Jan 16, 2020
Today we celebrate the Spanish Enlightenment priest and botanist
who named the Dahlia and the glamorous movie star who traded in her
star sapphire collection for a tractor.
We'll learn about the item vintners were selling during prohibition
and the woman who became the most widely read American Garden
author in the United States.
Today’s Unearthed Words feature thoughts on the blackest month of
the year: January.
We Grow That Garden Library™ with a new book written by a 20-year
Fellow of the Linnaean Society - he's the man who began his career
as a forensic botanist after getting a phone call from the
authorities.
I'll talk about a garden item that comes in so handy - especially
if you're going to hang things in trees.
And then we’ll wrap things up with thoughts on the lengthening days
- we gain about two minutes of sunlight a day right now.
But first, let's catch up on a few recent events.
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Curated Articles
Planting Hope by Debi
Holland | Richard Jackson's Garden
Here's an inspiring post from Debi Holland @RJGarden:
"I work with people who have experienced bereavement or long-term
illness. Gardening has been a tremendous respite, an escape from
the house, provided achievable goals with visible results from a
few hours toil when other aspects of life may not be so
straightforward."
Marks Hall Arboretum and
walled garden in Essex - Gardens Illustrated
Marks Hall Arboretum is absolutely gorgeous in the winter. The
Arboretum sits on a 2,200-acre estate in Essex. You wouldn't know
it by looking at it, but the soil there is clay.
The beautiful thing about this garden is that it has been organized
into geographic zones, so from an inspiration standpoint, it's
splendid.
There's a beautiful 3-acre lakeside garden. This garden beautifully
compliments the rest of the estate offers five interlinked gardens.
There are hedges and walls, groupings of ornamental grasses, and
long flowering perennials.
Now, if you'd like to check out these curated articles for
yourself, you're in luck, because I share all of it
with the Listener Community in the Free
Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community.
There’s no need to take notes or search for links - the next time
you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community and request
to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.
Important Events
1745 Today is the birthday of the Spanish
Enlightenment priest and botanist Antonio José Cavanilles
("Cah-vah-nee-yes")
Antonio was a prolific botanist and probably Spain's first expert
botanist. He was born in Valencia - Spain's third-largest city.
When Antonio struggled to find a job at the university, he moved to
France. In Paris, he was influenced by Andre Jussieu ("Juice
You")and André Thouin (pronounced "too-ah"). By the time he was 36,
he had decided to focus on botany.
Antonio named over a hundred genera. He gave the name Cosmos to the
Mexican Aster. Cosmos comes from a Greek word meaning harmonious or
orderly.
When Alexander Von Humboldt sent seeds of a beautiful plant to
Antonio, he suggested that the plant should be named after Antonio
called Cavenillesia. But, Antonio declined the honor named it the
Dahlia after the botanist Andrew Dahl, instead. Dahl was Swedish
and a student of Carl Linnaeus. Ironically, Dahl never had anything
to do with the Dahlia. The plant’s botanical name is Dahlia pinnata
("pin-AYE-tah"). Pinnata refers to the fact that the leaves are
divided in a feathery manner.
Now, around the same time, dahlia seeds arrived in Germany, and a
botanist there decided to name the plant Georgina after a Russian
explorer by the name of Professor Georgie. For decades, Germans
refused to call it the Dahlia and stuck with the name Georgina.
However, in 1834, London Gardeners Magazine settled the matter once
and for all, declaring that the name would be Dahlia and not
Georgina. German gardeners capitulated. And, despite being the
first to grow the Dahlia, no Dahlia variety has ever been named
after Antonio José Cavanilles.
The French Revolution caused him to return to Spain. Antonio was 45
years old when he returned home, and he had already established
himself as a respected botanist. At the turn of the century in
1801, Antonio was promoted to be the director of the Royal Botanic
Garden. The garden was created by King Fernando VI in 1755 (10
years after Antonio was born.) In 1774, three staggered terraces
were added to the botanic garden along with an iron gate that
surrounds it. A greenhouse was constructed. Decades later, it would
become Antonio's professional home.
During Antonio's lifetime, botanists were beginning to classify
plants using Carl Linnaeus's classification method. Not every
botanist agreed with this, but Cavanilles was quick to jump on the
bandwagon. Under his direction, the Madrid Botanical Garden became
the center of botany for Spain and Europe.
Antonio died three years after becoming the director of the garden.
His early death prevented Cavanilles from finishing his book on the
plants of the garden. It featured descriptions and drawings of the
main species at the garden - many were the fruit of the great
scientific expeditions of the 18th century.
Four years later, after Antonio Cavanilles died, Napoleon would
invade Spain, and the botanical torch would be passed to England
and France - Spain's botanical golden age was over. Today the
Madrid Botanical Garden is home to over a 100,000 plant species and
roughly 1,500 trees.
1920 (100 years ago!) Prohibition began in
the U.S., and many people became interested in learning about
fermentation overnight.
You might be curious to know how vintners handled the challenge of
prohibition. Well, instead of making wine, they made wine
bricks.
Wine bricks were essentially grape concentrate.
Some cities and towns even went so far as to ban wine bricks. The
city of Richmond Virginia band them, and in an article from
1931,
the Attorney General had to do his duty. The law does not
differentiate between the person who buys wine bricks for the
delicious fruit juice in them and the person who maliciously
tampers with them in such a way as to produce a forbidden beverage.
No chances must be taken. Every Virginian must be protected against
himself.
Wine bricks were marketed as a way to make your own grape juice,
but of course, everyone knew the real reason for the wine brick
Market. And there was a little slogan that became popular during
the wine brick era: "Hic! Hic! Here's the brick with the kick!"
1942 Today is the anniversary of the death of
the movie star and homesteader Carole Lombard.
Lombard died tragically when her plane crashed shortly after taking
off from Las Vegas.
Three years earlier, just before the premiere of Gone With the
Wind, Carole had married Clark Gable.
As newlyweds, Carole and Clark had bought a 21-acre estate - just
40 minutes outside of Beverly Hills. Instead of living glamorously,
they turned the estate into a working farm. Lombard had sold her
star sapphire collection to fund their dream.
Carole set up all the crops they would grow, and she worked long
hours on the ranch. They had an orchard/citrus grove, a dairy, and
a vineyard, and the farm produced peaches, grapes, oranges, lemons,
walnuts, apricots, hay, and alfalfa. They used the alfalfa they
grew for feed. They sent their grapes to the local hospital. The
Farmers Association marketed their citrus crop. Many biographies
mention that Carole and Clark raised turkeys for MGM to use at its
commissary. Carole bought Clark a tractor, and Clark enjoyed taking
care of his two prized racehorses and the cattle. To top it all
off: Carole and Clark called each other “Ma” and “Pa.” They were
really and truly living a farm fantasy. They even used kerosene
lamps in their living room.
They loved their simple life together on their ranch, and Carole
loved watching things grow.
1948 Today is the anniversary of the death of
the American Gardener and Garden writer Louisa Boyd Yeomans
King.
At the age of 26, she married a wealthy man from Chicago by the
name of Frances King, which is why her pen name was Mrs. Francis
King.
Louisa learned to garden from her mother-in-law Aurelia. Her
mother-in-law lived on a large estate, and she had a huge garden
and an impressive garden library.
In 1902, Louisa and her husband moved to Michigan, where they built
a home called Orchard House. With the help of a gardener by the
name of Frank Ackney, Louisa began to plan and create her garden.
She also began writing about her Gardens.
Soon, she was giving lectures, contributing pieces to magazines,
writing columns, and organizing garden clubs. She even became
friends with prominent gardeners of her time like Gertrude Jekyll,
Charles Sprague Sargent, and the landscape architects Fletcher
Steele and Ellen Biddle Shipman.
Louisa learned to garden during the heyday of American Garden
Culture, and her garden writing in newspaper columns and magazine
publications made her the most widely read American Garden author
in the United States.
For Louisa's first book, "The Well-Considered Garden," the preface
was written by her dear friend Gertrude Jekyll. In 1915, when the
book debuted, it was considered an instant classic in garden
literature. Louisa would go on to write a total of nine books.
The garden estate known as Blithewold has a copy of "The
Well-Considered Garden." Their particular text also contains a
handwritten inscription along with Louisa's signature. The
inscription borrows a quote from Sir William Temple who said,
"Gardening is an enjoyment and a possession for which no man is too
high or too low."
Louisa changed the quote and wrote,
"Gardening is an enjoyment and a possession for which no woman is
too high or too low."
In 1922, House & Garden Magazine dubbed Louisa, "The Fairy
Godmother of Gardening." We know that the garden photographer
Frances Benjamin Johnston was a fan of her work because she donated
her entire collection of Louisa's books to the library at the New
York Botanical Garden.
Louisa helped start the Garden Club of America and the Women's
National Farm and Garden Association. She held leadership positions
in both organizations.
When her husband died suddenly in 1927, Louisa was forced to sell
Orchard House. She moved to Hartford, New York, and bought a
property she called Kingstree. This time, she set up a smaller
garden. The size meant less work, which better-accommodated her
writing and speaking commitments.
When Louisa died on this day in 1948, her ashes were scattered at
Kingstree.
It was Louisa Yeomans King who said,
"Each has his most real thing. Mine is the garden."
Unearthed Words
Today's poems reflect on the harshness of January. The winter
months can be in agony - if for no other reason than the biting
cold.
Thus the saying,
“The blackest month in all the year Is the month of Janiveer.”
Another piece of winter lore says,
“As the days lengthen, the cold strengthens.”
January and February are the coldest months of the year and the
toughest for many people to get through. It’s no wonder that people
have vented their feelings about these two cold months through
poetry.
Where has thou been all the dumb winter days
When neither sunlight was nor smile of flowers,
Neither life, nor love, nor frolic,
Only expanse melancholic,
With never a note of thy exhilarating lays?
— Alfred Austin, English Poet, Poet Laureate, "A Spring
Carol," Soliloquies in Song
[W]hat a severe yet master artist old Winter is... No longer the
canvas and the pigments, but the marble and the chisel.
— John Burroughs, American Naturalist, "The Snow-Walkers,"
1866
It’s January, and I’m kicking snow off the ground. I just threw out
the flower you made me promise to water,
handle with care because I was too careless, you said.
Careless with things and people, around me
and behind and I remember being still for just a second or two,
thinking that it’s so much easier to leave and start anew,
then take care of what’s already here.
― Charlotte Eriksson, Author, The Glass Child
January, month of empty pockets!
let us endure this evil month,
anxious as a theatrical producer's forehead.
— Sidonie Gabrielle Colette, French Author, Nominated for
Nobel Prize
January gray is here,
Like a sexton by her grave;
February bears the bier,
March with grief doth howl and rave,
And April weeps—but, O ye hours!
Follow with May’s fairest flowers.
— Percy Bysshe Shelley, English Romantic Poet, Dirge for
the Year
Grow That Garden Library
Murder Most Florid by Mark Spencer
The subtitle to this book is: Inside the Mind of a Forensic
Botanist
Mark is a passionate plantsman, and he's a champion of plants and
the study of Botany.
Mark is also passionate about connecting people with the natural
world.
Creating a niche for himself, Mark is a consultant botanist who
specializes in Forensic Botany as well as the history of
botany.
Murder Most Florid is a book where Mark shows us how plants and the
environment can help investigators solve crimes.
Mark didn't train to become a forensic botanist. He became one
through an accidental event in his life. It started with the phone
call asking for help with a murder.
Forensic Botany actually goes back to the early part of the 20th
century and was memorably used to convict the kidnapper of the
Lindbergh baby.
“Murder Most Florid is an enthralling, first-person account that
follows Mark's unconventional and unique career, one that takes him
to woodlands, wasteland, and roadsides, as well as police labs, to
examine the botanical evidence of serious crimes. From unearthing a
decomposing victim from brambles to dissecting the vegetation of a
shallow grave, Mark's botanical knowledge can be crucial to
securing a conviction. More widely, this gripping book challenges
our attitude to death and response to crime. It picks holes in the
sensationalized depictions of policing we see on TV and asks
pertinent questions about public sector funding in the face of
rising crime. Most importantly, Mark's book shows us how the
ancient lessons of botanical science can still be front and center
in our modern, DNA-obsessed world.”
And before I forget, let me just tell you that there is a fantastic
video podcast of Mark presenting to the Linnaean Society Where he's
been a fellow for over 20 years.
Mark is an honorary curator at the Linnaeus society’s herbarium. He
has worked for over a decade at the Natural History Museum in
London.
In this presentation, Mark talks about the book and his work. I
thought it was fascinating. If you get a chance to watch it, you
really should.
I
have created a link to it in today's show notes.
Great Gifts for Gardeners
5 Pack 12 Inches Tree Branch Hooks, S Shape Hooks - Metal
Hanger Hook for Hanging Bird Feeders, Baskets, Plants, Lanterns and
Ornaments (Black): Garden &
Outdoor $13.99
Today’s Botanic Spark
Despite the fact that we're in the middle of January and it's so
cold, and our gardens are buried under many feet of snow, The days
are getting longer.
The good news is that the winter solstice, the shortest day of the
year, is behind us. It took place on December 21st. In January,
each day gains about 2minutes of daylight. In February, we gain
about 2.5 minutes of sunlight each day.
Here are some thoughts on the lengthening days by the English poet,
novelist, and garden designer Vita Sackville-West:
"The shortest day has passed, and whatever nastiness of weather we
may look forward to in January and February, at least we notice
that the days are getting longer. Minute by minute, they lengthen
out. It takes some weeks before we become aware of the change. It
is imperceptible even as the growth of a child, as you watch it day
by day until the moment comes when with a start of delighted
surprise, we realize that we can stay out of doors in a twilight
lasting for another quarter of a precious hour."
The next Winter Solstice will take place in the northern hemisphere
on Monday, December 21st, 2020, at 4:02 p.m. Central Standard
Time.