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The Friday Newsletter |  Daily Gardener Community

Curated News

Around the World in Rare and Beautiful Apples - Gastro Obscura

Here's a post about William Mullan, who takes gorgeous photos of Rare and Beautiful Apples. His images will open your eyes to the wider spectrum of varieties of the fruit known as apples.

The giants of Cornell - Cornell College

Here is an excellent post - actually, it's a "Tree-tise."

Professor of History Catherine Stewart visited eight trees on the hilltop at Cornell College & wrote about each- imagining what they might tell us if they could speak. Her words appear with each tree.

Catherine's post features the Cottonwood, the Redbud (Cercis spp.), the Blue Spruce, Larches, Magnolia, Ginkgo, and White Ash.

Here's one of her entries. It is for the Blue Spruce:

Botanical name: Picea pungens ("Pie-SEA-ah PUN-gins").
Locations: Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial is west of King Chapel. A second blue spruce that has been noted for its size is in front of Armstrong Hall.
Identification: The blue spruce has a pyramidal shape with horizontal, dense branches with sharp blue needles. The bark is silver, grey, and brown with vertical scales.
Known for: Providing homes to wildlife in the winter.

Then Catherine writes:

Most likely
to assist you
with time travel
if you look long enough,
and lean in,
and breathe in the elixir of its scent.

Take a moment and "Tree-t" yourself - by reading this wonderful article.

Botanical History On This Day

1717 Maria Sibylla Merian, German naturalist and botanical illustrator, died; her exquisitely accurate paintings revealed the intimate relationships between insects and their host plants and later helped Linnaeus classify nearly 100 species.

1761 Nicolaus Thomas Host, Austrian botanist and physician to the emperor, died; the shade-loving Hosta (plantain lily) genus was later named in his honor, now a staple of Asparagaceae borders and woodland gardens.

1884 Joseph Rock, Austrian-American botanist and explorer, was born; Hawaii’s first official botanist, he later spent two decades exploring China, introducing blight-resistant chestnuts and hundreds of rhododendrons—including seed that still thrives in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park.

2020 Plough Monday returned, marking the traditional start of the agricultural year and the ceremonial end of the holidays, when ploughs were blessed in church and farm workers headed back to the fields.

Unearthed Words

Hannah Rebecca Hudson, American poet, suffragist, and animal rights advocate, was born on this day in 1847. Gardeners cherish her spring poem “April,” first published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1868, where April coaxes crocuses, violets, and irises into bloom and then “leaves her tears upon the grass, / And turns her face and glides away.”
Read “April” by Hannah Rebecca Hudson

Grow That Garden Library™

Read The Daily Gardener review of Creating Sanctuary by Jessi Bloom

Buy the book on Amazon: Creating Sanctuary by Jessi Bloom

Great Gifts for Gardeners

6-Pack 2.5" Bamboo Plant Saucers – simple, natural wooden-colored saucers with a slight raised edge to catch excess water and soil; perfect under small pots and seedling containers and pretty enough to leave out on shelves and windowsills.

Today's Botanic Spark

Propagating Rubber Plants, 1935
On this day in 1935, The Pittsburgh Press described how to air-layer a Rubber Plant (Ficus elastica)—making a V-shaped cut near the growing tip, packing it with moist sphagnum, and waiting for white roots to form before potting the new plant—an old-school technique that still works beautifully for today’s glossy, low-light house favorite.

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And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.