June 24, 2019 Where to Plant Lilies, Thomas Blanchard, Stephen Endlicher, Kona Coffee, Queen Elizabeth’s Cerus Atlantica Glauca, Paul McCartney, John Ciardi, Plant Names Simplified by Arthur Johnson, Joe Pye weed, Aven Nelson and the Rocky Mountain Herbarium

Did you know that lilies enjoy being planted in part shade?

They don't really like to be baked in full sun.

If you plant them in a little bit of shade, it will allow your plant to experience less stress, and thus, it will elongate its stem.

Lilies that are grown in full sun tend to be shorter and more stout.

In nature, lilies grow in dappled light at the edges of woods and meadows.

 

 

 


Brevities

#OTD It was on this day in 1788, that the self-taught tinkerer Thomas Blanchard was born.

At the tender age of 13, Blanchard created a mechanical way to pare apples with a wire gauge.

 

 


#OTD On this day in 1804 at the botanist Stephen Endlicher was born in Pressburg, Hungry.

Endlicher devised a significant system of plant classification. He explained it in his groundbreaking book Genera Plantarum.

Endlicher donated his herbarium of 30,000 specimens to the Vienna Museum of Natural History, and in 1840, he was appointed Prof. of botany at the University of Vienna.

Sadly, Endlicher ran out of money after purchasing botanical collections and self-publishing his own work, in addition to the work of other botanists.

Endlicher died in 1849 at the age of 45; he committed suicide.

 

 


#OTD And it was on this day in 1817 that the first coffee was planted in Hawaii on the Kona Coast.

Fifty years after a Spanish physician planted those first plants with a deep love for all things botanical, Mark Twain said this in the Sacramento Daily Union:

"Kona coffee has a richer flavor than any other be grown where day and call it by what mean you please."

As it turned out, coffee plants thrived in the fertile volcanic soil. They loved the afternoon rainfall, the abundance of sun, and the mountains protected them from strong winds.

By 1899, a little over 70 years after those first coffee plants were planted, nearly 3,000,000 coffee trees had grown throughout the region.

 

 


#OTD And today in 1977, her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, celebrated her Silver Jubilee by planting a Cerus Atlantica Glauca on the east lawn.

The tree is regarded as the most striking in appearance of all the blue conifers.

 

 


#OTD And on this day in 1989, Paul McCartney's album flowers in the dirt became the number one album in England.

Flowers in the Dirt brought McCartney some of the best reviews he had seen in years.

 

 


Unearthed Words

 Today is the birthday of the poet John Ciardi who was born on this day in 1916.

Here are a few of his most famous quotes:

"A good question is never answered. It is not a bolt to be tightened into place but a seed to be planted and to bear more seed toward the hope of greening the landscape of idea."

“Every word has a history. Every word has an image locked into its roots.”

“And the time sundials tell
May be minutes and hours. But it may just as well
Be seconds and sparkles, or seasons and flowers.
No, I don't think of time as just minutes and hours.
Time can be heartbeats, or bird songs, or miles,
Or waves on a beach, or ants in their files
(They do move like seconds—just watch their feet go:
Tick-tick-tick, like a clock). You'll learn as you grow
That whatever there is in a garden, the sun
Counts up on its dial. By the time it is done
Our sundial—or someone's— will certainly add
All the good things there are. Yes, and all of the bad.
And if anyone's here for the finish, the sun
Will have told him—by sundial—how well we have done.
How well we have done, or how badly. Alas,
That is a long thought. Let me hope we all pass.”

― The Monster Den

 

 


Today's book recommendation: Plant Names Simplified by Arthur Johnson

This book was first published in 1931 and is considered a botanical classic.

The book gives the name, pronunciation, classification, and Latin origins of plants.

If you've ever wondered how to pronounce the botanical name, this little book will come in handy.

As Johnson wrote in his preface,

"My job in preparing this glossary has been to offer the reader a simple translation and pronunciation of the names of plants, trees, and shrubs, that are commonly growing in the average garden. As they stand in such names are to most of us, something more than an awkward obstacle, barring way to any real intimacy with elements of botany. [...] If, in this work, I've succeeded in reducing even buy a little, the menace presented us by that pile of heterogeneous names which stand as a barrier between our people and the fairest gates of knowledge, I sure feel that I have done my bit in a good cause."

Johnson's book was updated in 1946 and then again, in 2019, by AP Stockdale.

 

 

 


Today's Garden Chore

Incorporate Joe Pye weed (Eupatorium purpuream) into your garden.

JPW is an incredible perennial. It is an herb, a wildflower, and a pollinator plant all in one.

Its common name is in honor of a Native American named Joe Pye (Jopi), who made medicine with the plant to cure typhus in the 1800s.

Over in the Facebook Group, I shared a photo of a single leaf of Joe Pye weed. The leaves can grow as long as 25 cm and as wide as 10 cm.

 

 


Something Sweet

Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart

On this day in 1899, a sentry on his route discovered a party of six people camped on the Madison River just inside Yellowstone National Park.

He cited the group with multiple infractions.

The event was recorded in the diary of Mrs. Aven Nelson:

"He was appalled to see so many papers on the ground and demanded that they be picked up at once… There ensued much talk about rules and regulations, in the course of which he discovered that we carried two rifles. After sealing both, he insisted that the signature of Captain Brown would be a prerequisite."

The campers picked up the felt papers they had carefully arranged in the sun and drove 46 miles to Mammoth (It took them two days to get there). When they did, they obtained a permit.

The group consisted of Prof. Aven Nelson's family and two students who were there to document the flora of Yellowstone. Throughout the summer, they would collect, press, and dry 30,000 specimens.

Their work would launch the Rocky Mountain Herbarium at the University of Wyoming.

 

 

 


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