Horace Walpole Archives

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

The Daily Gardener Podcast Album Cover with a pot of rosemary - the herb for remembrance - beckoning gardeners to remember to listen to the show. Updated September 2025.

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 to his dear friend John Chute Esquire about the ferocious heat wave sweeping across Europe.…

The Sweltering Summer of ’57: Horace Walpole’s Garden Woes

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. July 10, 1757 On this day, dear readers, we find ourselves transported to a time of sweltering heat and wilting gardens. The year is 1757, and the esteemed Horace Walpole, that prolific letter…

July 11, 2022 Horace Walpole, Dorothy Thompson, Oliver Sacks, India’s First Cryptogamic Garden, Botany for the Artist by Sarah Simblet, and Mary Russell Mitford

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 1788 On this day, Horace Walpole wrote about the powerful impact of rain on the garden. Ever the sharp observer of English…

Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill: Rainy Reflections from an 18th-Century Garden

Strawberry Hill House 18th century watercolour by Paul Sandby.

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. July 11, 1788 On this day, dear readers, we find ourselves transported to the lush gardens of Horace Walpole, that witty chronicler of 18th-century life and letters. As we meander through his verdant…

May 26, 2022 Sébastien Vaillant, Horace Walpole, Thomas Jefferson, Kate Lancaster Brewster, The Thoughtful Gardener by Jinny Blom, and Edgar Fawcett

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 1669 Birth of Sébastien Vaillant (“Vy-yaw”), the French botanist who boldly demonstrated that plants reproduce sexually. His lectures in Paris—often laced with…

A Night at Ranelagh: Horace Walpole’s Garden Escapade

Horace Walpole by John Giles Eccardt c. 1755.

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. May 26, 1742 On this day, dear readers, we find ourselves transported to the world of 18th century London, where the illustrious Horace Walpole penned a most intriguing letter to his friend Horace…

September 23, 2021 Small Flowering Shrubs, Horace Walpole, Mary Coleridge, Dayton University Botanical Park, the National Nlower, Alice Hoffman, Will Bonsall, and Edgar Lee Masters

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…