April 12, 2019 Plant Tags, Licorice, Zina Pitcher, John J. Audobon, Thomas Nuttal, William Kent, Dr. Edward G. Voss, and Peter White

Subscribe

Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart

Support The Daily Gardener

Buy Me A Coffee 

Connect for FREE!

The Friday Newsletter |  Daily Gardener Community

Monologue

I was looking at the cute brass plant labels on the Target website the other day - I was trying to find the link to that adorable garden tote I was telling you about, and I thought about the evolution of a gardener when it comes to using plant tags.

First, you start out needing the labels - is that dill? What does basil look like again?

Then you label only the newcomers or the look-alike parsley or cilantro - who can tell without smell?

Sometimes a new gardener will visit. Or you’ll have people tour your garden. Folks appreciate knowing what they are looking at.

Pretty soon, you realize you’re labeling as a kindness to your garden guests.

If you’re like me, no matter how long you’ve been gardening, cute, or clever plant labels are always a lovely find.

Botanical History On This Day

2019 National Licorice Day celebrates the sweet-rooted perennial whose long rhizomes are fifty times sweeter than sugar, once chewed by children, prescribed by Hippocrates for coughs, and relied upon by armies when water was scarce.

1797 Zina Pitcher, physician, mayor of Detroit, regent of the University of Michigan, and devoted amateur botanist, was born. His namesake Pitcher’s Thistle still blooms pale pink along the Great Lakes shores.

1810 Thomas Nuttall, just twenty-four years old, departed Philadelphia to explore the flora of the Northwest, becoming the first true botanist to document Michigan plants, including the dwarf lake iris, now the state wildflower.

Unearthed Words

1748 William Kent, pioneer of the English landscape garden, left behind words gardeners still repeat with devotion, insisting that nature abhors a straight line and that a garden must hold both shadow and sun.

Grow That Garden Library™

Read The Daily Gardener’s review of
Botanical Beachcombers and Explorers by Dr. Edward G. Voss

Buy the book on Amazon:

Botanical Beachcombers and Explorers by Dr. Edward G. Voss

Today's Botanic Spark

1840s A Saved Arm and a Lifetime of Gratitude tells the tender story of Dr. Zina Pitcher saving a young boy’s injured arm, a kindness later repaid with spring flowers planted faithfully at Pitcher’s grave.

Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener

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