Joel Roberts Poinsett Archives

Joel Roberts Poinsett

The Painted Leaf March 2, 1779 Today is the birthday of the physician, botanist, and American statesman, Joel Roberts Poinsett. In the 1820s, President John Quincy Adams appointed Joel to serve as a US ambassador in Mexico. Joel was introduced to a beautiful plant that the Aztecs called the cuetlaxochitl (“qwet-la-SHO-chee-til”) but today it’s better…

March 2, 2021 Gardens Matter to Pollinators, Joel Roberts Poinsett, John Jacob Mauerer, A Spring Flower Show, Fermented Vegetables by Kirsten and Christopher Shockey and the State Flower of Idaho

Today we celebrate the man who went to Mexico as an ambassador and sent back the plant that became synonymous with Christmas. We’ll also learn about a gardener who worked for 50 years to create one of England’s top gardens. We hear a charming account of spring’s flower show. We Grow That Garden Library™ with…

December 2, 2019 Plant Science Careers, Dirk Denison Home, Cheesy Acorn Squash, Johann Julius Hecker, James Edward Smith, John Lewis Russell, Ferdinand Lindheimer, Gardenlust by Christopher Woods, Gardeners Hand Cream, and December’s Birth Flower

Today we celebrate the German reformer who added the cultivation of Mulberries and silkworms as part of his schools and the man who started the Linnean Society. We’ll learn about the Salem Botanist, who was a friend of Thoreau and Emerson and the man known as the Father of Texas Botany. We’ll hear the poem…

Six Popular Plants Named for Famous People and Botanists

“Leonard Fuchs, a German botanist, discovered the plant known as fuchsia, while William Forsyth, a Scotch botanist, is responsible for the name forsythia.” August 1, 1950 On this day, The Ithaca Journal, out of Ithaca, New York, published a question from a reader. The reader wanted an answer to this question: Please list a few…