Boy, nasturtiums are such wonderful plants aren't they?   August is a time when your nasturtiums look fabulous; even after a summer of blooming their hearts out. Right about now, you’re nasturtiums will bloom better if you remove a few of the center leaves. Opening up the plant a little bit will promote airflow - and allow the sun to shine on the base of the plant.   Nasturtiums are 100% edible.   You can add the petals to any salad - just as you would watercress. In fact, you can make a beautiful sandwich with nasturtium flowers and a little salad dressing.   Jane Eddington shared this idea in the Daily Newsout of New York, in 1928. She wrote,   “If you have never tried a nasturtium leaf spread with a thin mayonnaise between two thin slices of bread and butter, you do not know how pleasant a little bite – in two senses – you can get from this “Indian cress“ filling.   And before I forget, I found this wonderful article on nasturtiums that was featured in the Hartford  current out of Hartford Connecticut in August of  1914.   It had all of these wonderful recipes for nasturtiums   It not only gave some good advice about nasturtium capers and nasturtium sandwiches, but also, a nasturtium sauce for fish, meat, and vegetables, a nasturtium vinegar, and a nasturtium potato salad. I’ll have all of that in today show notes -if you’re geeking out on nasturtiums.   And, here is a little insight on how nasturtiums like to coexist with us: the more we cut nasturtiums - to bring in as cut flowers, or to eat them raw, or as capers - the more they are they will bloom. Regular cuttings seem to encourage more lateral development and therefore you get more flowers.    Win win.   If you protect your plants with burlap or sheets on cold fall evenings, your nasturtiums just might surprise you and bloom well into November.   Brevities   #OTD  Today, in 1750, the botanist Peter Kalm visited Niagara Falls.   Niagara was a natural attraction for Bartness like Kalm who studied under Karla Nas      Niagara was a natural attraction for botanist like Kalm who studied under Carl Linnaeus.   (It was actually Linnaeus who came up with the idea to send trained botanists to Niagara.)   There are no records of the plants that Kalm collected that day. However, botanists suspect that Kalm's Labelia and Kalm's Saint John's Wort were collected there; both would have been named for him by Carl Linnaeus.       #OTD  Today, in 1805, Meriwether Lewis discovered the Snowberry or Symphoricarpos albus.   I love the story of how Lewis came across the Snowberry.   He was really looking for the Shoshone Indians; but he found the Snowberry instead.   Lewis wrote in his journal that he discovered something like a small honeysuckle; except that it was bearing a berry as, "large as a garden pea and as white as wax."   The plant was a true new discovery to the scientific community. And, Lewis showed his botany chops when he said he thought it resembled the honeysuckle because it actually IS a member of the honeysuckle family. The Latin name is from the Greek meaning "fruits joined together", because the berries are clustered in pairs.   The berries aren’t good for eating; they’re pretty tasteless. But, the birds, and especially grouse, love it.    Lewis probably took a specimen of the Snowberry because some of the seeds made their way to Philadelphia. They were given to Thomas Jefferson‘s favorite nurseryman: Bernard McMahan.   Then, McMahan did what he always did; he grew them and sent cuttings to Thomas Jefferson.   Jefferson wrote him in October of 1812  saying that the Snowberries were thriving in his garden.   He gushed that they were,   “some of the most beautiful berries I have ever seen.”        #OTD   Today is the birthday of the Russian botanist Edward August Von Regal who was born on this day  in 1815.   Regal was born in Switzerland - but he lived most of his life in Russia.   Regal worked in a number of botanical gardens, including gardens in Germany and Switzerl