Apr 14, 2021
Today we celebrate a German landscape and flower painter who was
forbidden to paint by her father.
We'll also learn about a self-taught botanist who spent nearly a
dozen years in the Amazon rainforest.
We hear an excerpt about spring from the man who wrote A
Farewell to Arms.
We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about one of the
19th-century’s top botanical illustrators.
And then we’ll wrap things up with a little story from the 2017
Beijing Crabapple Conference.
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Important Events
April 14, 1844
Today is the birthday of the German landscape and flower painter
Helene Cramer who was born on this day in 1844.
Helen and her sister Molly were both painters in Hamburg, Germany.
Their father, Cesar, forbade his daughters to become painters. And
so, the two sisters didn’t start painting until middle age. Helen
was 38 when she first picked up a brush. Her primary subject with
flowers.
After studying with other artists and painters, Helen and Molly
exhibited their art throughout Germany and at the 1883 World's Fair
in Chicago. Most gardeners say that their favorite painting of
Helene’s is her work called "Marsh Marigolds and Crown
Imperials."
When Helen died in 1916, she was 72 years old. Both she and her
sister are buried in Plot 27 of the "Garten der Frauen," Or the
garden of women at the Hamburg Ohlsdorf cemetery.
April 14, 2020
On this day the book, A Naturalist in the Amazon: The
Journals & Writings of Henry Walter Bates was
published.
Unlike many of his scientist friends and peers, Henry was entirely
self-taught.
Early in his career, Henry met the great English naturalist Alfred
Russel Wallace. By 1848, Henry and Alfred left England to explore
the Amazon Rainforest.
While Henry stayed in the Rainforest for eleven years, Alfred
returned to England after four years- though all of Alfred’s
specimens and notes were lost at sea on his voyage home. After the
ship he was on caught fire and sank, Alfred and the crew were
rescued after ten days adrift in the Atlantic.
During his eleven years in the Rainforest in Brazil, Henry
collected butterflies, and he sent back a whopping 15,000 insect
specimens - with over half of his collection listed as brand new
discoveries.
As Henry wrapped up his time in the Rainforest, he had survived
both yellow fever and malaria in addition to many other
uncomfortable maladies. Toward the end, it’s not surprising to read
that Henry had grown weary of the enormous challenges of life as an
explorer. He wrote,
“I suffered most inconvenience from the difficulty of getting
news from the civilized world down river, from the irregularity of
receipt of letters, parcels of books and periodicals, and towards
the latter part of my residence from ill-health arising from bad
and insufficient food.”
In the end - after a dozen years away from family, friends, and
civilization - Henry Bates, the great Naturalist, could not ignore
what had been building in his heart: he was lonely. He wrote,
“I was obliged, at last, to come to the conclusion that the
contemplation of nature alone is not sufficient to fill the human
heart and mind.”
In 2014, Henry’s Amazon notebooks were digitized, and they are now
online to view from the Natural History Museum Library.
And in 2018, Henry’s remarkable story was shared in an IMAX film
called Amazon Adventure.
Unearthed Words
“With so many trees in the city, you could see the spring coming
each day until a night of warm wind would bring it suddenly in one
morning. Sometimes the heavy cold rains would beat it back so that
it would seem that it would never come and that you were losing a
season out of your life. This was the only truly sad time in Paris
because it was unnatural. You expected to be sad in the fall. Part
of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees, and
their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintry
light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew
the river would flow again after it was frozen. When the cold rains
kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person had
died for no reason.
In those days, though, the spring always came finally, but it was
frightening that it had nearly failed.”
― Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast
Grow That Garden Library
James Sowerby by Paul Henderson
This book came out in 2016, and the subtitle is The
Enlightenment's Natural Historian.
In this book, Paul Henderson introduces us to James Sowerby -
arguably one of the best botanical illustrators during the
mid-18th to mid-19th centuries. One of the reasons James was such a
successful artist, was no doubt due to his extremely high
intellect. He was also one of the period's most knowledgeable
natural historians.
Paul introduces James this way:
“This book is the story of a remarkable man. Unusual and his
breath of scientific interest which he applied successfully;
unusual in his desire to learn throughout his life and to impart
his knowledge widely; unusual and going against the current
practices by being at one - at the same time his own researcher,
writer, illustrator, teacher, publisher and bookseller; unusual in
his considerable output of innovative, high-quality and influential
works; and unusual in becoming the patriarch of a successful line
of natural historians.”
I've talked about James numerous times on the show. He teamed up
with numerous botanists during his lifetime, and his illustrations
Grace the pages of many of their books. As for James, his
Masterpiece was called Sowerby's Botany -
a detailed 36-volume reference on the plants of England. Of
course, the book also included over 2,500 hand-colored
illustrations.
This book is 336 pages of the first-time biography of an incredible
artist and scientist: James Sowerby.
You can get a copy of James Sowerby by Paul Henderson and
support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for
around $40
Today’s Botanic Spark
Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart
April 14, 2017
On this day, the Beijing Crabapple Conference began.
Visitors toured the Crabapple Garden during the conference, which
featured many new American cultivars of crabapples like Brandywine,
Cinderella, Molten Lava, Lollipop, and Madonna - all of which were
created by the respected and admired nurseryman from Lake County,
Ohio, Jim Zampini.
During the conference, attendees were sad to learn that Jim had
passed away at the age of 85.
Today, Jim’s legacy lives on in his fantastic crabapple varieties
like Centurion, Harvest Gold, Lancelot Dwarf, Sugar Tyme, and the
Weeping Candied Apple.
Crabapples are small, deciduous trees with densely woven branches
that feature fragrant and beautiful white, pink, or red petals when
they bloom in the spring. Self-sterile crabapples rely on bees and
other insects for pollination. The trees rarely grow taller than 25
feet high.
Generally speaking, it takes two to five years for a crabapple tree
to bear fruit. Crabapples differ from standard apple trees in that
they offer smaller fruit. Apples that are less than 2 inches in
diameter are considered crabapples.
If you want to plant a mini-orchard of Crabapple trees, space the
saplings 6 to 15 feet apart. Group them on the closer end of the
range if you are planting dwarf or more upright varieties.
Crabapple trees are just beginning to come into bloom in our 2021
gardens. When they are in flower, few flowering trees can rival
their charm.
In Polish folklore, apple trees were considered dream trees.
Sleeping under apple trees was thought to create a dream-filled
sleep. And, placing an apple under a maiden’s pillow could induce a
dream of her future husband.
In English folklore, crabapple seeds or pips were thrown into the
fire on Valentine’s Eve while chanting the name of your true love.
If the pips explode, your love will be true and will last
forever.
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener.
And remember:
"For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."