July 8, 2019 Herb Societies, Forrest Shreve, Eva Reed, Leonard Cockayne, Monty Don, National Meadows Day, Charles MacKay, Janice Emily Bowers, Stop Fertilizing, and Milk Sickness

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Monologue

Have you checked whether there is an herb society near you?

Herb societies offer gardeners what I call a next-level understanding of plants.

Aside from parsley, oregano, and thyme, you'll probably be surprised by the sheer number of plants that fall into the herbal category: bronze fennel, red-veined sorrel, lovage, tansy, and sweet cicely.

Botanical History On This Day

1878 Forrest Shreve, the foremost authority on North American deserts in the early twentieth century, was born.
Shreve worked from the Carnegie Desert Laboratory in Tucson, where he revealed how entire ecosystems shift within mere thousands of feet of elevation—defining the four great desert regions of the United States.

1901 Eva Reed, botanist, author, and librarian at the Missouri Botanical Garden, died tragically in Missouri.
Reed was killed instantly by a passenger train while sketching near the railway, having already endured near-total deafness from illness years before.

1934 Leonard Cockayne died at age seventy-nine.
England-born but New Zealand-made, Cockayne devoted his life to native flora, earning the Darwin Medal and founding an open-air museum where he now rests. His grave overlooks the vegetation and peaks that bear his name.

1955 Monty Don, beloved presenter of Gardeners’ World, was born.
Don continues to guide gardeners through both traditional and contemporary landscapes, most recently with a lyrical exploration of Japanese gardens.

Unearthed Words

Charles Mackay pays homage to Meadow Sweet in a gentle tribute to England’s wildflower meadows.
Shared in honor of National Meadows Day, his verse reminds us how often modest beauty escapes our notice.

Grow That Garden Library™

Read The Daily Gardener review of A Sense of Place: The Life and Work of Forrest Shreve by Janice Emily Bowers

Buy the book on Amazon: A Sense of Place by Janice Emily Bowers

Today's Botanic Spark

1880s The Indiana town of Hindustan was abandoned after outbreaks of milk sickness caused by cattle consuming White Snakeroot.
The plant’s toxin passed through milk to humans, claiming thousands of lives—including that of Abraham Lincoln’s mother—and leaving behind a stark lesson in botanical consequence.

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