of delusion, first ice. It made me remember skates and conjure a vision of myself skimming backward on one foot, the other extended; the arms become wings. Minnesota girls know that this is not a difficult maneuver if one's limber and practices even a little after school before the boys claim the rink for hockey. I think I can still do it - one thinks many foolish things when November's bright sun skips over the entrancing first freeze.

A flock of sparrows reels through the air looking more like a flying net than seventy conscious birds, a black veil thrown on the wind. When one sparrow dodges, the whole net swerves, dips: one mind. Am I part of anything like that?

Maybe not. [...]

It's an ugly woods, I was saying to myself, padding along a trail where other walkers had broken ground before me. And then I found an extraordinary bouquet. Someone had bound an offering of dry seed pods, yew, lyme grass, red berries, and brown fern and laid it on the path: "nothing special," as Buddhists say, meaning "everything." Gathered to formality, each dry stalk proclaimed a slant, an attitude, infinite shades of neutral.

All contemplative acts, silences, poems, honor the world this way. Brought together by the eye of love, a milkweed pod, a twig, allow us to see how things have been all along. A feast of being.

― Mary Rose O'Reilley, The Barn at the End of the World: The Apprenticeship of a Quaker, Buddhist Shepherd

Flora by DK

Flora was also contributed to by Kew,the Royal Botanic Gardens.

This book was published back in 2018, and the subtitle is Inside the Secret World of Plants.

Well, let me tell you that when I got my copy of this book, I was so pleasantly surprised.

This is a big book - it's a coffee table book. The cover is predominantly white, and then it just has a single flower featured on the cover - and it is stunning.

I like to think about this fantastic book as a floral scrapbook. So imagine if you were to put together a book of flowers, and on each page, you feature: a different blossom, details about the plant, the history and some outstanding characteristics of the flower, and other various aspects of the plant. This book also reviews a little bit of the science behind why plants do what they do and how they do what they do. Flora is beautifully illustrated with modern photography and also some incredible botanical art from the ages. And it is just a joy to leaf through.

So whether you are a gardener or even a non-gardener, I think you would enjoy this book.

You can get a copy of Flora by DK and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $12.

November 1, 1871
Birth of Stephen Crane, American poet, novelist, and short-story writer.

Stephen started writing at the tender age of four.  As a young adult, he dropped out of college at Syracuse and started working as a reporter and writer. By 1895 his Civil War novel The Red Badge of Courage won acclaim despite Stephen never having any personal experience as a soldier.  

The following year he was asked to go to Cuba as a war correspondent. During the voyage, his ship, the SS Commodore, sank off the coast of Florida. Stephen survived after spending thirty hours adrift at sea in a small dinghy along with other survivors.  The experience became the basis for his book called, The Open Boat.

Despite surviving the shipwreck, Stephen Crane died young of tuberculosis at the age of 28.

Today, The Red Badge of Courage is considered an American classic. But Stephen also wrote short stories and poetry. One of his biggest fans was Ernest Hemingway, who credited Stephen as a source of his inspiration.

In Stephen's poem, The Black Riders and Other Lines (1895), Stephen wrote,

There was set before me a mighty hill,
And long days I climbed
Through regions of snow.
When I had before me the summit-view,
It seemed that my labour
Had been to see gardens
Lying at impossible distances.

Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener.
And remember:

"For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today in botanical history, we celebrate an American poet and writer, a look back at a one-of-a-kind event at the gardens at Iowa State, and the English gardener who bred phenomenal lupins.
We'll hear an excerpt from Thomas Merton's diary entry for October.
We Grow That Garden Library™ with an award-winning modern book on scent in the garden.
And then we'll wrap things up with the legacy of a college head gardener and how his memory still lives on at the greenhouse.
 
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"Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast."
And she will. It's just that easy.
 
The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter
Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:

• A personal update from me
• Garden-related items for your calendar
• The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week
• Gardener gift ideas
• Garden-inspired recipes
• Exclusive updates regarding the show

Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf.
 
Gardener Greetings
Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org
 
Facebook Group
If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community.
So, there's no need to take notes or search for links.
The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join.
I'd love to meet you in the group.
 
Curated News
10 Things Your Landscape Architect Wishes You Knew (But Is Too Polite to Tell You) | Gardenista | Barbara Peck
 
Important Events
October 15, 1830
Birth of Helen Hunt Jackson, (pen name H.H.) American poet and writer. She fought for the dignity of Native Americans and wrote about mistreatment by the US government in A Century of Dishonor (1881) and Ramona (1884).
Today Helen is remembered for her light-hearted poems like:
By all these lovely tokens September days are here, with Summer's best of weather and Autumn's best of cheer.
And
O suns and skies and clouds of June,
And flowers of June together,
Ye cannot rival for one hour
October's bright blue weather
Her poem Vanity of Vanities is a favorite of gardeners.
Bee to the blossom, moth to the flame;
Each to his passion; what's in a name?
Red clover's sweetest, well the bee knows;
No bee can suck it; lonely it blows.
Deep lies the honey, out of reach, deep;
What use in honey hidden to keep?
Robbed in the autumn, starving for bread;
Who stops to pity a honey-bee dead?
Star-flames are brightest, blazing the skies;
Only a hand's breadth the moth-wing flies.
Fooled with a candle, scorched with a breath;
Poor little miller, a tawdry death;
Life is a honey, life is a flame;
Each to his passion; what's in a name?
Swinging and circling, face to the sun,
Brief little planet, how it doth run!
Bee-time and moth-time, add the amount;
white heat and honey, who keeps the count?
Gone some fine evening, a spark out-tost!
The world no darker for one star lost!
Bee to the blossom, moth to the flame;
Each to his passion; what's in a name?
 
October 15, 1897
On this day, The Des Moines Register ran a headline from Ames Iowa: Crowd Ruins Iowa State's Flower Plots.
An unfounded rumor that flowers in the Iowa State college gardens could be had for the picking because of an expected frost led to an unprecedented display of vandalism here. 
A crowd estimated at 150 to 200 persons Sunday went through the horticulture department gardens, stripping off flowers and pulling up bushes until routed by Ames police. 
Officers relieved the mob of most of the flowers they had seized, but members of the horticulture department said the loss would be heavy. 
Most of the flowers and plants stripped were being used for experimental work, they added, and the loss, therefore, could not be measured in dollars and cents. 
Chrysanthemums sent to Iowa State by E. G. Kraus of the University of Chicago were picked clean. 
The flowers were being used In tests to determine resistance to cold weather and the experiment was ruined, officials said. The college gardens are used primarily for research, and their part in campus beautification is secondary. 
The college rose garden is one of 16 being used as part of a national research program. Horticulture department members said it never has been college policy to permit picking of flowers by the public, although visitors always have been welcome to come and look at any time. Signs are displayed prominently throughout the gardens warning visitors not to pick anything. 
College officials were at a loss to explain how the rumor might have started and said it was the first time the gardens ever had been invaded by any sizeable number of flower pickers. 
Ames townspeople and Iowa State college staff members were among those who went through the gardens on the picking spree, police said. Professor E.C. Volz reported that more than a dozen persons, some from nearby towns, stopped at his office Monday to find out where they might get flowers.
 
October 15, 1951
Death of George Russell, English gardener and plant breeder. He's remembered for his work with lupins and the creation of his stunning Russell Hybrids.
George was a professional gardener, but his interest in lupins was ignited after seeing a vase of the blossom at one of his clients, a Mrs. Micklethwaite. When he examined the bloom, he fell in love with the architecture and form of the flower, but he wasn't thrilled by the solid purple color. He reportedly remarked,
Now, there's a plant that could stand some improving.
Starting at age 54, George spent the next two decades cultivating five thousand lupines every year on his two allotments, and he used bee pollination to develop his hybrids. From each year's crop, just five percent were selected for their seed based on the traits George found most appealing.
For over two decades, George kept his lupines to himself. But finally, in 1935, nurseryman James Baker struck a deal with George: his stock of plants in return for a place to live for him and his assistant and the opportunity to continue his work. Two years later, George's lupines - in a rainbow of colors - were the talk of the Royal Horticulture Society flower show. George won a gold medal and a Veitch Memorial Medal for his incredible work.
After George died on this day, much of his work died with him. Without his yearly devotion, many of his lupines reverted back to their wild purple color and tendencies or succumbed to Cucumber mosaic virus.
Today, Sarah Conibear's ("con-ah-BEER") nursery Westcountry Lupins in North Devon is doing her own exciting work with this plant.  In 2014, her lupines were featured in the Chelsea Flower Show and her red lupin, the Beefeater, is a new favorite with gardeners.
Now, the history of Lupins is pretty fascinating.
The first lupins in England were sent over from the Mediterranean. Other lupins were found in the Western Hemisphere.
During his time in North America, the Swedish botanist Pehr Kalm observed that livestock left lupin alone even though it was green and "soft to the touch."
George Russell planted the variety discovered by the botanist David Douglas in British Columbia.
Lupins are a plant in motion. They follow the sun in the daytime, but Charles Darwin observed that they sleep "in three different [ways]" when they close their petals at night.
Henry David Thoreau wrote about Lupins in his book, Summer. He wrote,
Lupin seeds have long been used by the Navajo to make a medicine that not only relieves boils but is a cure for sterility. 
[Lupine] is even believed to be effective in producing girl babies.
 
Unearthed Words
Brilliant, windy day—cold. It is fall. It is the kind of day in October that Pop used to talk about. I thought about my grandfather as I came up through the hollow, with the sun on the bare persimmon trees, and a song in my mouth. All songs are, as it were, one's last. I have been grateful for life.
― Thomas Merton, A Year with Thomas Merton: Daily Meditations from His Journals
 
Grow That Garden Library
The Scentual Garden By Ken Druse
This book came out in October of 2019, and the subtitle is Exploring the World of Botanical Fragrance.
The author Joe Lamp'l said,
"A brilliant and fascinating journey into perhaps the most overlooked and under-appreciated dimension of plants. Ken's well-researched information, experience, and perfect examples, now have me appreciating plants, gardens, and designs in a fresh and stimulating way."
Ken Druse is a celebrated lecturer and an award-winning author and photographer who has been called "the guru of natural gardening" by the New York Times. He is best known for his 20 garden books published over the past 25 years.
And, after reading this book, I immediately began to pay much more attention to fragrance in my garden.
The book is 256 illustrated pages of 12 categories of scented plant picks and descriptions for the garden - from plants to shrubs and trees.
You can get a copy of The Scentual Garden By Ken Druse and support the show, using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $40.
 
Today's Botanic Spark
Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart
October 15, 1959
On this day, Bloomington's Indiana University captured a photo of head gardener Hugh Wallace Scales (who always went by "Wally") hard at work with the plants in the greenhouse.
Today, in memory of Wally, greenhouse staffers have named their prized Amorphophallus titanum (a.k.a. titan arum, corpse flower) "Wally." Wally was the first manager of the Jordan Hall greenhouse, and the building now serves as home to the biology department.  In addition to collecting plants, Wally helped establish the teaching collection and conservatory.
 
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener.
And remember:
"For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

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Botanical History On This Day

1857 John Joly (pronounced "JOLLY") was born on this day in Hollywood House near the village of Bracknagh (pronounced "BRACK-nuh") in County Offaly, Ireland.
Joly was an Irish polymath whose profound connection to nature led him not only to groundbreaking scientific discoveries but also to poetry about fossils and gardens.

1636 Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (pronounced "nee-koh-LAH bwah-LOH day-pray-OH") was born on this day in Paris. Boileau was a French poet and critic whose garden became a sanctuary for some of the greatest literary minds of the 17th century.

Grow That Garden Library™ 

Read The Daily Gardener review of Adventures in Eden by Carolyn Mullet 

Buy the book on Amazon: Adventures in Eden by Carolyn Mullet 

Today's Botanic Spark

1826 Maude Jeannie Fuller Young was born on this day in 1826. Though she would become known for many accomplishments, it's her groundbreaking contribution to botanical education that particularly interests us as gardeners.

Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener
And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.

Today in botanical history, we celebrate a fun little story from the White House, a New Zealand writer, and a pop culture film that debuted on this day 27 years ago today.
We'll hear an excerpt from an Eva Ibbotson book.
We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that promotes an awareness of and appreciation for Georgia's rich garden heritage.
And then we'll wrap things up with an adorable little poem from one of the most prolific haiku writers who ever lived.
 
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To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to
"Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast."
And she will. It's just that easy.
 
The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter
Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:

• A personal update from me
• Garden-related items for your calendar
• The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week
• Gardener gift ideas
• Garden-inspired recipes
• Exclusive updates regarding the show

Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf.
 
Gardener Greetings
Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org
 
Facebook Group
If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community.
So, there's no need to take notes or search for links.
The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community where you'd search for a friend... and request to join.
I'd love to meet you in the group.
 
Curated News
Gardener's Checklist for October 14th | Berkshire Edge | Ron Kujawski ("kee-AH-skee")
Adele - Easy On Me
 
Important Events
October 14, 1862
On this day, President Lincoln wrote Navy Captain John Dalgren and asked him to find a gun for his youngest child, 9-year-old Tad. In the note, Lincoln specifically asked for, "a little gun that he can not hurt himself with."
Tad was seven years old when he arrived at the White House. The following day the Civil War started, and the constant presence of soldiers and battle talk sparked the boy's early love of the military.
He and his brother Willie played together and pretended to be soldiers in the White House, where the roof was their fort, and the attic was a prison.
One of Tad's favorite toys was a doll he named Jack that he received from the Sanitary Commission. Jack was part of many imaginary battles and skirmishes. Jack suffered grueling amputations (which were promptly sewn back on) and injuries and was even sentenced to prison.
Julia Taft's younger brothers played with the Lincoln boys, and she would often babysit all four of them. In her memoir of the Lincoln White House entitled Tad Lincoln's Father (1931), she tells of Jack being regularly buried with honors in the White House Gardens to the dismay of the head gardener, John Watt. Tad had already irritated Mr. Watt after eating strawberries that were intended for a White House dinner. When Mr. Watt suggested Jack might be pardoned, Tad asked his father to give Jack another chance.
President Lincoln got out a pen and paper and wrote,
The Doll Jack is pardoned by order of the President. 
A. Lincoln.
 
October 14, 1888 
Birth of Katherine Mansfield, New Zealand poet, and writer. She once wrote,
The mind I love must have wild places.
Reflecting on her life, she wrote,
I want a garden, a small house, grass, animals, books, pictures, music. And out of this, the expression of this, I want to be writing.
Katherine's book The Garden Party is a collection of short stories that cover the gamut of emotions and begins with The Garden Party.  The first paragraph is a delight:
And after all the weather was ideal. They could not have had a more perfect day for a garden-party if they had ordered it. Windless, warm, the sky without a cloud. Only the blue was veiled with a haze of light gold, as it is sometimes in early summer. The gardener had been up since dawn, mowing the lawns and sweeping them, until the grass and the dark flat rosettes where the daisy plants had been seemed to shine. As for the roses, you could not help feeling they understood that roses are the only flowers that impress people at garden-parties, the only flowers that everybody is certain of knowing. Hundreds, yes, literally hundreds, had come out in a single night; the green bushes bowed down as though they had been visited by archangels.
In her poem Camomile Tea she wrote,
Outside the sky is light with stars;
There's a hollow roaring from the sea.
And, alas! for the little almond flowers,
The wind is shaking the almond tree.
How little I thought, a year ago,
In that horrible cottage upon the Lee
That he and I should be sitting so
And sipping a cup of camomile tea!
Light as feathers the witches fly,
The horn of the moon is plain to see;
By a firefly under a jonquil flower
A goblin toasts a bumble-bee.
We might be fifty, we might be five,
So snug, so compact, so wise are we!
Under the kitchen-table leg
My knee is pressing against his knee.
Our shutters are shut, the fire is low,
The tap is dripping peacefully;
The saucepan shadows on the wall
Are black and round and plain to see.
 
October 14, 1994 
On this day, Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction opened in theaters. In the movie, Uma Thurman's character tells this joke:
Three tomatoes are walking down the street - 
a papa tomato, a mama tomato, and a little baby tomato. 
Baby tomato starts lagging behind. 
Papa tomato get angry, goes over to Baby tomato, and squishes him.....
and says 'Ketchup!'"
 
Unearthed Words
"Gardeners are never wicked are they?' said Ruth. 
'Obstinate and grumpy and wanting to be alone, but not wicked. 
Oh, look at that creeper! I've always loved October so much, haven't you? 
I can see why it's called the Month of the Angels."
― Eva Ibbotson, The Morning Gift
 
Grow That Garden Library
Seeking Eden by Staci L. Catron and Mary Ann Eaddy 
This book came out in 2018, and the subtitle is A Collection of Georgia's Historic Gardens.
What a fantastic topic!
I always say that Georgia loves her gardens on a level that could rival the way England loves hers.
And of course, what I love about this book is that it's marrying the beauty of these gardens, the design, the particular elements that make them special.  A little bit about the families and the people that grew up and got to live in these beautiful gardens. Along with the great history of the gardens. So I just absolutely love this book and it is so, so, so, so beautiful.
Now this book takes us back to the mid 18th century to the early 20th century - so that's the time period that we're focusing on here. And surprisingly, you're going to see all kinds of gardens in this book, not just colonial revival gardens, or country place era landscapes, but also you're going to see rock gardens, town squares, college campuses, and even an urban conservation garden.
Now the authors do a wonderful job of walking us through the history of Georgia's gardens. And by the way, all of the gardens that are featured in this book, with the exception of ten, are all public gardens, so you can go and visit them with no problem.
And, you know, another thing to keep in mind when you're reading about Georgia and Georgia's gardens is that Georgia was a battlefield during the civil war. So even if some of these gardens managed to get through unscathed, they still had to pull themselves out of the upheaval of the time, Because you had all of the economic, social, and political factors that definitely impacted these gardens and that adds a very unique dimension to the history of these gardens as well.
But as I mentioned earlier, Georgians love gardening.
In fact, the very first garden club that was founded in the United States that was super official - complete with things like a constitution and bylaws - was the lady's garden club and it was established in Athens, Georgia in 1891.
Then, of course, you've got the garden club of America that gets formed in 1913.
And that was really through a United effort of 11 different garden clubs, including, of course, The Garden Club of Georgia. So I share all of this to underscore the deep love of gardens and gardening in the state of Georgia - and that's why, of course, this is such a wonderful book.
And it's a big book. This book is 488 pages of Georgia garden. Heritage.
You can get a copy of Seeking Eden by Staci L. Catron and Mary Ann Eaddy and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $24.
 
Today's Botanic Spark
Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart
October 14, 1867 
Birth of Masaoka Shiki, "Masah-oh-ka Sha-KEY" Japanese poet, author, and literary critic. He died of tuberculosis at age 34 in 1902.
Regarded as one of the four haiku masters, he helped develop the modern form of haiku poetry, and he personally wrote nearly 20,000 haiku verses in his all-too-short life.
Now in researching Masaoka, I stumbled on a wonderful video by Roger Pulvers, who not only reads some of his haikus but does a masterful job explaining his most controversial haiku, which happened to be about the coxcomb. It was about a simple flower.
Now I'm not going to ruin it for you. I don't want to spoil it, but you really should head on over to the Facebook group and check out this video by Roger Pulvers, where he helps us to better understand and appreciate Masaoka's poetry - plus I think you'll really enjoy hearing that haiku that he wrote about coxcomb.
I do not know the day
my pain will end yet
in the little garden
I had them plant
seeds of autumn flowers
 
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener.
And remember:
"For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today in botanical history, we celebrate a French writer and poet, an adorable poem called Song of October that's kind of faded into obscurity, and a Forester's advice about pine needles.
We'll hear an excerpt from an English writer often called the prince of paradox.
We Grow That Garden Library™ with a lovely recipe book as we settle into fall - it's called The Flower Recipe Book.
And then we'll wrap things up with a charming little story from the Thoreaus. This one comes our way via Sophia Thoreau, the friend, and collaborator of her brother, Henry David Thoreau.
 
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Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:

• A personal update from me
• Garden-related items for your calendar
• The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week
• Gardener gift ideas
• Garden-inspired recipes
• Exclusive updates regarding the show

Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf.
 
Gardener Greetings
Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org
 
Facebook Group
If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community.
So, there's no need to take notes or search for links.
The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join.
I'd love to meet you in the group.
 
 
Curated News
Fall Garden: Outside In | Rural Intelligence | Madeline Sparks
Pumpkin Turkey Chili | P. ALLEN SMITH
 
Important Events
October 13, 1878
On this day, the Chicago Tribune ran a feature article on Victor Hugo, French poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, and dramatist.  
Opposed to the Second Empire of Napoleon III, Hugo was banished from his home country of France. In October 1855, the exiled Hugo was in desperate need of asylum, and he arrived on the rainy island of Guernsey seeking refuge. (Guernsey is just twenty-six miles off France's Normandy coast.)
In deep sorrow, Hugo wrote in a letter,
Exile has not only detached me from France, it has almost detached me from the Earth.
Eventually, Hugo came to see the island as his "rock of hospitality and freedom." Hugo was a prolific writer during the serenity of fifteen years of island life. It's where he completed his masterpiece Les Misérables. He also enjoyed spending time doing something he had never experienced before:  working on his home and garden, the first he ever owned.
Today, the City of Paris has renovated Hugo's island garden, including a kitchen garden, fruit trees, a large fountain, and his bench of contemplation.
In 1870, Hugo planted an oak tree in the middle of his lawn, and he named it the United States of Europe. The tree was symbolic and represented Hugo's vision of European unification. He would not have been a fan of Brexit.
In 1878, the Chicago Tribune piece described the magnificent view beyond the garden visible from Hugo's 2nd-floor study.
It is impossible to conceive a finer view than one gets from this aerial room of glass... At our feet, the furthermost rocks of Guernsey plunge themselves into the sea. Everywhere the great ocean. At the extreme point of the port, we view the old castle and the red-coated soldiers of Great Britain. In front, the Islands of Herm and Sark bar the horizon like a colossal dyke. On the right, the lines of Jersey are vaguely to be seen, always in a perpetual fog. And finally, in the far, far dim distance, the coast of France. But it takes clear weather to view it. This is the magical panorama before which Victor Hugo has worked for sixteen years.
When I descended [the outdoor staircase], I found [his] old face under a huge straw hat in his garden, playing with his little granddaughter, and following with rapt attention the frolics of young George Hugo, who was blowing with terrible effort a tiny [boat] across the fountain-basin.
 
October 13, 1895
On this day, the Omaha Daily Bee (Nebraska) shared a little poem called An October Song from Clinton Scollard, which had been shared in the Ladies Home Journal.
There's a flush on the cheek of the pippin and peach,
And the first glint of gold on the bough of the beech; 
The bloom from the stem of the buckwheat is cut,
And there'll soon be a gap in the burr of the nut. 
The grape has a gleam like the breast of a dove. 
And the haw is as red as the lips of my love; 
While the hue of her eyes the blue gentian doth wear,
And the goldenrod glows like the gloss of her hair. 
Like bubbles of amber the hours float away
As I search in my heart for regrets for the May; 
Alas, for the spring and tho glamour thereof;
The autumn has won me the autumn and love.
 
October 13, 1995
On this day, Iowa Forester Mark Vitosh ("Vit-tosh") shared information about falling pine needles. Many folks can get alarmed by the amount of pine needle loss, and the enormous amount of shedding that takes place this time of year. Mark reminds us what is expected and what we can expect from his post via Iowa State University Extension.
I have had many calls in the last few weeks concerning the abrupt discoloration of the interior needles in many different types of conifers.  The good news in most cases is that this is a normal characteristic of many different conifers in the fall and not some fatal disease.
This time of year, we are used to seeing deciduous (broad-leaved) trees showing their brilliant colors.  However, when we see this on conifers, it does not appear normal and becomes alarming. Unlike their deciduous counterparts, evergreen conifers only discard a portion of their foliage each fall.  For example, pine trees tend to keep 1-3 years of needles active, and in the fall, the old needles turn yellow-brown before they are shed.  The pine species showing the most brilliant color change this year are white, Austrian, and Scotch. The color change is also noticeable on arborvitae and sometimes spruce. This color change occurs each year, but in some years, such as 1995, it is more eye-catching.
As long as the color change is in the inner portion of the tree and in the fall, you should have no worries. So instead of worrying, enjoy the brilliant yellow fall color of your conifer tree(s).
 
Unearthed Words
October knew, of course, that the action of turning a page, of ending a chapter, or of shutting a book did not end a tale.
Having admitted that, he would also avow that happy endings were never difficult to find: "It is simply a matter," he explained to April, "of finding a sunny place in a garden, where the light is golden, and the grass is soft; somewhere to rest, to stop reading, and to be content."
― G. K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was October
 
Grow That Garden Library
The Flower Recipe Book by Alethea Harampolis and Jill Rizzo  
This book came out in 2013. And the subtitle is 100 magical sculptural. Seasonal arrangements, and they are beautiful.
And so that's where they get the title, The Flower Recipe Book, because they're pulling these things together. And they do a marvelous job.
They dedicate the book to their nature-loving mothers, And I thought that was so touching.
And then, right upfront in the book, they introduce the flowers they will be working with. And I love this idea because, as in many cookbooks that share a master list of ingredients - That's what Elisia and Jill are doing with their book.
So, if you've struggled in the past with flower arranging, if you feel that you can just never get the look that you've been striving for., Jill and Alethea  Are going to break this down, and they have three words that are their mantra for when they're creating their arrangements: base, focal, and bits.
 So they start with this group of flowers and greenery- That's their base. They add in a hero flower- that's their focal point. And then they toss in a little bit of color and character - and that's their bits. And that's what fills out their arrangements.
 Now, what I love about these two is that they genuinely love flowers. They start the introduction to their book this way, which tells you that they are truly kindred spirits. They write,
A patch of unruly honeysuckle makes our hearts skip a beat.  The gnarled and thorny stems of garden roses call to us, despite the guaranteed hand scratches. We also have a great respect for the clean lines of Calla lilies and the simplicity of a single blooming succulent. 
Now, doesn't that make them sound like gardeners?  Yes, it does.
Well, I tell you what, this book is a gem for flower arranging.
It is so, so pretty. I think they have over 400 pictures in this book, along with step-by-step instructions.
So you really can't go wrong.
Jill and Alethea share the essential recipes for all of their arrangements, and just like with cooking, you can follow the recipe. Or you can add in a few substitutions; if you don't have everything, it's totally fine.  You can still end up with a beautiful arrangement.
Now Alethea and Jill are truly masters. In fact, the two work together, and they created their own San Francisco-based floral design studio.
And their work has been featured in Sunset magazine, Food and Wine and Veranda;  And it should, because it's absolutely gorgeous.
Over at the blog Design*Sponge, they left this review for the book.
A pitch-perfect combination of beautiful and functional. . . . Showcasing over 100 floral creations, The Flower Recipe Book breaks down flower arrangements as if they were recipes: including ingredients, how-to steps, and ideas for altering arrangements to suit your style.
 So super, super friendly, and hands-on.
This book is 272 pages of simple flower recipes that will help you become the floral arranger that you've always wanted to become deep down.
You can get a copy of The Flower Recipe Book by Alethea Harampolis and Jill Rizzo and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $6.
 
Today's Botanic Spark
Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart
October 13, 1868
On this day, Sophia Thoreau inscribed this hickory leaf with a poem entitled "Fair Haven" by her older brother Henry. It is preserved in the Concord Museum.
The beautiful Fairhaven Hill, near Bear Garden Hill and the Boiling Spring, was one of Thoreau's favorite places on earth. He often went there to pick huckleberry. Today Fairhaven is only partially protected by the Concord Land Conservation Trust and The Walden Woods Project. The other part of Fairhaven has been sparsely developed for houses.
Here are the verses from Henry David Thoreau's Fair Haven poem that Sophia wrote on the Hickory leaf over 150 years ago:

When little hills like lambs did skip,
And Joshua ruled in heaven,
Unmindful rolled Musketuquid,
Nor budged an inch Fair Haven.
If there's a cliff in this wide world,
'S, a stepping stone to heaven,
A pleasant, craggy, short hand cut,
It sure must be Fair Haven.
If e'er my bark be tempest-tossed,
And every hope the wave in,
And this frail hulk shall spring a leak,
'll steer for thee, Fair Haven.
And when I take my last long rest,
And quiet sleep my grave in,
What kindlier covering for my breast,
Than thy warm turf Fair Haven.
 
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener.
And remember:
"For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today in botanical history, we celebrate a Dutch botanical illustrator, a writer from New Orleans, and a hymn writer - who wrote over 400 hymns.
We'll hear an excerpt from Terri Irwin - just fabulous - wife of the late great Steve Irwin.
We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about Living on the Land. A hot topic since 2020.
And then we'll wrap things up with a touching story about Beatrix Potter.
 
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"Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast."
And she will. It's just that easy.
 
The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter
Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:

• A personal update from me
• Garden-related items for your calendar
• The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week
• Gardener gift ideas
• Garden-inspired recipes
• Exclusive updates regarding the show

Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf.
 
Gardener Greetings
Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org
 
Facebook Group
If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community.
So, there's no need to take notes or search for links.
The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join.
I'd love to meet you in the group.
 
 
 
Curated News
TOP TREES FOR FALL COLOR | Garden Design | Mike MacCaskey
Fall Foliage Prediction Map
 
Important Events
October 12, 1817
Birth of Berthe Hoola van Nooten ("Bair-tah Hole-lah van NO-ten") Dutch botanical artist.
Berthe's life story is incredibly moving. She was born in Utrecht in the Netherlands. She married a judge named Dirk Hoola van Nooten who secured a position in the Dutch colony of Suriname SurahNAM in South America. The couple frequently traveled between Jakarta and Suriname. Along the way, Berthe collected and drew plant specimens which she would send back home to the botanical gardens in the Netherlands.
By the mid-1840's the couple moved to New Orleans to establish a Protestant school for girls on behalf of the Episcopal Church. But in the summer of 1847, New Orleans was ravaged by an epidemic of yellow fever that wiped out ten percent of the population. After the yellow fever claimed Dirk's life, Berthe was left to fend for herself and her five children at the age of thirty. She attempted to open another school in Galveston but was unable to pay her creditors.
Eventually, Berthe joined her brother on a trip to Java. There she opened another school, but she also had a patron in Sophie Mathilde, the wife of William II (Netherlands). The result was her masterpiece - a collection of forty plates of her botanical art - called Fleurs, Fruits et Feuillages Choisis de l'Ile de Java or Selected Flowers, Fruits and Foliage from the Island of Java (1863-64). Berthe's work was dramatic, featuring rich colors and bold illustrations. Most Europeans had never seen such magnificent plants.
In the introduction, aware of her station as a woman and penniless widow during the Victorian age, Berthe apologized for her daring attempt at creating such work, writing,
You may not, like myself, have tasted the bitterness of exile… you may not, like myself, have experienced, even in the springtime of life, the sorrowful separation from home and country – the absence of the friendly greeting, on a foreign shore… Death may not have snatched away from you, the arm which was your sole support… bereavement may not have entered your dwelling, like mine, as with one sudden stroke to tear away the veil of sweet illusions, which, as yet, had hidden from your eyes the stern realities of life – to place you, with a lacerated heart, a shrinking spirit, and a feeble and suffering body, before an unpitying necessity, which presents no other alternative than labour.
In 1892, Berthe died impoverished on the island of Jakarta. She was 77.
 
October 12, 1844
Birth of George Washington Cable, American writer, and critic. A son of New Orleans, he has been called the first modern southern writer. Despite being a German Protestant, instead of French Catholic, George understood Creole culture and is most remembered for his early fiction about his hometown, including Old Creole Days (1879), The Grandissimes "Gran-DE-seem" (1880), and Madame Delphine "Delphine" (1881).
Today the George Washington Cable House is open to visitors. The house was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1962. Located at 1313 8th Street, in the Garden District of New Orleans, the home features gardens that George designed. In fact, The neighborhood is known for outstanding restaurants and beautiful gardens.
The beauty of New Orleans inspired George, and he was especially fond of nature and gardens.
In The Taxidermist, his story begins with these words,
One day a hummingbird got caught in a cobweb in our greenhouse. It had no real need to seek that damp, artificial heat. We were in the very heart of that Creole summertime when bird-notes are many as the sunbeams. The flowers were in such multitude they seemed to follow one about, offering their honeys and perfumes and begging to be gathered. Our little boy saw the embodied joy fall, a joy no longer, seized it and, clasping it too tightly, brought it to me dead.
He cried so over the loss that I promised to have the body stuffed. This is how I came to know Manouvrier "Man-vree-yay," the Taxidermist in St. Peter Street.
In My Own Acre, he wrote,
A garden, we say, should never compel us to go back the way we came; but in truth, a garden should never compel us to do anything. Its don'ts should be laid solely on itself. 
"Private grounds, no crossing"–take that away, please, wherever you can, and plant your margins so that there can be no crossing. Wire nettings hidden by shrubberies from all but the shameless trespasser you will find far more effective, more promotive to beauty, and more courteous. "Don't" make your garden a garden of don'ts.
For no garden is quite a garden until it is "Joyous Gard." Let not yours or mine be a garden for display. Then our rhododendrons and like splendors will not be at the front gate, and our grounds be less and less worth seeing the farther into them we go. Nor let yours or mine be a garden of pride. 
And let us not have a garden of tiring care or a user up of precious time. 
Neither let us have an old-trousers, sun-bonnet, black fingernails garden–especially if you are a woman.
Finally, in The American Garden, he wrote,
One of the happiest things about gardening is that when it is bad, you can always–you and time–you and year after next–make it good. It is very easy to think of the plants, beds, and paths of a garden as things which, being once placed, must stay where they are; but it is shortsighted, and it is fatal to effective gardening. We should look upon the arrangement of things in our garden very much as a housekeeper looks on the arrangement of the furniture in her house. Except buildings, pavements, and great trees–and not always excepting the trees–we should regard nothing in it as permanent architecture but only as furnishment and decoration. At favorable moments you will make whatever rearrangement may seem to you good.
 
October 12, 1895   
Death of Cecil Frances Alexander, Anglo-Irish hymn writer, and poet. She wrote over 400 hymns. In addition to There Is a Green Hill Far Away and the Christmas carol Once in Royal David's City, she wrote All Things Bright and Beautiful. Here are the garden and nature-related verses, along with the refrain at the end.
Each little flower that opens,
Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colours,
He made their tiny wings.
The cold wind in the winter,
The pleasant summer sun,
The ripe fruits in the garden,
He made them every one;
The tall trees in the greenwood,
The meadows for our play,
The rushes by the water,
To gather every day;
All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.
 
Unearthed Words
The name of the zoo was the Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park. As I crossed the parking area, I prepared myself for disappointment. I am going to see a collection of snakes, lizards, and miserable creatures in jars, feel terribly sorry for them and leave.
It was October 1991. I was Terri Raines, a twenty-seven-year-old Oregon girl in Australia on an unlikely quest to find homes for rescued American cougars. A reptile park wasn't going to be interested in a big cat. I headed through the pleasant spring heat toward the park, thinking pessimistic thoughts. This is going to be a big waste of time. But the prospect of seeing new species of wildlife drew me in.
I walked through the modest entrance with some friends, only to be shocked at what I found on the other side: the most beautiful, immaculately kept gardens I had ever encountered. Peacocks strutted around, kangaroos and wallabies roamed freely, and palm trees lined all the walkways. It was like a little piece of Eden.
― Terri Irwin, Steve & Me
 
Grow That Garden Library
Carving Out a Living on the Land by Emmet Van Driesche ("DRY-sh")
This book came out in 2019, and the subtitle is lessons in resourcefulness and craft from an unusual Christmas tree farm.
Well, I have to confess that I'm a huge fan of Emmett's YouTube channel. He does everything that he's talking about in this book - Even carving his own spoons.
But what I especially love about this book is learning about what it's like to be a Christmas tree farmer. I find this fascinating.  (And to me, this book is an excellent option for a Christmas gift. So keep that in mind as well.)
Now what Emmett is writing about is simplicity - living a life that's in tune with nature,   A life that is away from the hustle and bustle of the city and the daily grind. Emmett is busy,  but he has plenty of time to do the things that matter - Even pursuing his favorite pastime of spoon carving.
Now I have to confess that I discovered a very pleasant surprise when I started reading Emmett's book; he's an excellent writer.
And I wanted to give you a little taste for his writing, a little sample.  Just by reading what he wrote in the introduction to his book. He wrote,
The air is cold enough for my breath to show.  But I'm about to break a sweat.  I'm harvesting balsam branches, grabbing each with one hand and cutting them with the red clippers in the other. ...I work fast and don't stop until my arm is completely stacked with branches and sticking straight out, and I look like a kid with too many sweaters on under his jacket.  Pivoting on my heel.  I stride back to my central pile of balsam boughs and dump the armload on top, eyeballing it to gauge how much the pile weighs.  I decide I need more and head off in another direction into the grove.  
The balsam fir grows from big wild stumps and thickets that can stretch 20 feet around, the trees crowded so closely together, in no apparent order or pattern, that their branches interlock. Instead of single trees, each stump has up to three small trees of different ages growing off of it. They are pruned as Christmas trees, and I am a Christmas tree farmer.  
Isn't that fascinating?
Well, this book is 288 pages of self-reliance and the Christmas spirit.
You can get a copy of Carving Out a Living on the Land by Emmet Van Driesche and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $13.
 
Today's Botanic Spark
Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart
October 12, 1907
On this day, a 41-year-old Beatrix Potter wrote to Millie Warne, the sister of her publisher, friend, and former fiance Norman Warne (who died two years earlier - a month after their engagement - at the age of 37). Beatrix wore Norman's ring on the ring finger of her right hand until she died three days before Christmas in 1943 at the age of 77.
My news is all gardening at present and supplies. I went to see an old lady at Windermere and impudently took a large basket and trowel with me. She had the most untidy garden I ever saw. I got nice things in handfuls without any shame, amongst others a bundle of lavender slips ...and another bunch of violet suckers.
Incidentally, twenty years earlier on this day, in 1887, that a 21-year-old Beatrix drew her first fungus, the Verdigris Toadstool "Vir-dah-greez" (Stropharia aeruginosa).
 
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener.
And remember:
"For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today in botanical history, we celebrate a Philadelphia plant lover who we get to know only through his correspondence to other botanists, we'll also learn about the German palm expert and the man who became a director at Kew - but not before becoming an expert in the graves of the fallen during WWI.
We'll hear an excerpt from the amateur gardener Helena Rutherford Ely.
We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book from one of my favorite modern garden experts Robert Kourik.
And then we'll wrap things up with a Thay - the Buddhist monk, writer, and peace activist.  And I'll also add naturalist to his list of titles because he draws so much insight from nature - as should we all.
 
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"Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast."
And she will. It's just that easy.
 
The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter
Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:

• A personal update from me
• Garden-related items for your calendar
• The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week
• Gardener gift ideas
• Garden-inspired recipes
• Exclusive updates regarding the show

Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf.
 
Gardener Greetings
Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org
 
Facebook Group
If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community.
So, there's no need to take notes or search for links.
The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community where you'd search for a friend... and request to join.
I'd love to meet you in the group.
 
Curated News
14 Tips for Planting Your Favorite Bulbs | BHG | Editors
 
Important Events
October 11, 1818 
On this day, the Philadelphia botanist Zaccheus Collins to Jacob Bigelow in Boston. Zaccheus was a big-time plant collector and he had a large herbarium of most of the plants in the vicinity of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Zaccheus never published anything, but he corresponded with the botanists of his time, especially Henry Muhlenberg, Frederick Muhlenberg, Stephen Elliott, and Jacob Bigelow. In his letter to Jacob, written on this day, Zaccheus wrote,
The schooner Hero [with] Capt. Daggett... may be at Boston as soon as the present letter. On board [is] a little open box containing a growing plant of Aristolochia serpentaria (Virginia snakeroot), roots of Euphorbia ipecac (American ipecac), Spiraea trifoliata( Bowman's Root), & Convolvulus pandurata (wild sweet potato vine). 
These were put up under the direction of the worthy Mr. Bartram, my friend, still living at the old Bot. gardens, home of the father of Amer. Botany. 
You will only have to pay the freight.

October 11, 1825
Birth of Hermann Wendland, German botanist. He followed in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, both botanists, and served as director of the Royal Gardens of Herrenhausen in Hannover. Each generation of Wendlends had their specialty; the grandfather worked with ericas or heather, the father's focus was phyllodineous acacias, and Hermann's love was the palm family, the Arecaceae. Hermann's monograph established the classification for palms. He's remembered in the South American palm genus Wendlandiella.
During his life, Hermann turned Herrenhausen into the world's leading garden for palm cultivation and research. Herrenhausen's palm collection was unrivaled, and the focus on these stately and elegant trees resulted in Herrenhausen's construction of the tallest glasshouse in all of Europe.
In addition to naming over 500 palm species, Hermann named the Arizona palm Washingtonia filifera in memory of George Washington. Hermann is also remembered for calling the genus Saintpaulia (African violet) after Baron Walter von Saint Paul.
In 1882, Baron Walter was the Governor of the Usambara ("Ooh-sahm-bar-ah") District in German East Africa. During his time there, he explored the Usambara Mountains located in northeastern Tanzania. There, in the cloud forests, he collected seeds and specimens of a small herb, which he sent home to Herrenhausen. Hermann immediately cultivated the little plants, and he recognized that they were an entirely new species in an entirely new genus. And so, he named the plant Saintpaulia ionantha ("saint-paul-ee-ah ii-o-nan' thah"). Today we call the plant by its common name, the African violet. Hermann also called it the Usambara veilchen ('Usambara violet'). Today, African violets continue to be one of the most popular house plants. But, at home in their native Usambara Mountains, the plants face extinction.
 
October 11, 1875
Birth of Arthur William Hill, English botanist, and taxonomist. He served as Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Before he became director of Kew, he worked on a project for the Directorate of Graves Registration and Enquiries, the entity in charge of locating the graves of Britains service members who died during WWI.  In 1915, Arthur became part of this project and served as horticulture advisor. The job required visits throughout Europe and the middle east. Anywhere the war was fought, Arthur visited - from France to Turkey, Italy to Palestine. In 1916, during the month of March alone, Arthur visited thirty-seven cemeteries.
In 1917, Arthur visited the Somme Battlefields in France and wrote poignantly about the poppies and wildflowers that grew in the aftermath of the fighting that had occurred in the summer and fall of the previous year. Although the landscape was pockmarked from shells, Arthur wrote,
...One saw only a vast expanse of weeds of cultivation, which so completely covered the ground and dominated the landscape that all appeared to be a level surface. In July, poppies predominated, and the sheet of colour as far as the eye could see was superb; a blaze of scarlet unbroken by tree or hedgerow.
No more moving sight can be imagined than this great expanse of open country gorgeous in its display of colour, dotted over with half-hidden white crosses of the dead. In no British cemetery, large or small, however beautiful or impressive it may be, can the same sentiments be evoked or feelings so deeply stirred. Nowhere, I imagine, can the magnitude of the struggle be better appreciated than in this peaceful, poppy-covered battlefield hallowed by its many scattered crosses.
 
Unearthed Words
After five or six years, I dig up my Roses about October tenth, cut the tops down to about twelve inches, cut out some of the old wood, cut off the roots considerably, trench the ground anew, and replant. The following year the Roses may not bloom very profusely, but afterward, for four or five years, the yield will be great. My physician in the[128] country is a fine gardener and particularly successful with Roses. We have many delightful talks about gardening. When I told him of my surgical operations upon the Roses, he was horrified at such barbarity and seemed to listen with more or less incredulity. So I asked him if, as a surgeon as well as physician, he approved, on occasion, of lopping off a patient's limbs to prolong his life, why he should not also sanction the same operation in the vegetable kingdom. He was silent.
― Helena Rutherford Ely, A Woman's Hardy Garden
 
Grow That Garden Library
Designing and Maintaining Your Edible Landscape Naturally by Robert Kourik 
This book came out in 1986. And in 2005, it was back in print by popular demand.
Now, as per usual, Robert is ahead of the curve here. He's talking about incorporating edibles into the landscape and he was doing this way back in the eighties.
So props to Robert. Now, what I love about all of Robert Kirk's books.   Is how practical and experience-based is advisive.
And as with his other books, he puts tons of resources at the end of this book as well.  So make sure to check that out.
In this book, Robert mainly focuses on the edible plants you can put in your garden. That will help fertilize the soil and attract beneficial insects like pollinators and then provide additional benefits like helping your garden with issues like erosion or sheltering your home from cold heat and wind.
Robert also talks about how to incorporate edibles in trouble spots.  So think about areas where water is a problem or where you maybe don't get that much sun.
Well. Robert guides you through all of that and makes edible suggestions for those areas as well.
In this book, Robert also talks about making your soil better.
He walks you through a ton of tree pruning styles. And he even dishes up some gourmet recipes.
Because, of course, if you're growing edibles, You're going to want to eat them. That's the best part.
This book is 382 pages of edible landscaping from a master. Robert installed his very first edible landscape back in 1978.  And he brings all of that experience to bear in this fantastic resource.
You can get a copy of Designing and Maintaining Your Edible Landscape Naturally by Robert Kourik and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $18.
 
Today's Botanic Spark
Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart
October 11, 1926
Birth of Thích Nhất Hạnh ("Tick Nyot Hahn"), Vietnamese Thiền Buddhist monk and peace activist. His students call him Thay (pronounced "Tay" or "Tie"), which is Vietnamese for "teacher." In 1982 he cofounded The Plum Village, a Buddhist monastery in southern France.
Thay often uses nature to teach. In 2014, he wrote No Mud, No Lotus: The Art of Transforming Suffering. 
He once wrote,
Wilting flowers do not cause suffering. 
It is the unrealistic desire that flowers not wilt that causes suffering.
In Fidelity: How to Create a Loving Relationship That Lasts (2011), Thai wrote,
Every time you breathe in and know you are breathing, every time you breathe out and smile to your out-breath, you are yourself, you are your own master, and you are the gardener of your own garden.
In his 1992 book, Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life, Thay wrote,
I have lost my smile, but don't worry.
The dandelion has it.
 
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener.
And remember:
"For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today in botanical history, we celebrate an American civil servant and poet, an American art expert, and a Harlem artist and gardener.
We'll hear an excerpt from historical fiction by Deanna Raybourn.
We Grow That Garden Library™ with a lyrical book by a peach farmer.
And then we'll wrap things up with the story of a humorist who made a living writing about the sunny side of life.
 
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• Exclusive updates regarding the show

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Curated News
Why it took nearly 50 years for scientists to name this mysterious tropical plant | CNN | Megan Marples
Lauritzen Gardens - Omaha Botanical Center 20th birthday!
 
Important Events
October 8, 1838 
Birth of John Hay, American politician, diplomat, and poet. He served three assassinated American leaders, including President Lincoln. Along with John Nicolay, he co-wrote a ten-volume biography of Abraham Lincoln that helped shape his legacy. Like Lincoln, John lost a son, and the loss profoundly affected him. Three years later, he wrote,
The death of our boy made my wife and me old at once and for the rest of our lives.
After the death of his father-in-law, John became enormously wealthy and took over the family business and investments. His family enjoyed regular trips to Europe, a grand mansion in Washington D.C., and a cottage in New Hampshire that John called the Fells. John had cobbled together 1,000 acres of land after quietly buying up abandoned farms. The etymology of The Fells name was Scottish and means rocky upland pastures. John especially enjoyed time at The Fells, which overlooked pastoral view. In the foreground, sheep grazed among prehistoric boulders that dotted the landscape, and in the distance were views of scenic Lake Sunapee. John's wife, Clara, was a gardener, and she had a special love for roses and hydrangeas.
In 1890, John wrote,
I was greatly pleased with the air, the water, the scenery. I have nowhere found a more beautiful spot.
In terms of poetry, John was best known for a collection of post-Civil War poems compiled into a book called Pike County Ballads (1871). Here's one of his poems called Words, in which he uses nature to show the power a simple word can have on our lives.
When violets were springing
And sunshine filled the day,
And happy birds were singing
The praises of the May,
A word came to me, blighting
The beauty of the scene,
And in my heart was winter,
Though all the trees were green.
Now down the blast go sailing
The dead leaves, brown and sere;
The forests are bewailing
The dying of the year;
A word comes to me, lighting
With rapture all the air,
And in my heart is summer,
Though all the trees are bare.
 
October 8, 1934 
Birth of J. Carter Brown, American art expert, intellectual, and visionary. He was the director of the U.S. National Gallery of Art from 1969 to 1992. Although he was born in a family of great wealth - the Browns of Newport, the Browns of Brown University - he was a champion of public access to art. He believed people needed to see art in person and used a garden analogy to drive that point home:
No one will understand a Japanese garden until you've walked through one, and you hear the crunch underfoot, and you smell it, and you experience it over time. Now there's no photograph or any movie that can give you that experience.
 
October 8, 1930
Birth of Faith Ringgold, American painter, writer, mixed media sculptor, and performance artist.  Faith was born in Harlem into a family that embraced artistic creativity. She grew up after the Harlem Renaissance, and her neighborhood was home to the likes of Duke Ellington and Langston Hughes. One of her childhood friends was jazz musician Sonny Rollins. Growing up, Faith had chronic asthma, so she learned to pass the time indoors, creating visual art with the help of her mom. She became an expert seamstress and began experimenting with fabric as a medium for her art. Today Faith is known for her narrative quilts. One of her most beloved quilts is Sunflowers Quilting Bee at Arles, which depicts a group of African American women working on a sunflower quilt with Van Gogh off to the side, bringing them a vase of sunflowers.
In 1999, Faith had a garden installed at her Englewood, New Jersey home. She says,
[I love] to be able to look at the garden the first thing every morning, and I love to paint the green in as many ways as I can. 
For many years now, Faith has hosted a garden party in June to benefit the Anyone Can Fly Foundation. The mission of the Anyone Can Fly Foundation is to expand the art establishment's canon to include artists of the African Diaspora and to introduce the Great Masters of African American Art and their art traditions to children and adult audiences.
In 2019, there was an exhibition of Faith's art at the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens.
 
Unearthed Words
Something had shifted between us, faintly, but the change was almost palpable. Our friendship had sat lightly between us, an ephemeral thing, without weight or gravity. Once, in the Boboli Gardens, "Bo-bah-lee" under the shadow of a cypress tree on an achingly beautiful October afternoon, he had kissed me, a solemnly sweet and respectful kiss. But weeks had passed, and we had not spoken of it. I had attributed it to the sunlight, shimmering gold like Danaë's shower, "Dan ah ee" and had pressed it into the scrapbook of memory, to be taken out and admired now and then, but not to be dwelled upon too seriously. Perhaps I had been mistaken.
― Deanna Raybourn, Silent in the Sanctuary
 
Grow That Garden Library
Epitaph for a Peach by David M. Masumoto
This book came out in 1996, and the subtitle is Four Seasons on My Family Farm.
This memoir is a personal favorite. Mas's lyrical writing is a pleasure to read. Here are a few gems from the book:
A new planting is like having another child, requiring patience and sacrifice and a resounding optimism for the future.
I try to rely less and less on controlling nature. Instead, I am learning to live with its chaos.
Good neighbors are worth more than an extra sixteen trees.
Mas is an organic peach farmer who shares his story with humor, grace, and incredible insight into the natural world.
The New York Times said,
[Masumoto is] a poet of farming and peaches.
This book is 256 pages of thoughts on growing from a peach farmer with the soul of a poet.
You can get a copy of Epitaph for a Peach by David M. Masumoto and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $2.
 
Today's Botanic Spark
Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart
October 8, 1915
Birth of William E. 'Bill' Vaughan (pen name Burton Hillis), American columnist and author. In addition to his magazine features, he wrote a syndicated column for the Kansas City Star for over three decades. His folksy sayings include,
Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them.
Experience teaches that love of flowers and vegetables is not enough to make a man a good gardener.  He must also hate weeds.
The best of all gifts around any #Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other.
Bill Vaughan was beloved for his humor and his friendliness. He generally wrote thirteen paragraphs of humorous observations every single day for his column. He also was an artist. A 1970 profile of Bill in his beloved Kansas City Star stated,
[He] has always had what art lovers describe as unfortunate yearnings to be an artist. While testing his fledgling wings as a columnist in Springfield, Vaughan became adept at drawing deep one-column sketches that relieved him substantially of the responsibility of filling the space with words. The day Vaughan filled virtually an entire column with a drawing of a garden hose with very little at either end, the editor ordered a halt to this sort of thing.
 
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener.
And remember:
"For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today in botanical history, we celebrate a beloved Indiana poet, the Engelmann Botanical Club and their display of fall flowers over 120 years ago, and an Australian author who had asthma as a child.
We'll hear an excerpt from the New York Times bestselling author, Karen White.
We Grow That Garden Library™ with a terrific book by a modern plantsman and nurseryman.
And then we'll wrap things up with a poignant poem from a writer and critic who said his goodbyes through his writing.
 
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"Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast."
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The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter
Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:

• A personal update from me
• Garden-related items for your calendar
• The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week
• Gardener gift ideas
• Garden-inspired recipes
• Exclusive updates regarding the show

Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf.
 
Gardener Greetings
Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org
 
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If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community.
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The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join.
I'd love to meet you in the group.
 
Curated News
Prairie Strips Prevent Soil Erosion, Help Pollinators | Farm Progress | Fran O'Leary
 
Important Events
October 7, 1849
Birth of James Whitcomb Riley, American writer, and poet. In Indiana, he was especially beloved and is remembered as the Hoosier poet. James wrote in dialect - in the voice of the common man - and the majority of his over 1,000 poems were often sentimental or humorous. He managed to have a successful writing career despite a lifelong struggle with alcohol. Today, in James' hometown of Greenfield, Indiana, the Riley Festival is touted as Indiana's largest four-day gathering. The event started in 1925 and took place the first or second weekend of October. The "Riley Days" festival traditionally ends with a flower parade, and children place flowers around 1918 Myra Reynolds Richards' statue of Riley on the county courthouse lawn.
James wrote several poems about flowers and gardens. One of his most famous poems is When the Frost is on the Punkin. Here's an excerpt from When The Green Gits Back In The Trees:
In Spring, when the green gits back in the trees,
And the sun comes out and stays,
And yer boots pulls on with a good tight squeeze,
And you think of yer bare-foot days;
When you ort to work and you want to not,
And you and yer wife agrees
It's time to spade up the garden-lot,
When the green gits back in the trees
When the whole tail-feathers o' Wintertime
Is all pulled out and gone!
And the sap it thaws and begins to climb,
And the swet it starts out on
A feller's forred, a-gittin' down
At the old spring on his knees—
When the green gits back in the trees —
 
October 7, 1900    
On this day, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, Missouri) shared articles about autumn-blooming flowers.
The wild flower exhibition held by the Engelmann Botanical Club in the Public Library Building gave the observer a striking idea of the beauty and profusion of the uncultivated flowers which can be found In the vicinity of St. Louis in the autumn. 
To many it was a revelation. 
Miss Ellen C. Clark, President of the Englemann Botanical Club, wrote,  
The table that attracted the children the most was that on which the fruits and seeds were collected. The pods of the milkweed and dogbane families, with their hairy seed, those of the trumpet creeper and others, showed them how seed could fly; the berries of the dogwood, buckthorn, the coralberry, the pokeberry had each its special attraction.
The Engelmann Botanical Club has had only a short existence. [It started] a little more than two years ago… When a name for the club was considered it seemed most fitting to honor Dr. Engelmann, the eminent St. Louis physician who made time in the midst of a large practice to do botanical work that distinguished him among the botanists of the world. 
J. H. Kellogg wrote,  
Besides the large exhibits of gentians, lobelias, asters, and goldenrods, there were others equally as attractive, although the Cardinal Lobelia is one of the most glaringly beautiful wildflowers to be found. 
Eupatorium ageratoides, or whitesnake root, growing in rich shady woods with white flowers, is a very pretty plant, blooming until late in the fall. 
Eupatorium coelestinum. or mistflower, with its delicate blue flowers, is very beautiful. It Is found growing in low grounds and blooming until cold weather. 
Bidens Bipinnata or Spanish Needle is one of our common fall flowers, sometimes covering low meadows with its bright yellow flowers and along roadside almost everywhere. 
Another group of plants that will attract your attention if you take a walk through the woods in almost any direction during the fall of the year is the Desmodiums or beggar's ticks [or beggar lice]. Not on account of their showy flowers, but of their seeds, which will stick to you "closer than a brother," as anyone can testify who has taken a walk in the country at this season of the year.
 
October 7, 1935 
Birth of Thomas Keneally, Australian novelist. He is most widely known for his non-fiction novel Schindler's Ark, which was adapted into Steven Spielberg's 1993 Academy Award-winning film for Best Picture, Schindler's List.
As a child, Thomas had terrible asthma. He wrote,
I [was] frequently sick, particularly with asthma for which there was no proper treatment then.
In September of 2009, Thomas helped open the brand new Asthma and Allergy Friendly Garden in the Eden Display Gardens in Sydney. A first of its kind in Australia, the garden was developed by Eden by Design with guidance from the Asthma Foundation NSW to help people living with asthma and allergies enjoy the benefits of gardening. One of the keys for asthmatics and allergy sufferers is to select low-allergen plants and female trees. Some tree species are distinctly male or female. The male plant produces pollen, and the female plants are often less triggering for folks with allergies. Other tips include gardening in the morning when the grass is still wet with dew - that helps keep the pollen on the ground. Avoid gardening on windy days when pollen is in the air. And after being in the garden, make sure to shower and change your clothes to remove any allergens that are on your body and clothes.
 
Unearthed Words
I looked around the garden, the sun feeling warm on my back.
"So why are you here? I would think you'd want to be as far away from a hurricane as possible."
She looked at me as if I'd just suggested streaking down the beach. It took her a moment to answer.
"Because this is home."
She wanted to see if the words registered with me, but I just looked back at her, not understanding at all.
After a deep breath, she looked up at a tall oak tree beyond the garden, its leaves still green against the early October sky, the limbs now thick with foliage.
"Because the water recedes, and the sun comes out, and the trees grow back. Because" - she spread her hands, indicated the garden and the trees and, I imagined, the entire peninsula of Biloxi - "because we've learned that great tragedy gives us opportunities for great kindness. It's like a needed reminder that the human spirit is alive and well despite all evidence to the contrary."
She lowered her hands to her sides.
"I figured I wasn't dead, so I must not be done."
― Karen White, The Beach Trees
 
Grow That Garden Library
The New Shade Garden by Ken Druse
This book came out in 2015, and the subtitle is Creating a Lush Oasis in the Age of Climate Change.
In this book, Ken Druse does it again. He provides another comprehensive guide - but this time focuses on shade plants and our changing climate. Ken's conversational writing style makes his advice stickier and easier to implement. Today gardeners need to be planning for the conditions their garden may face long term to maximize their efforts and investment.

• What shade plants are best if you have deer?
• How can I have a shade garden and also water less?
• What are the best plants for color in the shade garden of the future?

These are the questions current and future generations of gardeners face. Beauty is still a garden goal, but today's gardener is looking for earth-friendly, climate-wise, and super functional plants.
This book is 256 pages of everything you need to know to create or upgrade a shade garden from a modern plant master.
You can get a copy of The New Shade Garden by Ken Druse and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $30.
 
Today's Botanic Spark
Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart
October 7, 1939
Birth of Clive James, Australian-born British literary critic, poet, lyricist, novelist, and memoirist. In 1972, Clive gained notoriety as a television critic for The Observer. His voice was unique, and his writing reflected his wry and intelligent humor.
Then, eleven years ago, in 2010, Clive was diagnosed with both emphysema and leukemia. As one might expect, his deteriorating health impacted his work, and Clive began using his poetry to write his earthly goodbyes.
One day in 2014, his daughter gifted him with a tree, and he wrote a touching poem called Japanese Maple. Clive worried he wouldn't live to see the tree change color in the fall. Here are the words he wrote from that particular verse.
My daughter's choice, the maple tree is new.
Come autumn and its leaves will turn to flame.
What I must do
Is live to see that.That will end the game
For me, though life continues all the same.
Clive James enjoyed several autumns with that tree. He died in 2019.
 
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener.
And remember:
"For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today in botanical history, we celebrate a Kentucky botanist, a French priest and plant explorer, and a Texas doctor and botanist.
We'll hear an excerpt from Susan Hill's book, The Magic Apple Tree.
We Grow That Garden Library™ with another great book by Michael Dirr.
And then we'll wrap things up with a reminder from a modern gardener to stop and enjoy the leaves.
 
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The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter
Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:

• A personal update from me
• Garden-related items for your calendar
• The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week
• Gardener gift ideas
• Garden-inspired recipes
• Exclusive updates regarding the show

Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf.
 
Gardener Greetings
Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org
 
Facebook Group
If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community.
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The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join.
I'd love to meet you in the group.
 
Curated News
Garden Border Ideas | Country Living | Matt Rees-Warren
 
Important Events
October 6, 1794
Birth of Charles Wilkins Short, American botanist, and doctor. A Kentuckian, Charles wrote a flora of Kentucky in 1833. He had one of the largest, most valued private herbariums with 15,000 plant samples, and his massive garden covered several acres. Charles was honored in the naming of many plants, including the Oconee bell named the Shortia galacifolia.
Now in terms of botanical history, this plant has quite a story. Back in the 1800s, when Charles was still alive, the plant's location had become a mystery. People couldn't find it. And in 1863, after Charles Short died, botanists still did not know where to find this plant, or even if it still existed. In fact, many botanists were asked the question,
Have you found the Shortia yet? 
It was driving them crazy.
But finally, in May of 1877, a North Carolina teenager named George Hyams sent an unknown specimen to Asa Gray at Harvard. And when Asa laid eyes on this plant, he knew immediately that it was the Shortia, and he could be heard crying 'Eureka' when he saw it.
Two years later, Asa and his wife along with his dear friend, the botanist John Redfield, the director of the Arnold Arboretum Charles Sprague Sargent, and the botanist William Canby all stood around the little patch of earth where the Shortia grew in oblivion of all the hubbub it had caused. The long search to find the Shortia was over. It was growing right where George Hyams said it would be.
 
October 6, 1858
Birth of André Soulié, French Roman Catholic missionary, herbalist, healer, and botanist. Many of the first plant collectors were missionaries. André was one of a handful of the last missionary collectors. He collected thousands of dried plants and seeds and then sent them back to Paris.
André was so fluent in the different Chinese dialects that he could pass as a local.
In the 1800s and early 1900s, plant collecting in China was a dangerous business. Collectors not only contended with geographic challenges like terrain but also political upheaval. The Opium Wars and the ongoing dispute with Tibet increased distrust and hostility toward foreigners.
In 1905, in retaliation for an invasion of Tibet by a British explorer named Francis Younghusband, André was abducted by Tibetan monks. He was grabbed right in the middle of packing up his plant specimens. André was tortured for over two weeks before finally being shot dead by his captors.
André is remembered for his discovery of the Rosa soulieana and the butterfly bush (Buddleja davidii). He also has a Rhododendron, a Lily, and Primula named in his honor.
 
October 6, 1877 
On this day, a 46-year-old American doctor and botanist named Levi Jasper James Russell was whipped.
He was lured out of his home at midnight to treat a sick woman and instead met with a mob who stripped him naked and gave him 100 lashes for being an "infidel."
A leading member of the Freethinkers, Levi was agnostic and a pioneering doctor and herbalist. He served as chairman of the committee on medical botany of the Texas State Medical Association.
Before his life in Texas, Levi had gone west to California to dig for gold with his brothers after leaving their home state of Georgia. The three brothers were among the first to prospect for gold in Colorado and helped found the city of Denver.
Levi survived being shot with a bow and arrow by Native Americans in Montana and contracting smallpox during his imprisonment by Union soldiers during the Civil War.
But all that was behind him by the time he was whipped on this day, October 6th, 1877. Levi stayed in Texas, and he continued to serve his community as a doctor. He eventually died in Bell County, Texas, in 1908 at the age of 77.
 
Unearthed Words
In early October, the woods begin to come alive again, and that surprises many people, who think of them in autumn as places of decay and dying, falling leaves and animals hiding away for their long winter hibernation. But it is summer there that is the dead time. In summer, the air hangs heavy and close and still, nothing flowers, nothing sings, nothing stirs, and no light penetrates. But, now, there is a stirring, a sense of excitement.
― Susan Hill, The Magic Apple Tree: A Country Year
 
Grow That Garden Library
The Tree Book by Michael Dirr and Keith Warren
This book came out in 2019, and the subtitle is Superior Selections for Landscapes, Streetscapes, and Gardens. 
This book is co-authored by Michael Dir and tree breeder and nurseryman Keith Warren. Together, this dynamic duo of tree expertise put together the latest and greatest must-have tree book. The two men feature old favorites and exciting new selections. My favorite is when they recommend the hidden gems, the overlooked, and the underappreciated trees that deserve a second look.
I've been saying for the past two years that gardeners need to plant more trees. But gardeners often lack the expertise for trees that they cultivate for edibles or ornamentals. This is where The Tree Book can save the day.  
If you've wondered about the trees you should be considering, what tree is suitable for your space, why a tree is not working out, or how to put together a stunning tree portfolio for your property, this book is essential.
This book is 900 pages of nerding out on trees from two masters who share information gleaned from training and experience.
You can get a copy of The Tree Book by Michael A. Dirr and Keith S. Warren and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $32 - or 3 cents a page!
 
Today's Botanic Spark
Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart
October 6, 2017
On this day, Chris Howell, the gardener at Birmingham Botanical Gardens, tweeted a beautiful fall photo of leaves. In a day and age where manicured lawns are still universally valued, leaves are often seen more as a nuisance to our busy lives, being quickly raked up, bagged up, or blown away.
But on this day in 2017, Chris was so struck by the simple beauty of fallen leaves on a path, he tweeted that photo along with this caption:
Some leaves just need to be left on the ground to admire for a while.
 
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener.
And remember:
"For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today in botanical history, we celebrate a Flemish Renaissance painter who painted the first landscapes, the American naturalist and artist who saved Prospect Park, and an American botanist who jotted down a little poem on one of the pages in his herbarium - a little known treasure.
We'll hear an October excerpt from Barbara Kingsolver from one of her best-selling books.
We Grow That Garden Library™ with the bible for trees and shrubs - it's a must-have monster resource.
And then we'll wrap things up with the story of the Enlightenment author who captured the work of gardeners and various trades at his own peril.
 
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The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter
Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:

• A personal update from me
• Garden-related items for your calendar
• The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week
• Gardener gift ideas
• Garden-inspired recipes
• Exclusive updates regarding the show

Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf.
 
Gardener Greetings
Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org
 
Facebook Group
If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community.
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The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community where you'd search for a friend... and request to join.
I'd love to meet you in the group.
 
Curated News
House & Garden | Nicola Harding's tips for outdoor dining | Nicola Harding
 
Important Events
October 5, 1524
Birth of Joachim Patinir, Flemish Renaissance painter of history, religion, and landscape. He worked primarily in Antwerp, and he's credited with creating landscape painting as an independent subject. Joachim's scenes are imaginary. His world landscape offers a panoramic landscape with craggy rocks and boulders jutting out a cliff on one side and partially obscuring the view. Then he usually included small figures portraying religious events. His use of vibrant colors and little details set in the sweeping landscapes is mesmerizing.
 
October 5, 1850
Birth of William Hamilton Gibson, American illustrator, author, and naturalist. Born in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, William grew up with an immediate love of the natural world. When he was ten years old, his parents sent him to a boarding school called the Gunn school for advanced training. Frederick Gunn loved the natural world, and he incorporated the study of nature into the academic teachings of the school.  As a young teen, he wrote his mother,
I have just found an Imperial moth worm on a maple tree. Will you please look on one of the small apple trees in the orchard near the place where the arbor used to be… there is a tree on which I put a Cecropia worm for myself…  I think a great deal of it, or I wouldn't write about it.  The boys are leaving from here very fast, and we all will leave in 13 days more....
P. S. That worm that I told you about on the apple tree, if very large, must be taken off and put into a box with fresh apple leaves every day; if small, do the same.
In another note to his mother, he ended with this offer,
In a garden up here, there is a kind of Columbine, very large, of two kinds, purple and white and very large. I am welcome to all the seed that I want. I don't know whether you want any or not, but nevertheless, I'll get you a lot.
I remain Your aff. son Willie.
At the Gunn school, William was able to study all aspects of the natural world - even botany  - and he benefited from being surrounded by the immersive nature of the school. He wrote,
There is often an almost inexhaustible field for botanic investigation even on a single fallen tree. My scientific friend ...recently informed me... that he had spent two days most delightfully and profitably in the study of ...a single dead tree, and [was surprised to learn that] a hundred distinct species of plants congregated upon it. Plumy dicentra clustered along its length, graceful sprays of the frost-flower with its little spire of snow crystals rose up here and there, scarlet berries of the Indian turnip glowed among the leaves, and, with the ….lycopodiums and mosses, ...ferns and lichens, and [a] host of fungous growths, it [was] easy… to extend the list of species into the second hundred. It is something worth remembering the next time we go into the woods.
As an adult, William lived in Brooklyn. He started out in a soul-crushing job selling insurance until the day he tried to sell insurance to a draftsman. He ended up spending the day watching him draw and immediately pivoted to pursue an art career. His first gig was drawing feathers for Harper Brothers magazine. His iconic peacock feather drawing sealed his fate as an illustrator. Once he began writing, he also became known as a nature writer. One of his favorite places to write was a wild corner of Prospect Park. There he enjoyed a rare oasis of flora and fauna unlike any other green space in the city. When the city sought to clean up the wild space by cutting trees and removing plants, William wrote articles for the newspaper and persuaded local leaders to see what the city stood to lose. After the city reversed course, William Hamilton Gibson became known as the man who saved Prospect Park.
 
October 5, 1873
Birth of Merritt Lyndon Fernald, American botanist. He wrote over 800 papers and coauthored Edible Wild Plants of Eastern North America (1919-1920) with Alfred Kinsey, the American scientist, and sexologist.
On one of his herbarium sheets, he once wrote a quick poem about the Rhodora - the pink blooming azalea found in the Northeastern United States.
The gay Rhodora long the margin stands,
Forerunner of the summer's fairer Rose;
Yet coming as she does to ope spring's lands,
She brightens every mood wherein she blows.
 
Unearthed Words
Our gardening forebears meant watermelon to be the juicy, barefoot taste of a hot summer's end, just as a pumpkin is the trademark fruit of late October. Most of us accept the latter and limit our jack-o'-lantern activities to the proper botanical season. Waiting for a watermelon is harder. It's tempting to reach for melons, red peppers, tomatoes, and other late-summer delights before the summer even arrives. But it's actually possible to wait, celebrating each season when it comes, not fretting about its being absent at all other times because something else good is at hand.
― Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
 
Grow That Garden Library
Dirr's Encyclopedia of Trees and Shrubs by Michael A. Dirr
This book came out in 2011, and it is a hefty gem of a resource.
This book has over 3500 photographs of over 3700 species and cultivars.
Michael covers thousands of plants in this very detailed book, from flowering shrubs to weeping trees. Photos show trees in winter and other seasons to make identification and selection 100% accurate.
This book is an excellent resource for gardeners, landscape architects, designers, and anyone who wants the bible for trees and shrubs.
This book is 952 pages of trees and shrubs by a respected plantsman who writes with passion, candor, and wit about every possible aspect of these plants - flower color, fall color, salt or shade tolerance, winter interest, and form, just to name a few.
You can get a copy of Dirr's Encyclopedia of Trees and Shrubs by Michael Dirr and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $37.
 
Today's Botanic Spark
Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart
October 5, 1713
Birth of Denis Diderot, French philosopher, art critic, and writer.
Denis was an ordinary man. He was not part of the aristocracy like his contemporary, Voltaire. After he started work on the first encyclopedia in France, he was imprisoned - punished for claiming that knowledge came from our senses and not from God. In this way and many others, Denis Diderot challenged the church, but he learned to be a little more discreet with his criticisms over time.
Diderot's concept for his encyclopedia was to gather together the brightest minds of his time and create a series of books that shared standard academic fair like philosophy and literature and everyday jobs in the crafts and trades. This type of information had never been captured, and by including it in his encyclopedia, he elevated the people's work.
Some of the work he wrote about was horticultural and floral. For Instance, he featured the work of artificial flower makers and market gardeners. Today, the illustrated pages of these jobs have become popular as pieces of art.
Speaking of art, Diderot was a huge admirer of artisans and art. He was a tough critic. He once wrote,
First of all, move me, surprise me, rend my heart; make me tremble, weep, shudder, outrage me!
Delight my eyes, afterwards, if you can... 
Whatever the art form, it is better to be extravagant than cold.
Denis Diderot's 28-volume Encyclopédie (1751-1772) featured work from over 100 writers covering over 71,000 entries and 20 million words. Although it was banned by both King Louis XV of France and the Vatican, Diderot's Encyclopédie was a huge success and led Diderot to devise his famous saying that, 
A book banned is a book read. 
Today the Encyclopédie is considered one of the great works of the European Enlightenment.
 
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener.
And remember:
"For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today in botanical history, we celebrate an English artist and clergyman, an old diary entry from the great Henry David Thoreau, and we'll also learn about an American publishing tycoon and his family's retreat called Bird Haven Farm.
We'll hear an excerpt on October from a Harry Potter book.
We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book from one of the great plantsmen of our time and his excellent resource on Viburnums.
And then we'll wrap things up with a charming garden verse. I bet you've heard it before - but you may not be familiar with the woman who wrote it.
 
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"Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast."
And she will. It's just that easy.
 
The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter
Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:

• A personal update from me
• Garden-related items for your calendar
• The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week
• Gardener gift ideas
• Garden-inspired recipes
• Exclusive updates regarding the show

Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf.
 
Gardener Greetings
Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org
 
Facebook Group
If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community.
So, there's no need to take notes or search for links.
The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join.
I'd love to meet you in the group.
 
Curated News
Improve Your Soil by Raking Less | Fine Gardening | Terry Ettinger
 
Important Events
October 4, 1761/1762 
Birth of William Gilpin, English artist, teacher, clergyman, and landscape designer. He coined the term picturesque. He had documented his visit to Ross-on-Wye, and the resulting book became England's first tourist guide. William inspired others to enjoy the sights of the town, including the picturesque Wye river, and visitors came to the area in droves.
William spent a great deal of time outdoors painting landscapes. He observed,
Every distant horizon promises something new, and with this pleasing expectation, we follow nature through all her walks.
During his life, many looked to William as an arbiter of artistic taste. In addition to the picturesque landscape, he was especially fond of old ruins, mountains, and trees. William's paintings were created on-site out in nature, and he wasn't opposed to using a little artistic license to make the scene even more compelling - adding more trees, a little bridge, or enhancing an old ruin. In 1786, William 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 ...
William was the first president of the Royal Watercolor Society, and he also authored several books related to his work as an artist. One of his more popular books was called Forest Scenery, which featured forty-five watercolors of trees and shrubs along with descriptions. He also included his tips and tricks for capturing a picturesque effect on canvas through the clumping of trees. Tree painting was a William Gilpin specialty. He adored trees. He once wrote,
It is no exaggerated praise to call a tree the grandest and most beautiful of all productions on earth!
 
October 4, 1853
On this day, Thoreau wrote in his journal:
The maples are reddening, and birches yellowing. The mouse-ear in the shade in the middle of the day, so hoary, looks as if the frost still lay on it. Well it wears the frost. Bumblebees are on the Aster undulatus, and gnats are dancing in the air.
 
October 4, 1862
Birth of Edward Stratemeyer, American publisher, writer of children's fiction, and founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate. He produced over 1,300 books and sold over 500 million copies. He's remembered for series like The Bobbsey Twins and The Hardy Boys. The very day his new series, Nancy Drew, was released, he died. Regarding his legacy, Fortune wrote:
As oil had its Rockefeller, literature had its Stratemeyer.
After Edward died, his widow, Magdalene Van Camp, bought a Bird Haven farm for a weekend retreat. It was a place she enjoyed living on weekends and holidays for more than forty years. During those four decades, she wrote over half of the Nancy Drew books and developed plots for many other series. Edward and Magdalene's daughter Harriet took over the family business and ran it for fifty years. She also spent the last half of her life at Bird Haven. In 1982, while watching The Wizard of Oz for the very first time, she had a heart attack and died.
Today the twenty-five acres known as Bird Haven Farm in Tewksbury Township is part of the Garden Conservancy Open Day. The barns, outbuildings, and the original nineteenth-century stone house are joined by a contemporary home built in the 1990s. In 2002, the garden was redesigned under the vision of Fernando Caruncho as a medieval village. The property boasts mature trees, an apple orchard, fruit trees, a vegetable and herb garden, hay meadows, and a perennial border designed by Lisa Stamm. Design elements include a woodland walk, cascading ponds, a charming pond hut, a maze garden for grandchildren, and an elf's stump.
But there's something else happening at Bird Haven Farm. The current owner, Janet Mavec, finds inspiration in flora and fauna on Bird Haven, and she created her own line of whimsical jewelry. One day, as she was working in the garden, she was thinking about jewelry and was suddenly struck with the idea of making jewelry inspired by her vegetables. In a video of Bird Haven Farm, Janet says,
I only make things that I either grow here myself - or they swim, or they fly in. 
Janet's jewelry is made with brass and then dipped in 18 karat gold, sterling silver, or gunmetal. Janet hopes her jewelry clients feel a closeness to nature with her unique jewelry designs.
 
Unearthed Words
October arrived, spreading a damp chill over the grounds and into the castle. Madam Pomfrey, the nurse, was kept busy by a sudden spate of colds among the staff and students. Raindrops the size of bullets thundered on the castle windows for days on end; the lake rose, the flower beds turned into muddy streams, and Hagrid's pumpkins swelled to the size of garden sheds.
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets
 
Grow That Garden Library
Viburnums by Michael A. Dirr 
This book came out in 2007, and the subtitle is Flowering Shrubs for Every Season.
In this book, Michael takes us on an in-depth tour of Viburnums - one of the most versatile, most utilized, and beloved shrubs for our gardens. As a woody expert, Michael was the perfect person to write a comprehensive guide on viburnums. He reveals their robustness and beauty in addition to sharing detailed information about every possible type of viburnum a gardener could ever desire. His honest and balanced review of every plant will make it easier for you to pick the perfect viburnum for your garden. Viburnums can satisfy any Landscape need: some are four-season, some are a true wow in the garden, some are well-behaved workhorses, others play a supporting role in the garden design. Whether you want gorgeous fall color, stunning blossoms, fragrance, or fruit, there's a viburnum for every need. Michael likes to say that a garden without viburnums is like a life without the pleasures of music and art.
This book is 264 pages of viburnums in all their glory - spotlighting the diversity in this incredibly functional and beautiful genus. You'll want to bring it along on your next trip to the garden center.
You can get a copy of Viburnums by Michael A. Dirr and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $14.
 
Today's Botanic Spark
Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart
October 4, 1858 
Birth of Dorothy Gurney, English hymn-writer and poet. She wrote the famous wedding hymn O Perfect Love for her sister's wedding. Her sister loved the tune of O Strength And Stay but wanted different words so she could use the song during the ceremony. In a flash of divine inspiration, Dorothy jotted down new lyrics in just fifteen minutes, and the result was O Perfect Love.
But Dorothy also wrote one of the most charming garden verses ever created. The words she strung together still grace our gardens, sundials, memorials, and cemeteries. The four lines of simple verse are taken from her original poem God's Garden.
The kiss of the sun for pardon, 
The song of the birds for mirth, 
One is nearer God's heart in a garden 
Than anywhere else on earth.
 
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener.
And remember:
"For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today in botanical history, we celebrate an American botanist, professor, and writer, an American short-story writer, and her last novel, and the amateur botanist honored with the Australian Native Plants Award.
We'll hear an excerpt from Neil Gaiman's book, Season of Mists.
We Grow That Garden Library™ with a master book on wreaths.
And then we'll wrap things up with a garden classic that came out on this day in 2013.
 
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"Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast."
And she will. It's just that easy.
 
The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter
Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:

• A personal update from me
• Garden-related items for your calendar
• The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week
• Gardener gift ideas
• Garden-inspired recipes
• Exclusive updates regarding the show

Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf.
 
Gardener Greetings
Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org
 
Facebook Group
If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community.
So, there's no need to take notes or search for links.
The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join.
I'd love to meet you in the group.
 
Curated News
How your electric toothbrush can aid pollination | The Guardian | James Wong
 
Important Events
October 1, 1874
Birth of LeRoy Abrams, American botanist, professor, and writer. Born in Sheffield, Iowa, he moved west with his parents as a small boy. As a graduate student, he botanized around Los Angeles. A biographical sketch of LeRoy said,
[He] crisscrossed southern California in a wagon, on the back of a mule or burrow, and on foot to make field observations... and collected specimens from Santa Barbara to Yuma, from Needles to San Diego, and from the Salton Sink prior to its flooding to the summits of Old Baldy.
He published Flora of Los Angeles and Vicinity (1904), encompassing a fifty-mile radius around LA. In 1909, LeRoy married a fellow student at Stanford named Letitia Patterson. The couple handbuilt and enjoyed their mountain cabin on the west side of Fallen Leaf Lake. When their only daughter died a few short years after her college graduation, they shouldered their grief together. LeRoy served as the director of the Natural History Museum at Stanford, where he taught botany for thirty-four years. The final volume of his four-volume work An Illustrated Flora of the Pacific States was completed posthumously. LeRoy was a loving teacher. His students called him "Father." When, at 51, the great botanist Ynes Mexia decided to pursue a career in botany, her first course was on flowering plants, and her professor was LeRoy Abrams.
 
October 1, 1972
On this day, The Tampa Tribune profiled American short story writer Eudora Welty and shared some backstory on what would be her last book:
Miss Welty was writing "Losing Battles" at home with her [dying mother] and two nurses and laughing a great deal (the book is beyond grief and funny as owls in heaven), and the nurses did not approve of anything. And right in the middle of it, the nematodes did in the roses, which had been packed in that garden tight as a trunk, but nothing that could be tried availed at all. Ordinarily, an attack on her roses would have brought [the older] Mrs. Welty right out of the kitchen, as they say, but she was past those battles then. Her characters in her stories are like the roses: some make it, some don't.
 
October 1, 2019 
On this day, amateur botanist Glenn Leiper received the Australian Native Plants Award. He co-wrote a popular field guide of native plants in southeast Queensland called Mangroves to Mountains. While botanizing the area, he rediscovered the rainforest myrtle tree Gossia gonoclada a century after the plant was considered extinct. He also discovered a native violet colony. Once, he spied a fifteen-centimeter-tall from his car while driving. The unusual spotting resulted in the naming of the plant in his honor: Androcalva leiperi. Glenn acknowledges his most helpful skill for botany,
I've got good eyes.
 
Unearthed Words
October knew, of course, that the action of turning a page, of ending a chapter, or of shutting a book did not end a tale. Having admitted that, he would also avow that happy endings were never difficult to find: "It is simply a matter," he explained to April, "of finding a sunny place in a garden, where the light is golden, and the grass is soft; somewhere to rest, to stop reading, and to be content.
― Neil Gaiman, Season of Mists
 
Grow That Garden Library
Wreaths by Terri Chandler
This book came out in 2018, and the subtitle is Fresh, Foraged, and Dried Floral Arrangements.
In this book, Terri shares her nature-inspired wreaths. Now, if you've ever tried to make your own wreath, you know it's more complicated than it looks. Terri breaks down the fine art of creative wreath-making - playing with color, texture, natural elements, and how to use them. If you thought wreaths were just for the front door - Terri will show you how to integrate them into your home to dress up unexpected areas like chairs, centerpieces, and even books.
This book is 144 pages of wreath goodness - good ideas, good uses, and excellent form.
You can get a copy of Wreaths by Terri Chandler and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $3
 
Today's Botanic Spark
Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart
October 1, 2013
On this day, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer was released. The compelling subtitle is Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.
The book has brought her fame and opened the eyes of her readers who see the natural world in a new way - an ancient way. 
Robin introduces her book on her website with this excerpt:
I could hand you a braid of sweetgrass, as thick and shining as the plait that hung down my grandmother's back. But it is not mine to give, nor yours to take. 
So I offer, in its place, a braid of stories meant to heal our relationship with the world.
Robin's prose is like poetry. Her Native American roots offered a distinct and more profound way to connect with plants and with the world. As a botanist and professor of plant ecology, Robin approaches nature with a spirit of gratitude and humility.
In her book, Robin writes of gardens and gardening.
Gardens are simultaneously a material and a spiritual undertaking. That's hard for scientists so fully brainwashed by Cartesian dualism to grasp.
"Well, how would you know it's love and not just good soil?" she asks. "Where's the evidence? What are the key elements for detecting loving behavior?"
That's easy. No one would doubt that I love my children, and even a quantitative social psychologist would find no fault with my list of loving behaviors: nurturing health and well-being, protection from harm, encouraging individual growth and development, desire to be together, generous sharing of resources, working together for a common goal, celebration of shared values, interdependence, sacrifice by one for the other, creation of beauty.
If we observed these behaviors between humans, we would say, "She loves that person."
You might also observe these actions between a person and a bit of carefully tended ground and say, "She loves that garden." 
Why then, seeing this list, would you not make the leap to say that the garden loves her back?"
A good question. A question most of us would not even consider asking. 
Yet, as gardeners, the notion of finding love in our gardens may not be such a strange notion after all. Do we not find renewal and healing from the solitude offered in our gardens. Are there not moments where we find a deeper understanding of ourselves or a new wonderment about the world just from being in our gardens? And isn't renewal, healing, self-discovery, and wonder the benefits we receive from being loved? 
It's something nice to consider, isn't it?
It's something Robin's thought about. In Braiding Sweetgrass, she writes,
This is really why I made my daughters learn to garden—so they would always have a mother to love them, long after I am gone.
 
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener.
And remember:
"For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

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Botanical History On This Day

1795 John Keats is born into a world he would later capture
through some of the most vivid botanical imagery in English poetry.

1895 Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman, the popular American writer, is born in Randolph, Massachusetts.

Grow That Garden Library™ 

Read The Daily Gardener review of Seedtime and Harvest by Christie Purifoy 

Buy the book on Amazon: Seedtime and Harvest by Christie Purifoy 

Today's Botanic Spark

1804 Gardener Edward Ward laid down his trowel for the last time.
He was 92.

Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener
And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.

Today in botanical history, we celebrate an old English poet, a Mexican botanist, and a British gardener and survivalist who was way ahead of his time.
We'll hear an excerpt from a beautiful Jack Gilbert poem
We Grow That Garden Library™ with a garden classic of our time from a contemporary garden expert.
And then we'll wrap things up with a fun movie that featured a botanist. It debuted six years ago today in England.
 
Subscribe
Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart
To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to
"Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast."
And she will. It's just that easy.
 
The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter
Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:

• A personal update from me
• Garden-related items for your calendar
• The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week
• Gardener gift ideas
• Garden-inspired recipes
• Exclusive updates regarding the show

Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf.
 
Gardener Greetings
Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org
 
Facebook Group
If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community.
So, there's no need to take notes or search for links.
The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join.
I'd love to meet you in the group.
 
Curated News
Is a coconut a fruit, nut, or seed? | Library of Congress
 
Important Events
September 30, 1669 
Death of Henry King, English poet. He served as Bishop of Chichester and was close friends with John Donne. He wrote,
Brave flowers - that I could gallant it like you, 
And be as little vain! 
You come abroad, and make a harmless show, 
And to your beds again. 
You are not proud: you know your birth: 
For your embroidered garments are from earth.
 
September 30, 1901
Birth of Helia Bravo Hollis, Mexican botanist. She was the first woman to graduate with a degree in biology in Mexico. By 29, she was curator of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (Mexico City) herbarium, where she studied cacti. Her work brought notoriety, and she became known as The Queen of the Cacti. She co-wrote her masterpiece, Las Cactaceas de México, with Hernando Sánchez-Mejorada. In 1951, she cofounded the Mexican Cactus Society, which planned to celebrate her 100th birthday in 2001, but she died four days shy of the century mark. In 1980, Monaco's Princess Grace Kelly, who was also fond of cacti, presented Helia with the second-ever Golden Cactus Award. Helia helped found the Botanical Gardens at UNAM, where she served as the director throughout the 1960s. Once, when a strike occurred at the gardens, she offset her workers' lost wages with her own savings. In 2018, Google commemorated Helia's 117th birthday with a Google Doodle. Online, there is a memorable image of  Helia dressed in a skirt and blazer - with a knife in her hand - and standing next to an enormous Echinocactus platyacanthus, aka the giant barrel cactus. In Mexico, where the cactus is a native, the hairs are harvested for weaving, and a traditional candy is made from boiling the pith. Today, the Helia Bravo Hollis Botanical Garden, with more than 80 species of Cactaceae, is found at the Biosphere Reserve of Tehuacán.
Helia once wrote,
My reason for living is biology and cacti.
 
September 30,  1910
Birth of Edward Solomon Hyams, British gardener, French scholar, historian, anarchist, and writer. He was a gardening correspondent for the Illustrated London News and The Spectator and various horticultural journals. After WWII, he lived a self-sufficient lifestyle at Nut Tree Cottages in Molash in Kent. He planted a small vineyard and later wrote The Grape Vine in England (1949). The following year, he wrote From the Waste Land (1950), which describes the transformation of three acres at Nut Tree Cottages into a market garden that generated food and income. In The Gardener's Bedside Book (1968), he wrote,
I have never been interested in and am incapable of writing about the great hybrid garden tulips. I do not mean to condemn them or anything foolish like that; but one cannot be interested in every kind of garden plant, and that particular kind has never made any real appeal to me whatsoever. But the botanical species tulips are quite another matter.
 
Unearthed Words
Love is like a garden in the heart, he said.
They asked him what he meant by garden.
He explained about gardens. "In the cities,"
he said, "there are places walled off where color
and decorum are magnified into a civilization.
Like a beautiful woman," he said. How like
a woman, they asked. He remembered their wives
and said garden was just a figure of speech,
then called for drinks all around. Two rounds
later he was crying. 
― Jack Gilbert, Ovid in Tears, The Dance Most of All: Poems
 
Grow That Garden Library
Windcliff by Daniel J. Hinkley
This book came out in 2020, and the subtitle is A Story of People, Plants, and Gardens.
In this book, we learn about Windcliff - one of two magnificent gardens created by the plantsman, nurseryman, and plant hunter Dan Hinkley. (Dan also created Heronswood.)
"These iconic gardens, and the story of how one gave rise to the other, are celebrated in Hinkley's deeply personal Windcliff. In a lively style that mingles audacious opinions on garden design with cautionary tales of planting missteps, Hinkley shares his infectious passion for plants."
In these pages, you will fall in love with Windcliff thanks to the gorgeous photography and fall even deeper in love hearing about the careful way Dan created Windcliff, from the exceptional plants he selected to his pragmatic garden advice.
This book is 280 pages of creating a garden with a modern master who loves plants and is delighted to share his stunning garden with us.
You can get a copy of Windcliff by Daniel J. Hinkley and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $22.
 
Today's Botanic Spark
Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart
September 30, 2015 
On this day, The Martian, featuring Matt Damon as botanist Mark Watney premiered in England. In the movie, Mark is accidentally left on Mars and is forced to grow potatoes to stay alive until he is rescued.
 
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener.
And remember:
"For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today in botanical history, we celebrate an English novelist and travel writer who loved the pleasure gardens he created at a cemetery, an English writer and friend of Charlotte Bronte, and a beloved and humorous garden author.
We'll hear an excerpt from Ali Smith's Autumn. It's perfect for this time of year.
We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about a species among the most ancient of Earth's inhabitants.
And then we'll wrap things up with the birthday of an American garden writer.
 
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• A personal update from me
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• Garden-inspired recipes
• Exclusive updates regarding the show

Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf.
 
Gardener Greetings
Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org
 
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If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community.
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The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join.
I'd love to meet you in the group.
 
Curated News
Vegetable Garden Design: DIY Bean Trellis - Gardenista| Gardenista | Michelle Slatalla

Important Events
September 29, 1760
Birth of William Beckford, English novelist, travel writer, and architect. His family's enormous wealth stemmed from the enslavement of Jamaicans. Reclusive and eccentric, William is best known for his romance novel, The History of the Caliph Vathek (1782). William was fascinated with Italianate gardens. He especially enjoyed the landscape at Lansdown Cemetery after he installed a pleasure garden. He designed a large tower there and hoped to be buried in its shade near one of his favorite dogs. But it was not to be. The ground was considered unconsecrated, and the dog only made the situation even more untenable. And so, William's sarcophagus was moved to Abbey Cemetery in Bath. William once wrote,
Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made and forgot to put a soul to.
 
September 29, 1810
Birth of Elizabeth Gaskell, English writer. She married a Unitarian minister named William Gaskell, and his work led them both to help and advocate for the poor. In 1850, she met Charlotte Brontë at the summer home of a mutual acquaintance, and the two became instant friends. Once when Charlotte visited her, her shyness got the best of her, and Charlotte hid behind some curtains rather than meeting other visitors who had stopped by the Gaskell's Manchester home. After Charlotte died in 1855, her father, Patrick, asked Elizabeth to write her biography, which resulted in The Life of Charlotte Brontë (1857). Elizabeth's work included the novels Mary Barton (1848), Cranford (1851–53),  and North and South (1854–55). She once told her daughter, Marianne,
It is hard work writing a novel all morning, spudding up dandelions all afternoon, and writing again at night.
Elizabeth was a gardener, and she loved flowers - especially roses. Gardens, flowers, fragrances, and country life permeate her writing. In Ruth (1853), she wrote,
With a bound, the sun of a molten fiery red came above the horizon, and immediately thousands of little birds sang out for joy, and a soft chorus of mysterious, glad murmurs came forth from the earth...waking the flower-buds to the life of another day.
In Wives and Daughters (1865), she wrote,
I would far rather have two or three lilies of the valley gathered for me by a person I like than the most expensive bouquet that could be bought!
 
September 29, 1920 
Birth of Geoffry B. Charlesworth, garden author. Regarding the Devil's Claw or Tufted Horned Rampion (Physoplexis comosa), he wrote,
We like people not just because they are good, kind, and pretty but for some indefinable spark, usually called "chemistry," that draws us to them and begs not to be analyzed too closely. Just so with plants. In that case, my favorite has to be Physoplexis comosa. This is not merely because I am writing at the beginning of July when the plant approaches maximum attractiveness.
In A Gardener Obsessed (1994), he wrote,
A garden is a Gymnasium; an outlet for energy, a place where accidents occur, where muscles develop, and fat is shed.
—
Uneventful living takes up most of our time. Gardening is part of it, possibly a trivial part to the rest of the world, but by no means less important to the gardener than the big events.
In The Opinionated Gardener (1988), he wrote,
Every gardener knows this greed. I heard a man looking at a group of plants say, "I have all the plants I need." Ridiculous. He said it because he was leaving for South America the next day, and he didn't have his checkbook, and it was December, and he didn't have a cold frame.
 
Unearthed Words
A minute ago, it was June. Now the weather is September. The crops are high, about to be cut, bright, golden,
November? Unimaginable. Just a month away.
The days are still warm, the air in the shadows sharper. The nights are sooner, chillier, the light a little less each time.
Dark at half-past seven. Dark at quarter past seven, dark at seven.
The greens of the trees have been duller since August since July really.
But the flowers are still coming. The hedgerows are still humming. The shed is already full of apples, and the tree's still covered in them.
The birds are on the powerlines.
The swifts left a week ago. They're hundreds of miles from here by now, somewhere over the ocean.
― Ali Smith, Autumn
 
Grow That Garden Library
Moths by David Lees and Alberto Zilli  
This book came out in 2019, and the subtitle is A Complete Guide to Biology and Behavior.
In this book, David and Alberto give us an expert reference to the vital insect group of moths. In many cases, moths rely on their ability to camouflage to survive and reproduce. Gardeners are attracted to brightly covered butterflies, but the work of moths in the environment is equally important. Now, of course, you can't have a practical guide to moths without spectacular illustrations, and this book has that in spades. Readers come away with an incredible appreciation for the diversity of these winged insects and their miraculous lifecycle - from egg to larva to cocoon to airborne adult.
This book is 208 pages of the marvelous world of moths - and our world would be the lesser without them.
You can get a copy of Moths by David Lees and Alberto Zilli and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $20
 
Today's Botanic Spark
Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart
September 29, 1902
Birth of Jean Hersey, American garden writer and magazine feature writer. She lived in Westport, Connecticut, with a meadow instead of a front lawn and woodland and stream for a back yard. She wrote over a dozen books. Her first book was called I Like Gardening (1941), which one reviewer said: "makes one fairly itch to start a garden (bugs and insects included)." Jean is probably best known for The Shape of a Year (1967), a year-long almanac of her garden life. In her chapter on September, she wrote,
September is a sweep of dusky, purple asters, a sumac branch swinging a fringe of scarlet leaves, and the bittersweet scent of wild grapes when I walk down the lane to the mailbox. September is a golden month of mellow sunlight and still, clear days. The ground grows cool to the touch, but the sun is still warm. 
A hint of crisp freshness lies in the early hours of these mornings. Small creatures in the grass, as if realizing their days are numbered, cram the night air with sound. Everywhere goldenrod is full out. 
One of the excitements of the month is the Organic Garden Club show. Bob and I were prowling around the night before, considering what I might enter and studying all our tomatoes. The large ones seemed pretty good, but all had the common scars on the top that don't make a bit of difference in the eating but aren't good for a show. There was a special charm to some smaller ones, volunteers, that grew out of the midst of the chard. Each one was perfect, not a blemish. These were larger than the cherry tomatoes.
"They're about the size of ping-pong balls," Bob said. "They must be a cross between the ordinary large ones and the cherry ones. Say – why not enter them as Ping-pong Tomatoes?
So I did, selecting three perfect ones, and they won first prize overall tomatoes.
 
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener.
And remember:
"For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today in botanical history, we celebrate an Irish physician and botanist, an English poet and critic, and an African-American poet.
We'll hear an excerpt from Elin Hilderbrand.
We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that tells the story of 3,500 acres of land and its return to the wild.
And then we'll wrap things up with an Australian-English writer, gardener, and traveler.
 
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Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart
To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to
"Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast."
And she will. It's just that easy.
 
The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter
Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:

• A personal update from me
• Garden-related items for your calendar
• The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week
• Gardener gift ideas
• Garden-inspired recipes
• Exclusive updates regarding the show

Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf.
 
Gardener Greetings
Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org
 
Facebook Group
If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community.
So, there's no need to take notes or search for links.
The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join.
I'd love to meet you in the group.
 
Curated News
A Native Super-Edible on the Rise | gardencentermag.com  |  Jolene Hansen
 
Important Events
September 28, 1793
Birth of Thomas Coulter, Irish physician, botanist, and explorer. He founded the herbarium at Trinity College, Dublin. He spent a year and a half studying with the great Swiss botanist Augustin de Candolle before exploring Mexico and the American Southwest in the early 1900s. Today he is remembered in the names of several plants. The Romneya coulteri or the Coulter poppy is a white-blossomed flower native to southern California and Baja California. Also called the California tree poppy, the Coulter poppy has the largest flower of any poppy.
Another Southern California specimen, the Coulter pine, is known for creating the largest pine cones in the world. Called "widowmakers" by the locals, each pinecone can weigh up to ten pounds.
 
September 28, 1824
Birth of Francis Turner Palgrave, English poet and critic. He compiled The Golden Treasury (1861), which featured English Songs and Lyrics. The popular anthology is still published with new editions under Francis Palgrave's name. In Eutopia, Francis wrote,
There is a garden where lilies
And roses are side by side;
And all day between them in silence
The silken butterflies glide.
I may not enter the garden,
Though I know the road thereto;
And morn by morn to the gateway
I see the children go.
They bring back light on their faces;
But they cannot bring back to me
What the lilies say to the roses,
Or the songs of the butterflies be.
 
September 28, 1867
Birth of James Edwin Campbell, African-American dialectic poet. In his poem, A Night in June, he wrote,
"What so rare as a day in June?"
O poet, hast thou never known
A night in rose-voluptuous June?
And in When The Fruit Trees Bloom, James wrote,
When the fruit trees bloom,
Pink of peach and white of plum,
And the pear-trees' cones of snow
In the old back orchard blow --
Planted fifty years ago!

And the cherries' long white row
Gives the sweetest prophecy
Of the banquet that will be,
When the suns and winds of June
Shall have kissed to fruit the bloom --
Then Falstaffian bumble-bees
Drain the blossoms to the lees.
When the fruit trees bloom.
 
Unearthed Words
The Herb Farm reminded Marguerite of the farms in France; it was like a farm in a child's picture book. There was a white wooden fence that penned in sheep and goats, a chicken coop where a dozen warm eggs cost a dollar, a red barn for the two bay horses, and a greenhouse. Half of the greenhouse did what greenhouses do, while the other half had been fashioned into very primitive retail space. The vegetables were sold from wooden crates, all of them grown organically before such a process even had a name- corn, tomatoes, lettuces, seventeen kinds of herbs, squash, zucchini, carrots with the bushy tops left on, spring onions, radishes, cucumbers, peppers, strawberries for two short weeks in June, pumpkins after the fifteenth of September. There was chèvre made on the premises from the milk of the goats; there was fresh butter. And when Marguerite showed up for the first time in the summer of 1975, there was a ten-year-old boy who had been given the undignified job of cutting zinnias, snapdragons, and bachelor buttons and gathering them into attractive-looking bunches.
― Elin Hilderbrand, The Love Season
 
Grow That Garden Library
Wilding by Isabella Tree 
This book came out in 2019, and the subtitle is The Return of Nature to a British Farm.
In this book, Isabella (whose last name - Tree - is perfect for a book on nature) guides us through the result of a massive rewilding project in West Sussex known as the Knepp ("Nep") experiment because it took place on the Knepp Estate.
Isabelle and her husband Charlie bought the estate in the 1980s from Charlie's grandparents. After recognizing that intensive farming on heavy clay was economically unsustainable, they decided to step back and let nature take over. To mimic the large animals that roamed Britain in the wild, they introduced free-roaming cattle, ponies, pigs, and deer and let nature dictate the outcome on 3,500 acres. The animal activity turns out to be the key to kickstarting diversity in flora and fauna. They removed the infrastructure of traditional farming like drains and fencing. In a little over a decade, wildlife and plant diversity returned. Knepp became home to turtle doves, nightingales, peregrine falcons, and lesser spotted woodpeckers. The beauty of a functioning ecosystem is that it sustains and encourages life all by itself.
This book is 384 pages of a personal memoir and a nature memoir - it's hopeful, inspirational, and above all, doable.
You can get a copy of Wilding by Isabella Tree and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $9
 
Today's Botanic Spark
Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart
September 28, 1885 
Birth of Clara Coltman Rogers Vyvyan, Australian-English writer and gardener. She used the pen names C. C. Rogers and C. C. Vyvyan. After working in the slums of East London as a social worker and a nurse in WWI, Clara married the 10th Vyvyan baronet, who was 27-years her senior and lived on a 15th-century estate known as Trelowarren. The two were quite compatible and shared eleven happy years together. Both of them enjoyed nature. One of Clara's dearest friends was Daphne du Maurier, who used Clara's centuries-old home and gardens as the setting for her novels Frenchman's Creek and Rebecca. In Friends and Contemporaries, Clara's friend A L Rowse recognized the use of the Trelowarren landscape and wrote,
The colonnade of trees in Rebecca, by the way, is the avenue of over-arching ilexes there, like a cathedral aisle.
When Daphne visited Trelowarren for the first time, she fell in love with its rugged landscape and timeless quality. She described it as "the most beautiful place imaginable." After her visit, Daphne wrote in her diary,
I simply hated leaving Trelowarren. Few places have made such a profound impression on me.
Trelowarren similarly inspired Clara, and when her husband died, she started market gardening and writing to help financially maintain her West Cornwall estate. She wrote over twenty books during her life of adventure and beauty. When she was 67, she traveled to the Alaskan Klondyke and embarked on a 400-mile walk with the aid of two guides. The result was her book Down the Rhone on Foot. Most of her books were about her beloved Cornwall and, of course, her gardens. In her Letters from a Cornish Garden (1972), she shared a collection of delightful essays about gardening. Her friend Daphne du Maurier wrote the forward.
Clara wrote,
As one grows older, one should grow more expert at finding beauty in unexpected places, in deserts and even in towns, in ordinary human faces, and among wild weeds.
 
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener.
And remember:
"For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."