Carl Linnaeus Archives

January 21, 2020 The Winter Greenhouse, Ten Unusual Veggies to Grow, John Frémont, Robert Thornton, Dame Helen Gwynne-Vaughan, National Squirrel Appreciation Day, Snow Riddle, The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, Plastic Saucers, and Erwin Frink Smith

Today we celebrate a man known as “The Pathfinder” and the birthday of a man who impoverished himself writing a book in tribute to Carl Linnaeus. We’ll learn about the woman who was as passionate about botany as she was assisting with the war effort and today’s National Day that celebrates a garden creature. (Hint:…

January 7, 2020 Blue in the Garden for 2020, Paris in Bloom, George Clifford III, Mary Somerset, David Landreth, Ignatz Urban, January Rhymes, The Essential Earthman by Henry Clay Mitchell, S-Hooks, and Eliza Amy Hodgson

Today we celebrate the wealthy Dutch banker who bought enough plants to fill a book for a young Carl Linnaeus and a royal gardener who is an ancestor of Princess Diana. We’ll learn about the man who started the first seed company in America and the German botanist buried in the Botanical Garden he curated…

Carl Linnaeus

Father of Taxonomy Today Carl Linnaeus went a-courting. He briefly visited an 18-year-old woman named Sara Lisa Morraea in full Lapp costume. He returned the next day and spent the entire day with Sara Lisa and her family. By the end of the month, his friends were betting bottles of wine that there would be…

January 2, 2020 Amy Martin Woodland Garden Design, Louis Benech Normandy Retreat, Saint Adelard, Carl Linnaeus, Franscisco Marin, JG Lemmon, Rhodora, Minnie Aumonier, Leaf Supply by Lauren Camilleri & Sophia Kaplan, Tin Organizer, and the Discovery of the Winter Home of the Monarch

Today we celebrate the Feast Day of a gardener Abbott and an important day in the life of the Father of Taxonomy. We’ll learn about the man who planted the first pineapple in Hawaii on this day in 1813 and the botanist who shared a train with a President during his honeymoon to the Santa…

December 2, 2019 Plant Science Careers, Dirk Denison Home, Cheesy Acorn Squash, Johann Julius Hecker, James Edward Smith, John Lewis Russell, Ferdinand Lindheimer, Gardenlust by Christopher Woods, Gardeners Hand Cream, and December’s Birth Flower

Today we celebrate the German reformer who added the cultivation of Mulberries and silkworms as part of his schools and the man who started the Linnean Society. We’ll learn about the Salem Botanist, who was a friend of Thoreau and Emerson and the man known as the Father of Texas Botany. We’ll hear the poem…

November 21, 2019 Dancing with Bees, the Garden Works in Winter, Jan Gronovius, Albert Burrage, Harold Nicolson, A Potted History of Vegetables by Lorraine Harrison, Tchotchke Tidy Up, and the First Garden TV Show

Today we celebrate the botanist who named the very first plant for his mentor Carl Linnaeus, and we celebrate the 160th birthday of one of the country’s wealthiest orchidologists and the founder of the American Orchid Society. We’ll hear some garden poetry on leaves and November. We Grow That Garden Library with a book from one of…

Carl Linnaeus

The Father of Taxonomy Today is the anniversary of the death of Carl Linnaeus, who died on this day 1783. Thirty years earlier, on May 1st, 1753, the publication of his masterpiece Species Plantarumchanged plant taxonomy forever. It gave Linnaeus the moniker Father of Taxonomy; his naming system is called binomial nomenclature. Binomial means “two names”…

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…

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…

Botanist Carl Peter Thunberg’s Ingenious Method of Gathering Hydrangea Clippings in Japan

“Ever the clever end-rounder, Carl devised a strategy to obtain botanical samples: he bought a goat.” August 8, 1828 On this day, the botanist Carl Peter Thunberg, the father of South African botany, died. He was a student of Carl Linnaeus and worked as a botanist for the Dutch East India Company. After botanizing in…

June 12, 2019 The Most Fragrant Plants, Meriwether Lewis, Karl Freiherr von Drais, Edward Newman, the Michigan Botanical Club, Frank Nicholas Meyer, June Poetry, Carl Linnaeus, Joseph Banks, Patricia Fara, Perlite, and the Shady Acres Herb Farm

Fragrance in the garden… The most fragrant blossoms include: Cheddar pinks (a member of the carnation family) Lavender Peony Gardenia Honeysuckle Hyacinth Lilac Mock Orange Daphne Bee balm Brevities #OTD On this day, in 1805, Meriwether Lewis was just one day away from reaching the Great Falls of Missouri. He wrote his…

The Difference Between Humans and Animals

by Carl Linnaeus We have not the strength of the elephant, but our intelligence has tamed the strongest of them. We have not the speed of the hare, but our genius has learned to capture the speediest of them. We have not front feet to dig through the earth like the mole, but our minds…

Carl Linnaeus

The Father of Taxonomy It’s the birthday of Carl Linnaeus born on this day in 1707. It is said he liked flowers as a young child, and whenever he was upset, he was given a flower to soothe him. On May 1st, 1753, the publication of his masterpiece Species Plantarumchanged plant taxonomy forever. It gave Linnaeus…

May 23, 2019 Growing as a Gardener, Carl Linnaeus, the Centigrade thermometer, Commelina genus, Sjupp the Raccoon, the Hamburg Hydra, Linnaea borealis or Twinflower, August Strindberg, Planting Cannas, Martin Hoffman, and Linnaeus’ Lapland Costume

Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “But these young scholars… Love not the flower they pluck, and know it not, And all their botany is Latin names.” There is more to gardening than nomenclature, and more than nomenclature, there’s actually growing and knowing plants. Brevities #OTD It’s the birthday of Carl Linnaeus born…