20200101 The Daily Gardener Album Cover

Today we celebrate the Spanish Enlightenment priest and botanist who named the Dahlia and the glamorous movie star who traded in her star sapphire collection for a tractor. We’ll learn about the item vintners were selling during prohibition and the woman who became the most widely read American Garden author in the United States. Today’s…

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Alexander Von Humboldt 1834

Discoverer of Central and South America #OTD On this day in 1859, the naturalist and botanist Alexander Von Humboldt died; he was 89 years old. In 1806, Friedrich Georg Weitsch painted his portrait; two years after he returned from his five-year research trip through Central and South America. Humboldt didn’t go alone; he was accompanied…

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The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf

As Heard on The Daily Gardener Podcast: Today’s book recommendation: The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World by Andrea Wulf “The Invention of Nature” reveals the extraordinary life of the visionary German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) and how he created the way we understand nature today. Though almost forgotten today, his name lingers everywhere…

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20200101 The Daily Gardener Album Cover

We are on the cusp of consecutive warm nights. Warm soil temps will take a few more weeks. Recently, I had a gardener ask me about their hearty hibiscus that was planted last year. They were worried it wasn’t coming back. In Minnesota, gardeners often start to freak out a bit if they don’t see…

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