John Bartram: Father of American Botany and Pioneer of the First U.S. Botanical Garden

March 23, 1699

Dearest reader,

On this day, we celebrate the birth of John Bartram, a true pioneer of American botany and exploration who laid the very roots of botanical science in the New World.

Born to a humble farming Quaker family in Pennsylvania, Bartram’s story is both a testament to curiosity and an ode to the natural world woven into everyday life.

Reflect on this humble beginning: John once wrote of how his passion for plants was sparked quite by accident.

“One day, I was very busy [plowing]… and being weary, I ran under a tree to repose myself. I cast my eyes on a daisy; I plucked it mechanically and viewed it with more curiosity than common country farmers are wont to do...”

This seemingly simple act of curiosity soon blossomed into a lifelong fascination. As he continued, he confessed,

“I thought about it continually, at supper, in bed, and wherever I went…”

Such was the power of that quiet moment under a tree that John Bartram hired a man to plow his fields and set off for Philadelphia, seeking to nourish his newfound passion. There, he sought out a Latin grammar and, with the help of a schoolmaster, learned enough Latin within three months to understand the works of Linnaeus, the great Swedish botanist who would later hail Bartram as the “greatest natural botanist in the world.”

John always considered himself a farmer first, and it was on his family farm that he began to botanize, cultivating a garden that would become America’s first botanical garden — Bartram’s Garden — founded in 1728. This garden was no ordinary plot; it became a living laboratory and a vital link between the New World’s wild flora and eager European botanists. The seeds and specimens he gathered from Pennsylvania and his explorations through the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida would travel across the Atlantic, gracing the grand gardens of England and Europe.

Dear gardener, can you picture that moment of looking closer at a daisy, realizing the world of complexity beneath its petals?

How often might such simple moments in a garden spark passions that last a lifetime?

What can Bartram’s journey teach us about the beauty of curiosity and the rewards of tending both earth and mind with patient care?

In remembering John Bartram, we celebrate more than a man—we honor the seeds of wonder and discovery he planted, whose roots continue to grow in every flower and leaf we cherish today.