February 18, 2022 Valerius Cordus, André Robert Breton, Toni Morrison, The Secrets of the Great Botanists by Matthew Biggs, and Antoine Nicolas Duchesne

Subscribe

Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart

Support The Daily Gardener

Buy Me A Coffee 

Connect for FREE!

The Friday Newsletter |  Daily Gardener Community

Botanical History On This Day

1515 Birth of Valerius Cordus, German physician, botanist, and pharmacologist. Renowned for one of history's most popular herbals and for discovering the synthesis of ether ("sweet oil of vitriol"), Cordus's work was preserved by Swiss botanist Konrad Gesner. The fragrant-flowered genus Cordia is named in his honor.

1896 Birth of André Robert Breton, French writer, poet, and co-founder of Surrealism, who authored the first Surrealist Manifesto. He famously said, "The man who can't visualize a horse galloping on a tomato is an idiot."

1931 Birth of Toni Morrison, acclaimed American writer and professor. In Jazz, she poetically expressed the changing seasons: "What can beat bricks warming up to the sun? The return of awnings... tree limbs are like wet fingers playing in woolly green hair."

Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation

Explore the captivating stories of pioneering botanists in The Secrets of the Great Botanists by Matthew Biggs. This beautifully illustrated 2018 book profiles 35 botanists, offering insights that help gardeners better understand plants and connect with botanical history.

Buy the book on Amazon: The Secrets of the Great Botanists

Today's Botanic Spark

1827 Death of Antoine Nicolas Duchesne, French botanist and professor at Versailles, who discovered plant mutation as natural and revolutionized strawberries by creating the modern garden strawberry. Notably, strawberries carry about 200 seeds on their outsides. Toni Morrison reflected on strawberries as symbols of summer’s essence: "I have only to break into the tightness of a strawberry, and I see summer – its dust and lowering skies."

Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener

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