December 4, 2019 Central Park Arborists, Dahlias at Bramble Garden, Saving Junipers, Andre Michaux, Theodore Vogel, John Tyndall, Edna Walling, Baron von Mueller, Starting & Saving Seeds by Julie Thompson Adolf, Plant Labels, and the Davenport Women’s Club
Subscribe
Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart
Support The Daily Gardener
Connect for FREE!
The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community
Curated News
I think that I shall never see... a team as lovely as @centralparknyc Arborists! Bookmark this Great Post w/ A+ Video ~ Meeting the Arborists Behind (and IN) Central Park’s Trees! As we talk to kids about careers, Arborist needs to be on the list! Dahlias -Overwintering Dilemmas | Bramble Garden Hi Dahlings! Here's a great behind-the-scenes post with advice and tips from @kgimson on Dahlias: “I’ll take basal softwood cuttings when shoots are 1″ tall...Cuttings will make good size tubers and will flower in one season.” Plantlife: Mission to save gin plant Juniper a recipe for success | @Love_plants This is excellent news for Junipers and a fascinating post.
"No wonder the English ‘gin plant’ is under threat - the battle really begins at birth. Juniper seeds require two winters before they even germinate and seedlings then require very specific conditions to grow. If they survive childhood, it takes another 10 years or more before these ‘teenagers’ mature and begin producing those lovely gin-flavored berries.”
I'll never look at gin the same way!
Botanical History On This Day
1788 André Michaux crosses the Tugalo River, noting yellow root, a new rhododendron, mountain laurel, hydrangea, and hemlock spruce along the banks in what Charles Sprague Sargent later recognized as Michaux’s first encounter with Rhododendron minus, the smaller-leaved cousin of Rhododendron maximum.
1841 Théodore Vogel’s Final Expedition found the German botanist gravely ill with dysentery on the Niger; tended day and night by his friend, mineralogist Charles Gottfried Roscher, Vogel spoke of their “next excursion” just moments before peacefully passing away aboard the Wilberforce.
1893 John Tyndall and “Tyndall Blue”, the Irish experimental physicist who linked atmospheric gases to the greenhouse effect and explained why the sky is blue—light scattering through molecules, now nicknamed “Tyndall Blue”—died, leaving gardeners everywhere forever grateful for that brilliant blue backdrop to the garden.
1896 Edna Walling, Australian Garden Maker, was born; the charismatic designer, writer, conservationist, and champion of native, drought-hardy plants created more than 300 gardens and believed every garden should be “a bit bigger than it needs to be” so you can never control it entirely.
1901 A Monument for Baron von Mueller was unveiled over the great botanist’s grave in Melbourne’s St. Hilda Cemetery—an obelisk with an urn and copper medallion—honoring his wish that only wildflowers and grasses cover his resting place until “a worthy monument” could be raised.
Unearthed Words
Today’s Unearthed Words feature the American naturalist Edwin Way Teale, whose grief-healing road trips with his wife became beloved seasonal nature books and gave us some of the most comforting winter-and-bird prose in garden literature.
Read about Winter Birds & Wise Living with Edwin Way Teale
Grow That Garden Library™
Read The Daily Gardener review of Starting & Saving Seeds by Julie Thompson Adolf
Buy the book on Amazon: Starting & Saving Seeds by Julie Thompson Adolf
Great Gifts for Gardeners
HOMENOTE 60 pcs Bamboo Plant Labels with Bonus Pen
Today's Botanic Spark
Seeds, Bulbs, and Christmas Wrappings, remembering the Davenport Woman’s Club garden department’s 1930 holiday meeting where members received dainty wrapped seed packets and dahlia bulbs, heard stories of famous gardens and “Chinese” E. H. Wilson, and dreamed of rare seeds for Mississippi Valley gardens beneath prettily trimmed Christmas trees.
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener
And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.
Featured Book
