March 8, 2021 Build an Affordable Grow Light System, André Michaux, William Roscoe, Getting Wisteria to Bloom, Floral Libations by Cassie Winslow, and Charlotte Wheeler-Cuffe

20200101 The Daily Gardener Album Cover

Today we celebrate a French botanist and explorer who became an accomplished botanist after losing his wife. We’ll also learn about the man remembered in the late spring/summer-flowering genus Roscoea (ross-COE-ee-uh), which includes extremely fragrant herbaceous perennials in the Zingiberaceae “Zin- jah-bah-RAY-see-ee” or ginger family. We hear an excerpt from a delightful book about pruning…

Read More

Six Favorite Plants Named for People – and Some May Surprise You

Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna

“Wisteria is named in honor of Caspar Wistar, (“Wiss-Star”) a distinguished physician, and scientist of Philadelphia. Leonard Fuchs, a German botanist, discovered the plant known as fuchsia, while William Forsyth, a Scotch botanist, is responsible for the name of forsythia.” August 1, 1950  The Ithaca Journal out of Ithaca, New York, published a question from…

Read More

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…

Read More