Canadian literature Archives

A Gentle Voice from the Garden: Elizabeth Roberts MacDonald

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. November 8, 1922 On this day, as the last mountain ash berries gleam against pewter skies, we remember Elizabeth Roberts MacDonald, whose poetic voice still echoes through the gardens of Maritime Canada. Today…

Anne of Green Gables and the Author’s Green Haven

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. November 30, 1874 On this day in literary and horticultural history, Lucy Maud Montgomery, the beloved Canadian author of the Anne of Green Gables series, entered the world on Prince Edward Island. Her…

Margaret Atwood: The Poet Laureate of Earth and Leaf

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. November 18, 1939 On this day, the literary world welcomed a true force of nature – Margaret Atwood, a woman whose words would bloom as profusely and provocatively as the most audacious of…

Catharine Parr Traill: Pioneer English-Canadian Writer and Botanical Illustrator

Canada and Cardinal Flowers Today is the birthday of the Canadian-English writer and botanical illustrator Catherine Parr Traill – she was such an amazing woman. When Catherine was 30 years old, she was newly married, and she immigrated with her husband to Canada. Her family wasn’t thrilled about any of it. They didn’t approve of…

The Scarlet of Maples: Bliss Carman’s autumn vision in verse

A Japanese Red Maple tree, also known as Acer palmatum.

by Bliss Carman The scarlet of maples can shake me like a cry Of bugles going by. And my lonely spirit thrills to see the frosty asters like smoke upon the hills. Today’s Garden words were featured on the podcast: Words inspired by the garden are the sweetest, most beautiful words of all. William Bliss…

Mary Hiester Reid: Roses, Wychwood, and the Painter’s Immortal Crown

by Duncan Sutherland Macorquodale This is a memorial poem for Mary Hiester Ried written by Canadian newspaperman and a native son of Scotland, Duncan Sutherland Macorquodale – reprinted in the 9th Volume of The Canadian Theosophist (Toronto) November 15, 1921, Vol 9. There’s a reference to Wychwood, Reid’s house, known as Upland Cottage. Wychwood is…