Martinus Beijerinck Archives

Martinus Beijerinck

A Vision of Viruses March 16, 1851 And today is the birthday of the Dutch microbiologist and botanist Martinus Beijerinck (“By-a-rink”). Now Martinus was a very smart man – a very brilliant botanist – and he was searching for the reason that tobacco plants were dying. And to do his research, Martin ground up some…

March 16, 2021 Rewilding Your Land, Anna Atkins, Martinus Beijerinck (“By-a-rink”), Constance Spry during WWII, Garden Design Master Class by Carl Dellatore, and the Legend of the Trailing Arbutus

Today we celebrate a woman who made botanical art through her pioneering photography. We’ll also learn about a man who discovered something new and gave it a name that we are all too familiar with today: the virus. We hear an excerpt from a book about one of the world’s top floral designers and gardeners…

Martinus Beijerinck

Flu Discovery Today is the anniversary of the death of the botanist Martinus Beijerinck (pronounced “by-a-rink”). Beijerinck searched for the reason tobacco plants were dying. In his research, Beijerinck ground up some diseased tobacco leaves and then pressed the juices through a bacteria filter. He was utterly shocked when the filtered, bacteria-free liquid still spread…

January 1, 2020 Mistletoe, New Plant Finds, Thomas Moore, Cythna Letty, Martinus Beijerinck, Sir Edwin Lutyens, Potted and Pruned: Living a Gardening Life by Carol J. Michel, Garden Mattock by Raw Tools, and the Kent Mango

Today we celebrate the Chelsea Physic Garden Curator who was partly responsible for the British Fern Craze and the botanical illustrator whose art ended up on South African currency. We’ll learn about the man who discovered the virus researching tobacco plants and the English architect who partnered with Gertrude Jekyll to design Country Estates. Today’s…

October 25, 2019 Gardening for Mental Health, Supporting Farmer’s Markets, Bertrand de Molleville, Odoardo Beccari, Martinus Beijerinck, Bernard Verdcourt, Bliss Cameron, Flowers in the Kitchen by Susan Belsinger, Garden Collections, and Thoughts on Autumn by William Taylor

Today we celebrate the Frenchman who designed the very first secateurs or pruners and the Italian orphan who grew up to discover the corpse flower. We’ll learn about the Dutch botanist who was trying to figure out what was going on with his tobacco plants and made a significant discovery for science. We’ll hear the…