Hi there and welcome to the Daily Gardener, a podcast about gardening, botanical history and literature. I'm your host, Jennifer Eadling, and today is April 28th. Today we celebrate the son of a Quaker family from Pennsylvania who accomplished much during his lifetime and he left a legacy of botanical information for future generations. We'll also learn about a woman who, together with her husband, created an impressive arboretum in the middle of Iowa.
And we'll hear some thoughts about spring from a contemporary Turkish playwright, novelist and thinker. We grow that garden library today with a fun fiction book about an adventurous young woman who joins an expedition in Yellowstone at the end of the 19th century. And then we'll wrap things up with the fascinating story of the Alaska State flower, the forget-me-not. But first, here's today's Curated News.
Today's Curated News comes to us from bobvila.com. This is a post that was written by Michelle Ullman and the title is 12 Gorgeous Plants That Will Attract Hummingbirds to Your Garden. You know, one of my favorite memories of my garden was when I was in the backyard by my cottage garden and through my peripheral vision I could see a hummingbird and I went stalk still and I kid you not, the hummingbird and I had a little face-off. It was a magical moment, one that I'll never forget, and it truly is one of my favorite memories.
Now, you might be surprised to know that as Michelle mentions in this article, there are more than 300 known species of hummingbird. And yes, the smallest bird in the world is the bee hummingbird, which weighs less than an ounce. Now, another fun experience that gardeners can have with hummingbirds is if you're lucky enough to find a hummingbird nest on your property. They're very hard to spot.
They're very, very small. But I remember the day that my mom called me because she and dad had discovered a hummingbird nest in their ash tree in the front of their property. And it was so wonderful for them because the nest was right outside their bay window and they could watch the mother hummingbird take care of that nest. And it really was something to see.
Now, what Michelle does in this article is she put together her list of a dozen plants that will attract hummingbirds. She starts out with lantana and pinstemon, both our favorites of mine. They are so hearty and they work their little hearts out in the garden. Then she adds trumpet vine.
Not everyone's a fan of trumpet vine. It can get a little unwieldy, but the hummers love it. Petunia is a favorite annual of hummingbirds. So if you're looking for annuals and not perennials, go with petunias.
You can't go wrong there. And that cone shape of the flower is another great indicator that it'll be popular with hummingbirds. So think about the shape of that trumpet flower and the petunia, and you'll start to get a plant profile for the various shapes that appeal to hummingbirds. Selvia is on this list.
Lupine, of course, another favorite. Columbine, wonderful in the spring. And then Michelle wraps it up with cardinal flower, hosta, that one can surprise people, cigar plant, flowering tobacco, that's another wonderful annual that I put in many of my summer containers. And then finally, bee balm.
If I was a hummingbird, that would be the plant that I would go for. I absolutely adore the smell of bee balm. So if you ever see me in a community garden and you want me to help you plant bee balm, sign me up. I'll be there.
All right. Isn't that a great list by Michelle Ullman over at BobVila.com? I think so. Now, if you would like to read her detailed descriptions of these plants, plus see the beautiful pictures of the hummingbirds, then all you need to do is head on over to the Facebook group for the show.
Search for the word hummingbird using a little magnifying glass at the top, and this post will pop right up. Now, if you're not in the group and you'd like to join, just know that you have a standing invitation. You can join at any time. It's 100% free, and it's a private group.
So whatever you share there will stay there. Now, if you'd like to join, it's so simple. All you need to do is head on up to the search bar where you'd search for a friend and type in the words Daily Gardener Community, and then request to join, and I'll admit you into the group. So simple.
All right. It's time for today's botanical history. Here's botanical history for today, April 28th. Today's the birthday of the botanist, physician, and member of the United States House of Representatives, William Darlington, who was born on this day, April 28th, in 1782.
Like his fellow eminent botanists and friends, John Bartram, Humphrey Marshall, and William Baldwin, William Darlington, was born into a Quaker family in Pennsylvania. A native of Westchester, William received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. When William was a student, Benjamin Barton, the botanist and author of the first American botany textbook, was an early mentor. After signing on as a surgeon for an East India merchant, William traveled to Calcutta.
A year later, he returned to England and married Catherine Lacey. She was the daughter of a distinguished Revolutionary Board General. Catherine supported William's work, and the Darlingtons were married for 40 years. They had four sons and four daughters, and two of their sons were named in honor of fellow botanists.
Their oldest son was named after William's mentor, Benjamin Smith Barton Darlington, and their youngest son was named after his friend, the botanist William Baldwin. His young boy was named William Baldwin Darlington. The year 1826 was a big year for William Darlington. He organized and presided over the Chester County Cabinet of Natural Sciences, and he published his very first edition of his book about the flora of Westchester in Pennsylvania.
William was a saver and an archivist. Today, William's work to preserve his letters with Humphrey Marshall and John Bartram is much appreciated. Otherwise, they would have likely been lost to time. In terms of legacy, one of William's most valuable contributions to botanical history is his masterpiece called Memorials of Bartram and Marshall.
In 1853, the botanist John Torrey named a new variety of California pitcher plant for William. It's called Darlingtonia californica, one of my favorite plant names ever. As for William, his large herbarium and works were bequeathed to his beloved Chester County Cabinet of Natural Science. Now, William was buried in Oakland Cemetery near Westchester.
Twenty years earlier, he'd written his own epitaph in Latin, and it's inscribed on his monument, and it translates to this. May the plants of Chester, which he loved and documented, forever blossom over his grave. William's tombstone is also crowned with a relief of Darlingtonia californica. And today is the birthday of the arboretum maker Frances Bigelhaupt, who was born on this day, April 28th in 1916.
Frances is remembered for the arboretum that she and her husband Robert created around their family home in Clinton, Iowa. During the 1960s and 1970s, Frances and Robert watched in dismay as Dutch elm disease claimed the beautiful elm-lined streets of their hometown. In response, Frances and Robert began planting a diverse range of trees on their 10-acre property. Now, Frances and Robert were exceptionally disciplined when it came to planting trees.
They were committed to grouping all the trees by species. Today, the Bigelhaupt Arboretum has a lovely collection of trees, including ash, beech, birch, crabapple, elm, hickory, honey locust, linden, magnolia, and oak. Bigelhaupt also has a gorgeous conifer collection, which is regarded as the arboretum's crown jewel, and it features many rare and dwarf conifers. In total, the Bigelhaupt Arboretum boasts over 2,000 different species of plants.
Now, in 2020, the Bigelhaupt Arboretum was damaged by the derecho, a widespread and severe windstorm that blew through the Midwest on August 10, 2020. As a result of the derecho, Bigelhaupt lost 28 trees, and many more were damaged in the hurricane-force winds. The first course of action was cleanup, followed by a massive tree removal for the trees that were so damaged, they could not be saved. And today, if you happen to visit the Bigelhaupt Arboretum, look for a poignant sculpture of Francis and Robert near the entrance.
They are standing side by side, and Francis has one foot resting on the top of a shovel that she holds against the earth. It's time for today's Unearthed Words. Today's Unearthed Words come to us from the contemporary Turkish playwright, novelist, and thinker, may met Murat Ildan. In the winter, you may want the summer.
In the summer, you may want the autumn. In the autumn, you may want the winter. But only in the spring. You dream and want no other season but the spring.
It's time to grow that garden library with today's book, Letters from Yellowstone, by Diane Smith. This fiction book came out in 2000, and it won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Book Award for Fiction. In this book, Diane Smith tells the story of a young woman named A.E. Bartram, and A was short for Alexandria.
A lively young woman and amateur botanist, Alexandria is invited on an expedition of Yellowstone in the spring of 1898. The leader of the expedition is a Montana professor who initially thought A.E. Bartram was a man. He was shocked to learn the truth when Alexandria joins the team.
Still, it's full steam ahead for the group of scientists, and they embark on a summer of fascinating adventures and a web of entangled relationships. The backdrop is, of course, the beauty of Yellowstone and 19th century concerns about science, economics, and nature. This book offers a little bit of everything, botany, humor, adventure, and even romance. This book is 226 pages of fiction based on true American history, botany, science, nature, and culture.
You can get a copy of Letters from Yellowstone by Diane Smith and support the show using the Amazon link in today's show notes for around $1, which means it's a steal, and it's the perfect addition for your summer reading list, hopefully at a beach near you. Finally, here's something sweet to revive the little botanic spark in your heart. It was on this day, April 28, in 1917, that the state flower of Alaska was adopted, the wild native forget-me-not, or Myosotus alpestrus. The forget-me-not was part of Alaskan culture long before it became the official state flower.
During the Alaska gold rush, the pioneering men formed lodges, and one of the lodges was called the Grand Igloo, and that particular lodge selected the forget-me-not as the lodge emblem. Later on, women got involved with the lodge through auxiliaries, and one pioneering Alaskan woman was Esther Birdsall Darling. Esther lived in Alaska from 1907 to 1918. She created one of the first dog kennels in Nome, and she later started the very first sled dog race.
Esther became known worldwide when she began writing about her life in the North and Alaskan sled dogs. Inspired by the forget-me-not legislation, Esther wrote a poem that was dedicated to the state's pioneers. It was called the forget-me-not, and it was included in the bill put before the legislature. It went like this.
So in thinking for an emblem for this empire of the North, we will choose this azure flower that the golden days bring forth. For we want men to remember that Alaska came to stay, though she slept unknown for ages and awakened in a day. So although they say we're living in a land that God forgot, we'll recall Alaska to them with our blue forget-me-not. Isn't that sweet?
Now in the margins of this original piece of legislation, there were two handwritten verses. These were also likely written by Esther, and they're often used as the first two verses to this original poem that I just read to you. But these two new verses go like this. A little flower blossoms forth on every hill and dale, the emblem of the pioneers upon the rugged trail.
The pioneers have asked it, and we could deny them not. So the emblem of Alaska is the blue forget-me-not. Now in case you're wondering, the forget-me-not is a member of the Borage family. In floriography, or the language of flowers, the forget-me-not represents true faithful love, fond memories, hope, and remembrance.
In the Middle Ages, forget-me-nots were believed to be an effective treatment for scorpion bites. The buds of the flower curl like a scorpion's tail, and this growing habit was believed to be a sign from nature. This is how forget-me-not earned the common name scorpion grass. Celebrated in folklore, there are many stories about forget-me-nots.
The popular tale of how the forget-me-not was named tells of a German knight who was walking by a river with his lady. When he stooped to pick a tiny flower, he lost his balance as he straightened to give the blossom to his beloved. He fell into the river and said, Verges mein nicht, or forget-me-not, before being swept away. And after the Battle of Waterloo, the battlefield was supposedly covered with forget-me-not, and it was said that the dainty flowers had sprung up to mark the spots of fallen soldiers.
And when Henry of Lancaster was banished by King Richard III, he chose the forget-me-not as a rallying symbol. The flower became an emblem for his followers. Finally, during the 20th century, Germans planted forget-me-nots to honor the fallen, and they were a special remembrance after World War I. In modern gardens, forget-me-nots are especially beautiful in rock gardens or along water features like streams.
And on April 26, 1951, the Vermont Standard shared an adorable story about the forget-me-not. Here's what it said. Professor Leon Dean of the English Department of the University of Vermont recently spoke on the subject of Vermont folklore. He began by explaining that history is all around us and that the learned historian no longer looks down upon the contributions of the local historian.
Folklore, he said, can be adapted to the classroom, and the student can go from folklore to local and then national history. Even more important are people whose memories reach back in a chain from generation to generation. Professor Dean gave the illustration of a country doctor who in the spring would carry forget-me-not seeds, which he sprinkled on the waters of the streams he passed. In time, these streams were lined with forget-me-nots, a memorial when he was gone.
Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener, and remember, for a happy, healthy life, garden every day. The Daily Gardener is produced in lovely Maple Grove in Wyoming, Minnesota, with the help of Paige Vance, Brooke Beerbaum, and Eric Begay. If you want to read today's show notes, just head on over to thedailygardener.org. And while you're there, be sure to sign up for my free Friday newsletter.
And don't forget that you have a standing invitation to join the free Facebook group for listeners of the show. Just search for Daily Gardener Community the next time you're on Facebook and request to join. Last but not least, you can always get in touch by emailing me at jennifer at thedailygardener.org. I'm your host, Jennifer Ebeling, and as always, have a great day in the garden, and we'll see you tomorrow.
Mm-hm. ... ... ...
... You