Defiant Gardens: The Resilient Beauty of Japanese Internment Camp Gardens

Charles Kikuchi with daughter, c. 1950, New York

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. May 3, 1942 At the Tanforan Assembly Center, a converted racetrack south of San Francisco, Charles Kikuchi put pen to paper in his journal. “These industrious Japanese!” he marveled. “They just don’t seem…

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Horace Walpole: The Gothic Gardener of Strawberry Hill

Horace Walpole by Sir Joshua Reynolds c. 1756.

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. September 23, 1717 My dearest garden enthusiasts, on this day we celebrate the birth of Horace Walpole, a man who not only gave us the word ‘serendipity’ but whose “enchanted little landscape” would…

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Phocas the Gardener: Saint of Soil and Soul

Phocas the Gardener of Sinope

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. September 22, 1872 My dear garden friends, on this most poignant of feast days, we pause to remember Phocas the Gardener, whose story reminds us that our gardens can be vessels for the…

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The Humboldt Botanical Garden: How Volunteers Grew a California Treasure

The Humboldt Botanical Gardens, located near Eureka, California.

Botanical Education The Humboldt Botanical Garden was incorporated in the State of California. Organized by a small group of volunteers, the goal was to create an educational botanical garden for the Northern California region. The Humboldt Botanical Gardens are constructed on a 44.5 -acre site south of Eureka near the Humboldt Bay adjacent to the…

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Bernadette Cozart: The Woman Who Planted Hope in Harlem

Bernadette Cozart

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. May 17, 2024 On this day, dear fellow cultivators of beauty, we celebrate the birth of a true revolutionary in the world of urban gardening. Bernadette Cozart, born in 1949, was not content…

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