September 30, 2019 How to Help Autumn Crocus Shine, Sarah Hynes, Faith Fyles, Helia Bravo Hollis, WS Merwin, Planting in a Post-Wild World by Thomas Rainer and Claudia West, Add Color with Chrysanthemums, and Robert Louis Stevenson Playing Cards with King Kalakaua
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Monologue
I was on Facebook yesterday, and a friend had planted all these autumn crocuses and colchicums in her garden.
Like any bulb, it takes lots of dedication to get them planted, and then you have all of the anticipation - waiting to see if they come up and if they meet your expectations.
Anyway, she'd invited some friends over to come and check them out. Instead of being amazed by the beautiful autumn crocus, her friends were utterly taken by her gorgeous hydrangea.
Isn't that the way it goes?
We toil in our gardens, then invite people over to see it. Yet, the plants we expect others to be amazed by, the plants that have stolen our hearts, are not always the plants that are the most popular with our visitors.
So, my advice: if you have an affinity for autumn crocus, don't plant hydrangea.
If you do have hydrangea, only invite other gardeners over. Only gardeners will appreciate the dedication that it takes to plant colchicum. Only gardeners are sensitive to the fact that if they've been invited over to "see the colchicum," they will ooh and aah only for the autumn crocus and offer merely a passing nod to the show-stealing hydrangea.
Botanical History On This Day
1859 Sarah Hynes, a Prussian-born Australian botanist, was born. She later lent both her name to Acacia hynesiana and her backbone to a legendary stand against institutional sexism in Sydney’s botanical ranks.
1875 Faith Fyles, pioneering Canadian botanical artist and the first woman hired by the Canadian Department of Agriculture, was born, bringing science and color together in service of farmers and flora alike.
1901 Helia Bravo Hollis, Mexico’s first woman biologist and the undisputed matriarch of cactus studies, was born — a woman who quite literally put her own money where her garden was.
Unearthed Words
Born on this day in 1927, poet and planter W.S. “William” Merwin believed in trees, silence, patience, and the enduring truth that a garden, like a poem, is a relationship and never finished.
Grow That Garden Library™
Read The Daily Gardener review of Planting in a Post-Wild World by Thomas Rainer and Claudia West
Buy the book on Amazon: Planting in a Post-Wild World by Thomas Rainer and Claudia West
Today's Botanic Spark
2010 In a story that feels borrowed from a gentler century, William Merwin recalled Robert Louis Stevenson’s Hawaiian card games with King Kalākaua — where, it seems, five kings always beat four aces.
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