May 12, 2021
Today we celebrate a woman named after Florence, Italy, and who
loved flowers her entire life.
We'll learn about the Floral Emblem of Manitoba.
We hear an excerpt about spring at Green Gables.
We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about the relationship
between people and plants.
And then we’ll wrap things up with some garden limericks for
National Limerick Day.
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Important Events
May 12, 1820
Today is the birthday of the English social reformer, statistician,
and founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale.
Florence earned the moniker "The Lady with the Lamp" during the
Crimean War because she would make her rounds to visit wounded
soldiers with a lamp during the night.
Florence was named after Florence, Italy - the city where she was
born. As a young girl, both she and her sister each had their own
garden to plant and tend.
When Florence was a young girl of 13, she collected flowers with a
77-year old botanist named Margaret Stovin. Together they gathered
and pressed over 100 different species of plants. This charming
story was featured in a 2008 book by Richard Mendelsohn. Today the
flowers that Florence and Margaret collected are housed at the
Natural History Museum in London.
As an adult, Florence wrote,
Poetry and imagination begin life. A child will fall on its
knees on the gravel walk at the sight of a pink hawthorn in full
flower, when it is by itself, to praise God for it.
As a nurse, Florence believed flowers helped with the morale and
recovery of her patients. And personally, Florence’s favorite
flower was the foxglove.
And Florence received a lovely bouquet every week from William
Rathbone, the man who founded the Queen Victoria Jubilee Institute
for Nurses.
In 2020, during the pandemic, one of the anticipated gardens was
dedicated to Florence. The year 2020 marked the 200th Anniversary
of her birth, and the garden was to be called The Florence
Nightingale Garden - A Celebration of Modern Day Nursing. Instead,
the garden will make its debut during the 2021 Chelsea Flower Show.
The garden will feature “Images from Florence
Nightingale's pressed flower collection and echoes of her
handwriting … on… the timber walls.”
Today Florence is remembered in the Florence Nightingale Museum in
London, which celebrates the life and work of the best-known figure
in nursing history. She is also honored with the Florence
Nightingale rose — a pretty pale pink fragrant rose.
May 12, 1870
On this day, Manitoba became a province of Canada. In 1906, the
Anemone patens, commonly known as the Prairie Crocus, was
officially adopted as the floral emblem of Manitoba.
The first prairie plant to bloom in the spring, the Prairie Crocus,
left an impression with early pioneers, and they called it a crocus
because it reminded them of the early blooming crocus in Europe.
However, the Prairie Crocus is not a crocus; it’s an anemone, and
as such, it is part of the buttercup family. In 1841, Nathaniel
Hawthorne wrote to his future wife,
"There has been but one flower found in this vicinity--and that
was an anemone, a poor, able, shivering little flower that had
crept under a stone wall for shelter."
In Floriography or the language of flowers, the Prairie Crocus is a
symbol of liberty and freedom.
Unearthed Words
Spring had come once more to Green Gables — the beautiful,
capricious Canadian spring, lingering along through April and May
in a succession of sweet, fresh, chilly days, with pink sunsets and
miracles of resurrection and growth. The maples in Lover's Lane
were red-budded, and little curly ferns pushed up around the
Dryad's Bubble. Away in the barrens, behind Mr. Silas Sloane's
place, the mayflowers blossomed out, pink and white stars of
sweetness under their brown leaves. All the school girls and boys
had one golden afternoon gathering them, coming home in the clear,
echoing twilight with arms and baskets full of flowery spoil.
― Lucy Maud Montgomery, Canadian author, Anne of Green Gables
,
Grow That Garden Library
Natural Affairs by Peter Bernhardt
This book came out in 1993, and the subtitle is A Botanist
Looks at the Attachments Between Plants and People.
When this book was written, Peter was a research assistant at the
Missouri Botanical Garden. His book, Natural
Affairs, is a mix of plant information and folklore, and
science over the course of human history.
Peter highlights the various interactions in time between humans
and plants. For instance, the naming of passion vine comes from the
Jesuit priests who felt the vines' blossom showed the passion of
Christ on the cross.
Whether the relationships are highly coveted - as with saffron (the
spice worth its weight it gold), or even mysterious - as with the
Asian slipper orchid - plants, like people, want to survive and
thrive.
This book is 225 pages of the incredible relationships we have with
plants - be they quirky, charming, delightful, or serious.
You can get a copy of Natural Affairs by Peter Bernhardt
and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes
for around $2
Today’s Botanic Spark
Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart
Today is National Limerick Day.
Here’s a garden limerick that was featured in The Central
New Jersey Home News on May 19, 1918
John soon had a fine garden growing,
And said, in a manner quite knowing,
"These beans and potatoes,
Peas, corn, and tomatoes
Will soon make a very fine showing.
And here’s one from 2020 @Paddysaurus on Twitter:
There once was a gardener named Fred
Who was struggling with his raised beds
Nothing would grow
Then a friend said, "you know,
you'd be better off fishing instead!"
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener.
And remember:
"For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."