Plant Explorers Archives

Frida Kahlo’s Weeping Coconuts: A Botanical Symbol of Pain and Resilience

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. May 3, 1946 On this day, the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo presented a curious wedding gift to her friends Lina and Arcady Boitler: a painting titled Weeping Coconuts. Within its husked faces, Kahlo…

Father of the fuchsia: Charles Plumier’s Caribbean botanical discoveries

Charles Plumier (1646-1704) was a French botanist and a Minim friar.

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. April 20, 1646 Dearest reader, On this day, in the wind-swept port of Marseille, a man was born whose curiosity would change the course of botanical history — Charles Plumier, priest, scholar, explorer,…

The Flower Hunter: William Bartram and the Franklin Tree’s Enduring Legacy

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. April 20, 1739 Dearest garden reader, On this day, the American wilderness gave birth not to a statesman or soldier, but to a son of plants and poetry: William Bartram, fondly nicknamed “Billy”…

February 15, 2021 Pioneer Trees for the Forest Garden, Archibald Menzies, Ernest Henry Wilson, The Gardener-Botanists of the 1927 South Africa Expedition, Dried Flowers by Morgane Illes, and Garden Design Tips from David Stevens

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.

February 5, 2021 Carnation History, John Lindley, Karl Theodor Hartweg, Botanists Getting Home Alive, Cadwallader Colden by Seymour Schwartz, and Celebrating Friedrich Welwitsch

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 Carnation – A Little History and Some Growing Instructions | Harvesting History Botanical History On This Day 1799 Birth of John Lindley, British botanist, pomologist,…

The Glass Box That Changed the World: Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward and the Wardian Case

Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward (1791-1868), a British physician and botanist.

The Wardian Case November 23, 1833 On this day, the ship Captain Charles Mallard wrote a letter to Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward. Four years earlier, in 1829, Nathaniel developed the first terrarium when he accidentally grew a fern in an insect jar. A fern spore had gotten into a jar Nathaniel was using to observe insect…

Humphrey Marshall: America’s Forgotten Father of Dendrology

The Father of American Dendrology November 5, 1801 Today is the anniversary of the death of the botanist Humphrey Marshall. The Marshalls were cousins to the Bartrams – their mothers were sisters. Humphrey’s cousin, John Bartram, was known as the “Father of American Botany” after establishing the country’s first botanical garden, and he ignited…

Preparing for Sumatra: John Lindley in London

While researching John Lindley, I stumbled upon an adorable story about him. John arrived in England when he was a teenager. Naturally, he needed a place to stay, so Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker graciously took him in and gave him a room at his home called Halesworth. The story goes that, over a few weeks,…

William Robinson: The Fiery Revolutionary Who Invented the Wild Garden

William Robinson, an influential Irish practical gardener and journalist.

Relaxing Landscapes It’s the birthday of the Irish practical gardener and journalist, the passionate William Robinson. A horticultural powerhouse, Robinson helped change the English landscape from formal to much more relaxed and attainable for the masses. Robinson wrote, “The Medici Gardens in Rome, [offers] clipped walls of green, formal walks, numerous statues, and the ever-present…

Marian Farquharson: The Fern Lover Who Fought for Women in Botany

Women’s RIghts Activist The British naturalist, and women’s rights activist, Marian Farquharson was born. As a botanist, Marian had specialized in ferns and mosses. As an activist, it took Marian and other women four years of petitioning the all-male Linnaean Society to finally allow women to become members. In 1904, when the issue was put…

The Forgotten Letter That Changed Plant Travel: John Smith and the Wardian Case

New Holland to the Cape of Good Hope Today the botanist John Smith wrote a letter to Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward. Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, January 24, 1842. Dear Sir, In reply to your inquiry [regarding] the … results obtained by [using] close-glazed cases for the transfer of living plants from one country to another, I…

Alfred Russel Wallace: The Overlooked Father of Natural Selection

Another Theory of Natural Selection Today is the birthday of the British naturalist Alfred Wallace. Wallace developed his theory of natural selection quite independently of Charles Darwin – although he did send his theory to Darwin. Wallace’s work prompted Darwin to get serious about publishing his 20-year-old idea. In 1858, both Wallace and Darwin’s work…

Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz: The Botanist Behind California’s Golden Poppy

Eschscholzia California Today is the birthday of Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz, who was born on this day in 1793. When the German poet Adelbert van Chamiso ended up in the San Francisco Bay area, and he wrote about the California poppy, which he named Eschscholzia California after his friend Johann Friedrich Von Eschscholz. In return, Eschscholz named…

Jamie Taggert: The Young Scottish Plant Hunter Lost to Fansipan

A Risk For Plants On this day in 2013, Jamie Taggert, the young Scottish botanist, set out on a solo Plant Expedition to Vietnam. Jamie grew up with his botanist father, Jim, and tended the garden his dad founded – the Linn Botanic Gardens that overlooks Loch Long on Cove Bay in Scottland. The ancestors…