July Archives

Five Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie, 1573

by Thomas Tusser In January, for example, the housewife should be busy planting peas and beans and setting young rose roots. During March and April she will work ‘from morning to night, sowing and setting her garden or plot’, to produce the crops of parsnips, beans, and melons which will ‘winnest the heart of a…

Jeanne Baret

Bougainvillea Today is the birthday of the explorer and botanist Jeanne Baret. Jeanne was the first woman to have circumnavigated the globe as part of the expedition, which was led by Louis Antoine de Bougainville. Beret was able to join the expedition after posing as a valet to the expedition’s naturalist: Philibert Commerçon. Before the…

Horatio Hollis Hunnewell

The Lake Waban Horticulturalist Today is the birthday of one of America’s most prominent horticulturalists – Horatio Hollis Hunnewell. Horatio was staggeringly wealthy. He was a railroad financier. But he also had a lifelong love of nature and gardening. When Horatio purchased over 40 acres of land along the eastern and southern shores of Lake…

Benjamin Lincoln Robinson

Harvard Botanist Today is the anniversary of the death of the botanist Benjamin Lincoln Robinson. In 1892, Benjamin was appointed the curator of the Asa Gray Herbarium at Harvard. When Benjamin took over, both the herbarium and the library were in dire straits. Benjamin brought in funding and expanded the herbarium. Today, the Gray Herbarium…

Hewett Cottrell Watson

The Father of British Plant Geography Today is the anniversary of the death of the botanist and the father of British plant geography Hewett Cottrell Watson. In recognition of his significant contributions, the botanical society of the British Isles named their journal Watsonia. Beginning in 1834, Hewett was one of the first botanists to research…

Reverend William T. Hutchins

All About Sweet Peas On this day, a photo of the horticulturist and Reverend William T. Hutchins of Indian Orchard, Massachusetts, appeared in the Springfield Republican. William is remembered for his book called “All About Sweet Peas,” published in 1892 by the Burpee Seed Company. Five years later, William wrote another book for Burpee called…

One Fine October Morning

by Anonymous One fine October morning In September, last July The sun lay thick upon the ground The snow shone in the sky The flowers were singing gaily The birds were full in bloom So I went down to the cellar To clean the upstairs room — Anonymous As featured onThe Daily Gardener podcast: Words…

Botany

by Berton Braley There should be no monotony In studying your botany; It helps to train And spur the brain– Unless you haven’t gotany. It teaches you, does Botany, To know the plants and spotany, And learn just why They live or die– In case you plant or potany. You learn, from reading…

Celebrating Winthrop Mackworth Praed: the Clever English Writer, Nature Lover, and Gardener

“Winthrop’s home had a fine grove. He had an orangery and beautiful grounds overlooking a harbor. Winthrop tragically died at 37 from tuberculosis.” July 26, 1802 On this day, Winthrop Mackworth Praed, an English writer and politician, was born. Winthrop wrote, I remember, I remember how my childhood fleeted by. The mirth of its…

George Bernard Shaw

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…

Aven Nelson

The Father of Wyoming Botany Today is the 121st anniversary of the 14-week botanical expedition through Yellowstone led by the botanist Aven Nelson. Aven had hired a student named Leslie Gooding to be the chore boy for $10 per month. The group assembled at the University of Wyoming, where Nelsen was a new teacher. Leslie…

Roland Hallet Shumway

The Shumway Seed Today is the birthday of a pioneering seedsman out of Rockford, Illinois, Roland Hallet Shumway – who always went by his initials R.H. The RH Shumway Seed Company became the world’s largest mail-order seed company; their “Marketmore” seeds are especially popular. Famous Shumway Seed customers included Bing Crosby and Perry Como. When…

July Folklore

by Anonymous Never trust a July sky. Never trust the sky in the month of July. As July, so next January. If the 1st of July be rainy weather, it will rain more or less for three weeks together. If ant hills are high in July, the coming winter will be hard. Whatever July and…

Elizabeth Lawrence

Campanula Seeds 1946 On this day Elizabeth Lawrence wrote to her sister: Dear Ann, I am going to send you, as soon as they are ripe, some seeds of Campanula americana, which came to me from one of my delightful farm women correspondents. I asked Mr. Krippendorf if he knew it, and he said yes,…