Gentle Julia: The Adventurous Life of Julia Wilmotte Henshaw

Julia Wilmotte Henshaw

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. November 19, 1937 On this day, Julia Wilmotte [will-MOT] Henshaw, Canadian botanist, geographer, writer, and political activist, died. Her remarkable life reads like an adventure novel – from mapping Vancouver Island’s interior to…

Read More

Archibald Menzies’ Santa Barbara Sojourn: A Botanical Milestone

Archibald Menzies

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. November 18, 1793 On this day, Archibald Menzies (MEN-zeez), the Scottish surgeon-botanist, reluctantly departed Santa Barbara aboard the HMS Discovery during Vancouver’s expedition. Menzies had spent several productive days exploring the Santa Barbara…

Read More

Therese of Bavaria: The Princess Who Found Freedom in Flowers

Princess Therese of Bavaria (sketch is colorized & enhanced), 1810

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. November 12, 1850 On this day, Princess Therese of Bavaria (teh-RAY-zuh of buh-VAIR-ee-uh), was born.  This remarkable woman found her true calling not in the gilded halls of Bavaria’s royal palaces but in…

Read More

The Lady of Lucy’s Wood – Evelyn Mary Booth

Evelyn Wood in Lucy's Wood, photo credit Lady Rosemary FitzGerald

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. October 30, 1897 On this day, Evelyn Mary Booth was born at Annamoe [AN-ah-moh], County Wicklow, Ireland. Her story is a beautiful reminder that it’s never too late to find your true calling…

Read More

A Flora of Concord from Thoreau’s Time to the Present Day

A Flora of Concord by Richard Jefferson Eaton

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. October 29, 1972 On this day, The Berkshire Eagle published a revealing article about Henry David Thoreau [pronounced: THOR-oh] titled “Thoreau: The Amateur Botanist.” The piece, penned by Wayne Hanley, drew heavily from…

Read More

October 25, 2024 Patrick Neill, Joseph Hetherington McDaniels, Tyge Wittrock Bocher, The Healing Garden by Juliet Blankespoor, and A Tale of Two Postmen Turned Accidental Alpine Plant Merchants

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee  Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter |  Daily Gardener Community Botanical History On This Day 1776 Patrick Neill, British printer and horticulturalist, is born. 1840 Joseph Hetherington McDaniels, Classical Scholar, is born.  1909 Tyge Wittrock Böcher [TEE-guh VIT-rock…

Read More

The Arctic Gardener: Tyge Böcher’s Frozen Paradise

Professor W. Tyge Böcher in the arctic greenhouse in Copenhagen (colorized) by H. Elsted Jensen, 1981

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. October 25, 1909 Now, dear friends, let us venture north to where the arctic winds whisper tales of an extraordinary botanist born on this day. Tyge Wittrock Böcher [TEE-guh VIT-rock BER-ker] was no…

Read More

The Tree That Kept Time: Ludwig Leichhardt’s Last Garden

Ludwig Leichhardt

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. October 23, 1813 It was on this day in 1813, as autumn leaves were turning in Prussia, that Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt was born. And oh, what a reminder his story is of…

Read More

Hesperochiron and Beyond: Sereno Watson’s Botanical Legacy

Sereno Watson

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. December 1, 1826 On this day in botanical history, the world welcomed Sereno Watson, a luminary whose passion for plants would forever change the landscape of American botany. Born into a world yet…

Read More

From Heartbreak to Herbarium: The Extraordinary Life of Georgiana Molloy

Georgiana Molloy, medium closeup

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. May 23, 1843 On this day, we celebrate the birth of Georgiana Molloy (books about this person), an English-Australian pioneer and one of the first botanical collectors in Western Australia. Her life, dear…

Read More

The Solitary Botanist: Mary Sophie Young’s Texas Legacy

Mary Sophie Young, botanist, on a summer collecting trip in West Texas. Image courtesy of University of Texas at Austin

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. September 20, 1872 Dearest garden enthusiasts, today we celebrate the birth of Mary Sophie Young, a tenacious botanist who, like her seven older brothers taught her to be, was tough enough to brave…

Read More

Mountains of Wonder: Patrick Synge’s Botanical Adventures

Patrick Synge's tombstone

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. September 17, 1910 Dearest garden enthusiasts, today we celebrate the birth of Patrick Millington Synge, a British botanist whose adventures in African plant hunting and subsequent leadership at the Royal Horticultural Society would…

Read More

The Plant Hunter’s Tale: Engelbert Kaempfer’s Botanical Legacy

Engelbert Kaempfer

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. September 16, 1651 My dearest garden enthusiasts, on this most remarkable day, we turn our attention to a true pioneer of botanical exploration, whose legacy blooms eternal in gardens across the globe. On…

Read More

From Moss to Malaria: Richard Spruce’s Amazonian Adventures

Richard Spruce

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. October 21, 2024 On this day in 1817, we celebrate the birth of Richard Spruce, a botanical adventurer whose passion for the diminutive wonders of the plant world would forever change our understanding…

Read More