From Nazi Germany to Nostalgic Blooms: Dorothy Thompson’s Journey

On This Day
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast:

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July 11, 1893

On this day, dear readers and fellow gardeners, we celebrate the birth of a most remarkable woman, one Dorothy Thompson.

This American journalist and radio broadcaster would go on to be crowned the First Lady of American Journalism, a title as impressive as the most meticulously cultivated rose garden.

Picture, if you will, a world on the brink of great upheaval.

In 1934, our intrepid Dorothy found herself in a position that would make even the hardiest of plants quiver in their pots - she became the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany.

One can only imagine the strength of character required to face such adversity, much like a sturdy oak standing firm against a tempest.

But it is not for her political acumen alone that we remember Dorothy today.

No, it is for her profound understanding of the human heart and its connection to nature that we turn our thoughts to her.

In her final literary bloom, The Courage to Be Happy, published in 1957, she penned words that resonate deeply with those of us who find solace in our gardens:

I am inclined to think that the flowers we must love are those we knew when we were very young, when our senses were most acute to color into smell, and our natures most lyrical.

How true these words ring, do they not?

As we tend to our gardens, do we not often find ourselves transported back to the flower beds of our youth?

The heady scent of lilacs, perhaps, or the cheerful faces of daisies that greeted us on summer mornings long past?

Dorothy's insight reminds us that gardening is not merely a hobby, but a connection to our most fundamental selves. It is a bridge between the child we were and the person we have become, nurtured by the very earth we now cultivate.

As we go about our day, let us take a moment to honor Dorothy Thompson's memory.

Perhaps we might pause by a favorite bloom, close our eyes, and allow ourselves to be transported back to those early days when every petal was a wonder and every leaf a mystery.

For in doing so, we not only celebrate her life but also nurture the seeds of joy and wonder she so eloquently described.

May your gardens always be a source of such lyrical connection, dear readers!

Dorothy Thompson, American journalist
Dorothy Thompson, American journalist

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