Podcast
The Daily Gardener
Hosted by Jennifer Ebeling · EN
The Daily Gardener is a weekday podcast celebrating garden history, literature, and the small botanical stories that shape how we garden today.
Each episode follows an "on this day" format, uncovering the people, plants, books, and moments that have quietly influenced gardens across time.
New episodes are released Monday through Friday, and each show features a thoughtfully chosen garden book.
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February 23, 2026 Saint Serenus of Billom, Edward Forster the Younger, John Keats, How to Design a Garden by Pollyanna Wilkinson, and Ault's English Garden Seeds
Feb 2300:11:44Tap to summarizeSubscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Patreon Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Today's Show Notes February gardening can feel like a lesson in boundaries. Some days are about abundance, and some are about restraint. The quiet work done early. The plot kept small on purpose. The sanctuary we tend not for display, but for sustenance, clarity, and care. Today's stories return to that idea again and again: the garden as a place of discipline, devotion, and the kind of hope that can live inside an ordinary day. Today's Garden History 307 Saint Serenus of Billom was executed. Serenus is remembered as a gardener and Christian martyr, a figure whose story turns on restraint and moral discipline. Born in Greece, he later settled in Sirmium, a Roman city in what is now Serbia, where he supported himself by cultivating a small working garden. It was not ornamental, and it was not public. It was fruit and herbs, soil under the fingernails, and time deliberately set aside for prayer. According to legend, a woman of high rank visited Serenus's garden unaccompanied at high noon. Serenus did not accuse her or make a scene. He simply advised her to return home and come back later, in the cool of evening, with an escort. She took offense. Pride became retaliation. A false accusation was delivered to her husband at court. Serenus was cleared of wrongdoing, but his composure and his unwavering discipline drew suspicion. He was questioned, identified as a Christian, and executed by beheading on this day. In garden history, Serenus endures as a patron saint of gardeners, especially those who work alone, and those who are misunderstood or falsely accused. His story preserves the idea of the garden as a boundary, a place not meant to be crossed casually, but tended with intention. 1849 Edward Forster the Younger died in Essex, England. Edward Forster was a banker by profession and a botanist by devotion, remembered above all for his precision and his steady rhythm. As a young man, he worked with his brothers in their father's garden, where they cultivated nearly every herbaceous plant then known to be grown in England. And still, what stands out most is how Edward spent his mornings. Before the banking house opened and before the city stirred, he was already in Epping Forest, collecting specimens, making notes, building a life's work plant by plant. He served as Treasurer and later Vice-President of the Linnean Society of London. He compiled county plant lists for Camden's Britannia. He spent decades assembling materials for a Flora of Essex he never finished, yet his work endured through his herbarium, later purchased by the Scottish botanist Robert Brown and ultimately given to the British Museum. Edward's name lives on in Forster's wood-rush, Luzula forsteri, a modest woodland plant that rewards the gardener who kneels down and really looks. In his later years, Edward also turned his attention to fungi, painting delicate watercolors of mushrooms near his home, each labeled with care, each a study in attention. Unearthed Words 1795 John Keats was born. In today's Unearthed Words, we hear a reflection from the English poet John Keats, who wrote some of his most enduring work in the garden of Wentworth Place in Hampstead, including Ode to a Nightingale, composed beneath a plum tree. Trained as an apothecary and surgeon, Keats brought a precise, almost clinical eye to nature, favoring the hawthorn and musk-rose over theatrical blooms. Near the end of his life, dying in Rome, he reflected quietly: "I can feel the cold earth upon me, the daisies growing over me." It is a line that holds the garden not as decoration, but as solace. Beauty made exact, and fleeting, and true. Book Recommendation How to Design a Garden by Pollyanna Wilkinson It's Planning & Design Week on The Daily Gardener, and today's recommendation is a practical, grounding guide that begins not with plants, but with real life. Pollyanna Wilkinson starts where good design always starts: with how you actually want to use your garden. Not the fantasy version of your life, but the honest one. How much time you really have? How do you move through your days? What kind of space will support that life instead of competing with it? From there, the book builds outward into principles and decisions that help a garden become both beautiful and useful, shaped by intention rather than impulse. Botanic Spark 1858 Thomas Rawlins announced he had received his spring supply of Ault's English Garden Seeds. In Charles Town, West Virginia, gardeners could find them at the local Market House, one packet at a time. In the nineteenth century, names like Ault mattered. They signaled seed that was true to type, carefully selected, and sold with a quiet confidence in the season ahead. Gardeners gathered at places like the Market House to talk varieties, compare notes, and imagine what might be possible this year. Early Blood beets. Flat Dutch cabbage. Workhorse seeds that fed families season after season. A small purchase. A private plot. And the belief that tomorrow was worth planting for. Final Thoughts Not every garden story is famous. Some are kept small on purpose. A gardener-martyr guarding a working plot. A botanist rising before dawn. A seed agent at the Market House selling hope by the packet. These are the stories that reward attention, and the gardeners who recognize themselves in them. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember, for a happy, healthy life, garden every day.
Transcribe →November 19, 2024 November Gardens Between Activity and Rest, Helen Hunt Jackson, Danske Dandridge, Julia Wilmotte Henshaw, Outside In by Sean A. Pritchard, and Amy Baik Lee's Garden Closing
Nov 19, 202400:28:33Tap to summarizeSubscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Botanical History On This Day 1854 Danske ["DAN-sker"] Dandridge, poet, historian, and garden writer, was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. 1937 Julia Wilmotte [will-MOT] Henshaw, Canadian botanist, geographer, writer, and political activist, died. Grow That Garden Library™ Read The Daily Gardener review of Outside In by Sean A. Pritchard Buy the book on Amazon: Outside In by Sean A. Pritchard Today's Botanic Spark 2021 Author and blogger Amy Baik ["Beck"] Lee captured the bittersweet moment every gardener knows - the annual closing of the garden. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.
Transcribe →November 18, 2024 A Century of November Garden Reflections, Archibald Menzies, Asa Gray, New Nordic Gardens by Annika Zetterman, and Beatrix Farrand Plans the Rose Garden for the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG)
Nov 18, 202400:29:17Tap to summarizeSubscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Botanical History On This Day 1793 Archibald Menzies, the Scottish surgeon-botanist, reluctantly departs Santa Barbara aboard the HMS Discovery during Vancouver's expedition. 1810 Asa Gray is born. He was a figure who would become America's preeminent botanist and one of the most influential scientists of the 19th century. Grow That Garden Library™ Read The Daily Gardener review of New Nordic Gardens by Annika Zetterman Buy the book on Amazon: New Nordic Gardens by Annika Zetterman Today's Botanic Spark 1916 Renowned landscape architect Beatrix Farrand (FAIR-rand) creates a visionary rose garden plan for the New York Botanical Garden. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.
Transcribe →November 15, 2024 Garden Musings, William Wordsworth, Georgia O'Keefe, Around the House and In the Garden by Dominique Browning, and Empress Josephine's Les Liliacées by Pierre-Joseph Redouté
Nov 15, 202400:31:01Tap to summarizeSubscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Botanical History On This Day 1806 William Wordsworth received a life-changing invitation from Lady Margaret Willes Beaumont to design and build a winter garden at her estate in an old gravel quarry. This unique request would lead to what Wordsworth later called "the longest letter I ever wrote in my life" - a detailed garden design that merged poetry with horticulture. 1887 Georgia O'Keeffe was born - an artist who would revolutionize how we see flowers through her bold, modernist vision. Over her remarkable career, O'Keeffe created more than 900 works of art, but it's her dramatic, large-scale flower paintings that have become her most recognizable legacy. Grow That Garden Library™ Read The Daily Gardener review of Around the House and In the Garden by Dominique Browning Buy the book on Amazon: Around the House and In the Garden by Dominique Browning Today's Botanic Spark 1985 On this day, a phenomenal piece of botanical history changed hands at Sotheby's auction house: Empress Josephine's personal copy of Pierre-Joseph Redouté's (pee-AIR zho-ZEFF reh-doo-TAY) botanical watercolors for "Les Liliacées" (lay lee-lee-ah-SAY) - "The Lilies." Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.
Transcribe →November 14, 2024 A Second Spring, Nell Gwynn, John Custis IV, Gardens for the Soul by Sara Bird and Dan Duchars, and Robert Buist
Nov 14, 202400:27:26Tap to summarizeSubscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Botanical History On This Day 1687 Eleanor "Nell" Gwynn, died at the age of 37 in her Pall Mall house in London. Known as "pretty, witty Nell" by diarist Samuel Pepys, she was one of the most celebrated figures of the Restoration period and a long-time mistress of King Charles II. 1749 John Custis IV, an American planter, politician, government official, and military officer, died. His garden legacy has recently captured headlines as archaeologists uncover what was once colonial America's most lavish ornamental garden. Grow That Garden Library™ Read The Daily Gardener review of Gardens for the Soul by Sara Bird and Dan Duchars Buy the book on Amazon: Gardens for the Soul by Sara Bird and Dan Duchars Today's Botanic Spark 1805 Robert Buist, florist and nurseryman, was born near Edinburgh, Scotland. Trained at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Buist emigrated to Philadelphia in 1828 at age 23, where he would become one of America's most influential early nurserymen. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.
Transcribe →November 13, 2024 Gardens, Meteors, and Chrysanthemums, Joseph Paxton, Cherry Trees of 1909, The Kew Gardener's Guide to Growing Cacti and Succulents by the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and Paul Rees and The Dangerous World of Rare Orchids
Nov 13, 202400:23:56Tap to summarizeSubscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Botanical History On This Day 1849 A most extraordinary presentation took place at Windsor Castle. Imagine, if you will, standing in the grand halls of Windsor Castle as Joseph Paxton (PAX-ton) presented a massive leaf and exquisite blossom of the Victoria Amazonica (vik-TOR-ee-ah am-uh-ZON-ih-kuh) to the Queen. The moment was so moving that Her Majesty enthusiastically declared, "We are immensely pleased." 1909 The Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson (WIL-sun) sent what seemed like a routine notification to the plant industry office in Seattle. Little did anyone know this simple message would set in motion one of the most delicate diplomatic situations in early 20th-century American-Japanese relations. Grow That Garden Library™ Read The Daily Gardener review of The Kew Gardener's Guide to Growing Cacti and Succulents by the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and Paul Rees Buy the book on Amazon: The Kew Gardener's Guide to Growing Cacti and Succulents by the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and Paul Rees Today's Botanic Spark 1989 The Sarasota Herald-Tribune published a story that lifted the veil on the shadowy world of rare orchid trading. The article focused on Limerick Inc. and an alleged smuggling operation of endangered Chinese orchids to Florida - but the real story runs much deeper into the heart of orchid obsession. The tale of Kerry Richards and his nursery, Limerick Inc., reads like a botanical thriller. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.
Transcribe →November 12, 2024 Revelations in the Fall Garden, Auguste Rodin, Princess Therese of Bavaria, Habitat Creation In Garden Design by Catherine Heatherington and Alex Johnson, and Clarissa Tucker Tracy
Nov 12, 202400:24:34Tap to summarizeSubscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Botanical History On This Day 1840 Auguste Rodin (oh-GOOST roh-DAN), the great French sculptor, was born. A man who found the divine in both marble and flowers - Auguste Rodin would ultimately earn the title of the father of modern sculpture. Today, we gardeners might better remember him as a kindred spirit who understood that true beauty grows wild and free. 1850 Princess Therese of Bavaria (teh-RAY-zuh of buh-VAIR-ee-uh), was born. This remarkable woman found her true calling not in the gilded halls of Bavaria's royal palaces but in the wild gardens of the world. T Grow That Garden Library™ Read The Daily Gardener review of Habitat Creation In Garden Design by Catherine Heatherington and Alex Johnson Buy the book on Amazon: Habitat Creation In Garden Design by Catherine Heatherington and Alex Johnson Today's Botanic Spark 1818 Clarissa Tucker Tracy, a passionate botanist and the Mother of Ripon (RIP-un) College, is born. Clarissa was a remarkable woman who found her life's purpose in both plants and people, and her story reminds us that sometimes the most beautiful gardens we cultivate are the ones we plant in others' hearts. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.
Transcribe →November 08, 2024 Winter Preparation, William Copeland McCalla, Elizabeth Roberts MacDonald, A New Cottage Garden by Mark Bolton, and Margaret Mitchell
Nov 8, 202400:32:01Tap to summarizeSubscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Botanical History On This Day 1872 William Copeland McCalla, Canadian botanist and photographer, is born. McCalla would become one of Alberta's most influential botanists, combining his passion for photography with his love of plants to create an extraordinary legacy in Canadian botanical history. 1922 Elizabeth Roberts MacDonald, Canadian poet, died. Her poetic voice still echoes through the gardens of Maritime Canada. Her garden legacy continues to bloom in the hearts of those who tend both soil and verse. Grow That Garden Library™ Read The Daily Gardener review of A New Cottage Garden by Mark Bolton Buy the book on Amazon: A New Cottage Garden by Mark Bolton Today's Botanic Spark 1900 Margaret Mitchell, the American southern writer of Gone with the Wind, is born. Through Mitchell's pen, flowers and beauty became essential to her epic tale. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.
Transcribe →November 07, 2024 November's Little Garden Tasks, Rockingham Colonial Gardens, Warren Manning, The Landscape of Home by Edmund Hollander, and Ruth Pitter
Nov 7, 202400:31:34Tap to summarizeSubscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Botanical History On This Day 1783 General George Washington penned his historic Farewell Address to his troops at Rockingham, marking a pivotal moment in American history. Today, this historic site continues to tell its story not just through its architecture, but through its meticulously maintained period gardens that offer visitors a living connection to our nation's past. 1860 Warren Manning, a visionary landscape architect, is born. His birth was commemorated by his father with the planting of an elm tree - a fitting tribute for a man who would dedicate his life to transforming America's landscapes. Grow That Garden Library™ Read The Daily Gardener review of The Landscape of Home by Edmund Hollander Buy the book on Amazon: The Landscape of Home by Edmund Hollander Today's Botanic Spark 1897 On this day, Ruth Pitter, a remarkable British poet whose deep connection to nature, primarily through her beloved Hainault Forest, was born. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.
Transcribe →November 06, 2024 Finding Hope in the November Garden, Alice Lounsberry, Frank Kingdon-Ward, Favorite Poems for the Garden by Bushel & Peck Books, and Martha Turnbull
Nov 6, 202400:28:56Tap to summarizeSubscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community Botanical History On This Day 1868 The botanist and garden writer Alice Lounsberry is born in New York City. 1885 The renowned British botanist and explorer Frank Kingdon-Ward was born in Manchester, England. Grow That Garden Library™ Read The Daily Gardener review of Favorite Poems for the Garden by Bushel & Peck Books Buy the book on Amazon: Favorite Poems for the Garden by Bushel & Peck Books Today's Botanic Spark 1836 Martha Turnbull, mistress of Rosedown Plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana, penned the first entry in what would become a remarkable 59-year chronicle of life and gardening in the antebellum South. Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener And remember: For a happy, healthy life, garden every day.
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