Hi there everyone, welcome to The Daily Gardener. I'm your host Jennifer Evelyn. It's July 11th. Today is National Rainier Cherry Day.
Rainier cherries were first read at Washington State University by crossing vans and bings. They're one of the most delicate and challenging cherries to grow because of one big drawback, their thin red yellow skin. This makes them super sensitive to the elements and they bruise easily. Birds love rainiers.
Watch what happens if you add a few rainier cherries to your bird feeder. Here's today's brevity's. Today in Federer Karen Scotland in 1857, the amateur botanist David Prane was born. Prane would ultimately become the director of the Royal Botanic Gardens of Calcutta and Q.
He was sent to Calcutta in 1887 to be the curator of the Herbarium. He researched Indian hemp followed by other crops like wheat and pulses. But his most important work involved the Cinchona Plantations. The bark of Cinchona trees contains quinine, which is used to treat malaria.
In Prane's obituary, it said that he had set up a system to send every village in India quinine, saving unnumbered lives. His biggest professional challenge at Q came not from a plant, but a person. William Perdom was a subform in at Q and he was passionate about making sure that the garden staff was being treated fairly. The discord there stemmed from some of the gardeners at Q, discovering that their positions were only temporary.
Having wages well below market levels didn't help either, even though all of this was set in place before praying assumed the directorship. It fell to him to fix everything. In a magnanimous gesture, Prane worked to get Perdom a spot on the expedition to China that was sponsored by Harry Veach and the Arnold Arboretum. Today, history looks back at Prane with admiration that he could recognize the talents of an employee, even while disagreeing with him.
Today in 1941, the Amarillo Daily News ran an article featuring Charles Sumner Lamby, who was a Denver area civil engineer by day and a rare orchid grower by night. Lamby grew up in Pittsburgh, tending his family's garden. He later married Margaret McCandless and together they raised nine children. As his engineering firm became successful, Lamby's wife said he turned to the hobby of raising orchids.
Mr. Lamby shared an upside that he discovered about greenhouse gardening. He no longer suffered from hay fever, as he did when he gardened outside. After sharing the various types of orchids grown by Lamby, the article shared Lamby's method for documenting his plants.
Here's what it said. Mr. Lamby has a card index file on each plant. Here's a simple entry.
Talisman, six inches, December 1938. Christmas, winter bloomer, October to early summer variable, flowers large, sepals and petals, light to dark rose, lip, dark rich crimson, throat, purple with yellow gold veins. Mr. Lamby put a protective canopy over the orchids when they were in bloom and he sprayed them several times a day.
As the reporter for the story was leaving, Mrs. Lamby showed him a small orchid and shared that Mr. Lamby was given the orchid when he subscribed to an orchid magazine. The orchid is called the Charles Lamby Writtenberry Orchid and it was named for their grandson.
And of course, she said it receives very careful attention. On this day in 1950, a very unusual dwarf amylous species was collected in Peru by the eminent botanist Dr. Ramon Fareda on July 11, 1950, and he sent it to Dr. Hamilton Trowb in the United States.
Unfortunately, the bulbs experienced frost while they were being shipped in the mail. Some of the bulbs were totally destroyed, but the surviving bulbs had all been damaged as well. It took almost 18 months for Dr. Trowb to nurse the frosted plants back to health.
In recognition of his patience and skill, the amylous was named Hippie Astrom Trowbi. In unearthed words, here's a sweet diary entry from 1938 for today by Canadian naturalist Charles Joseph Sariel shared by the Toronto Archives on their fabulous Twitter feed, which is a wonderful thing to follow. Here's what it said. I find it hard to come in from the flowerboarders.
My pansies are a garden of enchantment in themselves. People who love pansies should grow them from seed. I took the advice and I have never had such a perfusion of bloom and of so many colors. Today's book recommendation is Ornamental Shrubs, Climbers, and Bamboo's by Graham Stewart Thomas.
Graham Stewart Thomas introduces this essential comprehensive reference this way all through my life. I've been discovering plants. I can claim to have grown either directly or by proxy, perhaps three quarters of the shrubs in this book. Graham Stewart Thomas helps gardeners relate to shrubs.
His descriptions of the characters of each plant are short and lively. They help amateurs and professionals choose what to grow and what to avoid. Today's garden chore is to deadhead to encourage more blooms. People say this all the time, but we often fail to tell new gardeners what happens if you don't deadhead.
Well, you might miss out on valuable time that your plant could be using to create that second flush of blooms. Plants to deadhead for a second flush include choropsis, blue and white clips, geraniums, and dianthus, just to name a few. Another reason to deadhead is to encourage more blooms the following year. Remember, dead flower heads become seed pods and that takes energy from the plant.
So, deadhead things like peonies, roses, iris, and lilies. Finally, here's something sweet to revive the little botanic spark in your heart. Today in 1936, the Danish botanist Clarence Henry Denison celebrated his 103rd birthday. After an adventurous life as a sailor and soldier, he became a professor at the Copenhagen School of Botany and among his pupils were a little princess who would later become Queen Alexandria, mother of King George of England, and a little prince who would later become King Constantine of Greece.
The newspaper reported that the men's Bible class of St. John's Lutheran Church had planned a surprise birthday party, but Denison winked when he heard that, and the article said, it's hard to surprise a man who's been around for 103 years. Denison immigrated to America in 1881. He lived to be 111 years old.
Thanks for listening to the Daily Gardener and remember for a happy, healthy life, Garden Every Day. The Daily Gardener is produced weekdays in lovely Maple Grove, Minnesota. You can find complete show notes over at the dailygardener.org and be sure to share the show with your garden friends. You can find the Daily Gardener on all your favorite social media, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest, and of course, Facebook.
While you're over at Facebook, don't forget to join the Daily Gardener community. Just search for these three words, Daily Gardener Community. The group will pop right up and then request to join. Finally, I want to thank my team at Podfly Productions, where my fabulous editor is Eric Begay.
Have a great day in the garden and we'll see you tomorrow!