Posts Tagged ‘famous gardeners’
January 20, 2026 Henry Danvers, Thomas Serle Jerrold, Eliot Wadsworth II, The Winter Garden by Richard Rosenfeld, and Napoleon Bonaparte
Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Patreon Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Today’s Show Notes In the garden, January is a month of plans more than action. Seed catalogs pile up. Lists are made. Dreams are revised. It…
Read MoreA Most Unlikely Garden Drama: Bunny Mellon, Magnolias, and the Day a Shovel Nearly Disrupted the Free World
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. March 31, 1962 Dearest garden lovers, today’s tale is proof that even the most tranquil plot can play host to history’s grandest dramas. On this day, a landscape worker hit a line connecting…
Read MoreJohn Ruskin’s Garden Wisdom: Beauty, Weeds, and the Lessons of Nature
“Nature is Painting” February 8, 1819 Today is the birthday of the leading Victorian-era English art critic, watercolorist, thinker, and philanthropist John Ruskin. John is responsible for some beautiful thoughts and quotes about the natural world. With regard to gardening, John wrote: “The highest reward for man’s toil is not what he gets for it,…
Read MoreLouise du Pont Crowninshield: The Last du Pont of Winterthur and a Champion of Preservation
The Last du Pont at Winterthur Today is the birthday of Louise du Pont Crowninshield, who was born on this day. Louise spent her life working on projects related to ecological preservation, charity, and horticulture. Aside from her philanthropic efforts, Louise is remembered as the last du Pont to live in the residence at Winterthur…
Read MoreGeorge Bernard Shaw: The Playwright Who Found God and Hope in the Garden
Shaw’s Corner Today is the birthday of the Irish playwright and critic George Bernard Shaw. In 1906, when he was 50 years old, George and his wife Charlotte bought an ivy-covered brick country house set on almost four acres of land that ultimately became known as Shaw’s Corner in Ayot St Lawrence. For over four…
Read MoreThe Rooftop Visionary: Ralph Hancock and the Garden of Nations at Rockefeller Center
Garden-maker Extraordinaire The Welsh landscape gardener, architect, and author, Ralph Hancock, was born. Hancock was a garden-maker extraordinaire, and he created several famous Gardens across Wales, England, and the United States. One of his most famous works was the rooftop garden at the Rockefeller Center in New York. Hancock designed his rooftop garden in 1934…
Read MoreThe Master of Landscapes: Remembering Capability Brown’s Enduring Gardens
Lady Nature’s Second Husband Today is the anniversary of the death of the renowned landscape gardener Lancelot Capability Brown. In the 1730s, Lancelot ended up at Stowe, working for the great William Kent – the eminent painter and Landscape Architect. The garden at Stowe was a landscape garden with lots of straight lines and formality.…
Read MoreHorace Hagedorn: The Miracle-Gro Founder Who Fed Gardens and Gave Back
Founder of Miracle-Gro Today is the anniversary of the death of the founder of Miracle-Gro plant food Horace Hagedorn. Every year on November 15th, the Horace Hagedorn outstanding philanthropy award is given out on philanthropy day. Horace was a marketing genius and a philanthropist. A resident of Port Washington, Long Island, Horace and his wife…
Read MoreThe Birth of a Kernel King: Orville Redenbacher’s Garden-to-Greatness Story
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. July 16, 1907 On this day, dear garden friend, the world welcomed one Orville Redenbacher—a name that would eventually pop into every American household with the regularity of his famous kernels. Born to…
Read MoreMonty Don: Celebrating a Year of Japanese Garden Journeys
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. July 8, 2019 On this day, we toast the illustrious Monty Don on his natal anniversary! One cannot help but wonder if the flowers in his garden stand a touch taller today, as…
Read MoreThe Secret Garden of George Orwell
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. June 25, 1903 On this day, the incomparable George Orwell made his entrance into our world – a man whose pen would later carve truths into the collective consciousness of society with such…
Read MoreJudy Garland’s Hibiscus Gift to Gorgeous George: When Hollywood Met Wrestling in the Garden
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. June 10, 1922 On this day, the illustrious Frances Ethel Gumm—later known to the adoring masses as Judy Garland—drew her first breath in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, a quaint hamlet situated approximately 165 miles…
Read MoreLiterary Hands in Garden Soil: Virginia Woolf’s “Pure Joy”
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. May 31, 1920 On this day, dear readers, while society’s attention was undoubtedly scattered among the frivolities of late spring, Virginia Woolf found herself engaged in that most noble and grounding of pursuits—gardening.…
Read MoreElementary, My Dear Gardeners: Conan Doyle’s Horticultural Life
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. May 22, 1859 On this day, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle entered our world with the same mysterious flair that would later characterize his most famous creation. Dear readers, one cannot help but note…
Read More