August 1, 2019 Gladiola, Edwin Way Teale, Franklyn Hugh Perring, Lord Byron, The Garden Chef, Repurposed Strawberry Jar, and Plants Named After People
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Monologue
Are you growing gladiola?
The plants are also sometimes called the sword lily.
Gladiola is Latin for a small sword.
In Victorian times, the gladiola meant, “You pierce my heart.”
And the next time you see a gladiola, take a closer look: members of this family produce parts in multiples of three. There are three sepals colored to look like petals, three true petals, and three stamens.
Botanical History On This Day
1923 Edwin Way Teale married Nelly Imogene Donovan, beginning a lifelong partnership that would give rise to some of America’s most beloved nature writing, including North with the Spring and a Pulitzer Prize–winning seasonal quartet.
1927 Franklyn Hugh Perring, British botanist and master field naturalist, was born. He later devised the dot-mapping system and co-authored The Atlas of the British Flora, a landmark of 20th-century botany.
Unearthed Words
August wit from Lord Byron, who understood the English climate perhaps too well.
Grow That Garden Library™
Read The Daily Gardener review of
The Garden Chef: Recipes and Stories from Plant to Plate
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The Garden Chef
Today's Botanic Spark
1950 In Plants Named for People, a charming newspaper inquiry reminds us how poinsettias, wisteria, fuchsias, forsythia, bougainvillea, and paulownia quietly carry human stories in their names.
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