Episodes
August 3, 2020 Dahlias 101 by The Empress of Dirt, Joseph Paxton, Michel Adanson, Louise du Pont Crowninshield, Alwyn Howard Gentry, Katharine Stuart, Watermelon Poetry, From Garden to Grill by Elizabeth Orsini and Gallant Soldiers
Today we remember the busiest man in London. We’ll also learn about the man honored by the Baobab tree. We salute a daughter of Winterthur, We also recognize a life cut short in the world of tropical botany. And we’ll look back on a letter from one garden writer to another written on this day…
Read MoreAugust 2, 2020 How to Brighten Up the Garden with Hollyhocks, Thomas Gainsborough, Hawaii’s First Potato, John Bartram, Wallace Stevens, August Weather Folklore, How They Decorated by P. Gaye Tapp and Charlotte Moss, and Andrea Brunsendorf’s Container Recipe
Today we remember the master landscape and portrait painter who grew up with a magnificent mulberry tree. We learn about the planting of the first potato in Hawaii, and the discovery of a tree named for Benjamin Franklin. We also remember the poet who was inspired not by his day job at an insurance company,…
Read MoreAugust 1, 2020 The Largest Seed in the World, Richard Savage, Charles Henry Bass Breck, Edwin Way Teale, Franklyn Hugh Perring, August Poems, In Bloom by Ngoc Minh Ngo, and the Origin of Plant Names
Today we celebrate an English poet who didn’t want gardens to be monetized. We’ll also learn about the 8th generation seedsman of a beloved Boston company. We remember the naturalist who followed the seasons up and down the country. We also recognize the exuberant botanist, who created the Dot Map. We welcome the new month…
Read MoreJuly 31, 2020 How To Grow A Mood-boosting Garden, Daniel Defoe, Mary Vaux Walcott, Richard Morris Hunt, Francis Ledwidge, Sydney Dylan Ripley, Outstanding American Gardens by Page Dickey, and National Avocado Day
Today we remember the beloved English writer who was punished for treason but adored with flowers. We’ll also learn about the female botanical illustrator, who is known as the “Audubon of botany.” We celebrate the Dean of American Architecture. We also salute the “poet of the blackbirds.” We honor the establishment of the horticulture program…
Read MoreJuly 30, 2020 A Call to Decolonise Botanical Collections, Castor Bean, Emily Brontë, Ellis Rowan, the Arkansas State Flower, Alfred Joyce Kilmer, Natural Living Style by Selina Lake and Disney’s Flowers and Trees
Today we celebrate the author and poet who wrote some beautiful garden verses. We’ll also learn about a magnificent Australian artist and botanical illustrator, and her art is now part of Australia’s national library. We celebrate the selection of the State Flower for Arkansas – and the very cute story of how it came to…
Read MoreJuly 29, 2020 Why Front Gardens Matter, Thomas Nuttal, Edith Coleman, Vincent Van Gogh, Beatrix Potter, Ryan Gainey, Tomato Poetry, Shrubs & Hedges by Eva Monheim and Charles Clemon Deam’s Beef with Honeysuckle
Today we remember the botanist who jumped in a birch bark canoe with Aaron Greeley and paddled to Mackinac Island 110 years ago today. We’ll also learn about the woman who was a housewife until the age of 48 and then transformed into one of Australia’s leading naturalists. We celebrate the artist who died today…
Read MoreJuly 28, 2020 The Garden and Mental Health, John Evelyn, Andrew Jackson Downing, Roger Tory Peterson, Women and the Garden, The Pollinator Victory Garden by Kim Eierman, and Bill Cullina’s 2011 garden
Today we celebrate the botanist and writer who published the first book about salad. We’ll also learn about the horticulturist whose life was cut short on this day when the steamship he was on caught on fire and sank. We celebrate the man who helped generations of people fall in love with ornithology. We also…
Read MoreJuly 27, 2020 Piet Oudolf Finds Solace in the Garden, Jeanne Baret, Horatio Hollis Hunnewell, Benjamin Lincoln Robinson, Hewett Cottrell Watson, William T. Hutchins, Silly Garden Poems, Rustic Garden Projects by Marianne Svärd Häggvik, and Bernadette Cozart.
Today we remember the first woman to have circumnavigated the world. We’ll also learn about the wealthy horticulturist who built a magnificent estate on the shores of Lake Waban. We celebrate the botanist who was the first editor of Rhodora, the New England Botanical Club’s journal. We also salute the father of British plant geography.…
Read MoreJuly 26, 2020 How to Grow Blueberries, Garden Self-Care in the Heat, Roland Hallet Shumway, George Bernard Shaw, Aven Nelson, July Folklore, Once Upon a Windowsill by Tovah Martin, and Winthrop Mackworth Praed
Today we remember a pioneering seedsman out of Rockford, Illinois, whose company became the world’s largest mail-order seed company. We’ll also learn about an Irish playwright and critic who had a unique writing hut in his garden. We recognize the botanist who botanized in Yellowstone for an entire summer. We also revisit some July Folklore…
Read MoreJuly 25, 2020 L.A. Music Producer Mark Redito, Cleome, Oxford Botanic Garden, William Forsyth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Charles Joseph Sauriol, Elizabeth Lawrence, Walt Whitman, Weeds by Richard Mabey, and A Case of Floral Offerings
Today we remember the founding of a garden that inspired the book Alice in Wonderland. We’ll also learn about the botanist remembered with the Forsythia genus. We’ll salute the Lake poet who likened plant taxonomy to poetry. We also revisit a diary entry about a garden visitor and a letter from a gardener to her…
Read MoreJuly 24, 2020 Moss by Robert Miller, Benning Wentworth, Henry Shaw, Alexandre Dumas, Pigeon Peas, Chasing Eden by Jack Staub and Renny Reynolds, and the Dial-A-Garden-Tipline
Today we remember the man who brought Lilacs to America. We’ll also learn about the man who created the Missouri Botanical Gardens, also known as “Shaw’s Garden.” We celebrate the French author, who exchanged his personal library for a lifetime supply of cantaloupe. We also look back at an article from 1938 and the topic…
Read MoreJuly 23, 2020 Garden Hose Love Hate, Mukdenia rossii ‘Crimson Fans’, St. Phocas, Frances Ropes Williams, John Goldie, Garden Poetry, Mister Owita’s Guide to Gardening by Carol Wall, and Radish, Salmon, and Radish Green Salsa Verde Toasts
Today we remember a gardener who became a saint. We’ll also learn about the woman remembered forever in the name of one of the world’s most popular hostas. We celebrate the Scottish botanist who was the first to describe the Prairie Buttercup. We’ll also hear some wonderful words about simply being in the garden. We…
Read MoreJuly 22, 2020 16 Drought-Tolerant Plants for Your Garden, Drying Flowers, Neil Muller, John Drayton Hastie, Louise Klein Miller, The Sleep of Seeds by Lucia Cherciu, Making More Plants by Ken Druse, and San Jose Scale
Today we remember the kind Harvard botanist who was a friend of Darwin. We’ll also learn about the botanist who specialized in South American flora and found the Cinchona tree: the source of quinine. We salute the pioneer of the study of allelopathy – when one plant species releases chemical compounds that affect another plant…
Read MoreJuly 21, 2020 Hosting a Garden Tour During COVID, Central Park, Maine State Flower, Edith Wilder Scott, Summer Poetry, Philosophy in the Garden by Damon Young, and Rose Care During Summer
Today we remember the creation of legislation that turned 778 acres of land into a beloved park in New York City. We’ll also learn about the State Flower of Maine – it’s the only floral emblem that does not produce a blossom. We salute the Swarthmore (“SWATH-more”) College alumni and horticulturist who created a magnificent…
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