Posts Tagged ‘plant collection’
Archibald Menzies’ Santa Barbara Sojourn: A Botanical Milestone
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. November 18, 1793 On this day, Archibald Menzies (MEN-zeez), the Scottish surgeon-botanist, reluctantly departed Santa Barbara aboard the HMS Discovery during Vancouver’s expedition. Menzies had spent several productive days exploring the Santa Barbara…
Read MoreThe Walking Botanist: Celebrating Charles Wright
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. October 29, 1811 Today we celebrate the birthday of Charles Wright born on this day in Wethersfield, Connecticut. Wright embodied the spirit of botanical exploration in early America, becoming one of the most…
Read MoreKatherine Sophia Kane: Ireland’s first lady of botany and the woman behind The Irish Flora
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. March 11, 1811 Dearest reader, On this day, we celebrate the birth of the indomitable Katherine Sophia Kane, an Irish botanist and horticulturist whose life story blooms with resilience and brilliance. Orphaned as…
Read MoreLady Joan Margaret Legge: The Botanist Who Brought the Valley of Flowers to Light
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. February 21, 1885 Dearest reader, On this day, Lady Joan Margaret Legge (“LAY-gee”) entered the world, the youngest daughter of the sixth Earl of Dartmouth, and a soul both brave and gentle, as…
Read MoreFirst Lady of Mount Kinabalu: The Remarkable Legacy of Lilian Gibbs
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. September 10, 1870 On this day in horticultural history, we find ourselves transported to an era when botanical discovery required more than merely consulting The Garden magazine or ordering from the latest nursery…
Read MoreSweet Potatoes, Flower Pressing, and 19th-Century Women Botanists at Hunter’s Home
Botany: A Women’s Science? April 29, 1850 Here’s a post for this day from Hunter’s Home – the only remaining pre–Civil War plantation home in Oklahoma. “Emily and Amanda stayed at Araminta’s for much of the day. They had a sweet potato roasting and then gathered flowers for pressing. Emily kept an herbarium into which…
Read MoreA Botanical Love Story: The Remarkable Life of Mary Strong Clemens
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. April 13, 1968 On this day, we commemorate the passing of Mary Strong Clemens, a botanical virtuoso whose life was as vibrant and diverse as the flora she so passionately collected. One cannot…
Read MoreRae Selling Berry: The American Plant Whisperer and Garden Conservator
The Lake Oswego Plant Whisperer January 21, 1881 Today is the birthday of the incredible American gardener, plant whisperer, and horticulturist Rae Selling Berry. Almost deaf by the time she was an adult, Rae was an excellent lip reader, and many suspect her deafness helped her attune to plants. In the early 1900s, Rae started…
Read MoreFrederick Pursch and David Hosack: A Partnership in Early American Botanical Exploration
Botanist Across America On this day in 1807, the botanist Frederick Pursch visited David Hosack. Hosack was happy to have Pursch collect specimens from all around the United States for him. He wrote, “I shall have a very industrious and skillful botanist [begin] to collect from different parts of the Union.” This post was featured…
Read More30,000 Specimens and One Boiled Leg: Aven Nelson’s Yellowstone Legacy
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. July 26, 1899 On this day, dear garden friends, a tale of botanical ambition and scalding mishap unfolded in the steaming wilderness of Yellowstone, where two young men learned that Mother Nature’s garden…
Read MoreHartweg’s Legacy: From Parisian Gardens to Mexican Orchid Hunting
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. June 18, 1812 It was on this day, that the illustrious botanist Karl Theodor Hartweg drew his first breath, commencing what would become a life dedicated to the pursuit of botanical treasures. One…
Read MoreFrom Mantle to Mountainside: The Botanical Journey of Marcus Jones
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. April 25, 1852 On this day, dear readers, we celebrate the birth of Marcus Jones, a botanist whose life story reads like a love letter to the plant kingdom. Picture, if you will,…
Read MoreJumping Through Windows: The Extraordinary Life of South Africa’s Great Plant Collector Elsie Elizabeth Esterhuysen
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. April 11, 1912 On this day, the botanical world received a gift it scarcely deserved—the birth of Elsie Elizabeth Esterhuysen, a South African treasure who would go on to become what modest society…
Read MoreA Botanical Love Story: Kate Brandegee’s Legacy of Plants, Mentorship, and Adventure
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. April 3, 1920 On this day in botanical history, we mark the passing of the remarkable Kate Brandegee, the third woman to enroll at Berkeley’s medical school and the second woman professionally employed…
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