I was looking at the cute brass plant labels on the Target website the other day - I was trying to find the link to that adorable garden tote I was telling you about and I thought about the evolution of a gardener when it comes to using plant tags.   First you start out needing the labels - is that dill? What does basil look like again?   Then you label only the newcomers or the look alike  parsley or cilantro - who can tell without smell?   Sometimes a new gardener will visit. Or you’ll have people tour your garden. Folks appreciate knowing what they are looking at.   Pretty soon, you realize you’re labeling as a kindness to your garden guests.   If you’re like me, no matter how long you’ve been gardening, cute or clever plant labels are always a lovely find. Brevities #OTD Today is National Licorice Day.    The botanical name for licorice means “sweet root” and in Dutch name, it's zoethout, (“Zoot-Howt”) which means “sweet wood.”  The secret to the flavor (which is 50 times sweeter than sugar) is hidden in the very long roots and rhizomes of the plant. Thus, children who grew up chewing on licorice root would suck out the sweet sugars and spit out the pulp.   The licorice plant is actually a perennial shrub in the legume or pea family. Don’t confuse it with the annual trailing dusky licorice plant that gets popped in containers.   The glycyrrhetinic acid in licorice causes the body to hold salt and water.  Throughout history, armies would give licorice to soldiers and horses when water was in short supply.  Licorice is used as a remedy for coughing - Hippocrates used it that way.  It regulates digestion - Napoleon used it for tummy troubles.   #OTD It’s the birthday of Zina Pitcher (April 12, 1797, in Sandy Hill, New York – April 5, 1872, in Detroit).   He managed to pack a lot of living and incredible relationships into his 75 year life.     He established the Detroit public school system.  He taught at West Point.  He was Michigan’s most prominent doctor and became a president of the American Medical Association  He was mayor of Detroit; twice.   He was a tireless member of the Board of Regents of the University of Michigan and was praised as the longest serving and hardest working of the 12 original regents.   As regent, it was Pitcher’s vision that made him an early advocate of acquiring John J. Audobon’s“The Birds of America”for the U-M Library.    An amateur botanist, Pitcher had discovered plant species, including a thistle - now called Pitcher’s Thistle (Carduus Pitcheri or Cirsium Pitcheri) in his honor.  The white-to-pale-pink flowering thistle is familiar to beachcombers throughout the Great Lakes.    While he was a regent, his love of horticulture came in handy when it was time to hire professors. The name Asa Gray floated to the top of their list. Gray was mentored by the nation’s top botanist: John Torrey.  When Gray arrived in Michigan, his first stop was at Pitcher’s home in Detroit. Accepting the job, Gray needed to push back his start date by one year to finish his studies in Europe.  This would give the University time to get building facilities on campus.  In the meantime, the regents asked Gray to buy books for the school while he was abroad. How fun! Gray shopped his bachelor buttons off; shipping over 3,700 books back to Ann Arbor.   Sadly, when his year in Europe was over, Gray never made it to Michigan. Harvard stole him away. But his ties to the University and all those books he bought helped create the school library and a fine reputation to attract young scholars.   Today, the street, Zina Pitcher Place in Ann Arbor is named in his honor OTD, 1810, Thomas Nuttal, just 24 years old, left Philadelphia by coach.He had recently immigrated from England, and Professor Benjamin Smith Barton of the University of Philadelphia wanted him to spend the next two years studying the flora of the Northwest.   Given a salary of $8 per month plus expenses, Nuttal set about collecting and writing detailed accounts o