The Daily Gardener

Have you given much thought to the layout or shape of your garden beds? Do they follow the natural lines and slopes of the landscape? Are they geometric? Long beds with corners? Maybe you've tried a circle garden. If you're just beginning - border beds - beds anchored by a backdrop (like a house or a fence) are the easiest to plan and execute. Often overlooked, one thing to consider in border beds is to add some stepping stones or even a small path along the back to provide access points that make tending your garden easier. Brevities #OTD In 1783: It's the birthday of Scottish author, garden designer, and botanist John Claudius Loudon.(Books By This Author)A massively popular and breathtakingly prolific writer on horticulture, John focused on serving the needs of the expanding middle class who wanted to have smaller gardens. 1838, Loudon wrote in his book call The Suburban Gardener and Villa Companion, "A suburban residence with a small portion of land attached will contain all that is essential to happiness." Loudon created and published a magazine called The Gardener's Magazine. It started out as quarterly. The first issue sold 4,000 copies. It soon became bi-monthly. Loudon used the platform to introduce a new landscape perspective which he called "gardenesque". Prior to Loudon, the prevailing landscape style of the was the "picturesque" view. In contrast with the big picture or natural perspective of the picturesque garden style, Loudon wanted to draw attention to individual specimens - isolating them by removing surrounding plants or by using geometrical beds. During Loudon's time, exotic plants were the rage and a controlled garden was the best way to feature specimen plants. Loudon's "Gardenesque style" or The Plant Collector's Garden with formal features and botanical variety was very popular with Victorian gardens. Loudon favored circular beds, of the type which can still be seen in the flower garden at Greenwich Park, because they show plants so well and because they are instantly 'recognizable' as the work of man. John Loudon said, "Any creation to be recognized as a work of art, must be such as can never be mistaken for a work of nature." Loudon invented the term "arboretum" - a garden of trees designed for scientific and educational purposes. He also had some thoughts about the value of public green spaces or "breathing zones" in cities. Loudon married writer Jane Webb. Jane was indispensable to him. After an attack of rheumatic fever in 1806, Loudon suffered from reduced mobility in his limbs. In 1825, his right arm had to be amputated at the shoulder without anesthesia. Around midnight on December 14, 1843, Loudon was dictating a book to his wife when he collapsed into her arms and died. The book was called, Self-instruction to Young Gardeners. Born #OTD April 8, 1892, America's sweetheart, Hollywood legend, and lover of trees, Mary Pickford born Gladys Marie Smith. Jump on twitter, search for "Mary Pickford Tree" and you'll see images of Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford planting a tree at their PickFair estate. #ArborDay Mary Pickford (Books By This Author)was the first to plant a tree, a Japanese cedar, in the Forest of Fame at the California Botanic Garden. Trivia/Folklore says that Mary Pickford used to eat Flowers - specifically roses. Thought that they'd make her beautiful and they did, Katie Melua sang a song called Mary Pickford which starts out, "Mary Pickford Used to eat roses Thinking they'd make her Beautiful, and they did- One supposes." Apparently Pickford did indeed use to eat roses to make herself look more beautiful. Mary Pickford reveals in her autobiography, Sunshine and Shadow, that as a young girl living in Toronto she would buy a single rose and eat the petals, believing the beauty, color and perfume would somehow get inside her. Pickford also gifted leading man John Gilberta bench for his garden. It was Mary Pickford who said, "I do not cry easily when seeing a picture, but after seeing [Charles Chaplin's] A Woman of Paris: A Drama of Fate (1923) I was all choked up - I wanted to go out in the garden and have it out by myself. Our cook felt the same way." #OTD in 1805, Hugo von Mohl was born.The greatest "botanist of his day", it said in one newspaper. A German botanist, he was the first to propose that new cells are formed by cell division. Mitosis was discovered by Hugo von Mohl. And, he discovered chloroplasts - describing them as discrete bodies within the green plant cell in 1837. In 1846 he described the sap in plant cells as, "the living substance of the cell" and created the word "protoplasm". Unearthed Words An April poem that puts all others in shadow; is the lyrical "April" by William Watson. (Books By This Author) England's onetime poet laureate, he began the poem with the unforgettably beautiful expression which, reminds us that April is the girlish daughter of springtime: "April, April, laugh your girlish laughter, then, the moment after, weep your girlish tears." April April, April, Laugh thy girlish laughter; Then, the moment after, Weep thy girlish tears! April, that mine ears Like a lover greetest, If I tell thee, sweetest, All my hopes and fears, April, April, Laugh thy golden laughter, But, the moment after, Weep thy golden tears! Today's Book Recommendation The Writer's Garden: How Gardens Inspired our Best-loved Authors by Jackie Bennett The book features 18 gardens and 20 writers; the author reveals how the gardens were tended and enjoyed. The book highlights the gardens of: Jane Austen at Godmersham and Chawton Rupert Brooke at Grantchester John Ruskin at Brantwood Agatha Christie at Greenway Beatrix Potter at Hill Top Roald Dahl at Gipsy House Charles Dickens at Gad's Hill Place Virginia Woolf at Monk's House Winston Churchill at Chartwell Laurence Sterne at Shandy Hall George Bernard Shaw at Shaw's Corner Ted Hughes at Lumb Bank Henry James followed by E.F. Benson at Lamb House John Clare at Helpston Thomas Hardy at Hardy's Cottage and Max Gate Robert Burns at Ellisland William Wordsworth at Cockermouth and Grasmere Walter Scott at Abbotsford Rudyard Kipling at Bateman's Today's Garden Chore Make plans to add more berries to your garden this season. Blueberries should be the top of your list - they're beautiful in the shoulder seasons - Spring and Fall - plus - Blueberries! Something Sweet Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart Today, we learn about the true story of the "Waterloo Breeches." John Claudius Loudon had written his friend, the Duke of Wellington, to inquire as to whether he might inspect the Waterloo Beeches. As a memorial of the battle of Waterloo, beech trees had been planted immediately after the battle of Waterloo. Now, Loudon's note was kind of hard to read and the Duke misinterpreted a few things. First, he THOUGHT that the note was from C.J. London(the Bishop of London) - not J.C.Loudon(the eminent landscape designer). Second, he misread "beeches" as "BREECHES". Thus, he thought that the Bishop of London wanted to inspect his pants. The Duke wrote the Bishop back, saying: "My dear Bishop of London, It will always give me great pleasure to see you at Strathfieldsaye. Pray come there whenever it suits your convenience, whether I am at home or not. My servant will receive orders to show you so many pairs of breeches of mine as you wish ; but why you should wish to inspect those that I wore at the battle of Waterloo is quite beyond the comprehension of yours, most truly, Wellington." Now when this surprising not reached the Bishop of London, he showed it to the Archbishop of Canterbury and to other discreet persons. They thought the great Duke of Wellington had lost his mind. Eventually, the whole matter got straightened out. But from that day forward, the incident became known as the story of the "Waterloo Breeches". And, we wouldn't have it - without John Claudius Loudon. Thanks for listening to the daily gardener, and remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

It's decision time in the garden.

What will your projects be this year?

Often, we have no idea if our dreams for our gardens will come true. Gardeners may dream bigger dreams than emperors, but we can often get stuck, too.

We put plants in the wrong spot. We buy the wrong thing. We spend too much money. We over do.

But, every now and then we get it completely right. I waited for years to put paths in around my front garden. Why did I wait so long. No reason really. But, once it was in, I knew it was the perfect thing my garden had been missing. Whatever you're dreaming of and planning for your garden this season, I hope you get it completely right.

Brevities

On this day in 1847, Birkenhead Park opened to

"great rejoicing and festivity, and in the evening there was a gorgeous display of fire-works. The day at Birkenhead, and indeed partly at Liverpool, was observed as a holiday; and the workmen at the Birkenhead Docks, 2,000 in number, each received a day's wage. Later in the evening a ball and supper took place in the Dock warehouse"

Designed by Joseph Paxton, Birkenhead was the first publicly funded civic park and inspired New York's Central Park.

Clippings from the Liverpool Mercury during the month of April that year show that Birkenhead was quickly becoming a bustling port city and, mindful that the people of the community who were the "source of all wealth and power" would appreciate the "accommodation and recreation", the commons area, "overgrown with fern, and rough with prickly gorse [had] been converted into a magnificent park, beautifully laid out, and planted with every variety of shrubs and flowers". The prickly gorse mentioned in that clip, now considered noxious, is a yellow-flowered shrub and member of the pea family.

The day of the grand opening, Lord Viscount Morpeth gave the commemorating speech gushing,

"We have seen something this day beyond even the dreams of Venice. For instance, such an array of steamers as has today graced the Mersey, never could have been witnessed in Venice; and though perhaps a steamer may not be so picturesque an object as a gondola, I may yet remind you that… Venice never could have sent forth a message which in ten days might reach those harbors and roadsteads of the new world."

In the first four days following the grand opening, the paper reported that a Mr. Cooper had crossed the river and visited Birkenhead park, and 58,000 persons had done the same.

On April 23rd of this year, there will be a presentation hosted in conjunction with the Friends at Birkenhead Park. For over two years, plans have been developed to secure Birkenhead Park's listing as a World Heritage Site. The evening's presentations are intended to provide an opportunity to learn more about this process. Presenters include Professor Robert Lee of the University of Liverpool's Department of History.

Happy Birthday today to the German botanist and early evolutionist Matthias Jakob Schleiden, (born April 5, 1804, Hamburg[Germany]—died June 23, 1881, Frankfurt am Main, Germany) Schleiden was also the cofounder (with Theodor Schwann) of the cell theory, Schleiden was the first person to recognize the importance of cells in plants.

Later, speculated on the roll of the nucleus in cell division. Matthias Schleiden who said,

"Youthful fancy

lends to the rock, the tree, the flower,

an animating genius,

and in the thunder hears the voice of God.

Then comes earnest science

stripping Nature of that inspiring charm,

and substituting

the unvarying law

of blind necessity."

Unearthed Words

The poet Algernon Swinburne was born on this day in 1837. In A Forsaken Garden, the poem describes a garden - or rather, "the ghost of a garden". Although the sun still shines and the rain still falls, the beds in the garden are blossomless. Now there is only brushwood and thorn. Branches and briars cover the paths. Even the weeds are dead. The wind is relentless. The sun burns. The only thing left is one gaunt bleak blossom of scentless breath.

Here's the first five verses of A Forsaken Garden -

In a coign of the cliff between lowland and highland,

At the sea-down's edge between windward and lee,

Walled round with rocks as an inland island,

The ghost of a garden fronts the sea.

A girdle of brushwood and thorn encloses

The steep square slope of the blossomless bed

Where the weeds that grew green from the graves of its roses

Now lie dead.

The fields fall southward, abrupt and broken,

To the low last edge of the long lone land.

If a step should sound or a word be spoken,

Would a ghost not rise at the strange guest's hand?

So long have the grey bare walks lain guestless,

Through branches and briars if a man make way,

He shall find no life but the sea-wind's, restless

Night and day.

The dense hard passage is blind and stifled

That crawls by a track none turn to climb

To the strait waste place that the years have rifled

Of all but the thorns that are touched not of time.

The thorns he spares when the rose is taken;

The rocks are left when he wastes the plain.

The wind that wanders, the weeds wind-shaken,

These remain.

Not a flower to be pressed of the foot that falls not;

As the heart of a dead man the seed-plots are dry;

From the thicket of thorns whence the nightingale calls not,

Could she call, there were never a rose to reply.

Over the meadows that blossom and wither

Rings but the note of a sea-bird's song;

Only the sun and the rain come hither

All year long.

The sun burns sere and the rain dishevels

One gaunt bleak blossom of scentless breath.

Only the wind here hovers and revels

In a round where life seems barren as death.

Here there was laughing of old, there was weeping,

Haply, of lovers none ever will know,

Whose eyes went seaward a hundred sleeping

Years ago.

Today's book recommendation

In honor of the anniversary of the opening of Birkhead Park, Today's book recommendation is:

The Busiest Man in England: A Life of Joseph Paxton, Gardener, Architect & Victorian Visionary

by Kate Colquhoun

Today's Garden Chore

Friday is picture day!

Today take wide-angle shots of your garden. Get the vistas from the windows of your house, from the approach from the street, from your neighbors house, from the corners of your property.

Something Sweet

to revive the little botanic spark in your heart

Edward Kemp the landscape gardener and architect at Birkenhead, placed an ad in the Liverpool Mercury after the opening of Birkenhead, he was out of work and was offering his services,

"[Edward Kemp] begs to offer his services to the Noblemen and Gentlemen in the vicinity of Birkenhead and Liverpool…The fluttering testimonials which he has received from numberless visitors to the Birkenhead park, induce him to believe that a simple reference to the past and present condition of the park …. will be sufficient to ensure for him a large and liberal patronage."

He must have found something - because Edward Kemp went on to be a leading Victorian Landscape Gardener and successful gardener.

Have you started to think about your garden in geographical terms? Aside from the zone you are gardening in, what are the micro-climates in your garden? Areas sheltered by trees, buildings or other structures may be warmer and ideal locations for less hardy plants. Low-lying areas may create boggy or marsh-like conditions - perfect for plants that like to have "wet feet". What is the composition of your soil; is it heavy and clayish? loamy or sandy? Is your soil acidic? Get to know your garden's topography and micro-climates; then situate (or relocate) plants accordingly. The more you know, the better your plants will grow. Brevities #OTD Botanist Alphonse Pyramus ("Peer-ah-mus") de Candolle ("Cundull") died on this day at the ripe age of 87 in Geneva in 1893 (28 October 1806 – 4 April 1893).Born the year Linneas died, he was the son of the Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle. His father's monumentous work, Prodromus, was an effort to characterize all of the plant families and establishing the basis for the science of botany. Alphonse and future generations of the Candolle family would finish Prodromusthrough extensive and detailed research. In 1855, Alphonse was awarded Linnean gold medal. The Candolle family are honored in the plant genera Candollea and Candolleodendron. The scientific journal, Candollea, is also named after the family. Candolle's ground-breaking book, Origin for Cultivated Plants begins, "It is a common saying, that the plants with which man has most to do, and which rendered him the greatest service, are those which botanists know the least." Candolle set about correcting that gap in understanding which had persisted for 50 years. In 1885, The Glasgow Heraldreminded readers, "At the commencement of the present century but little was known respecting the origin of our cultivated plants, and even up till the middle of the present not much progress had teen made in determining the original condition and habitat of the different species, Alexander von Humboldtin 1807 said : 'The origin, the first home of the plants most useful to man, and which have accompanied him from the remotest epochs, is a secret as impenetrable as the dwelling of all our domestic animals. We do not know what region produced spontaneously wheat, barley, oats, and rye. The plants which constitute the natural riches of all the inhabitants of the tropics the banana, the papaw, the manioc, and maize have never been found in a wild state. The potato presents the same phenomenon.'" In his magnum opus, Candolle attempted to record exhaustively and conclusively all that was known about each species using data from the expeditions of the time. For instance, the apple was vital to the lake dwellers of Lombardy, Savoy and Switzerland. Candolle wrote, "They always cut them length-ways and preserved them dried as a provision for the winter." That said, Candolle's work was not without criticism. One reviewer wrote in a piece called "Where do our crops come from", "Instead of an interesting and readable book he has given us a painfully formal catalogue, about as enticing as a stock and share list or the prices current at the Queen Victoria-street stores." Yet, Charles Darwin learned plant geography from Candolle, and said, "no one […] could have worked […] with more zeal and sagacity". Candolle named growing regions and came up with climate classifications. Gardeners use them today when we refer to growing zones. Alphonse Pyramus de Candolle is regarded as the father of geographical botany and Harvard botanist Asa Grayremarked, "De Candolle's great work closed one epoch in the history of the subject and [Sir Joseph] Hooker's name is the first that appears in the ensuing one." Alphonse devised the first code of botanical nomenclature - the International Code of Botanical Nomenclatureis its descendent. These laws ensure that no two species of plants have the same name. The botanical name is always given in Latin. Fun Fact: Like his fatherAugustin, public service was important to Alphonse de Candolle. After visiting England, Candolle introduced the use of postage stamps to Geneva. Geneva became the fourth country in the world to use postage stamps, after Great Britain, Zurich, and Brazil. #OTD On 4 Apr 1969 architect Alois Ludwig died.One of his works is the floral design on the Majolikahaus in Vienna - a gem for gardeners and lovers of Art Nouveau. A private residential building close to Naschmarkt, Ludwig adorned the front of the building with majolica tiles creating an intricate floral motif. It is an incredible sight and worth viewing whilst in Vienna, it is a few minutes walk from Kettenbrückengasse U-Bahn station. #OTD in 1901 in Nova Scotia, The Floral Emblem Act was passed, making the mayflower, ground laurel or trailing arbutus, the official flower of Nova Scotia.This is why the the mayflower is featured in the decorative ironwork outside of the Legislative Library. Check it out the next time you're in Nova Scotia. The leaves of the mayflower have been used to make a diuretic tea and the roots live symbiotically with mycorrhiza. The mayflower is a really an early spring ephemeral. Fragrant, it's one of the most-loved wildflowers and a neat little woodland plant - the emphasis here is on woodland - don't attempt to grow it in your garden, as noted in this post in The Hutchinson Newsout of Hutchinson, Kansas, on July 6, 1915: "Among the truly 'wild' ; flowers, two that ask of man only to be let alone in their native fastnesses, are the mayflower, or trailing arbutus, and the , twinberry, or partridge berry, the last-named a member of the madder family, and a distant relative of the coffee tree. The mayflower is wildest and shyest of all. No more is the eagle at home in the farmyard or the cardinal in the cage that the mayflower In the garden. As the imprisoned cardinal pines away and dies when the gilded bars of a bird-cage separate it from its liberty, so ' the mayflower sickens and withers away in the garden." Unearthed Words The Mayfloweris also the subject of a poem by John Greenleaf Whittier (Books by this author) here's an excerpt: O sacred flowers of faith and hope, As sweetly now as then Ye bloom on many a birchen slope, In many a pine-dark glen. Behind the sea-wall's rugged length, Unchanged, your leaves unfold, Like love behind the manly strength Of the brave hearts of old. So live the fathers in their sons, Their sturdy faith be ours, And ours the love that overruns Its rocky strength with flowers. The Pilgrim's wild and wintry day Its shadow round us draws; The Mayflower of his stormy bay, Our Freedom's struggling cause. But warmer suns erelong shall bring To life the frozen sod; And, through dead leaves of hope, shall spring Afresh the flowers of God! Today's book recommendation Endless Forms: Charles Darwin, Natural Science, and the Visual Arts (Yale Center for British Art) By Diana Donald This exhibition originated at the Yale Center for British Art and ended at Fitzwilliam in Cambridge. A visually magnificent book. Published in 2009, new it sells for $45. Used copies are available on Amazon for less than $10. Today's Garden Chore Are the Spring-blooming bulbs starting to pop up in every garden except yours? It happens. Don't get jealous - get motivated. Now is the time to get inspired by the beauty. Devote a page in the back your garden journalfor the bulbs you want to plant this fall. Write yourself a gentle reminder like, "Do this or else!"or "If you don't get these, you'll have garden-envy again next Spring" That should do the trick. Set a date on your calendar today for planting bulbs during the last week of October or the first week of November. Something Sweet to revive the little botanic spark in your heart Here's a sweet diary entry for today by Canadian NaturalistCharles Joseph Sauriolfrom 1938 shared by the Toronto Archiveson their fabulous twitter feed - which is a wonderful thing to follow: "For a few minutes this morning I fumbled around my Wild Flower garden... Little points which will soon be Bloodroots. Cautious little down covered stems and buds that will later become Hepaticas. Narrow leaves the forerunners of spring beauty." Thanks for listening to the daily gardener, and remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

As I was preparing for today's show, I kept thinking about this quote from John Burrows:

"... One's own landscape comes in time to be a sort of outlying part of himself; he has sowed himself broadcast upon it, and it reflects his own moods and feelings; he is sensitive to the verge of the horizon: cut those trees, he bleeds; mar those hills, and he suffers."

Think about your own landscape.

If it is an outlying part of yourself, what does is reflect about your mood and feelings?

Controlled and manicured?

Wild and wooly?

Relaxed and comfortable?

Unsure or confused?

Where are you at today?

Where were you a year ago?

5 years ago? 10 years ago?

Where do you want to be this season?

We are not static. As my youngest son said to me the first time he ate spaghetti sauce on his noodles, "People can change, Mom."

We are not static… and our gardens aren't either.

Naturalist, poet and philosopher John Burroughs (books by this author) was born on a dairy farm on this date in 1837. He was sent to the local school, where his desk was next to that of Erie Railroad Robber Baron, Jay Gould (the son of a nearby neighbor). When Burroughs struggled in school, Gould would bail him out.

Called "John o' Birds" for hisspecial admiration for birds, Burroughs loved the natural world.

One of the four vagabonds (a reference to an annual camping group that included Harvey Firestone, Henry Ford, and Teddy Roosevelt) Burroughs drove a Ford which was an annual present from Henry Ford.

John Burroughs wrote about what he knew and loved best: the land around his homes in the Catskills of upstate New York. The area included a stream called "The Pepacton" - today it is known as the "East Branch of the Delaware River".

Burroughs was great friends with Walt Whitman (Books by this author) whom he loved dearly. Of Whitman, Burroughs reflected:

"[Meeting] Walt was the most important event of my life. I expanded under his influence, because of his fine liberality and humanity on all subjects."

Here's a fun fact:

Whitman gave Burroughs a little marketing advice on his first book, Wake-Robin. Burroughs recalled

"It is difficult to hit upon suitable titles for books. I went to Walt with Wake-Robin and several other names written on paper. '"What does wake-robin mean?" he asked "It's a spring flower,' I replied. "Then that is exactly the name you want."

Wake-robin is the common name for trillium. Trilliums are in the Lily Familyand they carpet the forest floor in springtime.. They have a single large, white, long-lasting flower that turns pink as it matures. During Burroughs time, The Tennessean and other newspapers advertised English Wake-Robin Pills Tho best Liver and Cathartic Pills in use. Price 25 cents per box.

Here's the beginning of "Wake-Robin by John Burroughs"

"Spring in our northern climate may fairly be said to extend from the middle of March to the middle of June… It is this period that marks the return of the birds…. Each stage of the advancing season gives prominence to certain species, as to certain flowers. The dandelion tells me when to look for the swallow, the dog-tooth violet when to expect the wood thrush, and when I have found the wake-robin in bloom I know the season is fairly inaugurated. With me this flower is associated, not merely with the awakening of Robin, for he has been awake some weeks, but with the universal awakening and rehabilitation of Nature."

At the 100th anniversary of Burrough's birthday celebration was held at Hartwick College. Music was furnished by the college a cappella choir who sang Burrough's favorite song, "Lullaby" by Brahms. Supreme Court Justice Abraham Kellogg presented this tribute:

"When the trees begin to leaf and the birds are here, the arbutus, laurel and wild flowers are blooming and nature is clothing herself with beauty and grandeur, turn ye to your library and in a restful attitude read 'Pepacton' and you will acquaint yourself as never before with John Burroughs, the scientist, the naturalist, the poet and the philosopher."

Burroughs died at the age of 84 years - fourteen more than the biblical allotment of man. He was on his way back to the Catskills after undergoing abdominal surgery in California. Burroughs just wanted to see home one more time. Burroughs' nurse and biographer was with him as he made the trip by train. After a restless attempt at sleeping, he asked "How near home are we?" Told the train was crossing Ohio, Burroughs slumped back and passed away.

The third woman to enroll at Berkely's medical school and the second woman to be professionally employed as a botanist in the US, the intrepid Kate Brandegee died on this day in 1920. After getting her MD at Berkley, she found starting a practice too daunting. Thankfully, Kate's passion for botany was ignited during med school. She had learned that plants were the primary sources of medicine, so she dropped the mantle of physician to pursue botany. Five years later, she was the curator of the San Francisco Academy of Sciences herbarium. While Kate was at the academy, she personally trained Alice Eastwood. Later, when Kate moved on, Alice was ready to take her place - Kate was a phenomenal mentor.

During her time at the academy, in surprise development at the age of 40, Kate had "fallen insanely in love" with plantsman Townsend Brandegee. Equally yoked, their honeymoon was a 500 mile nature walk - collecting plant specimens from San Diego to San Francisco. The couple moved toSan Diego where they created a herbarium that was praised as a botanical paradise. The collecting trips - often taken together, but sometimes individually, would be their lifelong passion - and they traveled through much of California, Arizona and Mexico at times using the free railroad passes afforded to botanists. Despite poor health, Kate loved these experiences. In 1908, at the age of 64, she wrote Townsend a letter,

"I am going to walk from Placerville to Truckee (52 miles!)"

In 1906, when the Berkley herbarium was destroyed by an earthquake, the Brandegees singlehandedly restored it by giving the school their entire botanical library (including many rare volumes) and their plant collect which numbered some 80,000 plants. Thanks to Townsend's inheritance, the couple was financially independent, but they were also exceptionally selfless. The Brandegee's followed their plants and books to Berkley where Townsend and Kate worked the rest of their lives pro bono. Botanist Marcus Jones said of Kate,

"She was the one botanist competent to publish a real [book about the native plants of California]."

But Kate had delayed writing this work. Kate was 75 when she fell on the University grounds at Berkley - she broke her shoulder. Three weeks later, she died.

Unearthed Words

In honor of Burrough's first book - Wake-Robin, I found a little-known poem by Rebecca Salsbury Palfrey Utter (Books by this author) called the Wake-Robin. Rebecca was the wife of a Chicago minister named David Utter. She was a selfless missionary who coined the term "Daughter of the King" in one of her more popular poems. Rebecca was a descendant of Gene Williams Palfrey who served with George Washington and served as ambassador to France. Here's The Wake-Robin by Rebecca Salsbury Palfrey Utter.

THE WAKE-ROBIN (or trillium)

When leaves green and hardy

From sleep have just uncurled —

Spring is so tardy

In this part of the world —

There comes a white flower forth,

Opens its eyes,

Looks out upon the earth,

In drowsy surprise.

A fair and pleasant vision

The nodding blossoms make ;

And the flower's name and mission

Is "Wake, robin, wake !"

But you're late, my lady,

You have not earned your name ;

Robin's up already,

Long before you came.

You trusted the sun's glances,

To rouse you from your naps ;

Or the brook that near you dances

At spring's approach, perhaps ;

Your chamber was too shady,

The drooping trees among ;

Robin's up already,

Don't you hear his song ?

There he sits, swinging, '

In his brown and scarlet cloak,

His notes like laughter ringing ;

'Tis plain he sees the joke.

" Accidents will happen,"

Laughs robin loud and clear ;

" If you think to catch me napping,

Wake earlier next year ! "

Today's book recommendation

The John Burroughs Association was formed to preserve his legacy. Every April, on the first Monday, they gather in New York City to present the John Burroughs Medal, John Burroughs Nature Essay Award and Riverby Awards to the authors, illustrators, and publishers of the best published nature writing. This year's winner is:

A Wilder Time: Notes from a Geologist at the Edge of The Greenland Ice, by William Glassley, published by Bellevue Literary Press, 2018

A Wilder Time: Notes from a Geologist at the Edge of The Greenland Ice is a rich literary account of six expeditions to Greenland, where the author sought (and found) Earth's earliest signs yet of plate tectonics, the slow-motion movement and collisions of continents. Anchored by deep reflection and scientific knowledge, A Wilder Time is a portrait of an ancient, nearly untrammeled world that holds the secrets of our planet's deepest past, even as it accelerates into our rapidly changing future. The book bears the literary, scientific, philosophic, and poetic qualities of a nature-writing classic, the rarest mixture of beauty and scholarship.

William E. Glassley is a geologist at the University of California, Davis, and an emeritus researcher at Aarhus University, Denmark, focusing on the evolution of continents and the processes that energize them. He received his PhD from the University of Washington, Seattle, and is the author of over seventy research articles and a textbook on geothermal energy. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Other notable recognized authors include Rachel Carson for her book The Sea Around Us and Aldo Leopold for A Sand County Almanac.

Today's Garden Chore

Today's to-do is to add a magnifying glass to your garden tote.

The best gardeners throughout out history, have looked closely their plants - often using magnifiers of some fashion.

Get up close and personal with your plants - Increase your intimacy with your garden.

As with every garden tool - you won't use it, if it's not handy.

Something Sweet

to revive the little botanic spark in your heart

One last memorable fact about Trilliums.

Most of the parts of the plants occur in threes: 3 broach flat leaves, 3 petals to a flower, and three sepals (the part that enclosed the petals, protects them in bud, and supports them in bloom).

What are you curious about in your garden? What are you hoping to learn this season?

You might be signed up for something you didn't plan to learn.

Maybe you've always been a flower gardener, but then somehow you discover the joy of growing your own garlic.

Last year, you grew your own tomatoes to great success. This season you may question why you even bothered.

Maybe you didn't like pulling weeds for your mom and now she's gone and you suddenly want to have a garden of your own.

Our gardens, are classrooms. And those classrooms are filled with many teachers or Upah Gurus.

Upah Guru is the Hindu word for the teacher next to you at any moment.

The Upah Gurus in your garden this year might be the seeds you just ordered, a mystery plant that you inherited, the hydrangea that refuses to flower, the rose that won't give up.

One of the things that can happen to gardeners, is that we can focus on the teacher; not the teaching.

What if this season, your mindset is simply to be a good student. You don't need to get straight A's in the garden - no one is putting that pressure on you but yourself. You're simply there to learn. To focus on the teaching. The teaching is what makes us better gardeners.

Today we remember a phenomenal woman: Maria Sibylla Merian.

She was born April 2, 1647. As a frame of reference, Isaac Newton was only a few years older than her. Unlike Newton, Merian's work was largely forgotten. However, over the past century, her work has made its way to us.

Merian has the it factor. In 2011, Janet Dailey, a retired teacher and artist from Springfield, Illinois became so captivated by Merian's life story that she started a Kickstarter campaign to follow Merian's footsteps to the mecca of her best work - Surinam, in South America. In 2013, Merian's birthday was commemorated with a "Google Doodle".

Merian would have delighted in our modern day effort to plant milkweed for the Monarchs.The concept that insects and plants are inextricably bound together was not lost on Merian. In her work, she carefully noted which caterpillars were specialists - meaning they ate only one kind of plant. (You can relate to that concept if your kid only wants to eat Mac and cheese; they aren't being picky - they're being specialists.)

Before all this social media and high tech, drawings like Merian's were a holy grail for plant identification. One look at Merian's work and Linneas immediately knew it was brilliant. Merian helped classify nearly 100 different species long after she was gone from the earth. To this day, entomologists acknowledge that the accuracy in her art is so good they can identify many of her butterflies and moths right down to the species level!

Between 1716 and 1717, during the last year of her life, Merian was visited multiple times by her friend, artist Georg Gsell - and his friend Peter the Great. Oh to be a fly on the wall for THAT meet up.

Gsell ended up marrying Merian's youngest daughter, Dorothea Maria, and Peter the Great ended up with 256 Merian paintings. In fact, Peter the Great so loved these pieces that when Merian died shortly after his last visit, he immediately sent an agent to buy all of her remaining watercolors to bring them home to St. Petersburg.

Here's a fun story for you. On the Maria Sibylla Merian Society website, the feature a video that shows writer Redmond O'Hanlon flipping through an original Merian folio (with gloveless hands!) Now O'Hanlon is a scholar and explorer himself. He is known for his journeys to some of the most remote jungles of the world. At one point in the video, he becomes speechless. Then, he just lets out this big sigh and says, "It's so simple. Without the slightest doubt, she is - she was the greatest painter of plants and insects who ever lived... I mean just between you and me, she's the greatest woman who ever lived. You can keep Catherine the Great.Maria Sybilla Merian is the real heroine of our civilized time."

On this day in 1513, Juan Ponce de León claims new land for Spain. He names his discovery La Florida; in a nod to the Easter Season, which the Spaniards called Pascua Florida (Festival of Flowers).

In 1819, the first successful agricultural journal, American Farmer, was published in Baltimore.

Today, in 1711, Job Baster was born. Baster was one of the first Dutch nature researchers to use a microscope to look at flora and fauna. He wrote down his findings in a book. He also wrote an excellent translation of Philip Miller's work on horticulture.

In 1758, Baster was given a beautiful property loaded trees and two large ponds. He called it Zonnehof (Sunshine Farms). As a new pond owner, Baster decided to try his hand at breeding Goldfish. A versatile scientist, Baster exchanged letters with leading biologists of his time and the first twelve fish arrive thanks to a contact in England. Unfortunately, all the goldfish die. The following year, Baster gets eighteen more fish. Two die, but the rest survive. Thirteen years later, Baster owned more than a thousand goldfish.When Baster died, an inventory of his estate showed that all of his goldfish had been sold - raising over seven hundred guilders (not a small amount at the time). That's Job Baster, the man who introduced goldfish to the Dutch.

Baster also drew goldfish and then hand colored the images. I've seen these images and I'm telling you they have that iridescence that makes them look like someone just laid out real goldfish on the page - they are that life-like after all this time.

Baster had a large collection of shells. At the time, adhering shells to furniture was a fad in Europe. Baster took the fad and ran with it; covering a buffet with European and Tropical shells. At the bottom of the buffet is the coat of arms of Baster (jumping greyhound) and his wife Jacoba Vink (climbing lion) - all made out of shells. After seeing the Baster buffet at the Royal Zeeland Society of Sciences, one sightseer commented, "one can almost hear Baster's wife, who donated the piece to the museum after his death, saying, "Job, will you do something with all those shells!"

To honor Baster's work with mollusks, there is a floating snail named for Baster and the Dutch Malacological Association's scientific journal "Basteria" is a nod to this versatile explorer of the natural world.

Unearthed Words

A pineapple in Merian's own words:

"This is a ripe Ananas (pineapple), which must be peeled to be eaten. This fruit tastes as though one had mixed grapes, apricots, red currants, apples, and pears and were able to taste all of them at once. Its smell is attractive and strong.

The caterpillar which sits on this pineapple I found in the grass beside the pineapples in 1700 at the beginning of May. It was light green with red and white stripes along the whole body.

On 10 May it changed into a chrysalis, and on 18 May, a very beautiful butterfly (Philaetria dido) emerged decorated with luminous green flecks, which is shown twice, resting and in flight.

If the butterfly is observed through a magnifying glass, the 'dust' on the wings resembles fish scales with three branches on each scale, covered with long hairs. The scales are so symmetrical that they can be counted without any difficulty. The body is covered with feathers interwoven with hairs."

Today's Book Recommendation

Researching Merian, lead me to the poet Allison Funk's fantastic book Wonder Rooms.

In Wonder Rooms, Funk has a series of 8 poems called "Maria Sibylla Merian's Metamorphoses". Each poem captures moments in Merian's life between 1647 and 1717. The poems are nested like Russian dolls. The first poem Is nested in the second poem; the second poem is nested within the third, and so on.

Today's Garden Chore

Today's garden to-do is to get ready for starting up your irrigation system.

Order the parts you like to use and frequently need to replace.

New emitters always come in handy and maybe add some misters for your garden visitors.

And don't forget, that when it comes to irrigation, your ears - not your eyes - can help you sleuth out leaks.

Something Sweet

to revive the little botanic spark in your heart

After you turn on your system for the first time, walk around each zone and LISTEN - for gurgles, bubbles, the sound of running water. You'll often hear it before you see it.