Carl Peter Thunberg: The Botanical Spy Who Loved Plants

Carl Peter Thunberg thumbnail image

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. August 8, 1828 My darling green-thumbed companions, today marks the anniversary of when the esteemed botanist Carl Peter Thunberg departed this mortal garden in 1828, leaving behind a legacy as verdant and sprawling…

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Swedish Botanist Carl Linneaus and his Lapland Costume

Museum Boerhaave Martin Hoffman Linnaeus in his Lapponian costume with flower Linnaea borealis in a 1737 painting.

“Through it all, Carl fell in love with the Lapland, and his main souvenir was a traditional Lapland costume complete with a magical drum.” May 23, 1707 On this day, the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus was born. When Carl was 25 years old, he set out to explore the Lapland.   Carl spent nearly six…

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Serpentine Paths and Magnolia Dreams: The Life of Alexander Garden

Georg Dionysius Ehret "Gardenia Florida" (1759) in Plantae et Papiliones Rariores p. 1748.

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. April 15, 1791 On this day, the ever-so-clever Alexander Garden of Charleston, South Carolina, drew his final breath at the age of 61, succumbing to the ravages of tuberculosis. A man whose correspondence…

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