Jane Webb Loudon: The Sci-Fi Gardener Who Blossomed Through Adversity

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This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. August 19, 1807 My darling garden companions, today we celebrate the birth of a most extraordinary woman, Jane Webb, who would later marry that titan of horticultural literature, John Claudius Loudon. Oh, how I…

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August 19 National Potato Day, Jane Webb, Phlox from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Ellen Willmott, Willis Linn Jepson, Henderina Scott, Ogden Nash, Healing Herbs by Michael Castleman, Fall Herbs, and a Letter From Elizabeth Lawrence

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.

Today is National Potato Day. Here are some fun potato facts: The average American eats approximately 126 pounds of spuds each year. And, up until the 18th century, the French believed potatoes called leprosy. To combat the belief, the agronomist Antoine Auguste Parmentier became a one-man PR person for the potato. How did Parmentier get…

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