July 16, 2019 Tarragon, Camille Corot, Orville Redenbacher, Rachel Peden, Good Planting by Rosemary Verey, Blueberries, and Charles Clemon Deam

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Monologue

Did you know Tarragon is an Artemisia?

Like all plants in the Artemisia genus, Tarragon is gray and silvery. Artemisia was sacred to Artemis, and there are over 180 species - all of them are ornamental, most are medicinal, and of course, a small few are culinary.

Tarragon is quite a graceful plant when it is fully grown. Never demanding, Tarragon can stand some shade and a heavier soil.

French tarragon has a subtler aroma and flavor compared to Russian tarragon. Tarragon has a peculiarly sweet taste recalling anise.

Tarragon is an integral part of Dijon mustard.

Tender, fresh stems of Russian tarragon can be cooked and consumed as asparagus.

The tea stimulates the appetite, especially when appetite has been lost due to illness.

Drinking the tea before bedtime is helpful because Tarragon compounds are mildly anesthetic and sedative. The tea can also help with hyperactivity.

And, here's something valuable to remember about tarragon: the flowers generally do not produce viable seed. So, tarragon propagates via root cuttings, rhizome sprouts, and stem division.

As an example, the French tarragon commercial growers dig it up in the fall after all the foliage has been harvested. Then they cut the roots into short pieces.

Botanical History On This Day

1796 Camille Corot was born in Paris. The celebrated landscape painter found in nature not merely scenery but emotion itself, believing beauty to be “truth bathed in an impression received from nature.”

1907 Orville Redenbacher was born. The agricultural scientist and marketer transformed popcorn forever with his airy “snowflake” hybrid, turning a humble kernel into an American icon.

Unearthed Words

Rachel Peden reminds us to notice the most minute marvels of the garden.

She wrote of roses with gentle wit and wisdom, noting how their fleeting beauty accepts the season without regret—“Summer, summer, it will always be summer.”

Grow That Garden Library™

Read The Daily Gardener review of Good Planting by Rosemary Verey.

Buy the book on Amazon: Good Planting by Rosemary Verey

Today's Botanic Spark

1987 The Indianapolis Star announced the publication of a biography of Charles Clemon Deam, the formidable, self-taught Indiana botanist and state forester. Known for his passion and his pistol, Deam once settled a botanical debate by firing shots at a rabbit raiding his garden, proving that taxonomy, for him, was no idle matter.

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