Arizona Archives

Hideo Sasaki

An Influence for Architects Today is the birthday of the Japanese-American landscape architect who designed some of the country’s best-known industrial parks, urban spaces, and campuses, Hideo Sasaki, who was born on this day in 1919. Sasaki was born in Reedley, Calif., and grew up on his family’s truck farm in the San Joaquin Valley.…

November 25, 2019 Best Holiday Botanical Garden, Vancouver Seawall, Francisco de Paula Marín, Leonard Woolf, Hideo Sasaki, Rudolph Boysen, Orchid Modern by Marc Hachadourian, Holiday Microgreens, and Starting a Walking Club

Today we celebrate the Spaniard who brought the pineapple and coffee to Hawaii. We’ll learn about the man who gardened at Monks House so much it would cause fights with his wife. We’ll honor the Japanese American Landscape Architect, who designed many of our Modern Urban Public Spaces and the man who came up with…

Vic Miller

The Mystery of The California Fan Palm On this day in 1984, the Arizona Republic newspaper shared an article by Vic Miller, a professor of agriculture at Arizona Stale University, about the history of the native palm of Arizona. The article starts this way: “Yes, we do have a native palm. Seeds of it were…

November 4, 2019 Color for the Winter Garden, Favorite Ginkgo Varieties, Houseplant Trend, Thoreau on Autumn, Janaki Ammal, Arizona Palm, The Garden in Every Sense and Season by Tovah Martin, Spigots Off, and Benedict Roezl

Today we celebrate fall through the eyes of a writer and naturalist from the year 1855 and the botanist honored with building on the University of Glasgow. We’ll learn about the Indian botanist who bred a new species of sugar cane and the Arizona Palm – yes, it does exist! We’ll hear some November Poems.…

Sara Allen Plummer Lemmon

The Life of The Lemmons Today is the birthday of the botanist Sara Allen Plummer Lemmon, who was born on this day in 1836. Lemmon is remembered for her successful 1903 piece of legislation that nominated the golden poppy (Eschscholzia californica) as the state flower of California. Asa Gray named the genus Plummera in honor…

September 3, 2019 Spring Bulbs for Pollinators, George Thorndike, Sara Allen Plummer Lemmon, George Vanderbilt, Biltmore, John Updike, September, Gardening with Conifers by Adrian Bloom, a Space to Cure Garlic, and Ringo Starr

Have you ordered your spring bulbs yet? Here’s a new perspective on planting spring bulbs – they’re essential resources for pollinators. Most gardeners think about spring-flowering bulbs in terms of color – which is something we desperately need after a long winter. But spring-flowering bulbs are valuable for another reason: they’re an early source of…

Edward Lee Greene

Becoming Catholic Today is the birthday of Edward Lee Greene, who was born on this day in 1843. Greene performed yeoman’s work when it came to the plants of the American West, naming or describing or even re-describing over 4,400 species. Before Green made his way west, he reached out to Asa Gray of Cambridge…

August 20, 2019 Pass-along Plants, the Patron Saint of Beekeepers, Edward Lee Green, Gettysburg Milkweed, the Plant Quarantine Act, Robert Plant, Edgar Albert Guest, Rose Recipes from Olden Times by Eleanor Sinclair Rhode, Pick Herbs, and Nerine undulata

“You don’t have a garden just for yourself. You have it to share.” – Augusta Carter, Master Gardener, Pound Ridge, Georgia Pass-along plants have the best stories, don’t they? They have history. They have a personal history. One of my student gardeners had a grandmother who recently passed away from breast cancer. Her mom was…

July 17, 2019 Daylilies, John McMahan, Charles Theodore Mohr, George William Francis, Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe, Niels Mogens Bodecker, A Year in Trees by JC Raulston and Kim Tripp, Calendarize Garden Chores, and the Night-blooming Cereus

The Daylilies are blooming their little hearts out right now. Daylilies are in the genus Hemerocallis which has about 15 species of daylilies. They are not part of the Lilium genus, which is the genus for true lilies. The name Hemerocallis comes from the Greek words ἡμέρα (Hemera) “day” and καλός (Kalos) “beautiful.” In China,…

Forrest Shreve

The Desert Botanist On this day in 1878, the American botanist Forrest Shreve was born. We owe such a debt of gratitude to Shreve. He was THE preeminent botanist of North American deserts during the first half of the Twentieth Century. Shreve worked out of a laboratory in Tucson, Arizona. The lab was ideally situated…

July 8, 2019 Herb Societies, Forrest Shreve, Eva Reed, Leonard Cockayne, Monty Don, National Meadows Day, Charles MacKay, Janice Emily Bowers, Stop Fertilizing, and Milk Sickness

Have you checked to see if there is an herb society near you? Herb societies offer gardeners what I call next-level understanding of plants. Aside from parsley, oregano, and thyme, you’ll probably be surprised by the sheer number of plants that fall into the herbal category; bronze fennel, red-veined sorrel, lovage, tansy, and sweet cicely.…

Kate Brandegee

The Walking Botanist The third woman to enroll at Berkeley’s medical school and the second woman to be professionally employed as a botanist in the US, the intrepid Kate Brandegee died on April 3, 1920. After getting her MD at Berkley, she found starting a practice too daunting. Thankfully, Kate’s passion for botany was ignited…

April 3, 2019 Garden Moods, John Burroughs, Kate Brandegee, Rebecca Salsbury Palfrey Utter, William Glassley, Magnifying Glass, Trilliums, and the Wake-Robin

As I was preparing for today’s show, I kept thinking about this quote from John Burrows: “… One’s own landscape comes in time to be a sort of outlying part of himself; he has sowed himself broadcast upon it, and it reflects his own moods and feelings; he is sensitive to the verge of the…