25 min
March 5, 2021 What to Plant in March, Anna Scripps Whitcomb, Idabelle Firestone, A March Garden Diary, Floral Cocktails by Lottie Muir, and Flowers for the Country Border The Daily Gardener
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- Home & Garden
Today we celebrate the woman who donated her entire orchid collection to begin the Belle Isle Conservatory.
We'll also learn about a woman who Burpee honored with the naming of a Marigold.
We hear an excerpt from a garden diary for this week of March.
We Grow That Garden Library™ with a very delightful book that teaches how to make your own floral cocktails.
And then we’ll wrap things up with a little story that shares five favorite perennials for country life.
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To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to
“Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast.”
And she will. It's just that easy.
The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter
Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:
A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf.
Gardener Greetings
Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org
Curated News
4 Things You Can Plant in March, the Very Beginning of Outdoor Gardening Season | Apartment Therapy | Molly Williams
Facebook Group
If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community.
So, there’s no need to take notes or search for links.
The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community where you’d search for a friend... and request to join.
I'd love to meet you in the group.
Important Events
March 5, 1866
Today is the birthday of Anna Scripps Whitcomb.
Anna was born to James and Harriet Scripps. Anna's father was an entrepreneur; he founded the Detroit News and helped found the Detroit Museum of Art.
In 1891, Anna married Edgar Whitcomb and together they raised two children. The couple lived on a beautiful estate in Gross Pointe and along the way, Anna nurtured her passion for orchids. The Whitcomb property boasted two large greenhouses which were largely devoted to orchids.
During the first half of the 1900s, Orchids were still very challenging to grow and they had a very poor germination rate. Anna’s success with orchids was in large part thanks to her longtime gardener and propagator William Crichton who worked for Anna for almost 30 years. William often had the help of a small staff of gardeners and the team worked together to show many of Anna’s orchids at the Detroit Flower Show.
A charming article about Anna’s orchids highlighted William’s expertise this way,
“With a fine brush, [William] transferred the pollen of one gorgeous flower to another. The seed pod of the fertilized flower would contain a quarter million seeds, a few hundred thousand of which would be planted and half of them would bloom nine years after spring.
Because the modern orchid grower studies the ancestry of his plants... [William] can predict their possible forms and colorings and qualities. But exactly what will happen, [William] must wait nine years to learn.
Until recently the orchid breeder could count upon no more than five percent of selected seeds surviving to germinate. Now the famous Cornell University method has raised the life expectancy of orchid seeds to 50 percent. With this method seeds are sown in a propagating jelly, which looks like library paste. It is composed of chemicals, salts and nutrients made from seaweed.
[Each year, William] will cross but one, possibly two, pair. [William] will save perhaps 10,000 to 20,000 seeds and plant half of them…
Five flasks filled with the Cornell agar jelly [are] sufficient to fill a small orchid house with bloom.
[And] Each flask [is
Today we celebrate the woman who donated her entire orchid collection to begin the Belle Isle Conservatory.
We'll also learn about a woman who Burpee honored with the naming of a Marigold.
We hear an excerpt from a garden diary for this week of March.
We Grow That Garden Library™ with a very delightful book that teaches how to make your own floral cocktails.
And then we’ll wrap things up with a little story that shares five favorite perennials for country life.
Subscribe
Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart
To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to
“Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast.”
And she will. It's just that easy.
The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter
Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring:
A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf.
Gardener Greetings
Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org
Curated News
4 Things You Can Plant in March, the Very Beginning of Outdoor Gardening Season | Apartment Therapy | Molly Williams
Facebook Group
If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community.
So, there’s no need to take notes or search for links.
The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community where you’d search for a friend... and request to join.
I'd love to meet you in the group.
Important Events
March 5, 1866
Today is the birthday of Anna Scripps Whitcomb.
Anna was born to James and Harriet Scripps. Anna's father was an entrepreneur; he founded the Detroit News and helped found the Detroit Museum of Art.
In 1891, Anna married Edgar Whitcomb and together they raised two children. The couple lived on a beautiful estate in Gross Pointe and along the way, Anna nurtured her passion for orchids. The Whitcomb property boasted two large greenhouses which were largely devoted to orchids.
During the first half of the 1900s, Orchids were still very challenging to grow and they had a very poor germination rate. Anna’s success with orchids was in large part thanks to her longtime gardener and propagator William Crichton who worked for Anna for almost 30 years. William often had the help of a small staff of gardeners and the team worked together to show many of Anna’s orchids at the Detroit Flower Show.
A charming article about Anna’s orchids highlighted William’s expertise this way,
“With a fine brush, [William] transferred the pollen of one gorgeous flower to another. The seed pod of the fertilized flower would contain a quarter million seeds, a few hundred thousand of which would be planted and half of them would bloom nine years after spring.
Because the modern orchid grower studies the ancestry of his plants... [William] can predict their possible forms and colorings and qualities. But exactly what will happen, [William] must wait nine years to learn.
Until recently the orchid breeder could count upon no more than five percent of selected seeds surviving to germinate. Now the famous Cornell University method has raised the life expectancy of orchid seeds to 50 percent. With this method seeds are sown in a propagating jelly, which looks like library paste. It is composed of chemicals, salts and nutrients made from seaweed.
[Each year, William] will cross but one, possibly two, pair. [William] will save perhaps 10,000 to 20,000 seeds and plant half of them…
Five flasks filled with the Cornell agar jelly [are] sufficient to fill a small orchid house with bloom.
[And] Each flask [is
25 min