October 29, 2024 A Gardener’s Late October Checklist, Charles Wright, Thoreau the Botanist, A Home in Bloom by Christie Purifoy, and USDA Pioneer Effie Southworth

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee  Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter |  Daily Gardener Community Botanical History On This Day 1811 Texas botanist Charles Wright is born on this day in Wethersfield, Connecticut. 1972 The Berkshire Eagle published a revealing article about Henry David…

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A Flora of Concord from Thoreau’s Time to the Present Day

A Flora of Concord by Richard Jefferson Eaton

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. October 29, 1972 On this day, The Berkshire Eagle published a revealing article about Henry David Thoreau [pronounced: THOR-oh] titled “Thoreau: The Amateur Botanist.” The piece, penned by Wayne Hanley, drew heavily from…

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The Patience of Spring: Lessons from Emerson’s May Day

Ralph Waldo Emerson

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. May 1, 1867 On this day, Ralph Waldo Emerson, the sage of Concord, inscribed a copy of his book, May Day, to Sophie Thoreau, the devoted sister of Henry David Thoreau. This gesture,…

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October 4, 2022 Henry David Thoreau, Mary Hiester Reid, the Dahlia, Kerry Mousetail Fern, Amish Friends 4 Seasons Cookbook by Wanda Brunstetter, and Dorothy Frances Blomfield Gurney

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Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee  Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter |  Daily Gardener Community Botanical History On This Day 1852 On this day, Henry David Thoreau writes in his journal. 1921 Death of Mary Hiester Reid (books about this person), American-born…

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From Maples to Mouse-Ears: Thoreau’s October Observations

Henry David Thoreau 1856 (colorized and enhanced)

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. October 8, 1852 On this day, dear readers, we find ourselves transported to the tranquil shores of Walden Pond, where that most astute observer of nature, Henry David Thoreau, put pen to paper…

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July 12, 2022 Horace Walpole, Henry David Thoreau, Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Buckminster Fuller, The Manual of Plant Grafting by Peter MacDonald, and Hugh Johnson

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Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee  Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter |  Daily Gardener Community Botanical History On This Day 1757 On this day, Horace Walpole wrote a letter to his friend John Chute Esquire about the heat wave coursing through Europe.…

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Cultivating Wisdom: Thoreau’s Lessons for the Modern Gardener

Henry David Thoreau 1856 (colorized and enhanced)

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode.   July 12, 1817 On this day, dear readers, we celebrate the birth of a most remarkable individual, one Henry David Thoreau. A man of letters, a philosopher of nature, and dare I…

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February 23, 2022 William Chambers, Henry David Thoreau, John Lewis Russell, Seasons at Highclere by The Countess of Carnarvon, and Georges Bugnet

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Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart   Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee   Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community   Botanical History 1723 Birth of Sir William Chambers (books about this person), Swedish-Scottish architect, based in London.  William designed Somerset House on the Strand…

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Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau

Maple Trees and Warm Places March 22, 1856 Today Henry David Thoreau writes about spring and flowing sap in Maple trees in his journal. He also writes about microclimates – he calls them “warm places.” “Part of the White Maples now begin to flow, some perhaps two or three days. Probably in equally warm positions,…

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The Skunk Cabbage

The Skunk Cabbage

by Jack Sanders In much of North America, skunk cabbage has earned the widespread reputation as the first flower of spring. It might be more accurate, however, to call it the first flower of winter. “The skunk cabbage may be found with its round green spear-point an inch or two above the mold in December,”…

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January 27 2021 Predicting the New Year’s 2021 Garden Trends, Lewis Carroll, Terramycin, Skunk Cabbage, Botanical Baking by Juliet Sear, and the Surprise in a Botanist’s Garden: Running Buffalo Clover

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Today we celebrate the writer inspired by the Oxford Botanic Garden – a place he saw every day. We’ll also learn about medicine with roots in the soil in Indiana. We’ll hear a lovely excerpt about a harbinger of spring: Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) We Grow That Garden Library™ with a fantastic book about botanical…

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Gardens in Winter by Elizabeth Lawrence

Gardens in Winter by Elizabeth Lawrence

by Katharine S. White I have had to enjoy the winter garden vicariously, with the help of books. The best for this purpose I’ve found is Elizabeth Lawrence’s new one. Gardens in Winter (Harper), which has allowed me to share the delights of the author’s garden in Charlotte, North Carolina, as well as the gardens and woods…

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Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau

Lesser Redpolls December 11, 1855 On this day, Henry David Thoreau wrote about walking through a spruce swamp and stumbling on a flock of Lesser Redpolls (“Red-Poles”). These little birds are some of the smallest in the finch family. Lesser Redpolls are small and brown with red foreheads. If you’ve ever stumbled on a flock…

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December 11, 2020 Brazil’s Deforestation Surges, Jacob Schneck, Henry David Thoreau, Victor Lemoine, Edgar Albert Guest, Growing Perennial Foods by Acadia Tucker and Krishna Chavda, and Fiorello LaGuardia

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Today we celebrate the Indiana botanist remembered in a particular species of Red Oak (Quercus rubra). We’ll also learn about the Red-Pole – one of the smallest birds in the finch family. We’ll recognize the French flower breeder remembered for his work with the Lilac (Syringa vulgaris). We hear a poem about the Winter garden…

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