April 24, 2023 Jakob Böhme, Robert Bailey Thomas, Paul George Russell, Charles Sprague Sargent, Purple Mustard, Pansies, Kurume Azaleas, Tiny and Wild by Graham Laird Gardner, and Solar System Garden

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Historical Events

1575 Birth of Jakob Böhme, German original thinker.

Jakob Böhme did a great deal of thinking and writing, not only about theology and Christianity but also about the natural world.

Here's what Mary Oliver wrote about Böhme.

I read Jacob Boehme and am caught in his shining web.

Here are Desire and Will that should be (he says) as two arms at one task; in my life they are less cooperative.

Will keeps sliding away down the hill to play when work is called for and Desire piously wants to labor when the best season of merriment is around me.

Troublemakers both of them them.

And another writer I admire and enjoy is Elizabeth Gilbert.

Elizabeth wrote about Jakob Böhme in her book, The Signature of All Things. The title of her book is from something that Jakob Böhme had written.

Jacob Boehme was a sixteenth-century cobbler from Germany who had mystical visions about plants.

Many people considered him an early botanist. Alma's mother, on the other hand, had considered him a cesspool of residual medieval superstition. So there was considerable conflict of opinion surrounding Jacob Boehme.

The old cobbler had believed in something he called the signature of all things"- namely, that God had hidden clues for humanity's betterment inside the design of every flower, leaf, fruit, and tree on earth.

All the natural world was a divine code, Boehme claimed, containing proof of our Creator's love.

1766 Robert Bailey Thomas, founder, editor, and publisher of The Old Farmer's Almanac, is born.

Robert made his first edition - his very first copy of The Old Farmer's Almanac -back in 1792.

1889 Paul George Russell, American botanist, is born.

Paul George Russell was born in Liverpool, New York. He worked as a botanist for the United States government for over five decades.

Paul George Russell went on collecting trips in Northern Mexico. He's remembered in the names of several different plants, including the Verbena russellii, a woody flowering plant that is very pretty.

And he's also remembered in the naming of the Opuntia russellii, which is a type of prickly pear cactus.

Now during his career, Paul George Russell could identify plants based on what their seeds looked like. One of the ways that he developed this skill is he compiled a seed bank of over 40,000 different types of sources.

Today Paul George is most remembered for his work with cherry trees. He was a vital part of the team that was created to install the living architecture of Japanese cherry trees around the Washington Tidal Basin. Paul George Russell put together a little bulletin, a little USDA circular called Oriental Flowering Cherries, in March 1934. It was his most impressive work. His guide provided all kinds of facts and detailed information about the trees just when it was needed most. People were curious about the cherry trees and fell utterly in love with them once they saw them blooming in springtime.

Paul George Russell passed away at the age of 73 after having a heart attack. On a poignant note, he was supposed to see his beloved cherry trees in bloom with his daughter. They had planned a trip to go to the tidal basin together. But unfortunately, that last visit never happened.

So this year, when you see the cherry trees bloom, raise a trowel to Paul, George Russell, and remember him and his fine work. And if you can get your hands on a copy of that 72-page circular he created in 1934, that's a find. It's all still good information.

1841 Charles Sprague Sargent, American botanist, is born.

He was the first director of Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum.

Charles was known for being a little curmudgeonly. He was pretty stoic.

One of my favorite stories about Charles wa...