From Christmas Trees to Kew: Queen Charlotte’s Botanical Revolution

Princess Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, by Johann George Ziesenis, c.1761

This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast: Click here to see the complete show notes for this episode. November 17, 1818 On this day, England bid farewell to Queen Charlotte, the devoted wife of George III and a woman whose passion for horticulture left an indelible mark on the nation’s gardens.…

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December 23, 2020 Six Great Perennials for Design, John Jay, Francis Masson, Ann Batten Cristall, The Grow Your Own Food Handbook by Monte Burch, and Mystical Mistletoe Is Historical Sprig

20200101 The Daily Gardener Album Cover

Today we celebrate a gardener who was also a Founding Father and a Governor of New York. We’ll also learn about a botanist who brought back the Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia reginae “REJ-in-ee”) as well as a plant that is now the oldest living potted plant at Kew. We hear a charming poem that takes…

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Queen Charlotte: the Garden Patron

Queen Charlotte

A Royal of Many Loves November 17, 1818  Today is the anniversary of the death of the woman who was a patroness of the arts, an amateur botanist, a champion of Kew Gardens, and the wife of George III, Queen Charlotte. In addition to the astounding fact that Charlotte gave birth to 15 children, she…

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November 17, 2020 Ten Ways to Rewild, Solway Moss, William Barton, William Caparne, Archibald Lampman, The Garden Chef by Phaidon Editors, and Queen Charlotte

20200101 The Daily Gardener Album Cover

Today we remember the momentous bursting of a peat bog in Scotland. We’ll also learn about the botanist nephew of Benjamin Smith Barton. We’ll honor a British Iris enthusiast and painter. We salute the poet known as the Canadian Keats. We’ll Grow That Garden Libraryâ„¢ with a cookbook for gardeners. And then we’ll wrap things…

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