California Archives

November 20 Horticultural Fleece, School Horticulture Clubs, John Merle Coulter, Penelope Hobhouse, Lespedeza, August Henry Kramer, No-Waste Kitchen Gardening by Katie Elzer-Peters, Holiday Planters, and the Smallest Rose Park

Today we celebrate the botanist who started the Botanical Gazette back in 1875 and the incredibly down-to-earth yet inspiring garden designer and writer who turns 90 years old today. We’ll learn about the naming error based on the name of an early Governor of Florida and the almost 500 watercolors by a St. Louis botanist…

Howard Scott Gentry

Agaves of Continental North America On this day in 1982, the newspaper shared a great story about the author of “Agaves of Continental North America,” Howard Scott Gentry. “This elder statesman of the botanical world [is] a first-class charmer when you get …. to his subject;… his love for the wilds of Sonora and Chihuahua,…

November 13, 2019 Coleus Cuttings, Air Plants, Make a Christmas Seedhead Wreath, Robert Louis Stevenson, Frederick Lueders, Chrysanthemum Show, Howard Scott Gentry, Square Foot Gardening 3rd Edition, Houseplant Spa Day, and Bedding Plants as Wealth Indicators

Today we celebrate the writer who dedicated his book called A Child’s Garden of Verses to his childhood nurse and the German botanist who lost all of his work in the Columbia River. We’ll learn about the big chrysanthemum show of 1916 in our Nation’s capital and the botanist who was one with Agaves. We’ll…

Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz

Eschscholzia California Today is the birthday of Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz, who was born on this day in 1793. When the German poet Adelbert van Chamiso ended up in the San Francisco Bay area, and he wrote about the California poppy, which he named Eschscholzia California after his friend Johann Friedrich Von Eschscholz. In return, Eschscholz named…

November 12, 2019 Gardening Zodiac Signs, Stolen Compost, Australia’s Most Popular Indoor Plant, The Savill Garden Sculptures, Bougainville, Eschscholtz, Arthur Shurcliff, Orchids, Pedro Dot, Herbal Tea Gardens by Marietta Marshall Marcin, Forcing Bulbs, and Mavis Batey

Today we celebrate the French admiral and explorer who had a female botanist posing as a male valet on his voyage. We’ll learn about the botanist who is remembered by the State Flower of California and the Landscape Architect, who restored the entire Landscape of Colonial Williamsburg. We’ll learn about the Spanish rose breeder who…

Willis Linn Jepson

The Botany Man Today is the anniversary of the death of The Botany Man Willis Linn Jepson, who died on this day in 1946. Carved on his tombstone are the following words: “Profound Scholar, Inspiring Teacher, Indefatigable Botanical Explorer, … In the ordered beauty of nature, he found enduring communion.” When Jepson was 25, he…

November 7, 2019 An Ingenious Compost Bin, Hedge Planting Advice, Six Hardy Annuals to Sow Now, Winter’s Day, Warren Manning, Willis Linn Jepson, Irvin Williams, Ruth Pitter, Thoreau, Onward and Upward in the Garden by Katherine White, Outdoor Rugs, and Norman Taylor

Today we celebrate the Landscape Architect, who left a mark on over 50 towns in the United States. We’ll learn about The Botany Man, who helped start The Sierra Club. We’ll hear beautiful words about the mists of November from two of the world’s best nature writers. We Grow That Garden Library with the book written by…

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.…

November 1, 2019 National Fig Week, November Garden Treasures, What to do with your Pumpkins, Carl Linnaeus, Charles Eliot, John Lindley, Russell Page, The Gardens of Russell Page by Gabrielle Zulen, Dahlias, and a Story from Halesworth

Today we celebrate the botanist who is considered the Father of Taxonomy and the young Landscape Architect who learned by taking weekly walking tours of gardens. We’ll learn about the botanist who saved Kew Garden and the most famous garden designer you’ve never heard of We’ll listen to a little garden folklore for November and…

Alice Eastwood

A Curator of Botany Today is the anniversary of the death of the Canadian American self-taught botanist Alice Eastwood who died on this day in 1953. Eastwood is remembered for saving almost 1500 specimens from a burning building following the San Francisco earthquake in 1906. Afterward, she wrote about the specimens that didn’t make it:…

October 30, 2019 Aging Gardeners, Healthy Food, Piet Oudolf, Alfred Sisley, George Plummer Burns, Cherry Ingram, Alice Eastwood, A Song of October, She Sheds Style by Erika Kotite, Leaf Compost Bin, and Elizabeth Lawrence

Today we celebrate the impressionist Landscape painter who included kitchen gardens as a subject and the botanist who gave a speech in 1916 about his four rules of home landscaping. We’ll learn about the English botanist who saved many varieties of Japanese cherry from extinction and the botanist who braved the destruction of the 1906…

Delayed Gratification: Pursuing Botany in Retirement

“Seeing that Flora made him realize that his time to pursue botany had come. George quickly made up for lost time and collected in every direction.” October 3, 1910 On this day, the botanist George Dexter Butler died. George was born in 1850 in Grundy County, Illinois. He grew up in Iowa. Like many, he…

Remembering California Botanist Helen Sharsmith and a Glimpse of her Children’s Botanical Namesakes

“Helen’s husband named a stickseed after her called Hackelia Sharsmithii. It’s a pretty little endangered herb in the borage family.” August 26, 1905 On this day, the biologist Helen Sharsmith was born. A native Californian, Helen and her husband received doctorates from the University of California, Berkeley. Helen’s dissertation, The Flora of the Mount Hamilton…