May 3, 2022 Garden Meditation Day, Thomas Tusser, Martha Crone, Japanese Internment Gardens, Frida Kahlo, Understanding Orchids by William Cullina, and May Sarton

Botanical History On This Day

1580 Thomas Tusser, English poet and farmer, died, leaving behind his beloved Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry. Tusser’s timeworn advice is as vital as the scent of fresh earth—his verses invite all gardeners to reap wisdom and wit even as the centuries slip away. What secret did a poet-farmer know, hidden behind the hedges of old England?

1941 Martha Crone, Minneapolis botanist, recorded the maddening swings of Minnesota spring in her diary. Her notes are windows into a garden battling wild, mercurial weather—flowers one day, frost the next. What did Martha write in the margins when clouds gathered above her delphinium?

1942 Charles Kikuchi, interned at Tanforan, observed his fellow Japanese Americans turning to gardens as acts of resilience. Even captivity could not root out hope—flowers sprang from ration tins and borrowed soil. Who among us could resist the power of a garden blooming defiantly behind barbed wire?

1946 Frida Kahlo gifted her haunting painting Weeping Coconuts as a wedding present, coconuts weeping her pain. The brushstrokes tell a story that words dare not—a love offering veined with sorrow that whispers secrets through color. What heartache did Frida fold into fruit for those who dared to look upon it?

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Read The Daily Gardener review of Understanding Orchids by William Cullina—Discover the elegant allure and mysterious habits of orchids, guided by Cullina’s expertise and a dash of floral intrigue hidden in every petal.

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Today's Botanic Spark

1912 May Sarton, poet, diarist, and gardener, was born in Belgium. She left us lyrical meditations on flowers, patience, and grace. Her garden musings flicker with the promise that growth—of plants and souls—comes only to those bold enough to plant, reflect, and wait. What lesson for living lies among Sarton’s garden prose, ripe for discovery?

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