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3 episodes with victoria medal
2 episodes with victoria medal
2 episodes with victoria medal
April is in full bloom, and with it comes a gardener's to-do list bursting with promise! This week, Liz Mooney from RHS Garden Wisley shares expert tips on growing a bumper potato crop, while Guy Barter reveals how to plant summer bulbs for a dazzling display. Plus, we celebrate horticultural excellence with Victoria Medal of Honour recipient Martyn Rix, reflecting on a lifetime dedicated to plants. Links: How to grow potatoes RHS People Awards RHS Grow Your Own
Ellen Wilmot was an English horticulturist and influential member of the Royal Horticultural Society, and a recipient of the first Victoria Medal of Honour, awarded to British horticulturists living in the UK by the society.
May is the month our beds, allotments and containers explode with colour and energy.What's on3rd - 4th May Toby's Garden Festival at Powderham Castle, Kenton. 3rd - 5th May BBC Gardeners' World Spring Fair at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu. 9 – 12th May RHS Malvern Spring Festival, Three Counties Showground, Malvern. 12th May Borde Hill Specialist Spring Plant Fair, Haywards Heath. 17th - 26th May Floralies Internationales, Vendee, France. 20th May World Bee Day 21st - 25th May RHS Chelsea Flower Show. 25th - 28th May Blenheim Palace Flower Show25th May - 2nd June National Children's Gardening Week will again be partnering with THE WORLD OF PETER RABBIT™ this May half term.30th May - 3rd June Bloom at the Visitors Centre, Phoenix Park, Dublin. Plants mentioned: Aquatics - water lilies, marginals and oxygenators can be established now. Camellias, Cauliflowers, Cherries, Cucumbers, Chili peppers, Courgette, Daffodils, Dahlias, ‘Enorma' Runner Beans, French bean ‘Cobra', Forsythia, Gooseberries, Helenium, Hosta, Iris, Kale, Malus (crab apples), ‘Padron' Pepper, Potatoes, Roses, Sedum, Sweet peas, Sunflowers, Sweet Corn and Tulips.Products mentioned: Fertilisers – Doff, Growmore and Tomorite, Tea for soaking bean seeds and Speedplanters.This month's Dig It Top 5: Most popular liquid feedsNewsClimate change and verticillium wilt puts brewers hops under threat.Kew scientists assess extinction risk of flowering species using computer modellingReaders to the trade magazine Horticulture Week voted for Alan Titchmarsh and bagged compost as the most influential person and product impacting the gardening world over the past 50 years.A major revamp of Torbay's 100-year-old Italian garden brings 1,600 new plants after 40 cabbage palms were felled.Yorkshire base, fourth generation rhubarb grower @ehubarbrobert is a social media hit.An OBE for garden designer and landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith. The RHS have awarded Neil Lucas of Knoll Gardens and Nurseryman Chris Young the prestigious Victoria Medal of Honour (VMH). The Elizabeth Medal of Honour was bestowed on non-dig guru Charles Dowding for his outstanding contribution to horticulture as a non-professional gardener.New initiative to revive railway hedges.Latest DNA fingerprinting could help identify lost apples that are resistant to climate change.International Women's Day: 100+ Leading Women in Horticulture 2024 announced.University of Sussex launches The Big Bee Hotel experiment to discover more about bees that nest in artificially created habitats.New Tulip variety named after King Charles III unveiled at Keukenhof.Garden Organics says the Government isn't moving fast enough on the peat ban.RHS Chelsea Flower Show gardens go through ‘green audit' for the first time.£12million Lottery Heritage Fund to restore Great Yarmouth's historic winter gardens, the last surviving Victorian ironwork glasshouse on a seaside promenade.London's Royal Parks have openings for ten apprentices.Weather causes concern with potato farmers. Discover how to take part in this year's Henchman Topiary awards.Gardens start to bounce back visitor numbers wise with Kew Garden and RHS Wisley and the Royal Botanic Garden at Edinburgh taking the top spots.Our thanks to Chiltern Music Therapy for supplying the music. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Happy Women's History Month! To kick Women's History Month off on Cultivating Place, we visit with the woman known as the Queen of Herbs, Jekka McVicar of Jekka's Herb Farm in the UK this week. Her long and notable career has brought the gardened world the best the herbs of the world have to offer to our gardens, to our environments, to our kitchens, and to our souls. In recognition of her herbal research, plant breeding, garden designing, and advocacy around the many merits of all manner of herbs to the garden world these past 40 years, Jekka has been awarded the Victoria Medal of Honour in Horticulture by the Royal Horticultural Society and the Gardeners Media Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as 62 RHS Gold Medals. At Jekka's Herb Farm and Herbetum in South Gloucestershire, she displays her life's collection of more than 600 culinary, medicinal, pollinator-supporting, and beautiful herbs. I was honored to profile Jekka in my 2020 book, The Earth In Her Hands, 75 Extraordinary Women Working in the World of Plants, as one of the women leaders in our horticultural world who have expanded and elevated the way we think and talk about gardening. Jekka's newest book, 100 Herbs to Grow A Comprehensive Guide to the Best Culinary and Medicinal Herbs publishes from Quadrille Press in march of 2024. Savor! Cultivating Place now has a donate button! We thank you so much for listening over the years, and we hope you'll support Cultivating Place. We can't thank you enough for making it possible for this young program to grow even more of these types of conversations. The show is available as a podcast on SoundCloud, iTunes, and Google Podcasts. To read more and for many more photos please visit www.cultivatingplace.com.
For this week's show, we take a behind the scenes look at the ways spring is fighting its way into the picture at RHS Garden Wisley. We go behind the scenes at the Alpine Display House, we get a masterclass on pruning wisteria, and we dive into the life and work of the eccentric and influential horticulturist Ellen Willmott – and explore a theory for why she may have missed her Victoria Medal of Honour ceremony. Presenter: Guy Barter Contributors: Alex Hankey, Matthew Pottage, Suzanne Moss Links: Visiting Wisley Narcissus bulbocodium How to get wonderful Wisteria: Buying, planting, pruning and care tips “Gardens have provided solace, opportunity and inspiration for LGBTQ+ people” Miss Willmott's Ghosts: the extraordinary life and gardens of a forgotten genius
Is migration good or bad for development? How does migration affect those who leave and those who stay behind? How are rural and urban livelihoods interconnected in Asian cities? What are the likely main migration trends in Asia the coming decade? And what can you learn from studying the same village for decades? To discuss these diverse questions, we are joined by two leading experts on development and migration in Asia, Jonathan Rigg and Marta Bivand Erdal. Drawing on extensive experience working in South and Southeast Asia, they discuss complex questions of leaving and staying in contemporary Asia, how to study migration processes and how context matters for understanding the impact of migration. Professor Jonathan Rigg is Chair in Human Geography at the University of Bristol. He has decades of experience working on development and migration in South and Southeast Asia, focusing on issues such as rural-urban relations, livelihoods, coping and resilience, hazards and disasters and, more broadly, rural development. In 2020, he was awarded the prestigious Victoria Medal from the Royal Geographical Society for his work. Marta Bivand Erdal is Research Professor at the Peace Research Institute in Oslo. She has done extensive research on migration processes in South Asia, as well as Norway and Poland, combining research on migration processes and transnational ties, with research on living together in culturally and religiously diverse societies. She currently leads the the ERC-funded Project ‘Migration rhythms in trajectories of upward social mobility in Asia', studying migration and the formation of new middle classes in Karachi, Mumbai, Hanoi and Manilla. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
Is migration good or bad for development? How does migration affect those who leave and those who stay behind? How are rural and urban livelihoods interconnected in Asian cities? What are the likely main migration trends in Asia the coming decade? And what can you learn from studying the same village for decades? To discuss these diverse questions, we are joined by two leading experts on development and migration in Asia, Jonathan Rigg and Marta Bivand Erdal. Drawing on extensive experience working in South and Southeast Asia, they discuss complex questions of leaving and staying in contemporary Asia, how to study migration processes and how context matters for understanding the impact of migration. Professor Jonathan Rigg is Chair in Human Geography at the University of Bristol. He has decades of experience working on development and migration in South and Southeast Asia, focusing on issues such as rural-urban relations, livelihoods, coping and resilience, hazards and disasters and, more broadly, rural development. In 2020, he was awarded the prestigious Victoria Medal from the Royal Geographical Society for his work. Marta Bivand Erdal is Research Professor at the Peace Research Institute in Oslo. She has done extensive research on migration processes in South Asia, as well as Norway and Poland, combining research on migration processes and transnational ties, with research on living together in culturally and religiously diverse societies. She currently leads the the ERC-funded Project ‘Migration rhythms in trajectories of upward social mobility in Asia', studying migration and the formation of new middle classes in Karachi, Mumbai, Hanoi and Manilla. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies
Is migration good or bad for development? How does migration affect those who leave and those who stay behind? How are rural and urban livelihoods interconnected in Asian cities? What are the likely main migration trends in Asia the coming decade? And what can you learn from studying the same village for decades? To discuss these diverse questions, we are joined by two leading experts on development and migration in Asia, Jonathan Rigg and Marta Bivand Erdal. Drawing on extensive experience working in South and Southeast Asia, they discuss complex questions of leaving and staying in contemporary Asia, how to study migration processes and how context matters for understanding the impact of migration. Professor Jonathan Rigg is Chair in Human Geography at the University of Bristol. He has decades of experience working on development and migration in South and Southeast Asia, focusing on issues such as rural-urban relations, livelihoods, coping and resilience, hazards and disasters and, more broadly, rural development. In 2020, he was awarded the prestigious Victoria Medal from the Royal Geographical Society for his work. Marta Bivand Erdal is Research Professor at the Peace Research Institute in Oslo. She has done extensive research on migration processes in South Asia, as well as Norway and Poland, combining research on migration processes and transnational ties, with research on living together in culturally and religiously diverse societies. She currently leads the the ERC-funded Project ‘Migration rhythms in trajectories of upward social mobility in Asia', studying migration and the formation of new middle classes in Karachi, Mumbai, Hanoi and Manilla. Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/southeast-asian-studies
Is migration good or bad for development? How does migration affect those who leave and those who stay behind? How are rural and urban livelihoods interconnected in Asian cities? What are the likely main migration trends in Asia the coming decade? And what can you learn from studying the same village for decades? To discuss these diverse questions, we are joined by two leading experts on development and migration in Asia, Jonathan Rigg and Marta Bivand Erdal. Drawing on extensive experience working in South and Southeast Asia, they discuss complex questions of leaving and staying in contemporary Asia, how to study migration processes and how context matters for understanding the impact of migration. Professor Jonathan Rigg is Chair in Human Geography at the University of Bristol. He has decades of experience working on development and migration in South and Southeast Asia, focusing on issues such as rural-urban relations, livelihoods, coping and resilience, hazards and disasters and, more broadly, rural development. In 2020, he was awarded the prestigious Victoria Medal from the Royal Geographical Society for his work. Marta Bivand Erdal is Research Professor at the Peace Research Institute in Oslo. She has done extensive research on migration processes in South Asia, as well as Norway and Poland, combining research on migration processes and transnational ties, with research on living together in culturally and religiously diverse societies. She currently leads the the ERC-funded Project ‘Migration rhythms in trajectories of upward social mobility in Asia', studying migration and the formation of new middle classes in Karachi, Mumbai, Hanoi and Manilla. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/south-asian-studies
Is migration good or bad for development? How does migration affect those who leave and those who stay behind? How are rural and urban livelihoods interconnected in Asian cities? What are the likely main migration trends in Asia the coming decade? And what can you learn from studying the same village for decades? To discuss these diverse questions, we are joined by two leading experts on development and migration in Asia, Jonathan Rigg and Marta Bivand Erdal. Drawing on extensive experience working in South and Southeast Asia, they discuss complex questions of leaving and staying in contemporary Asia, how to study migration processes and how context matters for understanding the impact of migration. Professor Jonathan Rigg is Chair in Human Geography at the University of Bristol. He has decades of experience working on development and migration in South and Southeast Asia, focusing on issues such as rural-urban relations, livelihoods, coping and resilience, hazards and disasters and, more broadly, rural development. In 2020, he was awarded the prestigious Victoria Medal from the Royal Geographical Society for his work. Marta Bivand Erdal is Research Professor at the Peace Research Institute in Oslo. She has done extensive research on migration processes in South Asia, as well as Norway and Poland, combining research on migration processes and transnational ties, with research on living together in culturally and religiously diverse societies. She currently leads the the ERC-funded Project ‘Migration rhythms in trajectories of upward social mobility in Asia', studying migration and the formation of new middle classes in Karachi, Mumbai, Hanoi and Manilla.
Is migration good or bad for development? How does migration affect those who leave and those who stay behind? How are rural and urban livelihoods interconnected in Asian cities? What are the likely main migration trends in Asia the coming decade? And what can you learn from studying the same village for decades? To discuss these diverse questions, we are joined by two leading experts on development and migration in Asia, Jonathan Rigg and Marta Bivand Erdal. Drawing on extensive experience working in South and Southeast Asia, they discuss complex questions of leaving and staying in contemporary Asia, how to study migration processes and how context matters for understanding the impact of migration. Professor Jonathan Rigg is Chair in Human Geography at the University of Bristol. He has decades of experience working on development and migration in South and Southeast Asia, focusing on issues such as rural-urban relations, livelihoods, coping and resilience, hazards and disasters and, more broadly, rural development. In 2020, he was awarded the prestigious Victoria Medal from the Royal Geographical Society for his work. Marta Bivand Erdal is Research Professor at the Peace Research Institute in Oslo. She has done extensive research on migration processes in South Asia, as well as Norway and Poland, combining research on migration processes and transnational ties, with research on living together in culturally and religiously diverse societies. She currently leads the the ERC-funded Project ‘Migration rhythms in trajectories of upward social mobility in Asia', studying migration and the formation of new middle classes in Karachi, Mumbai, Hanoi and Manilla. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/economics
Alan Titchmarsh was born and brought up on the edge of Ilkley Moor. He left school at fifteen and became an apprentice gardener in the local nursery, following this with full-time training at horticultural college and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.Alan was the main presenter of Gardeners' World and the hugely popular Ground Force, and has also presented How To Be A Gardener, British Isles – A Natural History, The Great British Village Show, The Nature of Britain. His own daytime show on ITV, The Alan Titchmarsh Show, featured a combination of music, the arts and conversation, which ran for eight years and he presents his own radio show on Classic FM on Saturday mornings. This year we saw Alan's new show for ITV, Masterpiece as well as the sixth series of Love Your Garden, ITV.He writes regularly in BBC Gardeners' World Magazine and Country Life and is gardening correspondent of The Daily Express and The Sunday Express, and writes in The Sunday Telegraph as well. Alan has written more than 50 gardening books, a Christmas anthology, nine novels, four volumes of memoirs and a miscellany celebrating England and Englishness.In 1997 Alan was named “Yorkshire Man of the Year”. He was appointed MBE in the 2000 New Year Honours List, and a Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Hampshire in 2001, when he was also immortalised by Madame Tussaud's. In 2004 he received the Victoria Medal of Honour, the highest accolade in the British gardening world, and in 2009 he was made a Vice President of the Royal Horticultural Society. He is patron or president of over 50 charities.
Hello and welcome back to this weeks episode of the Mike the Gardener – Gardening Podcast. This week, I'm over the moon to announce that my guest is none other than Queen of Herbs, Jekka McVicar. Jekka McVicar is an organic grower of herbs and horticultural author, designer, consultant, judge and moderator. She is renowned for her passion and knowledge of herbs and has built an international reputation for growing and designing sustainable herb gardens. Jekka has an impressive list of credentials. These include the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Vice President and Ambassador for Health & Wellbeing and the RHS top accolade, the Victoria Medal of Honour. She is an Honorary Member of the RHS Fruit, Vegetable & Herb Committee and a regular judge at RHS Flower shows. In 2018 she was chairman of the judging panel for the Great Pavilion at the Chelsea Flower Show. She has also been awarded the 2012 Gardeners Media Guild Life Time Achievement Award for services to horticulture, design, education and communication, and excellence in the field of organic herb growing. I visited Jekka a few weeks ago and chatted to her at length about her career, how she got started, how the business has grown, her writing, her flute playing, yes, you read that correctly, and how one of her books came to are in the hands of Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales. As always, please do follow/subscribe as there is still more to come and, if you are able, please leave a review with your preferred podcast provider. Many thanks Mike
Professor Karoly was leader of the Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub in the Australian Government's National Environmental Science Program, based in CSIRO, during 2018 to June 2021. During 2012-2017, he was a member of the Climate Change Authority, which provides advice to the Australian government on responding to climate change, including targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He was involved in the Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2001, 2007, 2014 and 2021 in several different roles and was a part of the revered group of IPCC authors who shared the Nobel Peace prize with Al Gore in 2007. He was awarded the 2015 Royal Society of Victoria Medal for Scientific Excellence in Earth Sciences and elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2019. Links ___________________ Contact: utopiaisnow2020@gmail.com David Karoly: https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/67077-david-karoly Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3jkFkD3Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3A4PPjZ Google Podcast: https://bit.ly/2SwB9Jr Instagram/Twitter/Linkedin: @utopiaisnow Timestamps ___________________ 1:54 - Intro to David Karoly 12:01 - The Moral Sentiments of a Climate Scientist 22:54 - What is the current state of the climate 30:32 - How has David coped with conducting research and consistently encountering distressing evidence for 40+ years? 38:47 - Climate Change & Social Justice 46:10 - Climate change as Class War 51:23 - How do you manage to take time for yourself in the face of the Sisyphean task of fighting against climate inaction? 57-52 - “Certain things, they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone”. -J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. If you could, what would you stick under a big glass case? 1:00:52 - What can people do to help fight climate injustice? Credits __________________ Music: A Journey Through The Universe – Lesion X --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/utopia-is-now/message
What better way to celebrate the 30th episode of Let's Talk SciComm than continue our conversation with world-renowned climate scientist and climate science communicator, Professor David Karoly. This is part 2 of our conversation with David, so if you haven't listened to last week's episode, please go back and do that first! David is an honorary Professor at the University of Melbourne having retired in February 2022 from CSIRO in Australia, where he was a Chief Research Scientist in the CSIRO Climate Science Centre. He is an internationally recognised expert on climate change and climate variability. Professor Karoly was the Leader of the Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub in the Australian Government's National Environmental Science Program, based in CSIRO, from 2018 until the Hub closed at the end of June 2021. He was a member of the National Climate Science Advisory Committee during 2018-19. During 2012-2017, he was a member of the Climate Change Authority, which provides advice to the Australian government on responding to climate change, including targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He was involved in the Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2001, 2007, 2014 and 2021 in several different roles. He is also a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. He was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2019. He was awarded the 2015 Royal Society of Victoria Medal for Scientific Excellence in Earth Sciences. From 2007 to February 2018, David Karoly was Professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Melbourne and in the A.R.C. Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science. You can learn more about David here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Karoly https://www.science.org.au/profile/david-karoly https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-karoly-768a1b22/ https://www.thecitizen.org.au/articles/veteran-of-climate-wars-still-fighting-for-a-habitable-planet-and-for-science https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/lessons-in-hyperbolic-gestures/9974284 https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/professor-david-karoly-morrison-government-climate-inaction/ Transcript: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/qy2e
This week it was our absolute honour to speak with Professor David Karoly, world-renowned climate scientist and climate science communicator. David is an honorary Professor at the University of Melbourne having retired in February 2022 from CSIRO in Australia, where he was a Chief Research Scientist in the CSIRO Climate Science Centre. He is an internationally recognised expert on climate change and climate variability. Professor Karoly was the Leader of the Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub in the Australian Government's National Environmental Science Program, based in CSIRO, from 2018 until the Hub closed at the end of June 2021. He was a member of the National Climate Science Advisory Committee during 2018-19. During 2012-2017, he was a member of the Climate Change Authority, which provides advice to the Australian government on responding to climate change, including targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He was involved in the Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2001, 2007, 2014 and 2021 in several different roles. He is also a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. He was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2019. He was awarded the 2015 Royal Society of Victoria Medal for Scientific Excellence in Earth Sciences. From 2007 to February 2018, David Karoly was Professor of Atmospheric Science at the University of Melbourne and in the A.R.C. Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science. We had such a fascinating and wide-ranging conversation with David that we've split our conversation across two episodes. Stay tuned for Part 2 next Tuesday! You can learn more about David here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Karoly https://www.science.org.au/profile/david-karoly https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-karoly-768a1b22/ https://www.thecitizen.org.au/articles/veteran-of-climate-wars-still-fighting-for-a-habitable-planet-and-for-science https://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/episodes/lessons-in-hyperbolic-gestures/9974284 https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/professor-david-karoly-morrison-government-climate-inaction/ Transcript: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/5p2e
In this episode sponsored by Genus Performance Gardenwear Joff talks to Sandra Lawrence author of 'Miss Wilmott's Ghosts - The extraordinary life and gardens of a forgotten genius'. They discuss Ellen Wilmott, her upbringing, and her inherited wealth. The 11th century castle and the hidden 'treasures' in its damp cellars. The legendary parties at Ellen's home Warley Place. 'Wilmott Tombola' with dead mice and silverfish. Ellen Wilmott 'snubbing' the RHS after being awarded the Victoria Medal of Honour. Ellen's complicated friendship with Gertrude Jekyll. Why every Victorian lady should carry knuckle dusters and a revolver.
David meets Omagh man Brian Duncan who has been breeding daffodils since the 1960s and has been awarded one of horticulture's greatest honours. He becomes one of only 63 people who can wear the Victoria Medal of Honour. Also on the programme, why Erodiums or Stork's bills deserve a place in your garden. And a visit to the Folk Museum where Irish Garden Plant Society members are doing what they can to create a living museum and a refuge for endangered Irish plants. All that and the experts will be taking questions live – gardenerscorner@bbc.co.uk
Today we salute the English orphan girl who wrote her own destiny with science fiction writing. We also remember the English gardener who is still ghosting us after many decades. We revisit a letter from Elizabeth Lawrence to her sister Ann. We'll celebrate National Potato Day with some Potato Poems. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a gorgeous book about Dahlias. And then we'll wrap things up with the birthday of a beloved American creator of light verse. 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 Behind the Winning Design: Q&A with Michael Drolet | FlowerMag Here's an excerpt: “When Michael Drolet submitted his vibrant vision for a Paris apartment for the Virtual Design Challenge, “we were all immediately impressed and drawn to his colorful and technically accurate proposal,” said Cass Key, creative director at Woodbridge Furniture, one of the contest sponsors along with Taylor King and KingsHaven. “He set the stage beautifully and let the story unfold like a professional, and the true plot twist came when we realized that he was a student, looking to start his career in the fall. He pushed the boundaries by using a Taylor King fabric as a wall covering and imagining the outdoor space, which is exactly the type of inventive creativity that should be rewarded today and always, said Key." Wallcovering: Taylor King's 'Secret Garden Passion' floral textile Today is National Potato Day. Here are some fun Potato facts: The average American eats approximately 126 pounds of spuds each year. And, up until the 18th century, the French believed potatoes caused leprosy. To combat the belief, the agronomist Antoine Auguste Parmentier single-handedly changed the French perception of the Potato. How did Antoine get the French people to believe that the Potato was safe to eat? Good question. Antoine cleverly posted guards around his potato fields during the day and put the word out that he didn't want people stealing them. Then, he purposefully left them unguarded at night. As he suspected, people did what he thought they would do; steal the potatoes by the sackful by the light of the moon. Soon, they started eating them. And Marie Antoinette wore potato blossoms in her hair. The Idaho Potato, or the Russet Burbank, was developed by none other than Luther Burbank in 1871. Today is also World Photography Day! So, head out to your garden and take some photos. 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 1807 Today is the birthday of Jane Webb, who married the prolific writer of all things gardening: John Claudius Loudon. Together they became magnificent partners in the world of botanical writing and publishing. Jane was an extraordinary person. She was a fantastic writer in her own right, but she also possessed an inner determination; she was a survivor. When her father lost the family fortune and died penniless when Jane was only seventeen, it was the beginning of her career writing Science Fiction. Along with Mary Shelley, Jane was an early pioneer in science fiction writing. It's hard to believe, but this endeavor would set her on her life's path to garden writing. Jane's book The Mummy was published anonymously, in 1827, in three parts. In her writing, Jane incorporated predictable changes in technology and society. For instance, she predicted that women of the future would wear pants. And, Jane also featured something agricultural that she imagined would come to pass: a steam plow. Jane's vision of easier and less laborious farming is what attracted the attention of John Claudius Loudon - her future husband. Loudon wrote a favorable review of her book, but he also wanted to meet the author. Loudon didn't realize Jane had written the book using a nom de plume of Henry Colburn. Much to Loudon's delight, Henry was Jane; they fell in love and married a year later. If you enjoy Victorian illustrations, you'll positively swoon for the frontispiece of Jane's 1843 publication Gardening for ladies: with a calendar of operations and directions for every month in the year. It shows a mother and her young child standing on either side of a lush arbor, and they are both holding garden tools. Jane's garden books were very popular. She connected with her fans because she was always earnest and genuine. Jane wasn't raised as a gardener. She learned it as an adult. When it came to gardening, Jane was a conscious competent - and it made her an excellent gardening teacher. Jane was aware of this when she wrote, “I think books intended for professional gardeners, are seldom suitable to the wants of amateurs. It is so very difficult for a person who has been acquainted with a subject all his life, to imagine the state of ignorance in which a person is who knows nothing of it…Thus, though it might, at first sight, appear presumptuous in me to attempt to teach an art of which for three-fourths of my life I was perfectly ignorant, it is, in fact, that very circumstance which is one of my chief qualifications for the task.” Today, people often forget that Jane was not only a wife but a caretaker. John's arms stopped working as he grew older, after an attack of rheumatic fever. As a result, Jane became his arms, handling most of his writing. As with all of the trials she faced, Jane managed John's challenges head-on and with pragmatism. As for those who felt gardening wasn't ladylike, Jane wrote, “…a lady, with the assistance of a common laborer to level and prepare the ground, may turn a barren waste into a flower garden with her own hands.” Eventually, John's right arm got so bad that surgeons needed to amputate it. They found him in his garden when they came to perform the surgery. John replied he intended to return to the garden immediately after the operation. Two weeks before Christmas 1843, Jane was helping John write his last book called, A Self Instruction to Young Gardeners. Around midnight, he stopped dictating and suddenly collapsed into Jane's arms and died. True to form, Jane completed the book on her own. The orphan girl who never knew financial security, Jane Loudon, is remembered with affection to this day for her beautiful illustrations and garden writing for the people. 1858 Today is the birthday of Ellen Ann Willmott, who was an English horticulturalist who lived in Brentwood. Ellen was the oldest in her family of three daughters. In 1875, her parents moved to Warley Place, which was set on 33 acres of land in Essex. Ellen lived there for the rest of her life. Now, the entire each member of the Willmott family enjoyed gardening, and they often gardened together as a family. Ellen once wrote, “I had a passion for sowing seeds and was very proud when I found out the difference between beads and seeds and gave up sewing the former.” The Willmott's created an alpine garden complete with a gorge and rockery. They also created a cave for their ferns. This was an activity that Ellen's father had approved to commemorate her 21st birthday. When her godmother died, Ellen received some pretty significant money. And, when Ellen's father died, Warley Place went to her. With her large inheritance and no love interest save her garden, Ellen planted to her heart's content. It was a good thing that Ellen had so much money because she sure liked to spend it. She had three homes: one in France, Warley Place, and another in Italy. Given the size of Warley Place, it's no wonder that Ellen hired over 100 gardeners to help her tend it. Now, Ellen was no shrinking violet. She was very demanding and impatient. She had a reputation for firing any gardener who allowed a weed to grow in her beds. And, she only hired men - at least before the war, that is. There's a famous quote from her that is often cited, “Women would be a disaster in the border.” Ellen's gardeners worked very hard - putting in twelve hours a day. And, Ellen made them wear a uniform that included a frog-green silk tie, a hat with a green band, and a blue apron. She could easily spot them as they worked in the garden. Ellen's favorite flower was the narcissus, and she asked her gardeners to let their children scatter them all around the garden. With such a large staff and maniacal devotion, Ellen's garden at Warley Place was revered, and her guests included Queen Mary, Queen Alexandra, and Princess Victoria. Ellen delighted in novel plants, and to acquire them, and she also paid for plant hunting expeditions. As the financier of these ventures, the plants that were discovered on these expeditions were often named in her honor. For example, Ellen sponsored the great Ernest Henry Wilson. When he returned, he named three plants after her: blue plumbago (Certostigmata Willmottianum), a yellow Corylopsis (Corylopsis Willmottiae), and a pink rose (Rosa Willmottiae). When Ellen received the Victoria Medal of Honor in 1897, she was honored alongside Gertrude Jekyll. This was a significant accomplishment for both women during this time. Yet, at the end of her life, Ellen died penniless and heartbroken. She had spent her entire inheritance on her gardens. After Ellen died, the house at Warley Place was demolished, but Warley Place, along with its grand row of 17th-century chestnut trees, managed to stay protected and became a nature preserve. And, there's a little story about Ellen that I thought you would enjoy. Ellen always carried a handbag. Now, in this handbag, She allegedly always carried two items: a revolver and thistle seeds. Obviously, the former was for protection, but the latter was put to far more sinister use. Allegedly, when Ellen would go to other people's gardens, she discreetly scattered thistle seed about the garden during her visit. To this day, the giant prickly thistle has the common name Miss Willmott's ghost. 1934 On this day, Elizabeth Lawrence wrote a letter to her sister Ann. In the letter, she mentions their mom, Bessie, who shared both her daughters' love of the garden. "I am so happy to get back to my rickety Corona; Ellen’s elegant new typewriter made anything I had to say unworthy of its attention. The Zinnias you raised for us are magnificent. There are lots of those very pale salmon ones that are the loveliest of all, and some very pale yellow ones that Bessie puts in my room. The red ones are in front of Boltonia and astilbe (white). I knew how awful the garden would be. I have come back to it before, and I knew Bessie wasn’t going to do anything by herself. But that doesn’t mitigate the despair that you feel when you see it. I worked for two days and almost got the weeds out of the beds around the summer house. There isn’t much left. There has been so much rain that the growth of the weeds was tropical." Unearthed WordsToday is National Potato Day. Here are some poems about the humble Potato. Three days into the journey I lost the Inca Trail and scrambled around the Andes in a growing panic when on a hillside below the snowline I met a farmer who pointed the way— Machu Picchu allá, he said. He knew where I wanted to go. From my pack, I pulled out an orange. It seemed to catch fire in that high blue Andean sky. I gave it to him. He had been digging in a garden, turning up clumps of earth, some odd, misshapen nuggets, some potatoes. He handed me one, a potato the size of the orange looking as if it had been in the ground a hundred years, a potato I carried with me until at last I stood gazing down on the Urubamba valley, peaks rising out of the jungle into clouds, and there among the mists was the Temple of the Sun and the Lost City of the Incas. Looking back now, all these years later, what I remember most, what matters to me most, was that farmer, alone on his hillside, who gave me a potato, a potato with its peasant's face, its lumps and lunar craters, a potato that fit perfectly in my hand, a potato that consoled me as I walked, told me not to fear, held me close to the earth, the Potato I put in a pot that night, the Potato I boiled above Machu Picchu, the patient, gnarled Potato I ate. — Joseph Stroud, American poet, The Potato In haste one evening while making dinner I threw away a potato that was spoiled on one end. The rest would have been redeemable. In the yellow garbage pail, it became the consort of coffee grounds, banana skins, carrot peelings. I pitched it onto the compost where steaming scraps and leaves return, like bodies over time, to earth. When I flipped the fetid layers with a hay fork to air the pile, the Potato turned up unfailingly, as if to revile me— looking plumper, firmer, resurrected instead of disassembling. It seemed to grow until I might have made shepherd's pie for a whole hamlet, people who pass the day dropping trees, pumping gas, pinning hand-me-down clothes on the line. — Jane Kenyon, American poet, Potato Grow That Garden Library Dahlias by Naomi Slade This book came out in 2018, and the subtitle is Beautiful Varieties for Home & Garden. The dahlia is a fabulous cutting flower for the home garden. Cut one bloom, and ten more appear on the plant. Blooming late summer to the first frost of autumn, this native of Mexico provides explosions of color in home gardens. Naomi Slade is a biologist by training, a naturalist by inclination, and she has a lifelong love of plants. Georgianna Lane is a leading garden photographer whose work has been widely published, and she's one of my favorites. This book is 240 pages of delicious dahlias - a gorgeous gift from Naomi and Georgianna. You can get a copy of Dahlias by Naomi Slade and support the show, using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $10 Today's Botanic Spark 1902 Today is the birthday of Ogden Nash. Ogden is the American poet, who said, "Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker." He also said, "Parsley is Gharsley." Ogden wrote several poems about gardening and flowers. His poem called My Victory Garden is a standout favorite with gardeners. Today, my friends, I beg your pardon, But I'd like to speak of my Victory Garden. With a hoe for a sword, and citronella for armor, I ventured forth to become a farmer. On bended knee, and perspiring clammily, I pecked at the soil to feed my family, A figure than which there was none more dramatic-er. Alone with the bug, and my faithful sciatica, I toiled with the patience of Job or Buddha, But nothing turned out the way it shudda. Would you like a description of my parsley? I can give it to you in one word--gharsley! They're making playshoes out of my celery, It's reclaimed rubber, and purplish yellery, Something crawly got into my chives, My lettuce has hookworm; my cabbage has hives, And I mixed the labels when sowing my carrots; I planted birdseed--it came up parrots. Do you wonder then, that my arteries harden Whenever I think of my Victory Garden? My farming will never make me famous, I'm an agricultural ignoramus, So don't ask me to tell a string bean from a soy bean. I can't even tell a girl bean from a boy bean.
Britain’s best-loved gardener Alan Titchmarsh is the definitive voice on all things botanical. Not only an expert gardener and horticulturalist, Alan is well known for his illustrious success as a journalist, author, presenter and television personality. The recipient of four honorary degrees, he holds the title of Vice-President of the Royal Horticultural Society and has been awarded a Victoria Medal of Honour and an MBE in the 2000 New Years’ Honours list.Born and brought up on the edge of Ilkley Moor in Yorkshire, Alan left school at fifteen to became an apprentice gardener in the local nursery. Quickly becoming engrossed with all things botanical, he then trained at trained at Hertfordshire College of Horticulture and the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew.His first appearance on screen was in 1979, reporting on a plague of greenfly that had invaded the seaside town of Margate. By 1986, Alan was presenting BBC Breakfast Time and BBC Manchester’s Open Air and since then, his profile as a presenter has taken him from Pebble Mill at One via Gardeners’ World to his own chat show. He maintains his gardening passion with programmes including Love Your Garden and Britain's Best Gardens, and his long-running coverage of the infamous Chelsea Flower Show. His own daytime show on ITV, The Alan Titchmarsh Show, featured a combination of music, the arts and conversation, and he presents his own radio show on Classic FM on Saturday mornings. Aside from his work as a charismatic presenter, Alan has authored over 50 books about gardening including the fastest- selling gardening book of all time, How to be a Gardener Book 1: Back to Basics, along with eight novels, four volumes of memoirs, a miscellany celebrating England and Englishness and a Christmas anthology. He writes for BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine, and is the gardening correspondent for the Daily Express and Sunday Express.In 1997 Alan was named “Yorkshire Man of the Year”. He was appointed MBE in the 2000 New Year Honours List, and a Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Hampshire in 2001, when he was also immortalised by Madame Tussaud’s. In 2004 he received the Victoria Medal of Honour, the highest accolade in the British gardening world, and in 2009 he was made a Vice President of the Royal Horticultural Society. He is patron or president of over 50 charities. Alan lives in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, with his wife in an old farmhouse with a four acre garden.The music for the podcast is Twiggy's version of "Waterloo Sunset" by the Kinks and can be found on Apple Music at this link https://music.apple.com/gb/album/romantically-yours/693460953If you’ve enjoyed listening to “Tea With Twiggy” please give take a moment to give us a lovely 5 STAR rating on Apple Podcasts. It really helps other people to find the show.If you haven’t done so already please subscribe to this podcast so you auto-magically get the next episodes for free and do tell all your friends and family about it too. If you want to connect with me I’d love to hear from you.You can find me on Twitter @TwiggyOr you can find me on Instagram @Twiggy LawsonMy thanks go to all the people that have helped this podcast happen:● Many thanks to James Carrol and all the team at Northbank Talent Management● Thanks to all the team at Stripped Media including Ben Williams, who edits the show, my producer Kobi Omenaka and Executive Producers Tom Whalley and Dave CorkeryIf you want to know more about this podcast and other produced by Stripped Media please visit www.Stripped.media or email Producers@Stripped.Media to find out! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Today we celebrate the man who introduced tulips to Holland and the botanist who was supposed to become Carl Linnaeus's son-in-law — but didn't. We'll also learn about the botanist who loved New Brunswick. Today's Unearthed Words feature words about winter - and bees in winter. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that helps you recognize elements of good garden design. I'll talk about a garden item in high demand this time of year. And then we'll wrap things up with the birthday of a distinguished gardener and garden writer - and she backfilled Vita Sackville-West as the garden columnist for The Observer. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Curated Articles How to Make a Teepee for Your Climbing Beans | Mother Earth News "Use a garbage can lid, position canes at 12, 3, 6 & 9 o'clock, then fill in between. Then tie a string to the canes, near the top. Repeat for each cane until they're all secured." Dan Gill: Protect mature trees from damage during construction projects | Home/Garden | nola.com Here's a Great Post from Dan Gill: "The root system of trees is much shallower than most people imagine. The overwhelming majority of a tree's feeder roots (the roots that absorb water and mineral from the soil for the tree) are located in the upper 12 inches of soil. You can see this when a tree blows over, and the exposed root system is shallow and flat like a plate. This makes the root system far more prone to damage during construction than most people realize." 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 1526 Today is the birthday of the Flemish botanist and founder of the Botanical Garden at Leiden, Charles de l'Écluse ("day-lay-clues"). Charles was an important 16th-century horticulturalist who, like many scientists of his time, translated his name into Latin, and was also known as Carolus Clusius. Clusius is remembered as the botanist who introduced tulips to Holland. Around 1560, Clusius wrote that the first tulips appeared in Antwerp & Mechelen ("MEK-lin"). A merchant had gotten a hold of some, and, assuming they were a new kind of onion, he ate a few of the bulbs and then planted the rest. To his surprise, the onions grew into the beautiful blooms we know today as tulips. In 1593, after a trip to Turkey, Clusius finally obtained some tulips for himself from the Ottoman Sultan Suleyman. Clusius planted them at his botanical garden at the University of Leiden in Holland. Hoping to study their medicinal properties, he was stunned when neighbors crept his garden, stole the bulbs, sold them for ridiculous sums, and launched the Dutch tulip trade. Within decades, Leiden's tulips gave rise to the Tulipmania that still fascinates garden historians to this day. Today, the tulip has become a national icon of Holland. And, one of the best places to see tulips is at the Keukenhof("GO-KEN-hof") in Lisse ("LISS-ah"), and the best time is generally about halfway through April. Not surprisingly, Clusius wrote the first major book on tulips. And, Clusius also left his mark on many flowering bulbs. He named the popular Portuguese squill, Scilla peruviana, after a ship christened 'Peru' and not Peru the country. And, Clusius planted the first Crown Imperial. One of his last major written works was a flora of Spain and Portugal that featured 233 botanical woodcuts. It was published in 1576. The tropical genus Clusia was named by Carl Linnaeus to honor Charles de l'Écluse. 1773 Today is the birthday of the Swedish-English botanist and star pupil of Carl Linnaeus, Daniel Solander. More than his protégé, Linnaeus had hopes that Solander might become a future son-in-law. From there, Linnaeus hoped he had found his successor as Professor of Botany at Uppsala. Linnaeus had a daughter named Lisa Stina. Although Solander had fallen for her, Linnaeus lined up an opportunity for Solander to be the chair of botany at St Petersburg in Russia. Linnaeus was putting Solander through the same gauntlet he had experienced before getting married: go out and establish yourself, and then come back here and settle down. Solander took Linnaeus completely aback when he wrote that he would be staying in England. Solander's letters to Linnaeus became less frequent, and Lisa Stina ended up unhappily married to a grandson of Rudbeck - the family name, after which Rudbeckia or Black-Eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta) are named. Although Solander dashed Linnaeus's hopes, he became a champion of botanical exploration and left his own considerable mark in the field of botany. After some time in London, Solander met Joseph Banks at the British Museum, where he was working as an Assistant Librarian. The two decided to partner-up in Captain James Cook's first circumnavigation of the globe. People often assume that Solander was younger than Banks since he was Bank's assistant. In truth, Banks was seven years younger than Solander. When the Endeavour sailed from Plymouth on August 25, 1768, Banks was 25 and Solander 32. The two botanists worked well together. Together, they collected some 800 new plants. Captain Cook honored the two men by christening Botany Bay after 'the great quantity of plants Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander found in this place.' The outer ends of the bay are Cape Solander in the southwest and Cape Bank in the Northeast. From Botany Bay alone, Solander and Banks found Acacias (uh-KAY-shahs), Eucalyptus, Grevilleas ("gruh-VILL-ee-ah"), Mimosa, and Banksia (which was, of course, named after Joseph Banks). Unlike many botanists of his time, during his three-year trip around the world, Solander did not send a single one of his discovered specimens to Linnaeus. Solander's sole devotion was to Banks. As for Linnaeus, he could often be heard referring to Solander - the pupil that got away - as "the ungrateful Solander." When the Endeavor returned to England, most people forget that half of the original crew - some 32 people - had died on the historic voyage. Miraculously, both Solander and Banks survived, and they would go on to explore Iceland together on another voyage. At home in England, Solander became Banks' secretary and librarian. In 1780, Solander agreed to help the Duchess of Portland with her enormous collections. Sadly, his work was cut short when he died from a brain aneurysm in 1782 at the age of 46. 1864 Today is the birthday of the first professor of botany at Smith College, William Francis Ganong ("GAH-nong"). Ganong's family were famous chocolate-makers. In fact, today, Ganong Chocolate is Canada's oldest independently family-operated chocolate company. Of course, William was supposed to follow in their footsteps, but he instead lost his heart to natural sciences like botany, history, and cartography. Today, the Ganong name is synonymous with the Canadian province of New Brunswick. It's not only where the chocolate company is located, but it's also where Ganong did the majority of his work. Every year, for fifty years, during the summer months, Ganong would return to New Brunswick to conduct his research In 2016, historian Ronald Rees, a retired professor, wrote a biography of Ganong. The following year, Ganong was honored for his contributions to the history and geography of New Brunswick. A statue of Ganong was erected on the banks of the St. Croix river - a place he especially loved. The statue's creator remarked, "He'll be looking up the St. Croix River, which is quite appropriate." Unearthed Words Here are some words about winter and also, Bees in Winter. "When I was young, I loved summer and hated winter. When I got older, I loved winter and hated summer. Now that I'm even older and wiser, I hate both summer and winter." — Jarod Kintz, American Author, This Book is Not for Sale "It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it. " — John Burroughs, American Naturalist and Writer "No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn." — Hal Borland, American Naturalist and Writer Winter is the season in which people try to keep the house as warm as it was in the summer when they complained about the heat. — Anonymous "The queen bee alone survives. You never see her playing the vagabond in the fall. At least I never have. She hunts out a retreat in the ground and passes the winter there, doubtless in a torpid state, as she stores no food against the inclement season. " — John Burroughs, American Naturalist and Writer Seeing only what is fair, Sipping only what is sweet, Thou dost mock at fate and care, Leave the chaff and take the wheat, When the fierce northwestern blast Cools sea and land so far and fast, Thou already slumberest deep — Woe and want thou canst out-sleep — Want and woe which torture us, Thy sleep makes ridiculous. — Ralph Waldo Emerson, American Poet and Writer, The Humble Bee Grow That Garden Library Gardens in Detail by Emma Reuss The subtitle of this book is 100 Contemporary Designs. Do you ever wish you had an expert who could help you analyze the elements of a successful garden? Well, in this book, Emma Reuss is that person. Emma quickly defines the seven principals that make gardens go from meh to wow: Location: the spirit of a place Unity: using themes to unite components Simplicity: a fixed amount of complexity - a limited palette - to keep small spaces interesting and large places manageable Balance: garden elements should have the same visual weight Proportion: the scale of elements Rhythm & Repetition: re-introducing elements to promote even more unity Focal points: to enhance views and encourage people to move through the garden Each of the gardens featured in the book is reviewed over four pages, which offer photos, general information, a brief essay, highlighted elements, and a bulleted list of successful design elements. If you're the kind of gardener who draws Inspiration from garden images or garden tours, this book is for you. More than anything, Emma's book is an idea book - a banquet of successfully designed gardens and unique garden elements to inspire you to dream bigger dreams than emperors - as the saying goes about the plans of gardeners. This book came out in 2014. You can get a used copy of Gardens in Detail by Emma Reuss and support the show, using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for under $15. Great Gifts for Gardeners Gardman R687 4-Tier Mini Greenhouse, 27" Long x 18" Wide x 63" High $37.86 Amazon Choice & Amazon Prime. Lightweight and easy to assemble, no tools are required. Waterproof, bug resistant, and portable Clear, removable, polyethylene cover and roll-up zippered door for easy access 4-tiers for plants, flowers, seedlings Ideal for small backyards or homes where space is an issue; place on a deck, patio, or balcony Gives seeds, seedlings, and young plants an early start Clear polyethylene cover and roll-up zippered door for easy access and provides easy access with humidity control by merely opening/closing the zippered front flap. For additional security, a zip tie can be attached from the frame to the shelves, and there are tabs on the back to fasten it to a wall or patio railing. Strong push fit tubular steel frame assembles in minutes without any tools Enrich your Greenhouse by adding a combination of grow lights, thermometer/hygrometer, heating mats, fans, etc. Replacement cover (sold separately) for this Greenhouse is Gardman item #R687SC. Gardman "Bring your garden to life." 27" Long x 18" Wide x 63" High Today's Botanic Spark 1907 Today is the birthday of the distinguished gardener and writer Frances Perry. Born Frances Mary Everett, her mother, Isabella, took a ten-year-old Francie to see the Chelsea flower show. The experience was etched in her mind and instilled a love for flowers in Frances's heart. Frances was also influenced by her famous neighbor - Edward Augustus Bowles - who went by Gussie with his friends and family. Gussie was a plantsman and writer. He had a large garden featuring a series of garden rooms, and he also held a position on the Council of The Royal Horticultural Society. Frances would pick wildflowers and bring them to Gussie for identification. The two had a special bond. Gussie recommended Frances to the town's Nurseryman, Amos Perry Jr. The Perry nursery was started by Amos Perry Sr. and the Perry's were famous for their water and waterside gardening. Frances immediately loved working at the Perry's Hardy Plant Farm. In a short while, she was running the aquatic plant department and creating water garden exhibits for the Chelsea flower show. Amos had produced something else of interest for Frances - his son, the fern specialist, Gerald Alfred Amos Perry - who Frances described as, "a brilliant plantsman and propagator. The two were married in 1930 when Frances was just 22 years old. In three years, they had two sons - just eighteen months apart. In April of 1945, Frances and Gerald's older boy, Marcus, then 13 years old, was killed after being hit by a lorry. In a 1966 column, Frances wrote about an oriental poppy that kept an upright habit, and it had huge, orange-scarlet flowers in July and August — it was named the Marcus Perry. Amos Perry Sr. bred the poppy at the Hardy Plant Farm. In another column in April of 1990, Frances shared a tip about using poppies as cut flowers. It was something Gussie had taught her long ago: "His solution, which he taught me, was to take a large jug of very hot water into the garden late in the evening, then cut any buds which had straightened up from their normal bent position and started to show color. These were plunged practically up to their necks in the jug, then taken indoors and left until the next day to be arranged in more suitable vases." In 1954, Gussie died from a heart attack. It was May - springtime - and his ashes were scattered in his favorite part of the garden - the rock garden. The 1960s brought tremendous highs and lows for Frances. In 1964, Frances's husband Gerald died. Then, two years later, in 1966, Frances backfilled Vita Sackville-West as the gardening writer for The Observer. In addition to her column, over her long career, Frances wrote nearly twenty books. As with her first job at the nursery, Water Gardening was still considered her unique topic of expertise. Frances was dedicated to horticulture, and she experienced great success in her career. Yet, she didn't care for pandering. In I968, she became the first woman to be elected to the council of the Royal Horticultural Society. A controversy about the council not having any women had bubbled to the surface when the chair indicated that he didn't think any women existed that could meet the council's requirements. When Frances was elected, she challenged the council by writing: "If you want me because I am a woman, the answer is no. If you want me because of anything I have done in horticulture, the answer is yes." At the age of 70, Frances married Robert Edwin Hay, who went by Roy. Roy was a widower, a fellow horticulturist, journalist, and broadcaster; Frances was three years older than him. For a dozen years, Roy and Frances made a lovely pair. A life-long gardener, Roy's father, had been a royal estate gardener. Like Frances, when Roy was a boy, his father took him to see the Chelsea Flower Show. After that first visit, Roy attended every show for the next 65 years. And, Frances and Roy shared another similarity. They both won the Victoria Medal of Honor - an honor awarded to British horticulturists by the Royal Horticultural Society. Roy won in 1970, and Frances won in 1971. After Roy died in 1989, Frances lived with her younger son. In December of that same year, Frances wrote an editorial called Sowing Seeds Of Thoughts On A Cold Winter's Day. At age 82 and widowed for the second time, life's toll wormed its way into her writing; yet she faced it head-on. Frances began: "There is nothing static about a garden. All gardeners know this and are constantly devising different features. Yet it's easy to let sentiment or inertia spare plants that have long since past their prime. Too often, also, a design suited to younger gardeners sticks, even though age has made it more and more difficult to manage. On a cold winter's day, when there is not much we can usefully undertake in the garden, it is worthwhile sitting down to some constructive thinking. Which trees and shrubs have become old, misshapen, and really rather unproductive?" Over the next three years, Frances would write only a handful of articles. She was slowing down. Frances retired after 26 years with The Observer in May of 1992. Anna Pavord ("PAY-vord") was her backfill. Almost 18 months later, Frances passed away and went to that big garden in the sky.
Today is National Potato Day. Here are some fun potato facts: The average American eats approximately 126 pounds of spuds each year. And, up until the 18th century, the French believed potatoes called leprosy. To combat the belief, the agronomist Antoine Auguste Parmentier became a one-man PR person for the potato. How did Parmentier get the French people to believe that the potato is safe to eat? Good question. Parmentier cleverly posted guards around his potato fields during the day and put the word out that he didn’t want people stealing them. Then, he purposefully left them unguarded at night. As he suspected, people did what he thought they would do; steal the potatoes by the sackful by the light of the moon and they started eating them. Later, Marie Antoinette wore potato blossoms in her hair. The Idaho Potato, or the Russet Burbank, was developed by none other than Luther Burbank in 1871. Brevities #OTD Today is the birth of Jane Webb who married the prolific writer of all things gardening: John Claudius Loudon. Jane was special. She was an amazing writer in her own right but she also possessed an inner determination; she was a survivor. When her father lost the family fortune and died penniless when Jane was only seventeen, it was the beginning of her career writing Science Fiction. For her times, Jane wrote Science Fiction in a unique way. She incorporated predictable changes in technology and society. For instance, the women in her books wear pants. In any case, her book The Mummy was published anonymously, in 1827, in three parts. In her book, Jane featured something she imagined would come to pass: a steam plow. That’s what attracted the attention of John Claudius Loudon - her future husband. Loudon wrote a favorable review of her book but he also wanted to meet the author. Loudon didn’t realize Jane had written the book using a nom de plume of Henry Colburn. Much to Loudon’s delight, Henry was Jane; they fell in love and married a year later. The Loudons were considered high society and their friends included Charles Dickens. John’s arms stopped working as he grew older, after an attack of rheumatic fever. As a result, Jane became his arms; handling most of his writing. When his arms got so bad that surgeons needed to amputate his right arm, they found him in his garden which he said he intended to return to immediately after the operation. Two weeks before Christmas 1843, John was dictating his last book called, A Self Instruction to Young Gardeners. Around midnight, he suddenly collapsed into Jane’s arms and died. Jane completed the book on her own. #OTD It was on this day in 1843, that the Massachusetts Horticultural Society held their exhibition of flowers. They kicked things off by writing about their phlox. Here’s what they said: “The Phloxes were very splendid, and it gives us great pleasure to see that our friends are engaged in raising seedlings of this beautiful class of plants. Instead of importing Phloxes from England, as we have heretofore done, we hazard but little when we state that it will not be many years (if our friends persevere in raising seedlings) before we shall be able to send our English friends varieties, that will surprise them for their beautiful form and richness of color.” #OTD Today is the birthday of Ellen Ann Willmott who was an English horticulturalist who was born in 1858. Ellen was the oldest in her family of three daughters. In 1875, her parents moved to Warley Place, which was set on 33 acres of land in Essex. Ellen lived there for the rest of her life. All of the Willmott’s were gardeners and they often gardened as a family. They created an alpine garden complete with a gorge and rockery. This was something that Ellen’s father allowed her to do to commemorate her 21st birthday. When her godmother died she received some pretty significant money. When her father died, Warley Place went to her. Ellen planted to her hearts content; and given the size of the property, it’s no wonder that she hired over 100 gardeners to help her tend it. Ellen was no shrinking violet. She had a reputation for firing any gardener who allowed a weed to grow in her beds. And, she only hired men. There’s a famous quote from her that is often cited, “Women would be a disaster in the border.” It was a good thing that Ellen had so much money, because she sure liked to spend it. She had three homes: one in France, Warley Place, and another in Italy. Ellen also paid for plant hunting expeditions. Since she paid for them, the plants that were discovered on those expeditions were often named in her honor. And, Ellen hired some pretty impressive people to do her plant collecting. For example, Ellen even sponsored Ernest Henry Wilson. When Ellen receive the Victoria Medal of Honor in 1897, she was honored alongside Gertrude Jekyll. In the end, Ellen died penniless and heartbroken. Warley Place became a nature preserve. #OTD Today is the birthday of The Botany Man - Willis Linn Jepson - who was born on this day in 1867. Carved on his tombstone are the following words: “Profound Scholar, Inspiring Teacher, Indefatigable Botanical Explorer, ... In the ordered beauty of nature he found enduring communion.” Jepson attended college at Berkeley. During his junior year, he decided to start a diary. He collected everything, too - not just dates, but as much as he could. It was a practice Jepson never abandoned and resulted in over fifty Jepson field books. In 1894, Jepson begin to think seriously about creating a Flora of California. As long as he was working on the flora, Jepson thought he might as well create a herbarium, which he considered to be his legacy. Although Jepson often said he disliked common names, he came up with many on his own. He once named a plant Mountain Misery after suffering the after effects of walking through it. By the early 1900s, automobiles were becoming mainstream but Jepson warned, “You must still go afoot if a real botanist. No field botanist should become soft and travel only in an auto.“ Jepson had started numbering plants for his flora in 1899. His last specimen was No. 27,571 - the Salsola kali - a little plant commonly known as Prickly Russian Thistle. Jepson collected it on October 28,1945. Earlier that year, Jepson suffered a heart attack when he attempted to cut down a dead Almond tree on his ranch. He never fully recovered from it. Jepson passed away her November 7, 1946. #OTD Today is the birthday of Henderina Victoria Scott who shared her images of time lapse photography of plants in 1904. Scott exhibited her pictures at the British Association for the Advancement of Science. She described her set up and her method for taking the pictures. Then, she proceeded to show animated photographs of flowers opening and closing their buds, and expanding and developing into flowers. She also showed the movements of climbing plants and of insects visiting flowers. None of her films or plates are known to exist. Scott’s work allowed botanists and horticulturalists to see the changes that happen slowly over time in the plant world. Unearthed Words Today is the birthday of Ogden Nash, the American poet, who said, "Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker." He also wrote a number of poems about gardening and flowers. MY VICTORY GARDEN by Ogden Nash Today, my friends, I beg your pardon, But I'd like to speak of my Victory Garden. With a hoe for a sword, and citronella for armor, I ventured forth to become a farmer. On bended knee, and perspiring clammily, I pecked at the soil to feed my family, A figure than which there was none more dramatic-er. Alone with the bug, and my faithful sciatica, I toiled with the patience of Job or Buddha, But nothing turned out the way it shudda. Would you like a description of my parsley? I can give it to you in one word--gharsley! They're making playshoes out of my celery, It's reclaimed rubber, and purplish yellery, Something crawly got into my chives, My lettuce has hookworm, my cabbage has hives, And I mixed the labels when sowing my carrots; I planted birdseed--it came up parrots. Do you wonder then, that my arteries harden Whenever I think of my Victory Garden? My farming will never make me famous, I'm an agricultural ignoramus, So don't ask me to tell a string bean from a soy bean. I can't even tell a girl bean from a boy bean. Today's book recommendation: Healing Herbs by Michael Castleman The Healing Herbs provides an easy-to-use A-to-Z herb encyclopedia. It explains where to find the herbs, how to use them, store them, work with them, and how to grow them. Today's Garden Chore It’s never too late to plan a fall herb garden. Here are some herbs that don’t mind the cold and they’re easily grown from seed; I’m talking about dill, parsley, spinach, lettuce, and cilantro. I always include lettuces among my herbs - wherever I’ve got a spot. Now, when I make my salads, I love to include little snippets of dill. I get a little perturbed when I forget to clip some - it's ruined me. I can hardly make a salad at home without including dill. Since my son John loves Chipotle, I can’t make rice anymore without incorporating cilantro. Parsley is included in so many things I cook, I always like to have Parsley around and it's wonderful that it can hang out in the garden until the bitter end. Something Sweet Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart Today, in 1934, Elizabeth Lawrence and wrote a letter to her sister Ann: "I am so happy to get back to my rickety Corona; Ellen’s elegant new typewriter made anything I had to say unworthy of its attention. The Zinnias you raised for us are magnificent. There are lots of those very pale salmon ones that are the loveliest of all, and some very pale yellow ones that Bessie puts in my room. The red ones are in front of boltonia and astilbe (white). I knew how awful the garden would be. I have come back to it before, and I knew Bessie wasn’t going to do anything by herself. But that doesn’t mitigate the despair that you feel when you see it. I worked two days and almost got the weeds out of the beds around the summer house. There isn’t much left. There has been so much rain that the growth of the weeds was tropical." (Bessie was Elizabeth's widowed mother who shared her love of the garden.) Thanks for listening to the daily gardener, and remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."
BBC Good Food Show Summer / BBC Gardeners’ World Live - Birmingham NEC 13 - 16 June 2019
Jim is one of the UK’s leading gardening experts. He was superintendent of the Royal Parks for 25 years and his clients have included Her Majesty the Queen and his old friend the Queen Mother. Jim's love of gardening began when, having been excluded from class, the naughty youngster was set to work in his school's walled garden. This judge thrives in an outdoor environment; there's nothing Jim doesn’t know about planting and growing. His dedication has seen him judging competitions all over the world and sharing his knowledge with the public is his greatest passion. At any one time only 63 people in the world hold the Victoria Medal of Honour – the highest accolade in horticulture. Jim is one of them. He was also head judge for ‘Britain in Bloom’ for 25 years, where he was nicknamed ‘Judge Dread’.
In this episode (Part one of two) sponsored by mywindowbox.com Joff Elphick talks to Johns Sales. John has just brought out a book; Shades of Green-My Life as The National Trust Head of Gardens (Unicorn). John talks of his early memories as a wartime child and of catching the gardening bug. We go on to discuss his first job in a nursery growing Cape Heaths, begonias, and cyclamen for the christmas market. Of particular interest is his account of working with Graham Stuart Thomas, and of Graham's legendary work ethic. He meets 'sloans' for the first time, and has a cleverly orchestrated 'interview' at 'The Trust' where he 'bumps into' Lord Antrim on the stairs."Afternoon tea anyone?" I produce a photo of holders of The Victoria Medal of Honour, of which John is one, and we reel off the names that shared the medal with him on it's centenary celebration; Christo Lloyd, Adrain Bloom, Valerie Finnis, Roy Lancaster, Graham Stuart Thomas, Penny Hobhouse and more. It's a real who's who of horticulture! In part two of this interview we talk more about the book, of The Trust's gardens, more on G.S.T. and also Pam and Sybil. The episode ends with our regular feature of 'A Product Review' with my long time gardening friend Geoff Carr (www.geoffreycarr.co.uk) In part two of this interview we talk about his book, of The Trust's Gardens, more on G.S.T., Sissinghurst, Pam and Sybil and more. Many thanks once again to our lovely sponsors mywindowbox 'Bringing the garden to your window'. (www.mywindow.com)
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the artistic, cultural and innovative developments of the city in the 20th century and is joined by two practitioners of the geographer's art; Professor Doreen Massey, who was awarded the Vautrin Lud International Geography prize - the geographer's equivalent of the Nobel Prize, and Sir Peter Hall, whose books include The World Cities and Cities Tomorrow. They take a twentieth century perspective on the development of the city. How have cities changed since 1900, and what is their future? How has the 20th century been the century of the city?With Sir Peter Hall, Professor of Planning at the Bartlett School of Architecture and Planning, University College, London, Fellow of the British Academy and a member of the Academia Europea; Doreen Massey, Professor of Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences, Open University and recipient of the Vautrin Lud International Geography Prize and the Victoria Medal of the Royal Geographical Society.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the artistic, cultural and innovative developments of the city in the 20th century and is joined by two practitioners of the geographer’s art; Professor Doreen Massey, who was awarded the Vautrin Lud International Geography prize - the geographer’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize, and Sir Peter Hall, whose books include The World Cities and Cities Tomorrow. They take a twentieth century perspective on the development of the city. How have cities changed since 1900, and what is their future? How has the 20th century been the century of the city?With Sir Peter Hall, Professor of Planning at the Bartlett School of Architecture and Planning, University College, London, Fellow of the British Academy and a member of the Academia Europea; Doreen Massey, Professor of Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences, Open University and recipient of the Vautrin Lud International Geography Prize and the Victoria Medal of the Royal Geographical Society.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the artistic, cultural and innovative developments of the city in the 20th century and is joined by two practitioners of the geographer’s art; Professor Doreen Massey, who was awarded the Vautrin Lud International Geography prize - the geographer’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize, and Sir Peter Hall, whose books include The World Cities and Cities Tomorrow. They take a twentieth century perspective on the development of the city. How have cities changed since 1900, and what is their future? How has the 20th century been the century of the city?With Sir Peter Hall, Professor of Planning at the Bartlett School of Architecture and Planning, University College, London, Fellow of the British Academy and a member of the Academia Europea; Doreen Massey, Professor of Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences, Open University and recipient of the Vautrin Lud International Geography Prize and the Victoria Medal of the Royal Geographical Society.
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