Mar 8, 2021
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 wisteria -
if you have a wisteria in full sun that hasn’t bloomed - you can
thank your pruning regimen for that.
We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about floral cocktails.
Cheers to that.
And then we’ll wrap things up with a little story about a female
botanist and botanical illustrator known to her family and friends
by her nickname: Shadow.
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Important Events
March 8, 1746
Today is the birthday of the French botanist and explorer André
Michaux.
Most people think of André Michaux as the accomplished old
botanist, but I always prefer to recall the beginning of his story
because that’s what set him on his course.
André grew up on a royal farm in Satory south of Versailles. His
father trained both he and his brother in horticulture, and after
his father died, André carried on at the farm. André married a
prosperous farmer’s daughter from a nearby farm named Cécile Claye.
Within a month after marrying, Cécile became pregnant. And a month
shy of their first wedding anniversary Cécile delivered a son,
Francois-André, and later in life, André named an oak in his son’s
honor.
Tragically, Cécile died after the delivery of their only son, which
plunged André into depression. Yet mercifully, the decade after
Cécile’s death ended up accelerating André’s horticultural learning
and development. First, his friend, the naturalist Louis-Guillaume
Le Monnier, persuaded André to work with exotic plants that needed
study and acclimation to France’s weather. Then, André started
studying with the great botanist Bernard de Jussieu at Versailles
and in the Royal Botanic Garden in Paris. And then, André began
starting to travel to collect plants.
In 1786, André was asked to go to North America, and he brought his
15-year-old son François-Andre along with him. André’s mission was
to establish a botanical garden in America and send specimens back
to France. In quick fashion, André established his nursery on the
property that the Charleston Area National Airport now
occupies.
Today, as you leave the Charleston airport, you’ll notice a
stunning mural that honors Andre and his son. The mural was
installed in 2016. In one panel, Andre-François and his father are
depicted in the potager or kitchen garden. The central scene
depicts the rice fields along the Ashley River and the Charleston
Harbor, where Michaux introduced one of the first Camellia
plants.
Native to Asia, Camellias are small, evergreen flowering trees or
shrubs, and Camellias are in the Theaceae or tea family, which is
why Camellias are commonly called tea plants.
In Floriography ("FLOOR-EE-ah-grah-FEE") or the language of
flowers, the Camellia represents love and loyalty. Camellia
blossoms are beautiful and come in various colors, sizes, bloom
times, and forms. And, best of all, Camellias are long-lived and
can grow for 100 to 200 years.
Finally, here are two fun facts about the Camellia:
In California, Sacramento is nicknamed the Camellia City, and The
Camellia is Alabama’s state flower.
March 8, 1753
Today is the birthday of the Liverpool poet, historian, botanist,
and politician William Roscoe.
William grew up in the Presbyterian church. He learned his love of
poetry from his mother, and he’d helped his father with his work as
a market gardener.
As an adult, William was an early abolitionist during a time when
the slave trade was the backbone of the economic success of
Liverpool.
In 1803, William led a group of botanists and naturalists and
helped found the Liverpool Botanic Garden - one of England’s
earliest public gardens. And William gave the inaugural address for
the Botanic Gardens and served as its first president. For the rest
of his life, William loved working in the garden, and he especially
enjoyed studying the tropical plants. In fact, William also
authored a book on the ginger plant family, which included Canna
Lilies, Arrowroot, Ginger, and Tumeric -something we hear an awful
lot about on TV commercials today. As for William's book, his
talented daughter-in-law, Margaret Roscoe, provided some beautiful
illustrations for his work.
And in 1807, William wrote a whimsical poem about a party for
insects for his ten children to get them excited about the natural
world called The Butterfly’s Ball and the Grasshopper’s
Feast with the famous verse:
Come take up your hats,
and away let us haste,
To the Butterfly's Ball,
and the Grasshopper's Feast.
It's no wonder that a biography of William referred to him as
“Liverpool’s greatest citizen.”
Today William Roscoe is 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. Roscoea
or Alpine Gingers are native to China and the Himalayas. Roscoea
blossoms look like the bloom of an orchid, and they are perfect for
a woodland garden or a shady border.
Unearthed Words
After planting, remove all but the three strongest vines. Wind
those around and tie them [to whatever you're going to be growing
them on.] Make sure you wrap the vines in the direction they
naturally want to grow. Chinese and Japanese Wisteria naturally
winds in different directions.
To entice the plant into blooming, you need to do some special
pruning. Wisteria normally blooms in mid-May, and soon after the
blooming period is over, tendrils begin to grow out of the main
structural vines. For the first few years, your Wisteria won't
bloom because it's too young. But the tendrils will still begin to
grow right after the normal blooming period is over. And each
tendril is capable of growing 25 feet in one season.
The trick to encouraging flowering is to cut back these rapidly
growing tendrils to about six inches long. This is called spur
pruning. All the energy that would have gone into 25 feet of growth
is captured in the six-inch spur and now stimulates flower bud
production instead.
Spur pruning is a lot of work that must be done every spring. Soon
after, the tendrils begin to grow. But pruning in this manner
usually results in flowering within four to five years after
planting.
— Ciscoe Morris, Oh,
La La!: Homegrown Stories, Helpful Tips, and Garden
Wisdom, Wisteria
Grow That Garden Library
Floral Libations by Cassie Winslow
This book came out in 2019, and the subtitle is 41
Fragrant Drinks + Ingredients (Flower Cocktails, Non-Alcoholic and
Alcoholic Mixed Drinks, and Mocktails Recipe Book).
Well, Cassie's book is a gardener’s delight, and I first ran across
it in a gift shop back in 2019.
The cover is absolutely gorgeous, and Cassie's creativity shines in
this beautiful book.
Nowadays, edible flowers and botanically-infused drinks are all the
rage - and they are irresistibly beautiful. And Cassie teaches us
how to make them taste as good as they look.
Cassie's recipes include an Iced Lavender Café au Lait, Rose Petal
Almond Milk, Dandelion Tea Cinnamon Cappuccino, Hibiscus Old
Fashioned, Orange Blossom Moscow Mule, and my favorite — Plum
Rosewater Gin and Tonic — just to name a few.
Another outstanding feature of Cassie's book is the beautiful
photographs that accompany every single recipe. And if you're
in the
Facebook Group for the show, I shared a gorgeous
video of Cassie making her Blackberry Hibiscus Lemon Drop - it's so
easy and so pretty.
This book is 128 pages of beautiful floral drinks fit for a
gardener and perfect for a garden party.
You can get a copy of Floral Libations by Cassie Winslow
and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes
for around $4
Today’s Botanic Spark
Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart
March 8, 1963
Today is the anniversary of the death of the little-known,
multi-talented, driven, and dauntless plant explorer, plant
collector, gardener, and botanical artist Charlotte
Wheeler-Cuffe.
Born in Wimbledon in 1867, Charlotte was the youngest daughter in
her family. Charlotte became very ill at some point in her
childhood, and her sickliness caused her family to give her a
little nickname that would follow her for the rest of her life:
“Shadow.”
At the age of 30, Charlotte married a man she had known since her
childhood, Otway Wheeler-Cuffe. Otway was a civil engineer who had
secured a posting in Burma, and after the wedding, Otway and
Charlotte immediately left for Maymyo (“MAY-me-oh”). Charlotte’s
life with Otway blossomed in Burma as she discovered a world with
natural wonders and beauty she could have never imagined. A
lifelong gardener, one of Charlotte’s first letters from Burma
tells of meeting a Mr. Carter who was,
“...going to start me with plants for our little compound,
which I think I shall be able to make very pretty in
time.”
For over two decades, between 1897 and 1921, Charlotte painted
brilliant watercolors of the beautiful flora of colonial Burma,
especially the region’s bountiful orchids. Her work was a delight
to the folks back at Kew and other botanic gardens. So much so that
plant explorers like Reginald Farrar, George Forrest, and Frank
Kingdon Ward would stop by on their travels to visit Charlotte and
check out the areas she had explored.
Charlotte would saddle up a small pony during her time in Burma and
go jungling - Charlotte's word for botanizing in Burma’s jungles
and mountains. Charlotte’s adventures, maps, paintings, and notes
were all vividly described and preserved in prolific letters home
to her mother and other relatives. Today Charlotte’s materials are
housed at Glasnevin.
Charlotte’s love of gardening and horticulture attracted the
attention of the locals. While many ex-pats in Burma tried and
failed to grow plants from their homeland, Charlotte committed
early on to growing the beautiful tropical plants native to
Burma.
In no time, government officials asked Charlotte to create a garden
that would become her legacy: Burma’s Botanical Garden. Charlotte
worked on designing and planting the garden during her final five
years in Burma.
Among the plants named in Charlotte’s honor is a blue Anemone
called the Shadow's buttercup.
In 2020, the author and former director of the botanic gardens at
Glasnevin, E Charles Nelson, wrote a beautiful book about Charlotte
called "Shadow Amoung Splendours." Nelson’s book follows
Charlotte’s experiences in Burma and shares many of her charming
personal letters and writings.
As for Charlotte, her dear Otway died in 1934. She carried on
without him at their home back in Kilkenny for 33 years until she
died on this day in 1967, just a few months shy of her 100th
birthday.
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener.
And remember:
"For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."