Potatoes and Poison: Sir Thomas Overbury’s Garden of Wit

Oil portrait of Sir Thomas Overbury by Sylvester Harding

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. September 14, 1613 On this day, while autumn’s first crisp breezes rustled through the Tower of London’s modest kitchen gardens, a most intriguing tale of court intrigue reached its tragic conclusion. Sir Thomas…

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Katharine White on Poisonous Plants

Katharine White on Poisonous Plants

by Katharine S. White The year 1967 started with an all-out alert on the danger of poisonous plants. On January 6th, the Times published a story about a lecture on the subject by John M. Kingsbury, the author of a useful small book titled Deadly Harvest: A Guide to Common Poisonous Plants. At a very…

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Julia Morton: The Botanical Detective Who Solved Plant Mysteries

Julia Morton

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. April 25, 1912 On this day, dear garden enthusiasts, we celebrate the birth of Julia Francis McHugh Morton, an author and botanist whose life’s work reminds us that the plant kingdom, while beautiful,…

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