Podcasts about oxford botanic garden

The healing power of plants has been used by humans for thousands of years, and many dangerous plants can also help us. In this episode of Dangerous Plants, Frances Tophill is joined by Dr Sarah Edwards, Plant Records Officer at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum and Ethnobotanist to reveal the mystifying properties of plants that can kill us and heal us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The plant Rafflesia has the world's largest flowers and gives off one of the worst scents; it's also something of a biological enigma, a leafless parasite that lives off forest vines. For the botanist Chris Thorogood, an expert in parasitic and carnivorous plants at the Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum, Rafflesia is also an obsession. In his book, Pathless Forest, he goes in search of this mysterious plant in some of the last wildernesses in South East Asia. Dr Kelsey Byers is an evolutionary chemical ecologist who specialises in floral scent and its influence on the evolution of flowering plants. In her laboratory at the John Innes Centre in Norwich she studies how flowers use different smells to attract their pollinator of choice. From sweet aromas to the stink of rotting flesh, she explores how plants use con-artistry and sexual deception to thrive.The ethnobotanist William Milliken from Kew Gardens has spent much of his career working with indigenous people in the Amazon to preserve traditional plant knowledge. Now he's focused on collecting folklore about the use of plants to treat ailments in animals in Britain. From wild garlic treating mastitis in cows, to cabbage for flatulence in dogs, he hopes to uncover a cornucopia of plant-based veterinary medicines.Producer: Katy Hickman

To snap or to cut - what is the best way to dead head my roses? Why are my tomatoes falling off before turning red? Which plant would you relegate to the compost heap? Kathy Clugston and her team of GQT experts are at the Army Flying Museum in Hampshire to answer all these questions and more. Joining her this week are garden designer Juliet Sargeant, head gardener Ashley Edwards, and pest and disease expert Pippa Greenwood. Alongside the horticultural Q and A, we hear from Deputy Director and Head of Science of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden, Chris Thorogood who talks us through Mediterranean-inspired gardening in the UK. Executive producer: Hannah Newton Producer: Bethany Hocken Assistant Producer: Dulcie Whadcock A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4

Chasing Plants - Chris Thorogood The Not Old Better Show, Smithsonian Associates Interview Series Welcome to The Not Old Better Show, Smithsonian Associates, Art of Living interview series on radio and podcast. I'm Paul Vogelzang, and as part of our Smithsonian Associates, Art Of Living interview series, we have an amazing interview with Smithsonian Associate Chris Thorogood, author of the excellent new book Chasing Plants, Journeys with a Botanist through Rainforests, Swamps, and Mountains.   Our guest today, Smithsonian Associate Chris Thorogood, will be appearing at Smithsonian Associates coming up, so check out our website for more details about Smithsonian Associate Chris Thorogood presentation titled, Chasing Plants. Thank you so much for listening. We've got a great guest today, whom I'll introduce in just a moment.  But, quickly, if you missed any episodes, last week was our 709th episode when I spoke to Ralph White, who has written the excellent new book, Getting Out of Saigon.    Two weeks ago, I spoke with Hollywood casting director Joel Thurm who has written the new book, Sex, Drugs & Pilot Season: Confessions of a Casting Director. Excellent subjects for our Not Old Better Show audience. If you missed those shows, along with any others, you can go back and check them out with my entire back catalog of shows, all free for you, there on our website, NotOld-Better.com.  You can Google Not Old Better and get everything you need about us! Our guest today, Smithsonian Associate Chris Thorogood, is deputy director and head of science at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum, and Chris is an acclaimed illustrator, beautifully capturing plants from around the world in his new book, Chasing Plants: Journeys with a Botanist through Rainforests, Swamps, and Mountains. Chris Thorogood is a field botanist.  Christ Thorogood will be appearing at Smithsonian Associates, Live from the UK, and coming up, so please check out our website for more details about Chris Thorogood's Smithsonian Associates presentation titled Chasing Plants. As a field botanist, Chris Thorogood lives a life of adventures across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.  Chris Thorogood has clambered over cliffs and up erupting volcanoes and trekked through typhoons. Along the way, he's encountered pitcher plants, irises, and orchids of unimaginable beauty. Smithsonian Associate Chris Thorogood joins us today to tell us all about his travels discovering rare plants and his vivid paintings, and he'll share details of hair-raising excursions and explains the vital work he and other botanists are doing to protect the world's plants. Please join me in welcoming to The Not Old Better Show, Smithsonian Associate Chris Thorogood. My thanks to Smithsonian Associate Chris Thorogood for his time today.  Christ Thorogood will be appearing at Smithsonian Associates, Live from the UK, and coming up, so please check out our website for more details about Chris Thorogood's Smithsonian Associates presentation titled Chasing Plants.  Please check out Chris' new book, beautifully illustrated by Chris, titled: his new book, Chasing Plants: Journeys with a Botanist through Rainforests, Swamps, and Mountains. My thanks, always, to the Smithsonian team for all they do to support the show. My thanks to you, my wonderful Not Old Better Show audience on radio and podcast.  Please be well, be safe and let's talk about better: The Not Old Better Show. Remember, just Google Not Old Better for everything you need to know about us.  Thanks, everybody, and we'll see you next week. 

At some point in human evolutionary history, our ancestors made a switch from a predominantly hunter-gatherer lifestyle to an agricultural one. When did this transition happen? Did farming start in one place and spread across the globe or, instead, have multiple independent origins? Why were certain plants and animals cultivated while others weren't? To find out, Alex Rodway, a biology master's student at Jesus College, will be discussing the origins of agriculture with Dr Timothy Walker, a lecturer in plant sciences at Somerville College and former director of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretum.

Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart   Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee    Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter |  Daily Gardener Community   Historical Events 1788 On this day, Horace Walpole wrote about the powerful impact of rain on the garden. He wrote, My verdure begins to recover its bloom.. in this country, nobody pays his debts like rain. It may destroy your flowers, but you cannot complain of want of fruit; cherries, apples, walnuts, are more exuberant than their leaves.   1893 Birth of Dorothy Thompson, American journalist and radio broadcaster. She is remembered as the First Lady of American Journalism. In 1934, Dorothy was the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany. In her final book, The Courage to Be Happy (1957), she wrote: I am inclined to think that the flowers we must love are those we knew when we were very young, when our senses were most acute to color into smell, and our natures most lyrical.   1933 Birth of Oliver Sacks, British neurologist, naturalist, historian of science, and writer. I once watched a video featuring Dr. Oliver Sacks, who practiced medicine in NYC across from the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG). In the video, Oliver reflected on the garden and its meaning. I've cobbled together a few of his inspiring thoughts. Here's what he said: I think of this garden as a treasure. First, it's a haven. In a noisy, crowded New York, we need a haven; we wander around, and time doesn't matter too much. When I worked at the hospital opposite the garden, I used to come in every day. Specifically, I would come in after seeing my patients but before writing up my notes. And, I would walk around the garden and put everything out of consciousness except the plants and the air. But, by the time I got back, the patient's story would have crystallized in my mind [and then] I could then write it straight away. But I needed this sort of incubation in the garden, and to go for a walk in the garden; that sort of thing is an essential thing for me in writing. I think nature has a healing effect; the garden the closest one can come to nature. The garden has affected me and does affect me in various ways; it's not just the pleasure of walking around but [also] the very special virtues of the library and the museum and the fact that, in some ways, this is a university as well as a garden. I just feel very comfortable in the garden, and whenever people come to New York from out of town or out of the country, I say let's go to the garden. I would like to quote a couple of lines from a TS Eliot poem: Oh, do not ask, 'What is it?' Let us go and make our visit.   In his book, The River of Consciousness, Oliver wrote, While most of the flowers in the garden had rich scents and colors, we also had two magnolia trees, with huge but pale and scentless flowers. The magnolia flowers, when ripe, would be crawling with tiny insects, little beetles. Magnolias, my mother explained, were among the most ancient of flowering plants and had appeared nearly a hundred million years ago, at a time when “modern” insects like bees had not yet evolved, so they had to rely on a more ancient insect, a beetle, for pollination. Bees and butterflies, flowers with colors and scents, were not preordained, waiting in the wings—and they might never have appeared. They would develop together, in infinitesimal stages, over millions of years. The idea of a world without bees or butterflies, without scent or color, affected me with a sense of awe.   2021 On this day, India's first cryptogamic garden, with nearly fifty different species, is opened.  Cryptogams are non-seed-bearing plants. These primitive plants do not reproduce through seeds, for example, algae, bryophytes (moss, liverworts), lichens, ferns, fungi, etc. The garden is located in the Deoban area of Dehradun in Uttarakhand and is situated at 9000 feet and spread over three acres.   Grow That Garden Library™ Book Recommendation Botany for the Artist by Sarah Simblet ("Sim-blit") This book came out in 2020, and the subtitle is An Inspirational Guide to Drawing Plants. In this book, Sarah Simblet takes you on an inspirational journey of creativity and botanical art as she demonstrates how to draw virtually every type of plant. As Sarah writes in the forward, This book was inspired by my love of gardening, a desire to know more about the structures, forms, and lives of plants, and an opportunity to spend a whole year exploring wild landscapes and the fabulous collections of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Oxford University Herbaria. These collections generously gave or lent me hundreds of pieces of plants to draw or have photographed for this book. Botany for the Artist features around 550 species, chosen to represent almost every kind of plant and habitat on Earth. Gorgeous, unfamiliar exotics are celebrated alongside more common plants, to show the beauty and wonder of the bird-of-paradise flower and the pavement milk thistle, tropical forest fruits and the orchard apple, giant pine cones, and tufts of city moss. Fungi, and some species of algae, are not scientifically classified as plants, but are featured here because they are fabulous to draw and fascinating in themselves.   Then Sarah points out the exponential understanding of a plant that occurs when you draw it. She wrote, Drawing is a... direct and universal language, as old as humankind.  If you spend just one hour drawing a plant, you will understand it far better than if you spent the same hour only looking at it. There is something in the physical act of drawing, the coordination of the hand and eye, and the translation of sensory experience into marks and lines that reveals an entirely new way of seeing.  Artists know this, but it is something we can all experience if we draw. And time spent drawing is a revelation, regardless of the results.   Finally, Sarah's book is written in a very friendly tone. She encourages artists to just get started and to use live specimens. She wrote, Books of advice, classes, and looking at the works of other artists will help you greatly, but you can also learn how to draw simply by doing it. The first step is to simply have a go. I always draw from real plants-never photographs -- because plants are three dimensional and were once alive, even if they are no longer. They are physically present, and can move, change, and challenge the person drawing them. An artist's relationship with their subject is always innately expressed in their work... Throughout this book, Sam Scott-Hunter's photographs reveal subtle insights that could not be captured in drawing. They also magnify many details so we can look very closely Into them. I have drawn most plants life-size, for comparison, and also to convey the excitement of giant-sized objects. This diversity is just one characteristic of the vast kingdom of plants that surrounds us all, and it is always there, just outside our door, waiting to be explored.   This book is 256 pages of botanical drawings - from exotics to mosses to towering trees. Join Sarah on an illustrated tour of the plant kingdom and deepen your powers of botanical observation, understanding, and appreciation.  You can get a copy of Botany for the Artist by Sarah Simblet and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for around $18.   Botanic Spark 1824 Mary Russell Mitford writes to Benjamin Robert Haydon to describe her garden: My little garden is a perfect rosary - the greenest and most blossomy nook that ever the sun shone upon. It is almost shut in by buildings; one a long open shed, very pretty, a sort of rural arcade where we sit. All and every part is untrimmed, antique, weatherstained, and homely as can be imagined - gratifying the eye by its exceeding picturesqueness, and the mind by the certainty that no pictorial effect was intended - that it owes all its charms to "rare accident."   The previous day, Mary wrote to her dear friend, Emily Jephson (July 10, 1824), and shared her thoughts on the garden as a form of power and fulfillment for women. She wrote,  I am so glad you have a little demesne (dih-MAYN) of your own too;  It is a pretty thing to be queen over roses and lilies, is it not?   Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.

Are plants passive green things, just waiting for the next passing mouth to munch on them? Or do they sometimes fight back? This week's programme is devoted to the botanical poisoners, the tricksters and the carnivores that turn the tables and seek revenge on the animal kingdom. Featuring Amy Stewart, author of Wicked Plants – The A-Z of Plants That Kill, Maim, Intoxicate and Otherwise Offend; RHS Editor and flytrap fan Gareth Richards; and Dr Chris Thorogood, Deputy Director of Oxford Botanic Garden. Useful links: ►Wicked Plants [book] ►RHS advice on potentially harmful plants ►Learn more about carnivorous plants ►Oxford Botanic Garden & Arboretum 

In the final episode of our series we head to Glentress Forest, just south of Edinburgh, to meet Emma Bryden, a member of Scotland's Young People's Forest Project.Emma is part of an ambitious scheme where 13 young Scots are co-designing a forest for the future, right here in Scotland. She's joined by Forest Industries Advisor Ros Wardman for a walk about the Glentress landscape. They delve into the social and historical importance of hedgerows, woodland and forests, why commercial timber has a role in our future, and how trees can help us solve the climate crisis.We're also joined by Dr Chris Thorogood, from the University of Oxford Botanic Garden & Arboretum. He shares his passion for plants and trees, talks us through what he gets up to day to day and gives us his take on how to break into a career in the Green Sector. #LifeOnTheHedgeFind out more: www.treecouncil.org.uk/lifeonthehedgeEmma Bryden is part of Scotland's Young People's Forest Panel, a youth group with a vision to create the first forest in Scotland, co-designed, led and governed by young people. The project is supported by Young Scot and YouthLink Scotland. Ros Wardman is a Forest Industries Advisor with Scottish Forestry, the Government agency responsible for forestry policy, support and regulations. If you'd like to explore a career in forestry, Ros suggested checking out the following organisations: Institute of Chartered Foresters, Forestry and Land Scotland, Confederation of Forest Industries, Forestry England. There are many routes into this sector, apprenticeships through to degrees. The Forestry Commission has also just launched it's new Development Woodland Officer apprenticeship programme. This paid opportunity is perfect for passionate individuals over the age of 18 looking to kickstart their careers in forestry! Find out more here.If you'd like to find out more about hedgerows, head to Hedgelink.org. You may also be interested in these HedgeTalk webinars hosted by The Tree Council as part of National Hedgerow Week 2021. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Horticultural programme featuring a group of gardening experts. Kathy Clugston is joined by Kirsty Wilson, Matthew Pottage, and Anne Swithinbank. Together, they answer your gardening queries. As the climate warms, more and more plants are flowering unseasonably early or else staying in flower for much longer. This week the panel tackles all sorts of untimely blooms, from a climbing rose to a woody rosemary plant. To investigate the issue further, Peter Gibbs speaks to University of Cambridge researcher Ulf Büntgen who explains why the climate crisis is having this effect on plants. Meanwhile at Oxford Botanic Garden, Chris Thorogood and a team of researchers have uncovered the secrets of the Giant Amazonian Waterlily, and Chris explains how important this knowledge will be for the future of construction and design. Producer - Hannah Newton Assistant Producer - Aniya Das A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4

Today we talk about mindful spaces and biophilic meditation with Sophie Lacey.Sophie has been running her own freelance copywriting and content writing business for nearly 15 years, working with a variety of lifestyle brands and specialists in placemaking, the built environment, interior design and retail. Her half-Swedish heritage inspires a love of simple design and an affinity with nature and organic materials, colours and textures, while her diploma in meditation teaching gives her a unique perspective on mindful spaces, biophilic design and placemaking for wellbeing. Sophie's meditation and mindfulness teaching takes an unusually broad and non-affiliated approach, meaning students are encouraged to choose and adapt their practice according to need and preference. She uses her creative copywriting skills to devise engaging multi-sensory meditations, using her love of nature and spiritual ideas from across cultures to reconnect her students with their true selves in an effective and enjoyable way. In the spring and summer she leads meditation and forest bathing events at University of Oxford Botanic Garden & Arboretum.https://sophielacey-copywriting.co.uk/https://www.lindentreemeditation.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophielaceycopycontentwriter/https://www.facebook.com/lindentreemeditationdotcom Support the podcast - https://www.patreon.com/buildingsustainabilityWorkshops with Sigi Koko & James Henderson - https://thathempcreteguy.com/coursesFuturebuild 2022 - https://www.futurebuild.co.uk/Biophillic Design Episode with Bill Browning and Catie Ryan - https://www.buildingsustainabilitypodcast.com/biophilic-design-bill-browning-catie-ryan-bs047/ Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/buildingsustainability)

Today in botanical history, we celebrate a wealthy gardener and Apothecary whose garden became his legacy, a ​​pioneering Landscape architect who left his mark on the world in his all-too-short life, and the fine fine fun that can be had dying flowers - a hobby that's been around for quite a longe time. We'll hear an excerpt from a book by a Quaker woman who spent a year tending sheep. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about flowers in all their glory, and it takes us inside the Secret World of Plants... And then we'll wrap things up with a little poem written by an American writer, and it's a little poignant - so kleenex should be on standby. “If you're the first of November, you're Scorpio. A large reporter of his owne Acts. Prudent of behaviour in owne affairs. A lover of Quarrels and theevery, a promoter of frayes and commotions. As wavery as the wind; neither fearing God or caring for Man.' ‘Better,' said Lymond coldly, ‘to be stung by a nettle than pricked by a rose.” ― Dorothy Dunnett, Checkmate Maggie Dietz poem 1995  Rosemary Verey's Making of a Garden 1995 The Unsung Season: Gardens and Gardeners in Winter: Sydney Eddison, Karen Bussolini 2001 A Garden from Hundred Packets of Seed by James Fenton What plants would you choose to grow, given a blank slate of a garden, and given the stipulation that everything you grow in this garden must be raised by you from seed? 2009 Jane Colden: America's First Woman Botanist Paperback – November 1, 2009 Curated News Interview with Lee Smith, Southern Writer | Southern Environmental Law Center 1944 Here's a short clip with writer Lee Smith about the importance of the natural world for writers and inspiration. In the video Lee says that the South does have a very strong literary tradition that is grounded in place and specifically a rural place. Lee says the land is so important to southern writing. Land not only shows up in southern stories but also in southern music and southern culture. Lee tells how her father used to fight her when she tried to get him to leave the mountains and move to her home in North Carolina and so he would always say I could never leave the mountains he said I need me a mountain to rest my eyes against and That resinates with lee who went on to say that there's something in the contemplation of mountains of nature  of natural places that leads us to think of things that are really important that leads us to think of the real questions and issues and things that people need to be working on. And so Lee, like many of us, gets her inspiration from the natural world To borrow her phrase, I need me a garden to rest my eyes against... Important Events November 1, 1666Birth of James Sherard, English apothecary, botanist, amateur musician, and composer. His older brother, William, was also a botanist. James served as an apprentice to an apothecary named Charles Watts at Chelsea Physic Garden. He later followed his entrepreneurial instincts and started his own business, which made him quite wealthy.  In August of 1716, he wrote that, “the love of Botany has so far prevailed as to divert my mind from things I formerly thought more material.” After retiring, he purchased three residences - two manor homes and a place in London. At his London residence, he established a garden and began collecting and cultivating rare plants. Around the time his garden was becoming one of England's top gardens, James's brother William invited the German botanist Johann Jacob Dillenius to visit England. Dillenius created an illustrated catalog that described the plants cultivated in James's collection in London. The English botanical writer Blanche Henrey called Dillenius's book, “the most important book published in England during the eighteenth century on the plants growing in a private garden." Today, the walls of the Herbarium Room at the Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum are graced with the illustrations from Dillenius's book - so the plants in James Sherard's beautiful garden live on in that marvelous place. November 1, 1859Birth of Charles Eliot, American landscape architect. In his brief career, Charles established principles for regional planning and natural systems for landscape architecture. He also helped set up the world's first land trust and the Boston Metropolitan Park System. He was a prolific writer and observer of nature and Landscapes. His work set the stage for conservancies across the world. Charles was born into a prominent Boston family. In 1869, the year his mother died, his father, Charles William Eliot, became the president of Harvard University. In 1882 Charles went to Harvard to study botany. A year later, he began apprenticing with the landscape firm of Frederick Law Olmsted. As a young landscape architect, Charles enjoyed visiting different natural areas, and he conducted regular walking tours of different nature areas around Boston. In his diary, Charles made a charming list titled, "A Partial List of Saturday Walks before 1878". Early in his career, Charles spent 13 months touring England and Europe between 1885 and 1886. The trip was actually Olmsted's idea, and it was a great training ground for Charles's understanding of various landscape concepts. During this trip, Charles kept a journal where he wrote down his thoughts and sketches of the places he was visiting. During his time in Europe, Charles's benchmark was always Boston. Throughout his writings, he continually compared new landscapes to the beauty of his native landscape in New England. Charles's story ended too soon. He died at 37 from spinal meningitis. Before his death, Charles had worked with Charles Sprague Sargent to plan The Arnold Arboretum. When Charles died, Sargent wrote a tribute to him and featured it in his weekly journal called Garden and Forest. Charles's death had a significant impact on his father, Charles Eliot Senior. At times, the two men had struggled to connect. Charles hadn't liked it when his dad remarried and, their personalities were very different. Charles, the architect, could be a little melancholy. After Charles died, his dad, Charles Sr., started culling through his son's work. In April 1897, Charles Sr. confided to a friend, "I am examining his letters and papers, and I am filled with wonder at what he accomplished in the ten years of professional life. I should've died without ever having appreciated his influence. His death has shown it to me." Despite his heavy workload as the president of Harvard, Charles Sr. immediately set about compiling all of his son's work. He used it to write a book called Charles Eliot Landscape Architect. The book came out in 1902, and today it is considered a classic work in the field of landscape architecture. November 1, 1883On this day, the Brown County World (Hiawatha, Kansas) published a little blurb that said, A distinguished botanist has found that by simply soaking the stems of cut flowers in a weak dye solution, their colors can be altered at will without the perfume and the freshness being destroyed. Unearthed Words On the first day of November last year, sacred to many religious calendars but especially the Celtic, I went for a walk among bare oaks and birch. Nothing much was going on. Scarlet sumac had passed, and the bees were dead. The pond had slicked overnight into that shiny and deceptive glaze of delusion, first ice. It made me remember skates and conjure a vision of myself skimming backward on one foot, the other extended; the arms become wings. Minnesota girls know that this is not a difficult maneuver if one's limber and practices even a little after school before the boys claim the rink for hockey. I think I can still do it - one thinks many foolish things when November's bright sun skips over the entrancing first freeze. A flock of sparrows reels through the air looking more like a flying net than seventy conscious birds, a black veil thrown on the wind. When one sparrow dodges, the whole net swerves, dips: one mind. Am I part of anything like that? Maybe not. [...] It's an ugly woods, I was saying to myself, padding along a trail where other walkers had broken ground before me. And then I found an extraordinary bouquet. Someone had bound an offering of dry seed pods, yew, lyme grass, red berries, and brown fern and laid it on the path: "nothing special," as Buddhists say, meaning "everything." Gathered to formality, each dry stalk proclaimed a slant, an attitude, infinite shades of neutral. All contemplative acts, silences, poems, honor the world this way. Brought together by the eye of love, a milkweed pod, a twig, allow us to see how things have been all along. A feast of being. ― Mary Rose O'Reilley, The Barn at the End of the World: The Apprenticeship of a Quaker, Buddhist Shepherd   Grow That Garden Library Flora by DK Flora was also contributed to by Kew,the Royal Botanic Gardens. This book was published back in 2018, and the subtitle is Inside the Secret World of Plants. Well, let me tell you that when I got my copy of this book, I was so pleasantly surprised. This is a big book - it's a coffee table book. The cover is predominantly white, and then it just has a single flower featured on the cover - and it is stunning. I like to think about this fantastic book as a floral scrapbook. So imagine if you were to put together a book of flowers, and on each page, you feature: a different blossom, details about the plant, the history and some outstanding characteristics of the flower, and other various aspects of the plant. This book also reviews a little bit of the science behind why plants do what they do and how they do what they do. Flora is beautifully illustrated with modern photography and also some incredible botanical art from the ages. And it is just a joy to leaf through. So whether you are a gardener or even a non-gardener, I think you would enjoy this book. You can get a copy of Flora by DK and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $12. Today's Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart November 1, 1871 Birth of Stephen Crane, American poet, novelist, and short-story writer. Stephen started writing at the tender age of four.  As a young adult, he dropped out of college at Syracuse and started working as a reporter and writer. By 1895 his Civil War novel The Red Badge of Courage won acclaim despite Stephen never having any personal experience as a soldier.   The following year he was asked to go to Cuba as a war correspondent. During the voyage, his ship, the SS Commodore, sank off the coast of Florida. Stephen survived after spending thirty hours adrift at sea in a small dinghy along with other survivors.  The experience became the basis for his book called, The Open Boat. Despite surviving the shipwreck, Stephen Crane died young of tuberculosis at the age of 28. Today, The Red Badge of Courage is considered an American classic. But Stephen also wrote short stories and poetry. One of his biggest fans was Ernest Hemingway, who credited Stephen as a source of his inspiration. In Stephen's poem, The Black Riders and Other Lines (1895), Stephen wrote, There was set before me a mighty hill, And long days I climbed Through regions of snow. When I had before me the summit-view, It seemed that my labour Had been to see gardens Lying at impossible distances. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Join Professor Stephen Harris (Curator of Roots to Seeds at the Bodleian Library) and Dr Chris Thorogood, (Oxford Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretum) as they discuss the past, present and future of botanical research and teaching. Discover how the herbarium of Bobart the Elder, John Sibthorp's 'Flora Graeca' expedition and the Amazonian waterlily have contributed to four centuries of Oxford botany and current research.

Chris Thorogood is Deputy Director & Head of Science, University of Oxford Botanic Garden & Arboretum, His recently published book When Plants Took Over the Planet has plenty to  interest children from around 9 all the way to adultIn this episode he talks to Nikki Gamble about  the evolution of plants and igniting children's interest in plant life.When Plants Took Over the PlanetDiscover the incredible story of how plant life grew to cover the surface of planet Earth, from long before human life existed up to the present day. This large-format, highly illustrated book will guide readers through the key aspects of the life of plants, from early ferns which were most certainly munched on by dinosaurs, to carnivorous plants that snap and 'attack' their prey, or powerful medicinal plants that can heal ailments and boost health. Mysterious and wonderful plants and trees are explored through the diverse habitats they're found in, from the Amazon Rainforest to the Sahara Desert, and through the animals found living on them or amongst them.This book also explores how humans use - and abuse - our precious plants, and how reliant we all are on the survival of our planet's network of botanical life. 

An arboretum could be described as a "living library". A beautifully curated collection of woody plants from across the globe, each one carefully labelled and managed. In this episode of the Big Questions Podcast we chat to Ben Jones, Arboretum Curator at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretum, about what makes an arboretum so special. 

Peter Gibbs and the team are at the Oxford Botanic Garden answering questions from the GQT postbag. Matt Biggs, Pippa Greenwood, Dr Chris Thorogood and Head Gardener Mark Brent answer your questions on growing apricots, ruined potash, and why bees love the colour purple. Producer - Dan Cocker Assistant Producer - Millie Chu A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4

Kathy Clugston hosts the horticultural programme featuring a group of gardening experts. This week, she's joined by Matt Biggs, Chris Beardshaw and Anne Swithinbank to answer questions sent in by green-fingered listeners on compost, wildlife ponds and the eternal battle between hoeing and weeding. Away from the questions, Dr Chris Thorogood of the Oxford Botanic Garden tells you what to do in the event of unexpected frost, and garden designer Jacquie Felix Mitchell goes on a walk by the River Dart to seek inspiration for her garden. Producer - Daniel Cocker Assistant Producer - Millie Chu A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4

Today we celebrate the writer inspired by the Oxford Botanic Garden - a place he saw every day. We'll also learn about medicine with roots in the soil in Indiana. We’ll hear a lovely excerpt about a harbinger of spring: Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus) We Grow That Garden Library™ with a fantastic book about botanical baking with a master baker. And then we’ll wrap things up with the story of a surprise found in a botanist’s garden.   Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to “Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast.” And she will. It's just that easy.   The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf.   Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org   Curated News Predicting the New Year's 2021 Garden Trends | Ag Week | Don Kinzler   Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there’s no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community where you’d search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.   Important Events January 27, 1832  Today is the birthday of the English mathematician and writer Charles Lutwidge Dodgson - also known as Lewis Carroll. Lewis had worked as a librarian at Christ Church College in Oxford. His office window had a view of the Dean's Garden. Lewis wrote in his diary on the 25th of April in 1856 that he had visited the Deanery Garden, where he was planning to take pictures of the cathedral. Instead, he ended up taking pictures of children in the garden. The children were allowed in the Deanery Garden, but not in the Cathedral Garden, which was connected to the Deanery Garden by a little door. And so, it was the Oxford Botanic Garden that inspired Lewis Carroll to write Alice in Wonderland. The same garden also inspired the authors, JRR Tolkien and Philip Pullman. In Lewis Caroll’s Through the Looking-Glass is this favorite passage among gardeners: “In most gardens," the Tiger-lily said, "they make the beds too soft-so that the flowers are always asleep.”   January 27, 1950 On this day, Science Magazine announced a brand new antibiotic made by Charles Pfizer & Company, and it was called Terramycin. Last year, when I shared this item, I don't think many of us were as familiar with the word Pfizer as we are today - living through the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 1950s, Pfizer was a small chemical company based in Brooklyn, New York. And it turns out that Pfizer had developed an expertise in fermentation with citric acid, and this process allowed them to mass-produce drugs. When Pfizer scientists discovered an antibiotic in a soil sample from Indiana, their deep-tank fermentation method allowed them to mass-produce Terramycin. Now, Pfizer had been searching through soil samples from around the world - isolating bacteria-fighting organisms when they stumbled on Terramycin. Effective against pneumonia, dysentery, and other infections, Terramycin was approved by the USDA. And the word Terramycin is created from the two Latin words: terra for earth and mycin, which means fungus - thus, earth fungus. And Terramycin made history: Terramycin was the very first mass-marketed product by a pharmaceutical company. Pfizer spent twice as much marketing Terramycin as it did on R&D for Terramycin. The gamble paid off; Terramycin, earth fungus, is what made Pfizer a pharmaceutical powerhouse. And so, there's a throughline from the vaccine we are using today, all the way back to that bacteria found in the soil in Indiana that ultimately became Terramycin.   Unearthed Words In much of North America, skunk cabbage has earned the widespread reputation as the first flower of spring. It might be more accurate, however, to call it the first flower of winter. “The skunk cabbage may be found with its round green spear-point an inch or two above the mold in December,” reported naturalist John Burroughs. “It is ready to welcome and make the most of the first fitful March warmth.” Henry David Thoreau observed that new buds begin pushing upward almost as soon as the leaves wither and die in the fall. In fact, he counseled those afflicted with the melancholy of late autumn to go to the swamps “and see the brave spears of skunk cabbage buds already advanced toward the new year.” People living in colder parts of North America have long watched for skunk cabbage as a sign of spring. The tip of the plant’s spathe or sheath begins to push through the still-frosty earth and to stand tall when the first faint breaths of warmer air begin blowing. This process can occur in January with an unusually long January thaw—a “goose haw,” as some New Englanders call it—or it can happen as late as March. — Jack Sanders, Hedgemaids and Fairy Candles, The First Flower of Winter   Grow That Garden Library Botanical Baking by Juliet Sear This book came out in 2019, and the subtitle is Contemporary baking and cake decorating with edible flowers and herbs. In this book, celebrity baker Julia teaches how to make and decorate the most beautiful botanical cakes – using edible flowers and herbs to decorate your cakes and bakes. After working in the baking industry for two decades, Julia knows what flowers are edible and what flowers have great flavor. She also shares everything you need to do to work with edible flowers: “how to use, preserve, store and apply them, including pressing, drying and crystallizing flowers and petals.” Julia shares 20 botanical cakes that feature edible flowers and herbs. Her creations include a confetti cake, a wreath cake, a gin and tonic cake, floral chocolate bark, a naked cake, a jelly cake, a letter cake, and more. Known in the U.K. for her beautiful bloom-covered cakes, Julia counts royalty and celebrities among her many clients. This book is 144 pages of botanical baking with edible flowers and herbs. You can get a copy of Botanical Baking by Juliet Sear and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $13   Today’s Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart January 27, 1994 On this day, The South Bend Tribune out of South Bend, Indiana, shared an article by Doug Glass called, “Botanist Finds Endangered Plant in His Garden.” “For someone who makes his living studying plants, George Yatskievych is an indifferent gardener. It took [him] several months to notice that a load of topsoil delivered to his home in St. Louis was sprouting several clusters of trifolium stoloniferum, also known as Running Buffalo Clover. This native plant had all but vanished in Missouri. “I was out weeding a flower bed near this topsoil, down on my knees, when I sort of came nose to nose with these things,” said George, who works at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. "You spend all this time and effort looking for this in nature. . . . (The discovery) was so unexpected."  Yatskievych and other botanists took the six clovers found in his topsoil and began a project to reintroduce the plant to Missouri. Now, some five years after his discovery, the Missouri Department of Conservation oversees some 700 seedlings in 25 experimental plots statewide.”   Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Today we celebrate the pardoned outlaw who donated the land for the Oxford Botanic Garden. We'll also learn about Carl Jr. - Linnaeus’s son - Linnaeus filius, who surely felt some pressure growing up in his father’s shadow. We’ll hear one of my favorite letters from the garden writer Elizabeth Lawrence. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a delightful book of hope and grace for gardeners and for anyone - an excellent book for 2021. And then we’ll wrap things up with the story of the first female botanist in America.   Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to “Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast.” And she will. It's just that easy.   The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf.   Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org   Curated News Jobs for January | Adventures in Horticulture | Lou Nicholls   Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there’s no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community where you’d search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.   Important Events January 20, 1643 Today is the anniversary of the death of Henry Danvers, the 1st Earl of Danby. In 1621, Henry founded the Oxford Botanic Garden, but planting didn’t start until the 1640s As a young man, Henry was an English soldier who was outlawed after killing a rival family’s son. The Danvers and the Longs had feuded for generations. Along with his brother and a few friends, Henry ambushed Henry Long as he was dining at a tavern. And that’s when Henry Danvers shot and killed Henry Long and became an outlaw. After the shooting, Henry and his gang fled to France, where they honorably served in the French army. Four years later, the King of France interceded on the men’s behalf and secured a pardon for them. After returning to England, Henry regained favor for his service and ultimately became a Knight of the Garter and the lifelong governor of Guernsey's isle. Henry never married, but he created a lasting legacy for himself when he donated five acres of land to the University of Oxford. Henry had the flood-prone land along the river raised and enclosed with a high wall. The massive stone gateway to the garden was designed by a peer and friend to Inigo Jones, a master mason named Nicholas Stone. The Danby gateway is inscribed: Gloriae Dei opt. max. Honori Caroli Regis. In usum Acad. et Reipub. and the frieze inscription is Henricus Comes Danby D.D. 1632 - or “In honor of King Charles, for academic use and the general welfare by the Earl of Danby 1632."   January 20, 1741 Today is the birthday of the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus the Younger, the son of the great Carl Linnaeus or Carl von Linné. To distinguish him from his famous father, he was referred to as Linnaeus filius, Latin for Linnaeus, the son. For botanical purposes, he is referred to with the abbreviation L.f. for Linnaeus filius. Carl Linneaus learned of his son’s birth while he was away in Stockholm. He wrote a letter straight away to his wife Sara Lisa, saying: “How excited I was when I received the news I had been longing for… I kiss the gracious hand of God ... that we have been blessed with a son. Take care to avoid changes of temperature and draughts, for carelessness of that sort might harm you. I remain, my dearest wife, your faithful husband, Carl Linnaeus Greetings to my little Carl.” When he was just nine years old, Linnaeus filius enrolled at the University of Uppsala and taught by great botanists like Pehr Löfling, Daniel Solander, and Johan Peter Falk. Eleven years later, Linnaeus filius backfilled his father’s position as the chair of Practical Medicine at the University. Unfortunately, Linnaeus filius was resented by his peers after favoritism played a role in the promotion. At the tender age of 22, Linnaeus filius got the job without applying or defending a thesis. Twenty years later, Linnaeus filius was in the middle of a two-year-long expedition through Europe. When he reached London, Linnaeus filius became ill and died from a stroke. He was just 42 years old.   Unearthed Words January 20, 1945 ... I can’t imagine anything worse than a square of dogwoods back of the house. I thought your idea was that you wanted to clear that all out (except for the serviceberry, which is to one side) so you could look out of the kitchen window and up the mountainside instead of being hemmed in? If you want to put dogwoods there, I would suggest putting them to the left side (as you look up the mountainside) in a group near the fence. And not so as to hide the prettiest view of the woods, to frame it if possible. If you keep the apple tree, you might have a seat under it. ... I don’t know what you mean by spider lilies, but I am sure that you won’t hurt whatever they are if you take a big ball of earth and do not disturb the roots. The point is not to break them when they are growing. I feel sure that white pines will be the best and quickest screen for the pigsty. ... If you order any, be sure to have your holes all dug before they come. Dig three feet deep and four in diameter, and fill in with woods mold, and put a good mulch of leaves over it, and if you have it where you can water, I think everyone would grow soon and make a screen. Be sure to write to me before you do anything drastic. ... Bessie and I took a salad and a pan of rolls and went to have supper with your family last night. We had Blanche’s walnuts for dessert. And Robert and I made Cleopatras, not so good, somehow, as the ones at Christmas.  I must put the puppy to bed before he chews up all the files of Gardening Illustrated. — Elizabeth Lawrence, gardener and garden writer, letter to her sister Ann, January 20, 1945   Grow That Garden Library All Along You Were Blooming by Morgan Harper Nichols  This book came out in 2020, and the subtitle is Thoughts for Boundless Living. I fell in love with this book when I saw the beautiful cover that features botanical art. With over a million followers on Instagram, Morgan’s fans love her beautiful artwork and inspiring thoughts about life. This book is a fabulous collection of illustrated poetry and prose that helps you "stumble into the sunlight" and bask in the joy that is all around you. All Along You Were Blooming is a perfect gift for any occasion. This book is 192 pages of grace and hope, and artistic beauty. You can get a copy of All Along You Were Blooming by Morgan Harper Nichols and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $11   Today’s Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart January 20, 1756 On this day, Peter Collinson wrote to John Bartram about Jane Colden. "Our friend, Colden's daughter, has… sent over several sheets of plants, very curiously anatomized after [Linnaeus's] method.  I believe she is the first lady that has attempted anything of this nature."  Peter Collinson was one of the first botanical experts to recognize Jane Colden as the first female botanist in America. Like our modern-day plant swaps, Jane took part in something called the Natural History Circle - an event where American colonists and European collectors exchanged seeds and plants. Jane’s father was the Scottish-American physician, botanist, and Lieutenant Governor of New York, Cadwallader Colden (CAD-wah-LIDDER). Aside from his political endeavors, Cadwallader enjoyed botany and practiced the new Linnaean system. A proud dad, Cadwallader wrote to his friend Jan Gronovius, "I (have) often thought that botany is an amusement which may be made greater to the ladies who are often at a loss to fill up their time… Their natural curiosity and the pleasure they take in the beauty… seems to fit it for them (far more than men).  The chief reason that few or none of them have applied themselves to (it)… is because all the books of any value are (written) in Latin. I have a daughter (with) an inclination... for natural philosophy or history… I took the pains to explain to her Linnaeus's system and put it in English for her to use - by freeing it from the technical terms, which was easily done by using two or three words in the place of one. She is now grown very fond of the study… she now understands to some degree Linnaeus's characters [even though] she does not understand Latin. She has already (written) a pretty large volume in writing of the description of plants." Cadwallader gave Jane access to his impressive botanical library; he even shared his personal correspondence with her and allowed her to interact with the many botanists who visited the family's estate. In 1754 at Coldenham, when Jane was 30 years old, she met a young William Bartram who was less than half her age at just 14 years old. She also met with the Charleston plantsman Alexander Garden who was only 24 years old. In 1758, Walter Rutherford wrote to a friend after visiting the Colden home, Coldingham, and he described Cadwallader, his house, and his 34-year-old daughter Jane this way: "We made an excursion to Coldingham... From the middle of the woods, this family corresponds with all the learned societies in Europe…. his daughter Jenny is a florist and a botanist. She has discovered a great number of plants never before described and has given their properties and virtues [in her descriptions].... and she draws and colors them with great beauty… She (also) makes the best cheese I ever ate in America." Today the genus Coldenia in the borage family is named after Jane's father, Cadwallader Colden. After Jane discovered a new plant, the Coptis trifolia, she asked Linneaus to name it in her honor Coldenella - but he refused. With the common name Threeleaf Goldthread, Coptis trifolia is a woodland perennial plant in the buttercup family with glossy evergreen leaves. The long golden-yellow underground stem gives the plant the Goldthread part of its common name. Native Americans used to dig up the yellow stem and chew on it as a canker sore remedy, which is how it got its other common name: canker-root.   Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."

Hear the incredible story of EK Janaki Ammal, a pioneering scientist who overcame race, class and gender discrimination to become the first female botanist at RHS Garden Wisley. Dr Chris Thorogood of Oxford Botanic Garden shares insight into the weird world of mutualism – plants and animals cooperating in unexpected ways to make the most of tough conditions. Plus the RHS gardening advisors gather to answer questions on roses (can you grow them in shade and can you move them?), a passionflower that refuses to bloom and growing herbs in planters.

Join us on a Halloween spooktacular! Dr Chris Thorogood of Oxford Botanic Garden delves into the weird and wonderful world of parasitic 'vampire' plants including the rainforest giant Rafflesia, the largest flower in the world; to one you can grow at home. Plus RHS gardening advisors Leigh Hunt and Becky Mealey talk death in the garden, with a guide to telling if your plants are ill or just resting, and how to rescue them from a near-death experience. Sometimes Frankenstein-style surgery really is the way forward!

This week we're exploring the weird, wild and wonderful world of foraging with activist Indy Srinath. Dr Chris Thorogood from Oxford Botanic Garden explains the deadly secrets of some of our most common plants and garden designer Juliet Sargeant shares her love of a particular hebe which has some really useful qualities in the garden.

Seed saving can be a powerful and life-affirming act – permaculture designer Poppy Okotcha shares her thoughts on how and why we should all be saving our own seeds. Resident gardening guru Leigh Hunt dispenses timely gardening advice with his top 10 jobs for August, and RHS advisors discuss rain gardens. Plus: how long can seeds and plants last? Dr Chris Thorogood of Oxford Botanic Garden reveals some surprising facts.

Today we remember the founding of a garden that inspired the book Alice in Wonderland. We'll also learn about the botanist remembered with the Forsythia genus. We'll salute the Lake poet who likened plant taxonomy to poetry. We also revisit a diary entry about a garden visitor and a letter from a gardener to her sister. Today's Unearthed Words feature an excerpt from a July Afternoon by Walt Whitman. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about the unloved flowers as they have been referred to Weeds. And then we'll wrap things up with an unforgettable story of flowers and a performance called "A Case of Floral Offerings" from 1874. But first, let's catch up on some Greetings from Gardeners around the world and today's curated news.   Subscribe Apple  | Google  | Spotify  | Stitcher | iHeart   Gardener Greetings To participate in the Gardener Greetings segment, send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org And, to listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to play The Daily Gardener Podcast. It's that easy.   Curated News This L.A. music producer is obsessed with houseplants: See how they amplify his work | latimes.com | Micah Fluellen “Mark Redito (“Ra-DEE-toe”) is an L.A.-based electronic music producer who, it turns out, is also the proud plant parent to over 40 houseplants. He visually couples his earthy soothing sound with heavy plant imagery, from short snippets of him tenderly caring for plants to abstract videos of 3-D modeled flora. Redito’s aesthetic is the seamless marriage between the ambient digital world and a tangible natural ecosystem. You can find short teaser videos of thumping tracks playing over footage of sped-up plant growth and gardens, photographs of technology blended with nature, and updates of his own garden developments on his Instagram account @markredito. "My hope is that when people listen to my work, they would be inspired to go outside and experience nature or start their own garden. My upcoming album to be released this summer, “Natural Habitat,” is all about that — the interconnectedness and innate connection we have with nature and with plants. (What’s your best tip for gardeners and new plant parents?) Ease into it and remember to take it slow. When I started getting into plants, my collection grew from five plants to about 30 in a month. As much as I enjoyed having plants and taking care of them, it was a lot of work for one guy to water and tend to 30-plus plants on one Saturday morning.”   Are you growing, Cleome? My daughter just had her senior pictures taken, and I took some cuttings from the garden for her to hold during her photoshoot. For one of the images, I had her hold just one large white blossom in her hands. It looked like a giant puffball, and it had a very ethereal quality about it. Cleome is beautiful - but it is also sticky - so keep that in mind if you handle it. I know some gardeners have no trouble sowing cleome directly into their gardens, but some gardeners complain that it can be an inconsistent germinater. I like to sow cleome right now since the seeds like intense light to get going. Sometimes cleome can benefit from staking - so keep that in mind as well. And, if you are planning a cutting garden, it is hard to beat cleome. The blooms are a show-stealer in any arrangement.   Go to a local farmers market - not for the produce - for the knowledge.   The growers at the farmer's market have expertise in growing, which is often an untapped resource. Plus, the growers are so generous with Information. It's always a pleasure to talk to someone who has first-hand knowledge about growing plants.   Alright, that's it for today's gardening news. Now, if you'd like to check out my curated news articles and blog posts 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 1621  The Botanic garden at Oxford, also known as the Physic Garden, was founded on this day in 1621 at precisely 2 pm. It was a Sunday. The garden is the oldest in England. When the garden was founded, its primary purpose was to be a medicinal garden. Henry Danvers, the first Earl of Danby, funded the garden by giving Oxford University 250 pounds. Unfortunately, the land they purchased was flood-prone. The 5-acre tract was mostly pasture land and lined the banks of the River Cherwell. So, to protect the garden from flooding, the ground for the garden was built up. Records show a Mr. Windiat brought in 4,000 loads of "mucke and dunge" to elevate the area that we now know as the Oxford Botanic Garden. During the founding ceremony, dignitaries of the University walked in a procession from St. Mary's church to the garden. Mr. Edward Dawson, a physician, and Dr. Clayton, the Regius Professor of Medicine, each gave a speech and a stone was placed in the garden gateway by the Vice-Chancellor himself. The Garden has a fascinating history, and there are at least two father-son connections to the Garden. Bobart the Elder and his son, Bobart the Younger, established the herbarium. Both William Baxter and his son served as curator. Lewis Carroll, who was a math professor at Oxford and he visited the garden with a young Alice Liddell, which inspired Alice in Wonderland. J.R.R. Tolkien, who also taught at Oxford, loved the gardens and could be found sitting beneath his favorite tree: an ornamental black pine. In 1941, after the discovery of the dawn redwood tree, a dawn redwood seed was planted in the garden. The tree still grows at the Oxford Botanic Garden. In 2019, Oxford University's gardens, libraries, and museums attracted over 3 million visitors. The Garden and Arboretum had a record-setting year with over 200,000 visitors, which was an increase of 23%. And, today, the garden is continuing to prepare for its 400th anniversary in 2021. Planting projects and garden redesigns are all being worked on to give visitors a stunning welcome next year. In addition, some of the beds are going through a bit of a time machine; they are being planted according to their 17th-century prescriptions so that visitors can glimpse how the garden looked when it was established four centuries ago.   1804  Today is the birthday of the Scottish botanist William Forsyth. William trained as a gardener at the Oxford Physic Garden and was an apprentice to Philip Miller, the chief gardener. In 1771, Forsyth himself took over the principal gardening position. Three years later, he built one of the very first rock gardens with over 40 tons of stone collected from the land around the Tower of London and even some pieces of lava imported from Iceland. The effort was noted for posterity; the garden was a bust. Forsyth was also the founding member of the Royal Horticultural Society. The genus, Forsythia, was named in his honor by Carl Peter Thunberg. There are several different varieties of Forsythia, which also goes by the common name golden bell. A member of the olive family, Forsythias are related to the Ash tree. And, the Forsythia is a vernal shrub. Vernal shrubs bloom in the spring.   1834  Today is the anniversary of the death of the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Along with his friend, William Wordsworth, he helped found the Romantic Movement in England and was a member of a group called the Lake Poets. As a poet, Coleridge recognized the inherent rhythm of taxonomy, and he likened it to poetry when he said that taxonomy was simply "the best words in the best order." In his poem called Youth and Age, Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote, Flowers are lovely. Love is flower-like. Friendship is a sheltering tree. Coleridge wrote a 54-line poem about a Mongolian emperor's summer garden at Xanadu. The emperor was  Kubla Kahn. Coleridge's Kubla Kahn is one of his most famous works. The poem begins by describing Kahn's palace and the garden contrasted with the setting of an ancient Mongolian forest. And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills, Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree; And here were forests ancient as the hills, Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.   It was Samuel Taylor Coleridge who said: Summer has set in with its usual severity.   1938  On this day, the Canadian Naturalist Charles Joseph Sauriol ("Sar-ee-all") wrote about sharing his garden with a toad. He wrote, "One particular toad has taken quite a fancy to the Wild Flower garden. His den is alongside the Hepatica plant. There he sits half-buried, and blinks up at me while I shower water on him."   1946  On this day Elizabeth Lawrence wrote to her sister: Dear Ann, I am going to send you, as soon as they are ripe, some seeds of Campanula americana, which came to me from one of my delightful farm women correspondents. I asked Mr. Krippendorf if he knew it, and he said yes, it was his favorite weed. Scatter them as soon as you get them along the drive. Along the fence at the foot of the terrace, and on the other side near the tiger lilies. Then in the spring, I will send (or maybe fall) some roots of the day lily Margaret Perry. It will spread all along, and bloom with the campanula and the lilies. ...The campanula is an annual but it will self-sow, and the combination will make a mass of bloom for six weeks or more. Then I am going to send you seeds of Cassia marilandica (“The virtuous and beloved dead need neither cassia buds nor myrrh”) to scatter lower down on the driveway. ... I expect that you will have more lycoris. Mine are still coming, and I dash out very quickly to stake each one before Mr. Cayce can get to it. Mr. Krippendorf wrote that his were coming out fast, but that he did not expect them to last long as he was bringing out his granddaughter’s boxer to spend a week with his, and he thought the two of them would break off thousands. Mr. Krippendorf feels as I do about dogs. But Bessie does not. ... The summer has been so cool and green, and so many of the choice and difficult amaryllids have bloomed. So am I as the rich, whose blessed key Can bring him to his sweet up-locked treasure, The which he will not every hour survey. For blunting the fine point of seldom pleasure. [Shakespeare sonnet 52]   Unearthed Words The fervent heat, but so much more endurable in this pure air — the white and pink pond-blossoms, with great heart-shaped leaves; the glassy waters of the creek, the banks, with dense bushery, and the picturesque beeches and shade and turf; the tremulous, reedy call of some bird from recesses, breaking the warm, indolent, half-voluptuous silence; an occasional wasp, hornet, honey-bee or bumble (they hover near my hands or face, yet annoy me not, nor I them, as they appear to examine, find nothing, and away they go) — the vast space of the sky overhead so clear, and the buzzard up there sailing his slow whirl in majestic spirals and discs; just over the surface of the pond, two large slate-colored dragon-flies, with wings of lace, circling and darting and occasionally balancing themselves quite still, their wings quivering all time, (are they not showing off for my amusement?)— the pond itself, with the sword-shaped calamus; the water snakes— occasionally a flitting blackbird, with red dabs on his shoulders, as he darts slantingly by— the sounds that bring out the solitude, warmth, light and shade— the squawk of some pond duck— (the crickets and grasshoppers are mute in the noon heat, but I hear the song of the first cicadas;)— then at some distance, the rattle and whirr of a reaping machine as the horses draw it on a rapid walk through a rye field on the opposite side of the creek— (what was the yellow or light brown bird, large as a young hen, with a short neck and long-stretched legs I just saw, in flapping and awkward flight over there through the trees?)— the prevailing delicate, yet palpable, spicy, grassy, clovery perfume to my nostrils; and over all, encircling all, to my sight and soul, and free space of the sky, transparent and blue— and hovering there in the west, a mass of white-gray fleecy clouds the sailors call "shoals of mackerel"— the sky, with silver swirls like locks of tossed hair, spreading, expanding— a vast voiceless, formless simulacrum— yet may-be the most real reality and formulator of everything— who knows? — Walt Whitman, American poet and the Father of Free Verse, A July Afternoon by the Pond   Grow That Garden Library Weeds by Richard Mabey This book came out in 2012, and the subtitle is In Defense of Nature's Most Unloved Plants. The author Richard Holmes said, "[A] witty and beguiling meditation on weeds and their wily ways….You will never look at a weed, or flourish a garden fork, in the same way again." And, if you thought your garden was full of them, this book is chock-full of 336 pages of weeds. You can get a copy of Weeds by Richard Mabey and support the show, using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $14.   Today's Botanic Spark 1874  On this day, the Opelousas Courier shared an incredible story called "A Case of Floral Offerings." The story was from Berlin, it told of an actress who was playing the role of a female Hamlet. She wanted to have bouquets and wreaths thrown to her at the end of her performance. When a man told her that the flowers would cost $20, the actress said that it was too much for one night. But, the gentleman had an idea. He said twenty dollars would be sufficient for two nights. And he explained how it would work. He said, "Today, I and my men will throw the bouquets to you from the first tier. After the performance is over, I shall take the flowers home with me in a basket [and] put them in the water... Tomorrow night [we will toss them at your feet again]. No one in the audience will know that the bouquets have been used before." The actress liked the man's ingenious plan, and she happily paid him the money.

Join us on a globetrotting plant extravaganza! Sally Miller from the Barbados Horticultural Society takes us on a totally tropical tour of her paradise island garden. Danny Clarke – aka The Black Gardener – offers trolley-fuls of advice and design tips for making a garden so gorgeous you'll never want to leave it. Dr Chris Thorogood of Oxford Botanic Garden leads us into the steamy jungles of Borneo in search of the world's biggest flower, revealing some of its curious habits along the way. Plus author and columnist Pattie Barron shares her love of Mediterranean gardens and advice on how to give your garden a sun-drenched makeover in just a weekend.

Established in 1621, the Oxford Botanic Garden was the first botanic garden in the UK. It has been - and remains – an invaluable resource for education, scientific research, and conservation. But recently it’s added another feather to its cap, teaming up with The Oxford Artisan Distillery to produce a ‘Physic Gin’. So what exactly is this gin, and what inspired Prof Simon Hiscock, Director of the Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum, to take on this new endeavour?

Lots of us are drawing on creative pastimes as a way of getting through the current situation. This week we speak to artist, scientist, author and Deputy Director of the Oxford Botanic Garden, Dr Chris Thorogood. Chris shares his fascination with weird and wonderful plants and offers some expert tips on how to paint and draw them. Fiona Davison explores the history of botanical art at what is generally considered the world's biggest collection of plant paintings, the RHS Lindley Library. Young RHS Ambassador George Hassall is also a fan of plants that bite back, and he tells us about his passion for the gruesomely beautiful pitcher plants, Nepenthes. And finally... our resident allotment guru Guy Barter talks to gardening advisor Leigh Hunt about cunning ways to beat seed shortages and grow your own at home.

Today we celebrate an eighteenth-century man who was a friend of many famous gardeners. And, the Danish surgeon associated with many wonderful plants from the Himalayas. We'll learn about the Swedish botanist who had a thing for algae and the man who started the only arboretum between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. Today’s Unearthed Words feature poems and prose about winter's cold. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a wonderful book about weird plants. I'll talk about a beautiful item that would make the perfect Valentine's gift for a gardener or a special gift for a loved one, And, then we’ll wrap things up with the story of the man who made the poinsettia a harbinger of Christmas. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events.   Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart   Curated Articles Hidden women of history: Maria Sibylla Merian, 17th-century entomologist and scientific adventurer Here's a great post about Maria Sibylla Merian. Click to read all about her.   Brassica Oleracea ‘January King’ From @GWmag 'January King' is a fantastic variety of savoy cabbage. Here's how to grow it.   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 1694 Today is the birthday of a Fellow of the Royal Society, an avid gardener, and a friend to many scientific leaders in the mid-18th century in the city of London, Peter Collinson. Peter Collinson introduced nearly 200 species of plants to British horticulture - importing many from his friend John Bartram in America. When the American gardener John Custis learned that Collinson was looking for the mountain cowslip (Primula auricula), he happily sent him a sample. Auricula means ear-shaped, and the mountain cowslip is Commonly known as a bear's ear from the shape of its leaves. The cowslip is a spring-flowering plant, and it is native to the mountainous areas of Europe. Custis also sent Collinson a Virginia Bluebell Or Virginia cowslip ( Mertensia virginica). This plant is another Spring Beauty I can be found in Woodlands. The blue about Virginia Bluebell is so striking, and it's an old fashioned favorite for many gardeners. The Virginia Bluebell is also known as lungwort or oyster wort. The plant was believed to have medicinal properties for treating lung disorders, and the leaves taste like oysters. Virginia bluebells bloom alongside daffodils, so you end up with a beautiful yellow and blue combination together in the garden - something highly coveted and absolutely gorgeous. Collinson was not the only gardener in search of Virginia bluebells. Thomas Jefferson grew them at Monticello and loved them so much that they were often referred to as Jefferson's blue funnel flowers. Monticello ("MontiCHELLo”) Collinson once wrote, "Forget not me & my garden." Given Peter’s influence on English gardens, he would be pleased to know that, after all these years, he has not been forgotten. In 2010, the author Andrea Wulf popularized Collinson in the book The Brother Gardeners: A Generation of Gentlemen Naturalists and the Birth of an Obsession- one of my favorite books, by one of my favorite authors.    1786 Today is the birthday of the Danish surgeon and botanist Nathaniel Wallich. Nathaniel served as the Superintendent of East India Company's Botanical Garden in Calcutta, India. Wallich's early work involved writing a Flora of Asia. The palm Wallichia disticha (“wall-IK-ee-uh DIS-tik-uh”) was named in Wallich’s honor. The name of the species - disticha - comes from the Greek “distichos” (“dis” means two and “stichos” means line). Distichos refers to the leaves of this palm, which emerge in two rows on opposite sides of the stem. The Wallinchia disticha is a very special palm, and it is native to the base of the Himalayas. The trunk is quite beautiful because it is covered in a trellis of fiber mat - simply gorgeous. This palm can grow to 30 feet tall, but it is a short-lived palm with a life span of just 15 years. In 1824, Wallich was the first to describe the giant Himalayan Lily (Cardiocrinum giganteum) - the largest species of Lily. It is hardy in USDA Zones 7-9. The giant Himalayan Lily can grow up to 12 feet tall. Once it is finished blooming, the mother Lily bulb dies, but luckily, numerous offsets develop from the parent bulb. This dying off is common among plants that push a bloom many feet into the air. It takes enormous energy to create a towering and flowering stalk. If you decide you’d like to grow giant Himalayan Lilies, (and who wouldn’t?) expect blooms anytime after year four. Today, the Nathaniel Wallich Memorial Lecture takes place every year at the Indian Museum in Kolkata on Foundation Day. Wallich founded the museum in 1814. Wallich is buried in Kensal Green cemetery in London alongside many prominent botanists - like James Edward Smith (a founder of the Linnean Society London), John Claudius Loudon (Scottish writer), Sir James McGrigor (Scottish botanist), Archibald Menzies (surgeon), Robert Brown (discoverer of Brownian motion), and David Don (the Linnaean Society Librarian and 1st Professor of Botany Kings College London).   1859 Today is the anniversary of the death of a Swedish botanist who specialized in algae - Carl Adolph Agardh (“AW-guard”). In 1817, Carl published his masterpiece - a book on the algae of Scandinavia. Carl’s work studying algae was a major endeavor from the time he was a young man until his mid-fifties. At that time, he became the bishop of Karlstad. The position was all-consuming, and Carl put his botanical studies behind him.   1870 Today is the birthday of the physician, naturalist, and civic leader of the south-central Kansas town of Belle Plaine - Dr. Walter E. Bartlett. In 1910, Bartlett started the Bartlett Arboretum By purchasing 15 acres of land on the edge of a town called Belle Plaine - about 20 miles south of Wichita. The property had good soil, and it also had a little creek. One of Bartlett's initial moves was too dam up the creek and create a lake for waterfowl. In the flat expanse of Kansas, Bartlett was tree obsessed. He planted them everywhere - lining walkways, drives, and Riverbanks. Bartlett was all so civic-minded, and he added a baseball diamond complete with a grandstand to the arboretum and a running track and a place for trap shooting as well. After Walter died, the park was managed by his son Glenn who was a landscape architect. Glenn had studied the Gardens at Versailles - noting that they were transformed out of sand dunes and marshes. Back home, the Bartlett Arboretum had similar challenges. Glenn married Margaret Myers, who was an artist, a magazine fashion designer, a floral designer, a Garden Club organizer, and an instructor. Combining their fantastic skillsets, Glenn and Margaret turned the Arboretum into something quite beautiful. Together, they Incorporated tree specimens from all over the world. Using dredged dirt from the lake, they created Islands. At one point, the Bartlett Arboretum was the only Arboretum between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. Known for its beautiful spring tradition called Tulip Time, the Arboretum featured a tulip bed with over 40,000 bulbs. In 1997, the Arboretum was sold to Robin Macy. Macy was one of the founding members of the Dixie Chicks, and she is the current steward of the Bartlett Arboretum. Naturally, Robin incorporated music into the Arb. The Facebook Group for the Arboretum recently shared a register page from April 7th, 1929, and across the top of the register, Bartlett had quoted Wordsworth, “He is the happiest who has the power to gather wisdom from a flower.” The folks who tend the flowers and trees at the Bartlett Arboretum make people happy all year long.   Unearthed Words Here are some poems about the winter’s cold. (As I read this, it’s 2 degrees in lovely Maple Grove, Minnesota.) The birds are gone, The ground is white, The winds are wild, They chill and bite;  The ground is thick with slush and sleet,  And I barely feel my feet." It's not the case, though some might wish it so Who from a window watch the blizzard blow White riot through their branches vague and stark, That they keep snug beneath their pelted bark. They take affliction in until it jells To crystal ice between their frozen cells ... — Richard Wilbur, American Poet, Orchard Trees - January  Snow and sleet, and sleet and snow. Will the Winter never go? What do beggar children do With no fire to cuddle to, Perhaps with nowhere warm to go? Snow and sleet, and sleet and snow. Hail and ice, and ice and hail, Water frozen in the pail. See the robins, brown and red, They are waiting to be fed. Poor dears, battling in the gale! Hail and ice, and ice and hail. — Katherine Mansfield, New Zealand Poet & Writer, Winter Song    Blow, blow, thou winter wind, thou art not so unkind as man's ingratitude. — William Shakespeare, English Poet, Playwright, & Actor   The Winter’s cheek flushed as if he had drained Spring, Summer, and Autumn at a draught... — Edward Thomas, British Poet, Essayist & Novelist, "The Manor Farm"   Someone painted pictures on my Windowpane last night -- Willow trees with trailing boughs And flowers, frosty white, And lovely crystal butterflies; But when the morning sun Touched them with its golden beams, They vanished one by one. — Helen Bayley Davis, Baltimore Poet, Maryland Federation of Women’s Clubs Poet Laureate, Jack Frost (Written in 1929 and sold to the Christian Science Monitor)   Grow That Garden Library Weird Plants by Chris Thorogood Chris is a botanist at Oxford Botanic Garden. The cover of Chris's book is captivating - it shows a very weird plant - it almost looks like a claw - and its grasp is the title of the book weird plants. In this book published by Kew Gardens, Chris shares all of the weird and wacky plants that he's encountered during his travels. There are orchids that look like a female insect, and there are giant pitcher plants as well as other carnivorous plants that take down all kinds of prey. One thing's for certain, the weirdness factor of all of these plants has helped them survive for centuries. Gardeners will get a kick out of the seven categories that Chris uses to organize these strange species: Vampires, Killers, Fraudsters, Jailers, Accomplices, Survivors, and Hitchhikers. Chris's writing is complemented by his incredibly detailed oil paintings and his fascinating range of botanical expertise. As someone who works with student gardeners regularly, I appreciate botanists who are able to make plants interesting - taking topics and subjects that may otherwise prove boring and making them utterly captivating. Chris is that kind of garden communicator. In addition to Weird Plants, Chris is the author of Field Guide to the Wild Flowers of the Western Mediterranean and co-author of Field Guide to the Wild Flowers of the Algarve; bothare published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. You can get a used copy of Weird Plants by Chris Thorogood and support the show, using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for under $9.   Great Gifts for Gardeners Good Directions 0113VB Heart Fly-Thru Bird Feeder Birdfeeder, Copper Finish $68.64 The Heart Fly-Thru™ Bird Feeder by Good Directions combines simplicity with elegance. Designed to show birds you love to feed them from the bottom of your heart! The heart fly-thru bird feeder by Good Directions invites birds in for a snack, & helps birders' Favorite activity last All day long! Featuring a charming heart shape & a LONG-LASTING Copper Finish, This bird feeder is the perfect addition to any garden setting. The feeder is easy to hang, Easy to love, & because it's also see-through, it's easy-to-know-when-to-fill! Measuring 15"H x 13"W x 3" D, it's sized to hold a generous 4-1/2 lb. Of seed! A beautiful piece for Valentine’s day or for a special birthday. If you know someone who loves to watch the birds from their house or deck, this will make a nice addition to any bird feeder or birdhouse collection. This gift will always remind them how much they are loved; thus, the heart design. Unique fly-thru design with durable, long-lasting copper finish Charming heart shape with Plexiglass panels for added strength and durability Generous 4-1/2 pound seed capacity Drainage holes help keep seed dry Measures 15"H x 13”w x 3” D Easy to hang and easy-to-know-when-to fill   Today’s Botanic Spark 1895 Today is the birthday of the nurseryman known as “Mr. Poinsettia,” Paul Ecke ("Eck-EE"), Sr. He was born in Magdeburg, Germany. Paul and his family immigrated to the United States in 1906. When Paul took over his father's nursery business located on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood in the early 1920s, the poinsettia(Euphorbia pulcherrima) was a fragile outdoor wild plant. Paul fell in love with the Poinsettia and immediately felt that the plant was a perfect fit for the holiday season because the bloom time occurred naturally during that time. By 1924, Paul was forced out of Hollywood by the movie business, and he brought his family and the nursery to San Diego County. He and his wife Magdalena had four children, and they purchased 40 acres of land in Encinitas("en-sin-EE-tis"). It was here that Paul would turn his passion for Poinsettias into a powerhouse - at one point, his nursery controlled 90% of the Poinsettia market in the United States. At first, Paul raised poinsettias in the fields on the ranch. Each spring, the plants were harvested and then loaded on two railroad cars and sent to Greenhouse Growers all along the east coast. When Paul wasn't growing poinsettias, he was talking poinsettias. He started calling it "The Christmas Flower"; Paul was endlessly marketing poinsettias and praising their attributes as a harbinger of Christmas Initially, Paul worked to decrease the growing time of the Poinsettia. By getting the time to bloom down from 18 months to 8 months, Paul made it possible for the Poinsettia to be grown indoors. After figuring out how to propagate the plant through cuttings indoors, Paul was soon able to ship poinsettias around the world by plane. Paul’s son, Paul Jr., took over the business in the 1960s. He cleverly sent poinsettias to TV shows. When the holiday programs aired, there were the poinsettias - in their glory - decorating the sets and stages of all the major programs. When Paul Junior learned that women's magazines did their photoshoots for the holidays over the summer, he began growing a poinsettia crop that piqued in July. Magazines like Women's Day and Sunset were thrilled to feature the poinsettia in their Christmas magazines alongside Christmas trees and mistletoe. This venture was regarded as the Ecke family's biggest marketing success and made the Poinsettia synonymous with Christmas. And gardeners will be fascinated to learn that the Ecke family was able to distinguish themselves as a superior grower of poinsettias by using a secret technique to keep their plants compact and hardy. Their solution was simple. They grafted two varieties of Poinsettias together, causing every seedling to branch and become bushy. Competitor Poinsettias were leggy and prone to falling open. Not so, with the Ecke Poinsettia. By the 1990s, the Ecke growing secret was out of the bag, and competitors began grafting poinsettias together in order to compete. Today the Ecke family does not grow any poinsettias on their farm in San Diego County. Finally, one of Paul's Poinsettia pet peeves is the commonly-held belief that Poinsettias are poisonous. Sometimes that fear would prevent a pet owner or a young mother from buying the plant. Paul Ecke recognized the threat posed by this false belief. He fought to reveal the truth one interview at a time. It turns out that a 50-pound child would have to eat roughly 500 poinsettia leaves before they would even begin to have a stomach ache. Furthermore, the plant is not dangerous to pets. To prove this point, Paul would regularly eat Poinsettia leaves on camera during interviews over the holiday season. When the Ecke nursery was sold in 2012, it still controlled over half the poinsettia market worldwide. During the holiday season, roughly seventy-five million poinsettia plants are sold - most to women over the age of 40.

Today we celebrate the King whose dream castle incorporated 1,200 varieties of tulips and the man who is regarded as the greatest channeler of the English rural landscape. We'll learn about the mathematician who wrote a book inspired by the Oxford Botanic Garden and the relatively young Botanic Garden that was started in the 90s for the Northern California region. Today’s Unearthed Words feature a beloved American poet who wrote a poem about Flowers in Winter. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that dives deep into the behind-the-scenes of Sissinghurst - sharing all of Vita’s plant choices and how she created her masterpiece. I'll talk about a garden item that can help you keep your phone clean and useable during the garden season - no more dirty or smudged screens! And then we’ll wrap things up with the anniversary of an important antibiotic discovery from a soil sample taken in the great state of Indiana. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events.   Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart   Curated Articles Moths And Butterflies Shift Their Symmetry To Improve Camouflage - Discover Wildlife Using predation experiments and image analysis, this new study provides insights into how camouflaged prey have evolved. A symmetrical midline makes the animal more noticeable to predators who can compare closer symmetrical patterns more easily.   For The Love Of Peat - By John Walker Peat-free compost for carnivorous plants..."David Morris now grows his cobra lilies and sarracenias successfully in a basic mix of equal parts of Melcourt Growbark Pine, perlite and lime-free grit." (from John's article).   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 1679 Today is the birthday of German King Karl Wilhelm von Baden-Durlach. In 1715, Karl founded the city Karl’s Ruhe or Charles’ Repose after he actually had a dream about building the city. At Karl’s castle in Durlach, there was a large flower garden with nearly 1,200 varieties of tulips. He also had over 7,000 orange trees. In 1738, Karl  died while he was working in his tulip bed. After his death, The Karlsruhe Pyramid was installed between 1823–1825 over his grave.   1805 Today is the birthday of the English painter, etcher, and printmaker Samuel Palmer. Samuel Palmer is regarded as the greatest artist of the English rural landscape. Palmer’s landscapes exude a strong connection with the land and nature. Samuel was one of the lead members of an artist group called The Ancients who followed the visionary artist William Blake in the final years before his death in 1827. The Ancients often expressed their work with a mystical view of nature. For instance, Palmer painted trees with as if they had individual personalities. It was Samuel Palmer who said, “The visions of the soul, being perfect, are the only true standard by which nature must be tried.” With regard to the garden, Palmer built a studio in for himself in his garden. He would access it by exiting the house through a secret door that looked like a bookcase.   1832 Today is the birthday of the English mathematician and writer Charles Lutwidge Dodgson also known as Lewis Carroll. Lewis had worked as a librarian at Christ Church College in Oxford. His office window had a view of the Dean's Garden. Lewis wrote in his diary on the 25th of April in 1856 that he had visited the Deanery Garden, where he was planning to take pictures of the cathedral. Instead, he ended up taking pictures of children in the garden. The children were allowed in the Deanery Garden But not in the Cathedral Garden, which was connected to the Deanery Garden by a door. The Oxford Botanic Garden inspired Lewis Carroll to write Alice in Wonderland. The same garden also inspired the authors JRR Tolkien and Philip Pullman. In Lewis Caroll’s Through the Looking-Glass is this favorite passage among gardeners: “In most gardens," the Tiger-lily said, "they make the beds too soft-so that the flowers are always asleep.”   1888 Today the National Geographic Society was officially incorporated. The National Geographic Society was founded by a group of elite scholars, explorers, and scientists. National Geographic celebrates the power of science, exploration, education, and storytelling. It was founded to “increase and diffuse geographic knowledge while promoting the conservation of the world's cultural, historical, and natural resources." “Only if we understand, will we care. Only if we care, will we help. Only if we help, shall all be saved.” –Jane Goodall   1992 The Humboldt Botanical Garden was incorporated in the State of California. Organized by a small group of volunteers, the goal was to create an educational botanical garden for the Northern California region. The Gardens are constructed on a 44.5 -acre site south of Eureka near the Humboldt Bay adjacent to the College of the Redwoods.   Unearthed Words Here’s a poem from the American poet John Greenleaf Whittier called Flowers in Winter. Whittier was a Quaker. He was a staunch abolitionist and a great lover of nature.   How strange to greet, this frosty morn, In graceful counterfeit of flowers,         These children of the meadows, born Of sunshine and of showers!         — A wizard of the Merrimac,         So old ancestral legends say,         Could call green leaf and blossom back         To frosted stem and spray. —         The settler saw his oaken flail Take bud, and bloom before his eyes; From frozen pools, he saw the pale,         Sweet summer lilies rise.         The beechen platter sprouted wild,         The pipkin wore its old-time green         The cradle o’er the sleeping child Became a leafy screen.          — And, while the dew on leaf and flower         Glistened in moonlight clear and still, Learned the dusk wizard’s spell of power,         And caught his trick of skill. — The one, with bridal blush of rose,         And sweetest breath of woodland balm,         And one whose matron lips unclose In smiles of saintly calm.         Fill soft and deep, O winter snow!         The sweet azalea’s oaken dells, And hide the bank where roses blow, And swing the azure bells! Overlay the amber violet’s leaves,         The purple aster’s brookside home,         Guard all the flowers her pencil gives A life beyond their bloom.         And she, when spring comes round again By greening slope and singing flood         Shall wander, seeking, not in vain,         Her darlings of the wood. — John Greenleaf Whittier, Flowers in Winter   Grow That Garden Library Sissinghurst by Vita Sackville-West and Sarah Raven The subtitle to this book is Vita Sackville-West and the Creation of a Garden. The British poet and writer Vita Sackville-West wrote a weekly column in The Observer, where she shared her life at Sissinghurst. Who better than Sarah Raven,  who happens to be married to Vita's grandson Adam Nicholson,  to write this extraordinary book and to share with us Vitas love of flowers and gardening. Every year, gardeners and non-gardeners alike visit Sissinghurst for inspiration and enjoyment. In fact, Sissinghurst remains one of the most visited gardens in the world. Sarah's book is loaded with beautiful photographs and drawings that help convey the triumph of this special place for gardeners and lovers of beauty. Gardeners will especially appreciate the level of detail regarding almost every plant in the garden - why they were chosen and Vita’s personal take on each plant. Vita’s plant lists are part of her legacy and gift to gardeners who want to model her gorgeous plant combinations. You can get a used copy of Sissinghurst by Vita Sackville-West and Sarah Raven and support the show, using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for under $12 . Great Gifts for Gardeners LIBERRWAY Stylus Pen 10 Pack of Pink Purple Black Green Silver Stylus Universal Touch Screen Capacitive Stylus for Kindle Touch iPad iPhone 6/6s 6Plus 6s Plus Samsung S5 S6 S7 Edge S8 Plus Note $6.98   Here’s a great little item for your garden tote - it’s a ten pack of stylus pens. Slip them into your garden apron, put them in your shed or garage. Keep one in your purse, pocket, or in your truck. Now when you need to use your phone and your working in the garden, you won’t need to remove your gloves to use your phone. NO MORE BIG FINGERS - A stylus has a better touchpoint than the tip of your finger, giving better accuracy to little touch focuses like keys on the console. No more big finger troubles. ANTI-SCRATCH TIP - The stylus tip is made of soft, and scratch-resistant rubber. Fingerprint resistant and anti-stick screen tip, great for drawing writing, etc. EASY TO CARRY - It is very light and compact. The clip design is great for clipping in your pocket, iPad, diary, etc. SHARE THEM TO YOUR FRIENDS - Get 10 of the stylus with an unbeatable price instead of a high-priced apple pencil or Samsung pencil. You can share a stylus pen with your friends or family and still have plenty left for you. 1 YEAR WARRANTY! - This stylus fits for all kinds of touch screens, like iPhone 4S 5S 6/6s 6Plus 6s Plus/ iPad Samsung S7 S7 Edge S6 Edge Plus S5 Note 2 3 4 5/ Kindle 2/3/4/ Kindle Fire.   Today’s Botanic Spark 1950 Science magazine announced a brand new antibiotic made by Charles Pfizer & Company, and it was called Terramycin. Pfizer & Co. Was a small chemical company that was based in Brooklyn, New York. The company developed an expertise in fermentation with citric acid. The method allowed them to mass-produce drugs. When Pfizer scientists discovered an antibiotic in a soil sample from Indiana, their deep-tank fermentation method allowed them to mass-produce Terramycin. Pfizer had been searching through soil samples from around the world - isolating bacteria-fighting organisms when they stumbled on Terramycin - found to be effective against pneumonia, dysentery, and other infections. Later in 1950, it was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The name Terramycin is created from the two Latin words: terra for earth and mycin, which means fungus. - thus earth fungus. Terramycin was the first mass-marketed product by a pharmaceutical company. Pfizer spent twice as much marketing Terramycin as it did on R&D for Terramycin. The gamble paid off; Terramycin, earth fungus, made Pfizer a pharmaceutical powerhouse.

Houseplants are all weird and wonderful, but there are some that outdo the rest for their ability to surprise us. Dr Chris Thorogood is a botanist at Oxford Botanic Garden with a clever sideline in painting brilliant pictures of the plants he loves and studies: his new book, Weird Plants, is a brilliant book for anyone who wants to delve a bit deeper into some of the strangest corners of the botanical world. In today’s episode I find out from Chris why engineers are studying the slippery qualities of Nepenthes pitchers, which creature uses Low’s pitcher plant as a toilet, and why Stapelia flowers look mouldy. Visit janeperrone.com for full show notes. 

Dan Saladino and food historian Polly Russell share stories of seeds as told at this year's Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery. From the link between amaranth and cannibalism to edible acorns. Founded in 1981 the Symposium takes a theme and invites scientists, anthropologists, historians, cooks and food enthusiasts to deliver papers and share experiences on the topic. This year they chose one of the biggest subjects possible, seeds. Using the Oxford Botanic Garden's "Plants That Changed The World" display as their backdrop, Dan and Polly have selected six speakers to provide insight into the past, present and future of seeds, from politics to pleasure and from culture to cooking. Professor Simon Hiscock, Director of The Oxford Botanic Garden, starts of by explaining what a seed is and when they first appeared in earth history. Over millions of years biodiversity has meant we've so far identified 400,000 different plants. Elinor Breman of Kew's Millennium Seed Bank explains why a team of seed hunters have been travelling to the most remote parts of the world in search of seeds. As Elinor explains, a fifth of these seeds are at risk of becoming extinct and need to be stored safely for the future. All seeds have a story to tell and one of the most intriguing (and disturbing) is told by food historian David Sutton, "Amaranth: Food of the Gods, or Seed of the Devil?". Meanwhile Steve Jones of the Washington Bread Lab describes his efforts to bring deliciousness back to wheat. Produced by Dan Saladino. Presented by Dan Saladino & Polly Russell.

You're invited to join our science-themed cocktail party, where experts on the history of science tell us stories, fun facts, and random anecdotes about the development of scientific knowledge from the 19th century to today! In this episode, we talk to Royal Society Librarian, Keith Moore, about how the Royal Society crowdsourced information about a 19th century volcanic eruption. Keith takes us on a tour of the Royal Society archive, and at the end of the episode, Chris Thorogood, Head of Science & Public Engagement at the Oxford Botanic Garden, tells us about botanicals and booze. Interviews with: Keith Moore (Royal Society), Dr Chris Thorogood (Oxford Botanic Garden) Produced by: Dr Kira Allmann Music by: Rosemary Allmann This podcast is brought to you by the Constructing Scientific Communities Project, supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Alison Foster, Senior Curator of the Oxford Botanic Garden, discusses her daily work and the transition she has made from working in a lab to working in the garden.

Dr Alison Foster, a former chemist and Senior Curator at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden explains the principals of natural photosynthesis that the Armstrong Group is trying to mimic in the lab.

Dr Alison Foster (Jesus College), Senior Curator at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden, talks about her journey from industrial pharmaceutical chemistry research to her current role in horticulture, and offers some tips for major career transitions.

Dr Alison Foster (Jesus College), Senior Curator at the University of Oxford Botanic Garden, talks about her journey from industrial pharmaceutical chemistry research to her current role in horticulture, and offers some tips for major career transitions.

The first talk in the series from the Oxford Botanic Garden. This talk will describe the development of this new area as well as explaining the involvement of some of the plants grown there in the discovery and development of modern drugs.