The Daily Gardener

Today we celebrate an American woman who loved plants, wrote memorable verses that have stood the test of time, and became the Godmother of Thanksgiving. We'll also learn about a modern writer and Pulitzer Prize winner who writes in a garden shed. We hear a memorable excerpt about killing slugs. We Grow That Garden Library™ with an inspiring book about marvelous plant combinations. And then we'll wrap things up with a fun story about a gardener remembered in a rock and roll hit from 1968. 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 [email protected] Curated News Best Mosquito Repellent Mason Jar Hack With Essential Oils | Our Crafty Mom | Michelle Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events May 24, 1830 On this day, Mary Had A Little Lamb by Sarah Josepha Hale is published by the Boston firm Marsh, Capen & Lyon. Born in New Hampshire in 1788, Sarah was homeschooled, and she attributed all of her learning and success to her mother. She wrote, "I owe my early predilection for literary pursuits to the teaching and example of my mother. She had enjoyed uncommon advantages of education for a female of her times – possessed a mind clear as rock-water, and a most happy talent of communicating knowledge." In 1848, Sarah married David Hale. He encouraged Sarah's intellectual endeavors, and together, they enjoyed reading and study. Their idyllic life together was cut short when David died of a stroke after nine short years of marriage. Sarah gave birth to their fifth child two weeks after David died. Sarah began writing to support herself and her five children, all under the age of seven. In 1835, Sarah wrote Spring flowers, or the Poetical Bouquet: Easy, Pleasing and Moral Rhymes and Pieces of Poetry for Children. In the book, Sarah wrote of Mary and her little pet bird, Dicky. "In that gilded cage, hung with Chickweed and May, Like a beautiful palace and garden so gay. Perhaps you're not happy, perhaps you're not well: I wish you could speak, that your griefs you might tell; It vexes me quite thus to see you in sorrow; Good bye; and I hope you'll be better tomorrow." In 1856, Sarah wrote another book that focused on flowers, and it was called Flora's Interpreter or "The American Book of Flowers and Sentiments." This gift book featured poetry and flowers to raise American national sentiment. She opened the book with this epigraph: "A flower I love! Not for itself, but that its name is linked With names I love. – A talisman of hope and memory." By this point in her career, Sarah had established herself as a writer and editor and the Godmother of Thanksgiving. For twenty years, between 1847 and 1867, Sarah fought to make Thanksgiving a National Holiday, and she wanted a certain day for the celebration, writing, "The last Thursday in November has these advantages -- harvests of all kinds are gathered in -- summer travelers have returned to their homes -- the diseases that, during summer and early autumn, often afflict some portions of our country, have ceased, and all are prepared to enjoy a day of Thanksgiving." But Sarah's fight would not end until 62 years after her death when Franklin Delano Roosevelt made Thanksgiving Day official in 1941. In the year before her death at the age of 91, Sarah poignantly wrote about her death in her last column: Growing old! growing old! Do they say it of me? Do they hint my fine fancies are faded and fled? That my garden of life, like the winter-swept tree, Is frozen and dying, or fallen and dead? Is the heart growing old, when each beautiful thing, Like a landscape at eve, looks more tenderly bright, And love sweeter seems, as the bird's wandering wing Draws nearer her nest at the coming of night? May 24, 1963 Today is the birthday of the American novelist and short-story writer Michael Chabon ("SHAY-bon"). In 2000, Michael wrote The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001. Michael is married to the writer, Ayelet ("eye-YEll-it'") Waldman, and together they have four children. They also have a writing studio - a little shingled shed in the garden in their backyard - a place that writers like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Roald Dahl, George Bernard Shaw, Mark Twain, and Virginia Woolf all used and enjoyed. Michelle Slatella wrote about Chabon's writing shed for Gardenista back in 2014. She wrote, "After it was renovated by Berkeley design-build firm Friedman Brueggemeyer, the studio became Chabon's exclusive retreat and the subject of his 2001 essay "A Fortress of One's Own" in This Old House magazine. [Ayelet said,] "We moved to that house when I had just started writing, and I hadn't sold anything yet, so I didn't think I deserved an office." [Michael countered] "Then I had terrible repetitive stress injuries, and arthritis in my pinky finger, so I got an office out of the house, but that was super lonesome."So Michael said [to his wife],"Let's share." "The studio has two separate but open work bays — [Ayelet's] desk sits beneath a bulletin board she covered with color-coded notecards while… [Michael] writes in an Eames Lounge and Ottoman (he rocks when he works). "First, he had a desk, but then he moved over to the Eames chair, and that invalid swing arm laptop table he has now," says [Ayelet]. "It's exactly like a dentist's setup. He battles carpel tunnel syndrome, and this setup works for now." In his book Summerland, Michael wrote, "Can you imagine an infinite tree? ...A tree whose roots snake down all the way to the bottomest bottom of everything? ...if you've ever looked at a tree you've seen how its trunk divides into boughs, which divide yet again to branches, which divide into twigs, which divide again into twiglings. The whole mess splaying out in all directions, jutting and twisting and zigzagging. At the tips of the tips you might have a million tiny green shoots, scattered like the sparks of an exploding skyrocket." Unearthed Words Hear him now as he toils. He has a long garden implement in his hand, and he is sending up the death rate in slug circles with a devastating rapidity. "Ta-ra-ra boom-de-ay.... Ta-ra-ra BOOM—" And the boom is a death-knell. As it rings softly out on the pleasant spring air, another stout slug has made the Great Change. ― P.G. Wodehouse, an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century, A Damsel in Distress Grow That Garden Library Plant Combinations for an Abundant Garden by David Squire, Alan Bridgewater, and Gill Bridgewater This book came out in 2019, and the subtitle is Design and Grow a Fabulous Flower and Vegetable Garden (Creative Homeowner) Practical Advice, Step-by-Step Instructions, and a Comprehensive Plant Directory. This book features over 300 photographs, illustrations, and it's super easy to use. It shows how to create a productive garden by offering step-by-step instructions and pragmatic expert advice. This book covers everything from starting a plot and selecting plants to maximizing space and building raised, and the plant directory is comprehensive. It provides information on summer flowering, annuals, herbaceous perennials, small trees and shrubs, climbers, water plants, and then your edibles, your herbs, fruits. Then, in addition to the fantastic directory, there are also great instructions about modern-day topics, like how to build up layers of soil with mushroom compost, how to fight weeds by covering them with mulch, and how to protect your plants with nets. This book is 240 pages of a gardening master class that's packed with tips and tools for all gardeners - whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro. It offers way more than just the suggested combinations for flowers. You can get a copy of Plant Combinations for an Abundant Garden by David Squire, Alan Bridgewater, and Gill Bridgewater and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $10 Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart May 24, 1968 It was on this day that the Rolling Stones released their new song Jumpin Jack Flash. Keith Richards said that he and Mick Jagger wrote it after staying at his house. One morning they were awakened by Keith's gardener, Jack Dyer. Jagger asked, "What's that noise?" And Richards replied, "That's jumpin' Jack." Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today we celebrate an English writer who loved gardens and created a one-of-a-kind grotto as a clever way to connect his home and garden. We'll also learn about a writer who created a space he called Tao House Garden. We hear an excerpt about the haves and have nots - when it comes to gardens. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about philosophy inspired by the garden. And then we'll wrap things up with the story of a writer who loved yellow roses but was not complimentary when it came to the poinsettia. 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 [email protected] Curated News Little Garden Retreats | Houzz | Sarah Alcroft Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events May 21, 1688 Today is the birthday of the British poet, critic, gardener, and satirist Alexander Pope. Known for his poetry and writing, Alexander Pope is less remembered for his love of gardens. Yet Alexander was a trailblazer in terms of garden design and originality. He designed the impressive Palladian Bridge in Bath, and, along with the great Capability Brown, he created the Prior Park Landscape Garden. Alexander once famously said, All gardening is landscape painting. Inspired by the gardens of ancient Rome, Alexander's garden featured both a vineyard and a kitchen garden. But the most memorable feature of Alexander's property was his grotto. The grotto came about because a road separated Alexander's home and garden. To connect the two, Alexander cleverly dug a tunnel under the road. The tunnel created private access to the garden and inadvertently became a special place all its own: Alexander's grotto - a masterpiece of mirrors, candles, shells, minerals, and fossils. Alexander described the thrill of finishing the grotto in a letter to his friend Edward Blount in 1725: "I have… happily [finished] the subterraneous Way and Grotto: I then found a spring of the clearest water, which falls in a perpetual Rill, that echoes thru the Cavern day and night. ...When you shut the Doors of this Grotto, it becomes… a camera obscura, on the walls [are] all the objects of the river, hills, woods, and boats… forming a moving picture... And when you… light it up; it affords you a very different scene: it is finished with shells interspersed with pieces of looking-glass in angular forms... when a lamp ...is hung in the middle, a thousand pointed rays glitter and are reflected over the place." Over time, Alexander's home and grotto became a tourist destination. Visitors were stunned by the marvelous grotto that connected the villa and the garden. They had never seen anything like it. Alexander himself knew the place was special, and he once wrote, "Were it to have nymphs as well – it would be complete in everything." After Alexander died, the new owners of his property were so annoyed by the attention that they destroyed both the garden and the villa. Today, plans are underway to restore the grotto to its former glory. May 21, 1922 On this day, the Pulitzer prize was awarded to Eugene O'Neill for his play "Anna Christie." Remembered as one of America's greatest playwrights, most people are unaware that Eugene O'Neill was also a gardener. After becoming a Nobel laureate in literature, Eugene used his Nobel prize money to buy over 100 acres in the San Ramon valley. There, Eugene built his hacienda-style Tao Home and Garden in 1937. Taoism influenced both the home and the garden. A Chinese philosophy, Taoism focuses on living in harmony with the Tao or "the way." Tao House Garden features paths with sharp turns and walls that are blank. Today, the National Park Service is working to restore the home built by the "father of American theatre" - now a National Historic Site. The entire property was designed to promote harmony and deter bad spirits. Visitors often comment on the peaceful nature of the site. Fortunately, the O'Neill family garden designs were well chronicled. Eugene's wife, Carlotta O'Neill, designed the landscape, and she wrote about the gardens in her diaries. Carlotta especially loved white- and pink-blooming flowers. After raccoons kept killing their koi, Carlotta turned the pond into a flower bed. Incredibly, there was just one other owner of the property after the O'Neills left in 1944. But during the seven years, the O'Neill's lived in harmony at the Spanish Colonial Style Tao House, Eugene created some of his most famous plays such as "Long Day's Journey into Night" and "A Moon for the Misbegotten," among other works that made him an American literary icon. In the 1980s, the intimate courtyard garden was restored with cuttings from the original Chinaberry tree along with magnolia, walnut, and cherry trees. There are pots of geraniums and garden beds filled with birds of paradise, azalea, and star jasmine - Eugene's favorite plant. The orchards and idyllic gardens around the house are beautifully sited on a hilltop over the San Ramon Valley and offer impressive views of the valley and Mount Diablo. The property is as spectacular today as it was when the O'Neill's lived there - calling to mind a quote from A Moon for the Misbegotten, where Eugene wrote, "There is no present or future--only the past, happening over and over again--now." Today, the Eugene O'Neill Foundation hosts an O'Neill festival in the barn on the property every September. The annual play is professionally acted and produced. You can bring a picnic dinner and eat on the grounds. Unearthed Words 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. Brick walls and pavements hemmed me in and robbed me of one of my birthrights; and to the fancy of childhood, a garden was a paradise, and 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. ― Eliza Calvert Hall, American author, women's rights advocate, and suffragist from Bowling Green, Kentucky, Aunt Jane of Kentucky Grow That Garden Library Philosophy in the Garden by Damon Young This book came out in 2020, and I love how the publisher introduces this book: Why did Marcel Proust have bonsai beside his bed? What was Jane Austen doing, coveting an apricot? How was Friedrich Nietzsche inspired by his 'thought tree'? In Philosophy in the Garden, Damon answers these questions and explores one of literature's most intimate relationships. The relationship between authors and their gardens. Now for some writers, the garden is a retreat, and for others, it's a place to relax and get away from the world. But for all of the writers that are featured in Damon's book, the garden was a muse and offered each of these writers new ideas for their work. As someone who features a garden book every day on the show and loves to feature garden writers who found their inspiration in the garden, this book is a personal favorite of mine. This book is 208 pages of authors and their gardens. And the philosophies that were inspired by that relationship. You can get a copy of Philosophy in the Garden by Damon Young and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $8 Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart May 21, 1955 On this day, Truman Capote's first musical, House of Flowers, closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 165 performances. House of Flowers has nothing to do with flowers. The plot centers on an evil brothel owner, Madame Fleur, and her attempts to murder the fiancé of her star girl, Ottilie. Madam Fleur has her men kidnap the young man, seal him in a barrel and toss him into the ocean. Truman's House of Flowers was the first theatrical production outside of Trinidad and Tobago to use the instrument known as the steelpan. Today, most of us remember that Truman Capote wrote Breakfast at Tiffany's. But he also wrote the introduction to his friend CZ Guest's garden book called First Garden: An Illustrated Garden Primer. CZ Guest, born Lucy Douglas Cochrane, was an American fashion icon and garden columnist. She authored three garden books and three garden planners. In 1990, she came out with her own line of organic fertilizer, insect repellant, tools, scented candles, and soap - all of which were sold at Bergdorf-Goodman and Neiman-Marcus. Writing about CZ, Truman affectionately wrote, "There, with her baskets and spades and clippers, and wearing her funny boyish shoes, and with her sunborne sweat soaking her eyes, she is a part of the sky and the earth, possibly a not too significant part, but a part." Truman Capote is remembered for this famous garden saying: "In my garden, after a rainfall, you can faintly, yes, hear the breaking of new blooms." In 1957 for the Spring-Summer edition of the Paris Review, "I will not tolerate the presence of yellow roses--which is sad because they're my favorite flower." Finally, in the Jay Presson Allen play "Tru," Truman throws away a Christmas gift of a poinsettia, dismissing it by saying something Truman actually said, "Poinsettias are the Robert Goulet of botany." Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today we celebrate a prolific French writer and poet remembered for his realism and in his little home and garden - now a Paris museum. We'll also learn a little history lesson about the Chelsea Flower Show. We hear an excerpt from a beloved children's story. We Grow That Garden Library™ with an artistic look at flowers through the eyes of a modern artist. And then we'll wrap things up with National Pick Strawberries Day. 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 [email protected] Curated News 10 Garden Stairways | Gardenista | Meredith Swinehart Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events May 20, 1799 Today is the birthday of the prolific 19th-century French writer, poet, and the father of Realism in French literature, Honoré de Balzac. Today, the Maison de Balzac, or Honoré's modest Paris home, has been turned into a museum. With its courtyard and garden, the house faced the Eiffel Tower and was a refuge for Honoré, who rented the top floor under his housekeeper's name (Mr. de Breugnol). The home had multiple exits, which allowed Honoré to flee his creditors quickly. Honoré's friends used a password to be able to gain access to the house to visit him. Today a bust of Honoré de Balzac stands in the little garden where fans of his work can sit and enjoy refreshments during their visit. Laurel shrubs frame Honoré's bust - a nod to the pivotal women named Laure in Honoré's life: his mother Laure, his younger sister Laurence, his older sister Laure, and his lover and faithful champion Laure de Berny who was one year older than his mother. Honoré's house is one of three home museums for French literary greats - along with the homes of Honoré's dear friend Victor Hugo and George Sand. Today, Honoré's five-room apartment contains his writing desk and chair, as well as his tea kettle and a coffee pot. Honoré was a notorious coffee-drinker and a night owl as he wrote his masterpieces. But for Honoré's fans, his most famous possession was his oversized gold and turquoise-studded cane - the handle looks like it is covered in forget-me-knots. Honoré's cane created a sensation in 1834 Paris, and soon fancy walking sticks were the standard of fashion for gentlemen. When Honoré was alive, his home smelled of pears. Honoré loved pears, and he stockpiled 1,500 pears in his pantry. He picked violets and lilacs for the woman he would ultimately marry in his garden: Ewelina Hańska. Their tragic love story was chronicled in their many letters to each other, which altogether read like a novel. Although she was married, Ewelina had started the affair by writing an anonymous fan letter to Honoré. Honoré and Ewelina's relationship was forged in nearly two decades worth of letters to each other. Over the course of nearly twenty years, they had only met in person eight times before they were eventually married. Sadly, five short months after their wedding, Honoré died in Paris in 1850. In terms of his work, gardeners should know that Honoré's 1835 book, Lily of the Valley, has nothing to do with the woodland plant used by Dior to create their famous fragrance in 1956. Instead, Honoré's book tells the story of unconsummated love, and the title was inspired by the bible verse from the Song of Solomon 2:1-2: I am the Rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. Today, gardeners can remember Honoré in the 'Honoré de Balzac ®' rose; a pink-blend hybrid tea rose introduced in the United States by Conard-Pyle (Star Roses) in 1996. In 1845, Honoré wrote, "A young bride is like a plucked flower; but a guilty wife is like a flower that had been walked over." He also wrote, "Love has its own instinct, finding the way to the heart, as the feeblest insect finds the way to its flower, with a will which nothing can dismay nor turn aside." Finally, here's a little verse from Honoré's poem called The Camellia: In Nature's poem flowers have each their word The rose of love and beauty sings alone; The violet's soul exhales in tenderest tone; The lily's one pure simple note heard. The cold Camellia only, stiff and white, Rose without perfume, lily without grace, When chilling winter shows his icy face, Blooms for a world that vainly seeks delight. Yet, in a theatre, or ball-room light, I gladly see Camellias shining bright Above some stately woman's raven hair, Whose noble form fulfills the heart's desire, Like Grecian marbles warmed by Phidian fire. May 20, 1913 On this day, the first Chelsea Flower Show was held at Chelsea General Hospital. Originally called the Royal Horticultural Society's Great Spring Show, the first Chelsea Flower Show was held in 1862 at the RHS garden in Kensington. Staged in a single tent, the first show made a profit of £88. Unearthed Words Rikki-Tikki had a right to be proud of himself. But he did not grow too proud, and he kept that garden as a mongoose should keep it, with tooth and jump and spring and bite, till never a cobra dared show its head inside the walls. ― Rudyard Kipling, English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi Grow That Garden Library Petal by Adriana Picker This book came out in 2020, and the subtitle is A World of Flowers Through the Artist's Eye. Well, let me begin by saying that this book is absolutely gorgeous, and it contains original artwork by Adriana Picker. I love that her last name is Picker and that the title of this book is Petal; Somehow, that goes together. Now, as I just mentioned, Adriana is an artist - she's a botanical illustrator. In this book, she features the petals from all sorts of flowers - from simple daisies to exotic lilies. And she features all kinds of angles in her work. You're going to see close-ups, cross-sections of flowers and buds, and foliage that reveals the flower's unique characteristics. You're going to see architectural beauty, incredible colors, and texture that leaps off the page. Adriana writes about things like the fame of particular flowers and the folklore and traditions surrounding certain blossoms. She discusses the scent of flowers and floriography, which is the meaning and symbolism behind some of our favorite blooms - in addition to some fun facts and flower trivia. Another feature that I especially appreciate about Adriana's book is that she organizes her work by plant family. First, she covers the rose family and the legume family, and then she moves into the daisy family, the nightshade family, the orchid family, and so on. And I thought you'd enjoy getting a little taste of this personal story from Adriana that she shares and introducing her book. She writes, "When I was five years old, my maternal grandmother, Emma announced to my mother that I would be a florist. And every time I visited my grandmother, we would spend hours together in her beautiful garden, hunting for blossoms. Well, I did not have very long in Emma's garden. She died when I was seven and my grandfather sold the home. And on the day of her funeral, her roses were in full glorious bloom. And I collected a huge bunch for the dining table. My aunt Margo made me point out each Rose Bush I had picked from so that she could move them to her own garden and memory of her mother. My botanical education continued after Emma's death furthered by my mother, Sally. also an avid gardener." Now isn't that a wonderful glimpse into the early inspiration behind Adriana's work and art? I love that story. This book is 256 pages of beautiful lush botanical art from a woman with a lifelong passion for flowers, plants, and botanical illustrations. You can get a copy of Petal by Adriana Picker 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 On this day and every May 20th, National Pick Strawberries Day is observed. Here are a few fun facts about this beloved sweet fruit: First, the etymology of the name strawberry is likely a corruption of the phrase "strewn berry." This would reference the way the plant produced thanks prolifically to runners, resulting in berries that were strewn about the ground. Fragariaphobia is a little-known word and is the fear of strawberries. In terms of their uniqueness, strawberries are the only fruit that wears its seeds on the outside, and the average strawberry has 200 seeds. Strawberries are perennial and are members of the rose family. The strawberry flower averages five to seven petals. In terms of harvesting, strawberry plants are hand-picked about every three days. A single acre of land can grow almost 50,000 pounds of strawberries. California produces a billion pounds of strawberries every year which means that 75% of the American strawberry crop is grown in California - with Florida and North Carolina in the 2nd and 3rd place. As for strawberry quotes, the author Toni Morrison once wrote: "I have only to break into the tightness of a strawberry, and I see summer - its dust and lowering skies." And the author Tsugumi Ohba, Death Note Box Set, wrote "If you keep my secret, this strawberry is yours." Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today we celebrate an American female botanist who collected the flora of the great state of Maine. We'll also learn about a Michigan conservationist who is remembered as the First Lady of Michigan State Parks and Natural Areas. We'll remember Nathaniel Hawthorne on the anniversary of his death today - and the quirky little story he wrote about a mad scientist and his experiment involving geraniums. We hear an excerpt about botanically-inspired girl's names. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about Organic Gardening And then we'll wrap things up with the wonderful Nora Ephron and one of her best-loved movie quotes. 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 [email protected] Curated News Then and now: 7 ways garden design has evolved over the last 40 years | House Beautiful | Olivia Heath Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events May 19, 1834 Today is the birthday of the daring self-taught American botanist Catherine Furbish. Kate is remembered for her life-long work collecting, classifying, and illustrating the flora of the great state of Maine. Kate spent six decades crisscrossing her home state. Her delicate, beautiful, and simple botanical art charms gardeners still today. Kate grew up in an upper-middle-class home. She attended private school and studied drawing as a child. By the time she was thirty, she had combined her love for flowers and drawing and embarked on a goal of collecting, cataloging, and drawing all the native flora of Maine. During Kate's lifetime, Maine was still a rugged and wild place. Her amateur eagerness to explore the forests and wildernesses of Maine put her in direct contrast to the women of her time. Her exemplary fieldwork drew respect from her male counterparts - many of whom worked at the major Universities or scientific centers across the country. In 1881, after getting a plant named for her, Kate wrote to Sereno Watson at Harvard to acknowledge the honor, saying, "Were it not for the fact that I can find no plants named for a female botanist in your manual, I should object to "Pedicularis Furbishae"... But as a new species is rarely found in New England and few plants are named for women, it pleases me." In 1895, Kate helped found the Josselyn Botanical Society of Maine. In 1925, her friend "Joss" (Louise Coborn) described Kate as a botanist in her sixties: "I can see her as I saw her then — a little woman with uplifted head already turned gray, in animated talk, or with bowed face using her keen eyes along a forest trail, or up a mountain path. She had the sort of eyes that were made for seeing, and nothing escaped the swift circle of her glance. Her feet were as untiring as her eyes, and she could out-last many a younger woman on a cliff-side climb or river-bank scramble." On September 16, 1978, the New Castle News out of New Castle, PA, shared an article written by Mike Finsilber with a headline that read: Exhibit Depicts Female Scientists. Here's an excerpt: "When curator Deborah Warner suggested to her superiors at the Smithsonian Institution that she put together an exhibit documenting the accomplishments of American women in science in the 19th century, her superiors were skeptical. Women scientists in the 19th century? Would there be enough of them to fill an exhibit? They doubted it. Ms. Warner didn't. Yesterday her display opened in the Museum of History and Technology, telling of, among others: Kate Furbish, the botanist who discovered the now-famous Furbish Lousewort. It is now famous because it is endangered and for a time threatened to block construction of the Lincoln-Dickey Dam in Maine." May 19, 1898 Today is the birthday of the woman known as the First Lady of Michigan State Parks and Natural Areas and the "Mother" of Michigan State Parks system, Emma Genevieve Gillette, who was born in Lansing. Genevieve learned to love nature from her dad. He would take her into the woods in the spring to see arbutus flowering and the brook running. Genevieve recounted how he would kneel down by the brook and ask, "Can you hear what it is saying? It's talking to us." In 1920, Genevieve was the only woman to be part of the very first landscape architecture class to graduate from the Michigan Agricultural College. She ended up going to work for the great Landscape Architect Jens Jensen, known as the "Dean of Landscape Architects," and would become a trusted mentor and lifelong friend to Genevieve. In terms of a role model, Jens was perfect for Genevieve; he was an early pioneer in the conservation movement, used art as activism, and was generally ahead of his time. Jens once famously said, "Trees are much like human beings and enjoy each other's company. Only a few love to be alone." A contemporary of Frank Lloyd Wright, Jens was also a maker of public parks and spaces. Genevieve later said Jens "pestered her" to start a state park system in Michigan. Genevieve befriended the Michigan Parks Chief Peter J. Hoffmaster, who was one of her old college classmates. Her sincere alliances with state officials helped her garner support to serve as the president of the Michigan Park Association. Genevieve boosted public support and funding for more than 200,000 acres of Michigan's state and national parks during her tenure, including the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. In the mid-1960s, Genevieve was asked to serve on President Lyndon Johnson's Committee on Recreation and Natural Beauty. It was the honor of her career. May 19, 1864 Today is the anniversary of the death of the American novelist and short-story writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. In 1843, Nathaniel wrote a crazy short story about a mad scientist who became obsessed with removing his wife, Georgiana's birthmark. He decides to repurpose a remedy he created to remove blotches from the leaves of his geraniums. In the end, as his wife drinks the mixture, her birthmark does indeed fade away but so does her life force, and she dies a perfect, unblemished woman. Unearthed Words Like their mother, Honor Sparrow, dead now for twenty-some years- gone on the very day her youngest daughter, Impatiens, arrived - the sisters had all green thumbs. It was ordained, really. They had each been named after a botanical, mostly flowers, and as their mother kept producing girls, the names became slightly ridiculous. But Honor was a keen gardener and in darkest winter, calling her daughter's names reminded her that spring would come again. For months after her death, the older girls hated their names and all they recalled for them. By the time they founded the Sparrow Sisters Nursery, though, each thoroughly embraced their names as the sign they were. ― Ellen Herrick, American publishing executive and author, The Sparrow Sisters Grow That Garden Library Organic Gardening for Everyone by Cali Kim This book came out in 2019, and the subtitle is Homegrown Vegetables Made Easy - No Experience Required! In this book, Kim shows you just how easy it is to grow healthy vegetables at home - something she started doing in 2012. At the time, Kim approached her desire to garden in a very unique and compelling way: she crowdsourced it! After launching a YouTube channel under the name "CaliKim" (a nod to her California residency) and asking for help from everyday gardeners, Kim started gardening. When questions or problems popped up, Kim found support, advice, information, and connection from her viewers and subscribers. Gradually, she learned to garden, and her garden managed to survive and thrive even under the hot, harsh conditions of the California climate. Kim's book is her way of giving back the gardening wisdom she's accumulated. Now, almost a decade later, Kim answers more garden questions than she asks, and she's here to help grow more gardeners through her lovely book. With Kim's step-by-step encouragement, you'll realize that anyone can garden and overcome any hesitations that gardening is too hard, intimidating, or time-consuming. With a busy family of her own, she shares her own inspirational story of balancing the garden's demands alongside the demands of a modern, busy California family. Kim offers friendly and practical advice that celebrates the joy of gardening. She offers her best advice on her passion for organic vegetable gardening. This book is 160 pages of garden encouragement, wisdom, and enthusiasm from a California mom who became a passionate modern organic gardener over the past decade. You can get a copy of Organic Gardening for Everyone by Cali Kim and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $5 Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart May 19, 1941 Today is the birthday of the New York director and screenwriter Nora Ephron. Nora was the writer of many favorite movies: When Harry Met Sally (1989), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), and You've Got Mail (1998). In You've Got Mail, Nora wrote one of the most iconic lines about daisies in a scene between the two main characters: Kathleen and Joe. In the movie, Kathleen Kelly looks at the vase of daisies that Joe sets on the table beside her, and she says, I love daisies. And then, Joe Fox replies: You told me. Kathleen ignores the clue in Joe's remark. Now, had she noticed what he just said, she'd realize that he purposefully bought her the daisies because he remembered their very first meeting at her bookstore. During his visit with Annabelle and Matthew, she tells the kids about her handkerchief. (Since they didn't know what a handkerchief was!) Kathleen tells the kids, "My mother embroidered this for me - [with] my initials and a daisy because daisies are my favorite flower." But Kathleen misses Joe's comment because he had just set the flowers on the table beside her. At that moment, Kathleen gets distracted by the daisies and caught up in the beauty of the flowers. She offhandedly remarks, "They're so friendly. Don't you think daisies are the friendliest flower?" At this comment, Joe Fox looks to the side (because at this point he realizes she's missed the meaning of his earlier comment), and then he simply answers her with, "I do." Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today we celebrate an old poet who loved gardens, We'll also learn about an inventor and architect who created a large machine to help move established trees during the establishment of Prospect Park. We hear a delightful excerpt about a purée of spring vegetables. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a beautiful set of Paper Flower Cards - a little stationery set for the gardener today. And then, we'll wrap things up with a British philosopher, mathematician, and author who won the 1950 Nobel Prize for literature. He spent a great deal of time studying happiness, and no surprise - he found it in a garden. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to "Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast." And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:

• 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 [email protected] Curated News Gardening 101: Solomon's Seal | Gardenista | Marie Viljoen Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events May 18, 1048 Today is the birthday of the Persian mathematician, astronomer, and poet Omar Khayyam ("Ky-yem"). In 1859, the British writer Edward FitzGerald translated and published Omar's signature work, The Rubáiyát ("Rue-By-yat"). In The Rubáiyát, Omar wrote some beautiful garden verses: I sometimes think that never blooms so red The rose that grows where some once buried Caesar bled And that every hyacinth the garden grows dropped in her lap from Some once lovely head. Today in Iran, tourists can visit the beautiful mausoleum of Omar Khayyam and the surrounding gardens. And gardeners in zones 4-9 can grow a pretty pink damask rose named Rosa 'Omar Khayyam.' Over on the Missouri Botanical Garden website, they report that, "'Omar Khayyam' ... is reputed to have grown on the tomb of Omar Khayyam in Persia, [and] was brought to England by William Simpson, an Illustrated London News artist, and in 1893 was planted on the grave of Edward Fitzgerald, who translated the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam into English. According to the Modern Roses 12 database of the American Rose Society, it was registered in 1894. It is a small, dense shrub with grayish-green, downy foliage and numerous prickles. Its clear pink, double flowers are 2 in. wide with a small center eye and 26 to 40 petals. Blooming once per season in late spring to early summer, the flowers are moderately fragrant and in groups of 3 to 4. 'Omar Khayyam' grows 2 to 3 ft. tall and wide." May 18, 1839 Today is the birthday of the American civil engineer, landscape architect, inventor, and plantsman John Yapp Culyer. John was commissioned to work on parks in major cities across America - like Chicago and Pittsburgh. He was the Chief Landscape Engineer of Brooklyn's Prospect Park, which opened to the public in 1867. During his time at Prospect Park, John invented a machine to help relocate large trees. His impressive tree-movers (he had two of them built) moved established trees and placed large specimen trees from nurseries. In February 1870, the Brooklyn Eagle reported that John's tree-moving machines had relocated 600 trees - a feat in scope that had never been attempted. To aid with pruning old-growth forest trees, John invented the extension ladder. John's ladders would stand on a platform and extend over fifty feet in the air. The New York Historical Society shares photos of John's workers on these ladders, and the images are breathtaking - the danger of working on those ladders is so obviously apparent. Unearthed Words "Beef consommé or purée of spring vegetables," she read aloud. "I suppose I'll have the consommé." "You'd choose weak broth over spring vegetables?" "I've never had much of an appetite." "No, just listen: the cook sends for a basket of ripe vegetables from the kitchen gardens- leeks, carrots, young potatoes, vegetable marrow, tomatoes- and simmers them with fresh herbs. When it's all soft, she purées the mixture until it's like silk and finishes it with heavy cream. It's brought to the table in an earthenware dish and ladled over croutons fried in butter. You can taste the entire garden in every spoonful." ― Lisa Kleypas, a best-selling American author of historical and contemporary romance novels, Devil's Daughter Grow That Garden Library Paper Flowers Cards and Envelopes: The Art of Mary Delany by Princeton Architectural Press "Each exquisite paper flower in this elegant collection blooms with extraordinary detail and color. Eighteenth-century British artist Mary Delany created each piece by cutting and layering tiny pieces of paper on black ink backgrounds. The fine shading and depth are as intricately detailed as a botanical illustration and scientifically accurate as well. Printed on thick, textured paper, the set features sunflowers, rhododendron, cornflower, water lilies, and more. Perfect for any occasion that warrants beauty and sophistication." You can get a set of Stationery featuring The Art of Mary Delany by Princeton Architectural Press and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $15 Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart May 18, 1872 Today is the birthday of the British philosopher, mathematician, pacifist, and author Bertrand Russell. Bertrand won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950 for his work called A History of Western Philosophy (1945). One of Bertrand's first works was about happiness and how to find it. He wrote, "Anything you're good at contributes to happiness." Bertrand also wrote: "I've made an odd discovery. Every time I talk to a savant I feel quite sure that happiness is no longer a possibility. Yet when I talk with my gardener, I'm convinced of the opposite." And "The happiest person I have ever known is my gardener, who each day wages war to protect vegetables and flowers from rabbits." As for the cure for anxiety, Bertrand once told this story, "I knew a parson who frightened his congregation terribly by telling them that the second coming was very imminent indeed, but they were much consoled when they found that he was planting trees in his garden." When it came to the natural world, Bertrand recognized the limits of the earth's natural resources, and he liked to say, "It's co-existence or no existence." It was Bertrand's study of happiness that led him to recognize the power of hope. He wrote, "Man needs, for his happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that but hope and enterprise and change." Bertrand hoped that humankind would get smarter about the natural world and our planet. He wrote, "The world is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper." Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today we celebrate a woman who became a renowned floral artist late in life. We'll also learn about an English poet and politician who loved nature. We'll recognize some of the final sentiments about the wonder of nature from a television dramatist, screenwriter, and journalist. We hear an adorable excerpt about growing a mitten tree. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about a botanist who loved the gardens, landscapes, and ecology of the Southern Coastal Plain. And then, we'll wrap things up with the story of the scientist who helped with the first color photograph. 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 [email protected] Curated News How Constance Spry radicalized the art of floristry | House & Garden | Fiona McKenzie Johnston Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events May 17, 1700 Today is the birthday of the botanical tissue paper decoupage artist Mary Delany. Mary Delaney led an extraordinary life. When she was 17, her family had forced her to marry a sixty-year-old man. Mary soon discovered he was an alcoholic. To make matters worse, when he died, Mary's husband forgot to include her in his will. Despite her lack of inheritance, Mary quickly realized that, as a widow, she had much more freedom than she had had as a young single woman. Fate brought fortune for Mary, met and fell in love with an Irish doctor and pastor named Patrick Delany. They married in June 1743. Although her family wasn't thrilled with the idea of a second marriage, Mary did it anyway. She and Patrick moved away to his home in Dublin. Patrick's garden was a thing of beauty, and Mary wrote to her sister: "[The] fields are planted in a wild way, forest trees and … bushes that look so natural... you would not imagine it a work of art ... [There is] a very good kitchen garden and two fruit gardens which ... will afford us a sufficient quantity of everything we can want. There are several prettinesses I can't explain to you — little wild walks, private seats, and lovely prospects. One seat I am particularly fond of [is] in a nut grove, and [there is] a seat in a rock … [that] is placed at the end of a cunning wild path. The brook ... entertains you with a purling rill." After twenty-five years of wedded bliss, Patrick died. Mary was widowed again, this time at the age of 68. But Mary's life was not over. In another stroke of luck, Mary hit it off with the wealthy Margaret Bentinck, the Duchess of Portland, and together they pursued botanical activities. The two women loved to go out into the fields and collect specimens. Through the Duchess that Mary got to know Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander. When Mary was in her early 70s, she took up decoupage - which was all the rage at the time - and she created marvelous depictions of flowers. Today, historians believe Mary probably dissected plants to create her art. Botanists from all over Europe would send her specimens. King George III and Queen Charlotte were her patrons. They ordered any curious or beautiful plant to be sent to Mary when in blossom to use them to create her art. Her paper mosaics, as Mary called them, were made out of tissue paper. Mary created almost 1000 pieces of art between the ages of 71 and 88. If you ever see any of her most spectacular decoupage pieces, you'll be blown away at the thought of them being made from tiny pieces of tissue paper by Mary Delany in the twilight of her life in the late 1700s. May 17, 1824 On this day, the diaries of the English Romantic poet, satirist, and politician, Lord Byron, are burned by six of his friends. The act intended to protect his privacy has also been described as "the greatest crime in literary history." The loss likely impacted botanical literature as Lord Byron also wrote about gardens and nature. Lord Byron famously wrote: There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore, There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar: I love not man the less, but Nature more. May 17, 1935 Today is the birthday of the English television dramatist, screenwriter, and journalist Dennis Potter. Best known for his two hit movies, Pennies from Heaven (1978) and The Singing Detective (1986), Dennis sat down for an interview with Melvyn Bragg, and it was titled Seeing the Blossom. At the time. Dennis was at the end of his life. He was dying from pancreatic cancer. And in a brave and incredibly candid move, he spoke about what his life was like, knowing that the end of his life was near and how it gave him a heightened appreciation for what was going on around him. He said, ". . . Now at this season, the blossom is out in full now, there in the west early is a plum tree, it looks like an apple blossom but it's white. And looking at it, instead of saying "Oh that's nice blossom" ...Now, last week looking at it through the window when I'm writing, I see it is the whitest, frothiest, blossomest blossom that there ever could be, and I can see it. Things are both more trivial than they ever were, and more important than they ever were — and the difference between the trivial and the important doesn't seem to matter. But the nowness of everything is absolutely wondrous." Unearthed Words Finding missing mittens is hard work. It would be easier to grow new ones! Let's try planting the other mitten right here in the garden. Next spring, when the snow melts, a little mitten tree might sprout. Miss Seltzer and I would take good care of it all summer long. In the fall, we'd pick the ripe mittens. Then I'd give mittens on Christmas. And mittens on birthdays. And mittens on Valentine's Day! ― Steven Castle Kellogg, American author, and illustrator of over 90 children's books, The Missing Mitten Mystery Grow That Garden Library On Harper's Trail by Elizabeth Findley Shores This book came out in 2008, and the subtitle is Roland McMillan Harper, Pioneering Botanist of the Southern Coastal Plain. In this book, Elizabeth shares the first full-length biography of the accomplished botanist, documentary photographer, and southern coastal plain explorer Roland McMillan Harper who was born in 1878. The celebrated plant scientist of the New York Botanical Garden, Bassett Maguire, said that Roland had "the greatest store of field experience of any living botanist of the Southeast." And yet, the years obscured Roland's scientific contributions, including his unique insights on wetlands and fire. Along with his brother Francis, Roland traced William Bartram's route through Alabama and the Florida panhandle. And in his work describing plant species and writing papers, Roland corresponded with the leading botanists of his time, including Nathaniel Britton, Hugo de Vries, and Charles Davenport. This book is 296 pages of the life story of a maverick botanist from the north who fell in love with the gardens, landscapes, and ecology of the Southern Coastal Plain. You can get a copy of On Harper's Trail by Elizabeth Findley Shores and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $25 Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart May 17, 1861 On this day, the first color photograph was taken. The picture was of a tartan ribbon displayed by Scottish scientist James Clerk Maxwell to the Royal Institution in London. Maxwell is remembered for his formulation of the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation. In 1922, when Albert Einstein visited the University of Cambridge, his host announced that he had done great things because he stood on Isaac Newton's shoulders. Einstein corrected him when he replied, "No, I don't. I stand on the shoulders of Maxwell." In 1879 James Clerk Maxwell wrote a letter to his friend William Thompson. It's a letter gardeners can delight in, and it was titled Peacocks as Gardeners. We got our original stock from Mrs McCunn, Ardhallow. At that time (1860), the garden there was the finest on the coast and the peacocks sat on the parapets & banks near the house. Mr. McCunn was very fond of his garden and very particular about it, but he also cared for his peacocks... Whenever he went out, he had bits of bread and such for them. Mrs. Maxwell (my wife) always gets the peacocks to choose the gardener and they have chosen one who has now been seven years with us. At seed time (in the garden) they are confined in a [little house] where they have some Indian corn and water. When the hen is sitting, she is not [confined], for she keeps to her nest and nobody is supposed to know where that is, but she comes once a day to the house and calls for her dinner and eats it and goes back to her nest at once. The peacocks will eat the young cabbages, but the gardener tells them to go... They find it pleasanter to be about the house and to sit on either side of the front door." A professor and researcher, James, once likened the work of academia to the life of bees, writing, "In a University we are especially bound to recognise not only the unity of science itself, but the communion of the workers in science. We are too apt to suppose that we are congregated here merely to be within reach of certain appliances of study, such as museums and laboratories, libraries and lecturers, so that each of us may study what he prefers. I suppose that when the bees crowd round the flowers it is for the sake of the honey that they do so, never thinking that it is the dust which they are carrying from flower to flower which is to render possible a more splendid array of flowers, and a busier crowd of bees, in the years to come. We cannot, therefore, do better than improve the shining hour in helping forward the cross-fertilization of the sciences." Isn't that a grand way to look at the legacy of your work? This past week, I've been putting together my roster of student gardeners for 2021. As we work together during the summer, we end every session with 10 minutes of photography. The kids capture incredible color images with their phones. James Clerk Maxwell would be delighted. I am delighted at how easy it is for them to share their images of my garden with my iPhone using the airdrop feature. But in terms of legacy, think for a moment of the typical teenager's camera roll on their phone. It's loaded with memes, selfies, pets, and friends. Maybe a sibling or two. But after a summer of working in my garden, these kids will have hundreds of images of flowers, landscapes, leaves, stones, water, raindrops, insects, and Sonny. How do we get kids interested in horticulture? We have to change what they see every day. We have to get flowers on their phones. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today we celebrate a happy lyricist and poet. We'll also remember a charming diary entry from 1938 by a Canadian conservationist and naturalist. We'll honor a poem by Walt Whitman that inspired a beautiful composition that premiered this day in 1946. We hear an excerpt about the healing power of the garden. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a gorgeous book about Wave Hill garden in the Bronx. And then we'll wrap things up with a little story about the origin of ketchup. 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 [email protected] Curated News Sloping Garden Ideas | Ideal Home | Tamara Kelly Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events May 14, 1840 Today is the birthday of the American poet, lyricist, and hymn-writer George Cooper. Today, George is remembered for his happy song lyrics, which were often set to music written by Stephen Foster. And George wrote a little poem dear to gardeners called, My Garden. When fields are green, and skies are fair, And summer fragrance fills the air, I love to watch the budding rose That in my pleasant garden grows; But when old Winter, fierce and free, Has hushed the murmur of the bee, And all the fields and hills are hid Beneath his snowy coverlid, Oh! then my only garden-spot Is just this little flower pot. May 14, 1938 On this day, the Canadian conservationist and naturalist Charles Joseph Sauriol wrote in his journal, "I have some most beautiful Pansies from the seeds of last year. Pansies are a surprise packet. You never know what to expect, and you are never disappointed if you [don't?] expect much." We found on Thursday night a section of Pine root with a Dogwood growing from its wood and rotted mold. Transplanted it to the Wild Flower garden. It will be exactly what I will require for certain Wild Flowers. Planted a Bleeding Heart. Have wanted to do so for several years. It's an old-fashioned flower. Mother always used to have one in her garden when I was a small boy." Bleeding heart is in the poppy family. Additional common names for Bleeding heart include "lyre flower" and "lady-in-a-bath." Native to Siberia, northern Asia, and North America, there are several cultivars for gardeners to consider, including 'Alba,' which has white flowers, 'Gold Heart,' which has yellow leaves; and 'Valentine,' which has red-and-white blossoms. Auntie Dogma's Garden Spot blog says, "No other plant bears perfect heart-shaped flowers like those of the Bleeding Heart. If you press the flowers between the pages of a heavy book, you'll have papery-thin little hearts to adorn letters or valentines. If you turn a flower upside down and pull the two halves apart, you'll see a lady in a pink bathtub, or perhaps you'll see a white lyre with strings of silk." And then, she shares the interactive story of the bleeding heart that uses a blossom to tell the story. "(To begin narration of the story, hold a heart blossom in the palm of your hand.) Long ago, there lived a noble prince who tried in vain to win the heart of a very beautiful princess. The prince had brought the princess wonderful gifts from his travels far and wide. Yet, she had taken no notice of him. One day the prince returned from a long journey with very special gifts to surely win the love of the princess. First, he presented her with two magical pink bunnies. (Peel off the two outer petals and set them on their sides to display two little pink bunnies.) The princess only sighed and barely looked at the little bunnies. The hopeful prince had one more gift saved for last – he presented a pair of beautiful enchanted earrings. (Remove the two long white petals and hold them next to your ears.) Again, the princess hardly noticed the prince's gift. Now the poor prince was utterly heartbroken. He could try no more to win the heart of the princess. He rose up, pulled a dagger from his sheath, and stabbed himself in the heart. (Remaining in the flower is a heart shape with the stamen, appearing as a dark green line down the center. Hold the heart up, carefully remove the dagger-like line, and plunge the dagger through the heart.) The princess was overcome by the dedication of the dying prince and his unending love for her. She realized too late that she loved him also. "Alas," she cried out. "I have done wrong. My own heart is also broken. I shall bleed for my prince forevermore!" And her heart bleeds to this very day." May 14, 1946 On this day, Paul Hindemith's composition When Lilacs Last in the Door-Yard Bloom'd: A Requiem «For Those We Love» premiered. The music was inspired by a poem of the same title by Walt Whitman, When Lilacs Last in the Door-Yard Bloom'd. Walt Whitman wrote his poem in the summer of 1865. The country was still mourning the assassination of President Lincoln. In 206 lines, Walt does not mention Lincoln's name or the assassination. Instead, he uses nature and nature imagery to move the reader from grief to acceptance. Lincoln was killed in the springtime - on April 14, 1865. Walt was at his mother's home when he heard the news. Later he recalled, "I remember… there were many lilacs in full bloom… I find myself always reminded of the great tragedy of that day by the sight and odor of these blossoms. It never fails." When Walt Whitman was 54 years old, he suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed. He spent the next two years immersed in nature, and he believed that nature had helped heal him. He wrote, "How it all nourishes, lulls me, in the way most needed; the open air, the rye-fields, the apple orchards." Unearthed Words But spring twilight found her barefoot in the garden, planting beans and helping me fill my pail with earthworms that were severed by her shovel. I thought I could nurse them back to health in the worm hospital I constructed beneath the irises. She encouraged me in this, always saying, "There is no hurt that can't be healed by love." ― Robin Wall Kimmerer, mother, plant ecologist, writer, and SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Grow That Garden Library Nature into Art by Thomas Christopher This book came out in 2019, and the subtitle is The Gardens of Wave Hill. In this book, Thomas introduces us to Wave Hill - a garden that opened to the public in 1967. A public garden in the Bronx, Wave Hill is known for its daring and innovative horticulture. Thomas takes us on a tour of the different areas of the garden — the flower garden, wild garden, shade border, and conservatory. In addition, Thomas reviews the plants and design principles that underpin Wave Hill. Enchanting and inspiring, Wave Hill manages to delight and instruct gardeners all year long. This book is 296 pages of a private tour of a jewel of the Bronx - the iconic Wave Hill. You can get a copy of Nature into Art by Thomas Christopher 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 May 14, 1846 Today is the anniversary of the death of the American scientist, horticulturist, and physician James Mease. A son of Philadelphia, James was a passionate gardener, and he consistently referred to tomatoes the way the French did - as "Love Apples." In 1812, James published the first known tomato-based ketchup recipe. Although Ketchup had existed in China for centuries, James added the tomato base - something that caught on not only in the United States but also in England. For his unique recipe, James used tomato pulp, spices, and brandy. Unlike many other recipes, James did not use sugar or vinegar. He named his recipe "Love-Apple Catsup." Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today we celebrate a garden that transformed into a cemetery for our country's military. We'll also learn about one of America's oldest gardens that oped on this day over a hundred years ago. We hear an excerpt from one of the founders of the Garden Club of America about rescuing her family daffodils. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about the perfect plant partners in the garden. And then we'll wrap things up with the writer Daphne du Maurier - she loved gardens and incorporated them into her story. 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 [email protected] Curated News The Essential Gardening Step You're Probably Skipping | Food52.com | Nadia Hassani Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events May 13, 1864 Today Private William Christman becomes the first person to be buried at Arlington Cemetery. Arlington National Cemetery didn't start out as a cemetery. It was actually a property that belonged to the Custis family - the family of George Washington Parke Custis, the adopted son of the first president of the United States. His biological mother was Martha Washington. Today, many people are unaware of the ties between the Custis family and the Lee family. It turns out that George's daughter, Mary, married Robert E. Lee. When George died, Robert inherited Arlington House - a place Mary loved dearly. As many visitors to Washington D.C. can attest, Arlington house was situated on a grand hill and overlooked 1,100 acres of land. When the Civil War started, Robert and Mary Lee abandoned the property. Since the Lees didn't dare return to the city to pay taxes on the property for fear of being arrested, they sacrificed Arlington House to the North. Union soldiers immediately took occupancy and set up an advantageous position on the hill. The burial of William Christman on a remote corner of the property on this day in 1864 marked the beginning of a new chapter for Arlington - it was becoming a graveyard for fallen Union soldiers. Soon the higher ranking soldiers and officers were being buried closer to the Mansion - around what was left of the Lee Family garden - where Mary had tended roses, honeysuckle, and jasmine. Today, there are over 400,000 graves at Arlington. May 13, 1911 On this day, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in New York City opened to the public. Today the garden is home to over 200 cherry trees representing forty-two different species. The garden is made up of several defined garden spaces. First, the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden was one of the first Japanese gardens to be created in an American botanic garden and the first Japanese garden to be accessible free of charge in America. Second, the Cranford Rose Garden came to be after being sponsored by the engineering company executive Walter V Cranford. The oldest garden on the property is the Native Flora Garden which started out as a wildflower garden before transitioning to a woodland garden. There's also a Shakespeare Garden, a Fragrance Garden, and a Children's Garden. Before the pandemic, the garden welcomed nearly a million visitors every single year. Unearthed Words Narcissi and Daffodils live for generations. I know some double yellow Daffodils growing in my great-grandfather's garden that were planted over seventy years ago. The place was sold, and the house burned about thirty years since, and all this time has been entirely neglected. Someone told me that Daffodils and Narcissi still bloomed there bravely in the grass. With a cousin, one lovely day last spring, I took the train out to this old place and there found quantities of the dainty yellow flowers. We had come unprovided with any gardening implements, having nothing of the kind in town, and brought only a basket for the spoils and a steel table-knife. We quickly found the knife of no avail, so we borrowed a sadly broken coal shovel from a tumble-down sort of a man who stood gazing at us from the door of a tumble-down house. The roots of the Daffodils were very deep, and neither of us could use a spade, so the driver of the ramshackle wagon taken at the station was pressed into service. Handling of shovel or spade was evidently an unknown art to him. The Daffodil roots were nearly a foot deep, but we finally got them, several hundreds of them, all we could carry. The driver seemed to think us somewhat mad and said, "Them's only some kind of weed," but when I told him the original bulbs from which all these had come were planted by my great-grandmother and her daughter and that I wanted to carry some away, to plant in my own garden, he became interested and dug with all his heart. The bulbs were in solid clumps a foot across and had to be pulled apart and separated. They were the old Double Yellow Daffodil and a very large double white variety, the edges of the petals faintly tinged with yellow and delightfully fragrant. My share of the spoils is now thriving in my garden. By the process of division every three years, these Daffodils can be made to yield indefinitely, and perhaps some great-grandchild of my own may gather their blossoms. ― Helena Rutherfurd Ely, American author, amateur gardener, and founding member of the Garden Club of America Grow That Garden Library Natural Companions by Ken Druse This book came out in 2012, and the subtitle is The Garden Lover's Guide to Plant Combinations. In this book, plantsman and garden writer Ken Druse presents his time-tested recipes for plant pairings. Some plants are beautiful all are on their own, but some really shine when set beside another plant. Plant pairings are also a wonderful way to complement bloom times or foliage. There is so much to consider. Ken smartly organizes his book by theme within seasons. He covers color, fragrance, foliage, grasses, and edible flowers, just to name a few. In addition, his book shows the power of his plant combinations in real gardens in a variety of growing zones through photography. Like all of Ken's books, this book is filled with a ton of horticultural wisdom and guidance, in addition to garden lore, humor, and practicality. This book is 256 pages of perfect plant partners for your garden. You can get a copy of Natural Companions by Ken Druse and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $4 Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart May 13, 1907 Today is the birthday of the English author and playwright Daphne du Maurier ("Mor-ee-aya"), who was born in London. She was the middle daughter of a well-to-do family of creative bohemian artists and writers. Her father was a famous actor and a favorite of James Barrie - the author of Peter Pan. Daphne's writing inspired Alfred Hitchcock - especially her novels Rebecca, Jamaica Inn, and her short story, The Birds. In 1938 Daphne published her popular book, Rebecca. It has never gone out of print. During the pandemic in 2020, Netflix released their movie version of Rebecca starring Lily James, Armie Hammer, and Kristin Scott Thomas. In Rebecca, Daphne writes about the beautiful azaleas that grow on the estate at Manderley. And she says that the blooms were used to make a perfume for its late mistress. Yet, most azalea growers know that this is likely an example of artistic license since most evergreen azaleas have little to no fragrance. That said, some native deciduous azaleas can be very fragrant. In the opening pages of Rebecca, Daphne's narrator vividly describes the wild and wooly garden of Manderley: "I saw that the garden had obeyed the jungle law, even as the woods had done. The rhododendrons stood fifty feet high, twisted and entwined with bracken, and they had entered into alien marriage with a host of nameless shrubs, poor, bastard thing that clung about their roots as though conscious of their spurious origin. A lilac had mated with a copper beech, and to bind them yet more closely to one another the malevolent ivy, always an enemy to grace, had thrown her tendrils about the pair and made them prisoners." Daphne du Maurier incorporated gardens into many of her books. Her daughters recall that their mother loved flowers and flower arranging. Their home was always filled with flowers. In Echoes from the Macabre: Selected Stories, Daphne wrote: "As soon as he had disappeared Deborah made for the trees fringing the lawn, and once in the shrouded wood felt herself safe… It was very quiet. The woods were made for secrecy. They did not recognize her as the garden did." In The King's General, as in Rebecca, the garden feels like a dangerous place at times. "I was a tiny child again at Radford, my uncle's home, and he was walking me through the glass-houses in the gardens. There was one flower, an orchid, that grew alone; it was the color of pale ivory, with one little vein of crimson running through the petals. The scent filled the house, honeyed, and sickly sweet. It was the loveliest flower I had ever seen. I stretched out my hand to stroke the soft velvet sheen, and swiftly my uncle pulled me by the shoulder. 'Don't touch it, child. The stem is poisonous." Finally, in her work, The Parasites, Daphne showed a different side of herself - her cleverness and humor - with a brief commentary on what it was like sending flowers along with a telegram: "Most people would send their letters and telegrams to the Haymarket. The flowers too. When you came to think of it the whole business was horribly like having an operation. The telegrams, the flowers. And the long hours of waiting." Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today we celebrate a woman named after Florence, Italy, and who loved flowers her entire life. We'll learn about the Floral Emblem of Manitoba. We hear an excerpt about spring at Green Gables. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about the relationship between people and plants. And then we'll wrap things up with some garden limericks for National Limerick Day. 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 [email protected] Curated News Rooting for Brain Health: The Therapeutic Power of Horticultural Therapy for Dementia | Being Patient | Genevieve Glass Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events May 12, 1820 Today is the birthday of the English social reformer, statistician, and founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale. Florence earned the moniker "The Lady with the Lamp" during the Crimean War because she would make her rounds to visit wounded soldiers with a lamp during the night. Florence was named after Florence, Italy - the city where she was born. As a young girl, both she and her sister each had their own garden to plant and tend. When Florence was a young girl of 13, she collected flowers with a 77-year old botanist named Margaret Stovin. Together they gathered and pressed over 100 different species of plants. This charming story was featured in a 2008 book by Richard Mendelsohn. Today the flowers that Florence and Margaret collected are housed at the Natural History Museum in London. As an adult, Florence wrote, Poetry and imagination begin life. A child will fall on its knees on the gravel walk at the sight of a pink hawthorn in full flower, when it is by itself, to praise God for it. As a nurse, Florence believed flowers helped with the morale and recovery of her patients. And personally, Florence's favorite flower was the foxglove. And Florence received a lovely bouquet every week from William Rathbone, the man who founded the Queen Victoria Jubilee Institute for Nurses. In 2020, during the pandemic, one of the anticipated gardens was dedicated to Florence. The year 2020 marked the 200th Anniversary of her birth, and the garden was to be called The Florence Nightingale Garden - A Celebration of Modern Day Nursing. Instead, the garden will make its debut during the 2021 Chelsea Flower Show. The garden will feature "Images from Florence Nightingale's pressed flower collection and echoes of her handwriting … on… the timber walls." Today Florence is remembered in the Florence Nightingale Museum in London, which celebrates the life and work of the best-known figure in nursing history. She is also honored with the Florence Nightingale rose — a pretty pale pink fragrant rose. May 12, 1870 On this day, Manitoba became a province of Canada. In 1906, the Anemone patens, commonly known as the Prairie Crocus, was officially adopted as the floral emblem of Manitoba. The first prairie plant to bloom in the spring, the Prairie Crocus, left an impression with early pioneers, and they called it a crocus because it reminded them of the early blooming crocus in Europe. However, the Prairie Crocus is not a crocus; it's an anemone, and as such, it is part of the buttercup family. In 1841, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote to his future wife, "There has been but one flower found in this vicinity--and that was an anemone, a poor, able, shivering little flower that had crept under a stone wall for shelter." In Floriography or the language of flowers, the Prairie Crocus is a symbol of liberty and freedom. Unearthed Words Spring had come once more to Green Gables — the beautiful, capricious Canadian spring, lingering along through April and May in a succession of sweet, fresh, chilly days, with pink sunsets and miracles of resurrection and growth. The maples in Lover's Lane were red-budded, and little curly ferns pushed up around the Dryad's Bubble. Away in the barrens, behind Mr. Silas Sloane's place, the mayflowers blossomed out, pink and white stars of sweetness under their brown leaves. All the school girls and boys had one golden afternoon gathering them, coming home in the clear, echoing twilight with arms and baskets full of flowery spoil. ― Lucy Maud Montgomery, Canadian author, Anne of Green Gables , Grow That Garden Library Natural Affairs by Peter Bernhardt This book came out in 1993, and the subtitle is A Botanist Looks at the Attachments Between Plants and People. When this book was written, Peter was a research assistant at the Missouri Botanical Garden. His book, Natural Affairs, is a mix of plant information and folklore, and science over the course of human history. Peter highlights the various interactions in time between humans and plants. For instance, the naming of passion vine comes from the Jesuit priests who felt the vines' blossom showed the passion of Christ on the cross. Whether the relationships are highly coveted - as with saffron (the spice worth its weight it gold), or even mysterious - as with the Asian slipper orchid - plants, like people, want to survive and thrive. This book is 225 pages of the incredible relationships we have with plants - be they quirky, charming, delightful, or serious. You can get a copy of Natural Affairs by Peter Bernhardt 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 Today is National Limerick Day. Here's a garden limerick that was featured in The Central New Jersey Home News on May 19, 1918 John soon had a fine garden growing, And said, in a manner quite knowing, "These beans and potatoes, Peas, corn, and tomatoes Will soon make a very fine showing. And here's one from 2020 @Paddysaurus on Twitter: There once was a gardener named Fred Who was struggling with his raised beds Nothing would grow Then a friend said, "you know, you'd be better off fishing instead!" Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today we celebrate a Swiss philosopher who loved nature. We'll remember the famous Panama orchid hunter whose orchids were displayed on this day 93 years ago. We'll also learn about a fascinating discovery by a botanist who was exploring Death Valley on this day last year. We hear a thought-provoking excerpt about pruning as a metaphor for life. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about Mycelium - a network of fine white filaments beneath our feet. And then we'll wrap things up with a beautiful Garden Museum that opened on this day in 1985. 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 [email protected] Curated News Cassian Schmidt | GRÜNES BLUT | Anke Schmitz Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there's no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community where you'd search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events May 11, 1881 Today is the anniversary of the death of the Swiss moral philosopher, poet, critic, and nature-lover, Henri Frederic Amiel. Henri used the garden as a metaphor for life. He wrote, "Before my history can teach anybody anything, or even interest myself, it must be disentangled from its materials, distilled and simplified. These thousands of pages are but the pile of leaves and bark from which the essence has still to be extracted. A whole forest of cinchonas are worth but one cask of quinine. A whole Smyrna rose-garden goes to produce one vial of perfume." Henri also recognized the healing power of nature. On June 3, 1849, he wrote, "Come, kind nature, smile and enchant me! Veil from me awhile my own griefs and those of others; let me see only the folds of thy queenly mantle, and hide all miserable and ignoble things from me under thy bounties and splendors!" On April 29, 1852, Henri wrote about his spring garden. "I went out into the garden to see what progress the spring was making. I strolled from the irises to the lilacs, round the flower-beds, and in the shrubberies. Reverie is the Sunday of thought; It is like a bath which gives vigor and suppleness… to the mind as to the body; the banquet of the butterfly wandering from flower to flower over the hills and in the fields. And remember, the soul too is a butterfly." And also, in this passage, Henri famously advised, "A modest garden contains, for those who know how to look and to wait, more instruction than a library." May 11, 1928 On this day, Abel Aken Hunter shared some of his orchid collection at the Third Annual National Orchid Show held at Madison Square Garden. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported: "A mile of orchids, representing every known variety and worth more than $1,000,000 may be seen in the exhibit." Abel Aken Hunter's entry was specifically mentioned as, "Another extraordinary collection in the show was brought from the jungles of Central America by A. A. Hunter of Balboa, Panama." In a biography of Abel's older brother, it was mentioned that all the kids in the Hunter family were, "born naturalists, for they knew all the birds and many of the plants and insects around Lincoln, [Nebraska]." Incidentally, Abel studied botany at the University of Nebraska. And like many botanists of his time, he fit his passion for botany around his career. He'd been working for the United States Postal Service since he was 15 years old and Abel's 30-year Post Office career facilitated his collecting efforts all through his life. In 1906, Abel transferred to the post office in the Canal Zone in Panama. The move was perfect for Abel; his pay jumped to $1,250 a month, and he was smack dab in the middle of a botanical paradise. The year 1910 brought a fateful friend to Abel: the amateur horticulturist and nurse Charles Powell. And although Charles was two decades older than Abel, the two men got on famously. In addition to their love of botany, they shared a passion for fishing. Once, while they were fishing, they spied an incredible sight. Abel is recorded as saying, "Look, Powell – orchids! Oodles of orchids! Treefuls of orchids! Let's get some of 'em." That day, they brought home a "boat-load of orchids," and the orchids made their way to collectors across the globe. A few years later, after the Canal work in Gorgona wrapped up, both Abel and Charles transferred to Balboa. In Balboa, Abel and Charles coordinated their vacation requests to accommodate their botanizing trips in Panama. In the meantime, Charles created a special relationship with the Missouri Botanical Garden and he sent them 7,000 plants. In return, MOBOT established a Tropical Station in Balboa and Charles Powell served as its first director. Abel succeeded him, and during their tenure, the Station became a jewel in the crown of MOBOT. By the mid-1920s, Abel was collecting with MOBOT experts like George Harry Pring, who recalled, "To obtain… new species it is necessary to climb the 'barrancas' [steep, rocky slopes], ford streams, cut one's way through the jungle, and hunt for the coveted orchid, and it is truly a hunt. Abel's sharp eyes detected almost everything within range." A week before Thanksgiving in 1934, the Director of Mobot sent a party of three researchers, including Paul Allen, down to work with Abel; their primary mission was to find where the Sobralia powellii orchid originated. Abel's gut told him it would be near the headwaters of the river they were exploring. For three days, they made their way through rapids and a tropical rainstorm. Nothing went their way and they were ready to give up. As they were standing at the edge of a natural pool near the crater of an ancient volcano, Paul decided to jump in for a swim. As he climbed out, Paul's journal records this fantastical moment: "Climbing out [of the pool] on the opposite side my astonished gaze was met by a plant with great milky white buds nearly ready to open. The long-sought prize, Sobralia powellii, had been found. Its native home was no longer a mystery." Paul Allen called this area "a garden of orchids" and would not disclose the exact location. Abel and Paul found hundreds of small orchids in this spot; incredibly, many were even new to Abel. It was a veritable orchid treasure trove. This trip was everything to Abel. He had been diagnosed with intestinal cancer and it would be his final orchid hunt. When it was clear he could not go on, Paul brought Abel to a hospital in Panama City, where he died on April 6, 1935. Paul Allen finished the expedition alone. After his death, Abel's wife, Mary, operated the station at Balboa for 18 months until, fittingly, Paul Allen was appointed Director. Paul Allen traveled to Balboa with his new bride, Dorothy. They had been married for ten days. As for Abel Aken Hunter, many orchids have been named in his honor, including the Coryanthes Hunteranum, or the Golden Bucket orchid. May 11, 2020 It was on this day that a botanist discovered the wreckage of a CIA plane that crashed in January 1952 in Death Valley. The botanist was filming his hike in the valley - sharing the various specimens he encountered. I shared the film in the Facebook group for the show. In the film, the plane is initially seen in the distance. It's only after the botanist researches the wreckage that the story of plane becomes clear. Air Live reported that, "It turned out the plane has been there for 68 years. In January 1952 [the] SA-16 Albatross was flying from Idaho to San Diego supporting classified CIA Cold War operations when its left engine caught fire over Death Valley, California and the plane began losing altitude and velocity. The pilot gave the order to evacuate the plane and all 6 people on board jumped out the back door! They parachuted and safely landed 14 miles north of Furnace Creek which they then hiked to." Unearthed Words Whether working in the yard or just going about the daily business of life, you are continually adjusting, trimming, touching, shaping, and tinkering with the wealth of things around you. It may be difficult for you to know when to stop. We are all torn between the extremes of taking care of things and leaving them alone, and we question whether many things could ever get along without us. We find ourselves with pruning shears in hand, snipping away at this or that, telling ourselves that we're only being helpful, redefining something else's space, removing that which is unappealing to us. It's not that we really want to change the world. We just want to fix it up slightly. We'd like to lose a few pounds or rid ourselves of some small habit. Maybe we'd like to help a friend improve his situation or repair a few loose ends in the lives of our children. All of this shaping and controlling can have an adverse effect. Unlike someone skilled in the art of bonsai gardening, we may *unintentionally* stunt much natural growth before it occurs. And our meddling may not be appreciated by others. Most things will get along superbly without our editing, fussing, and intervention. We can learn to just let them be. As a poem of long ago puts it, "In the landscape of spring, the flowering branches grow naturally, some are long, some are short." ― Gary Thorp, Sweeping Changes: Discovering the Joy of Zen in Everyday Tasks Grow That Garden Library Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets This book came out in 2005, and the subtitle is How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World In this book, Paul shares the power of mushrooms and how growing mushrooms is the best way to save the environment. As Paul explains, "The basic science goes like this: Microscopic cells called "mycelium"--the fruit of which are mushrooms--recycle carbon, nitrogen, and other essential elements as they break down plant and animal debris in the creation of rich new soil." Paul is passionate about using mycelium to tackle everything from toxic wastes and pollutants, silt in streambeds, pathogens in watersheds, pest control, and general forest and garden health. This book is 356 pages of myco-restoration - using mycelium and mushrooms for restoration and environmental health. You can get a copy of Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets 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 May 11, 1985 On this day the Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum in Long Island City, Queens, officially opened to the public. It was the first American museum established by a living artist for the display of his own work. A modernist sculptor and designer, Isamu founded and designed the museum in a repurposed 1920s red brick industrial building. The two-story Museum contains approximately 27,000 square feet of exhibition space and includes a sculpture garden. The beautiful Zen Garden can also be spied from the staircase exit on the second floor. It was the Japanese-American artist, Isamu Noguchi who said, When the time came for me to work with larger spaces, I conceived them as gardens, not as sites with objects but as relationships to a whole. The art of stone in a Japanese garden is that of placement. Its ideal does not deviate from that of nature. And he also had two other sayings that can be applied to the work of garden designers. When an artist stops being a child, he stops being an artist. We are a landscape of all we have seen. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."