March 2, 2021 Gardens Matter to Pollinators, Joel Roberts Poinsett, John Jacob Mauerer, A Spring Flower Show, Fermented Vegetables by Kirsten and Christopher Shockey and the State Flower of Idaho

20200101 The Daily Gardener Album Cover

Today we celebrate the man who went to Mexico as an ambassador and sent back the plant that became synonymous with Christmas. We’ll also learn about a gardener who worked for 50 years to create one of England’s top gardens. We hear a charming account of spring’s flower show. We Grow That Garden Library™ with…

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January 28, 2021 New Year Plant Hunt 2021, Peter Collinson, Paul Ecke, Thoughts on Spleenwort by Susan Wittig Albert, Botanical Style by Selina Lake, and the Best Job Ever: Creating Herb Gardens

20200101 The Daily Gardener Album Cover

Today we celebrate a colonial botanist who introduced nearly 200 plants to British horticulture after sourcing them from his good friend John Bartram in America. We’ll also learn about the man who mastered growing the Poinsettia and established it as the official plant of Christmas. We’ll hear some wonderful thoughts on the Common Daisy (Bellis…

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Celebrating the Nurseryman Who Popularized the Poinsettia: Paul Ecke

Paul Ecke, Mr. Poinsettia

“Gardeners will be fascinated to learn that the Ecke family was able to distinguish themselves as a superior grower of poinsettias by using a secret technique to keep their plants compact and hardy. Their solution was simple. They grafted two varieties of poinsettias together, causing every seedling to branch and become bushy.” January 28, 1895…

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December’s Birth Flower: The Poinsettia

The classic red Poinsettia in sunlight

“Poinsettia is botanically known as the Euphorbia pulcherrima. Pulcherrima means ‘very beautiful.'” December 2, 2019 As we begin December, you may wonder about the December birth flower. Well, it’s no surprise that the December birth flower is the Poinsettia.   Poinsettia is botanically known as the Euphorbia pulcherrima. Pulcherrima means “very beautiful.”   Like all…

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Six Popular Plants Named for Famous People and Botanists

bougainvillea

“Leonard Fuchs, a German botanist, discovered the plant known as fuchsia, while William Forsyth, a Scotch botanist, is responsible for the name forsythia.” August 1, 1950 On this day, The Ithaca Journal, out of Ithaca, New York, published a question from a reader. The reader wanted an answer to this question: Please list a few…

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