Meriwether Lewis Archives

May 2, 2023 John Cabot, Leonardo da Vinci, Meriwether Lewis, John Abercrombie, Thomas Hanbury, Hulda Klager, A Gardener’s Guide to Botany by Scott Zona, and Novalis

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.

The Newfoundland and the New Frontier: Seaman’s Tale

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. May 2, 1803 On this verdant day, the United States, a fledgling nation, expanded its borders significantly when Napoleon ceded the vast Louisiana Territory to the Americans for a mere pittance. A botanist’s…

May 9, 2022 Henri Cassini, Meriwether Lewis, James Matthew Barrie, Sophie Scholl, Patina Living by Steve Giannetti and Brooke Giannetti, and Charles Simic

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Botanical History On This Day 2009 National Public Gardens Week was launched. Running May 6–15, the celebration invites us to visit, value, and volunteer at public gardens…

A Gentlemanly Return: Lewis and Clark’s Botanical Borrowed Treasure

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. May 9, 1807 On this day, dear horticultural enthusiasts, we find ourselves not in a lush garden, but rather in the realm of literary adventures and botanical explorations. For it was on this…

December 7, 2020 Edward Tuckerman, William Saunders, Phipps Conservatory, Henry Rowland-Brown, The Art of the Garden by Relais & Châteaux North America and Willa Cather

Meriwether Lewis and the Discovery of the Snowberry

Shoshone to Snowberries Today Meriwether Lewis discovered the Snowberry or Symphoricarpos albus. I love the story of how Lewis came across the Snowberry. Meriwether was really looking for the Shoshone Indians, but he found the Snowberry instead. Meriwether wrote in his journal that he discovered something like a small honeysuckle, except that it was bearing…

August 13, 2020 The 10 Berries Birds Love, Peter Kalm, the Snowberry, Edward von Regal, Benedict Roezl, John Gould Vietch, Richard Willstätter, August by Maggie Grant, Not Your Mama’s Canning Book by Rebecca Lindamood, and Albert Ruth’s Twinflower

February 10, 2020 Midwinter Trees, Plant Health Resolutions, Jan Gronovius, Benjamin Smith Barton, Winifred Mary Letts, Jack Heslop-Harrison, Snow Poems, A Land Remembered by Patrick D Smith, Wood Markers, and Laura Ingalls Wilder

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Curated News Alan Titchmarsh: The stunning midwinter trees whose bark is better than their bite – Country Life Here’s a great post by Alan Titchmarsh in Country…

Meriwether Lewis and the Douglas-fir: Early Discovery and Botanical Legacy

The Douglas-Fir Today Meriwether Lewis described a tree he referred to in his journal as “Fir No. 5.” The tree in question was the Douglas-fir. Later, on February 9, Lewis added more details about the fir and sketched the distinctive bract of the cone in his journal. On their way back across the northern Rocky…

February 5, 2020 Growing Turnips, Piet Blanckaert Terrace Garden, John Lindley, Meriwether Lewis, Friedrich Welwitsch, the New England Botanical Club, James Van Sweden, February Poems, Winter World by Bernd Heinrich, Okatsune Hedge Shears and the Happy Huntsman’s Tree

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Curated News Turn To Turnips For Early Vegetables Gardening: Turn to turnips for early vegetables Nancy Szerlag, master gardener and @detroitnews freelance writer, had a chance to…

Seeds of Discovery: Frederick Pursh and the Flora Americana Legacy

Flora Americana The English botanist Aylmer Lambert wrote to his peer, and the President of the Linnean Society, Sir James Edward Smith. Lambert was giving Smith a heads up that Frederick Pursh’s Flora Americana was published. Five years earlier, Frederick had been working for Benjamin Smith Barton in America. Barton was supposed to process the…

February 3, 2020 Yellow Milkweed, Carnivorous Plants From Columbus Ohio, Frederick Traugott Pursh, Carl Ludwig Blume, February Garden Poems & Prose, You Can Grow African Violets By Joyce Stark, And National Carrot Cake Day

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Curated News Hello Yellow Milkweed/Butterfly Flower, View All Flowers: Botanical Interests @botanicalseeds “Bring sunny color into the pollinator garden with ‘Hello Yellow’ milkweed! Asclepias tuberosa (ah-SKLEE-pee-iss TOO-burr-OH-sah)…

Meriwether’s Mistake: The Serendipitous Discovery of Snowberry

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. August 13, 1805 My darling garden companions, gather ’round as I regale you with the most enchanting tale of botanical discovery! On this day in 1805, our intrepid explorer Meriwether Lewis stumbled upon…

Seeds of Discovery: Jefferson’s Botanical Expedition Request to Lewis

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. June 20, 1803 On this day, President Thomas Jefferson, with a flourish of his quill and ambition stretching beyond the Mississippi, sent a formal letter to his private secretary and aide, Meriwether Lewis—a…