This past week, I started looking for perennials I want to divide. After the hail storm and siding installation we had earlier this month, I don't feel too bad about digging up the plants. The garden looks tough. Might as well dig up old plants. I always start with my hostas - in part, because they recover so quickly. Next spring, you'll never know that they were transplanted this fall. In addition, they, like the ferns, get used make great ground covers. Got a chronic creeping charlie, creeping buttercup, or creeping anything... plant a hosta. It can handle the creepers and even if they manage to survive under the dense canopy, they aren't as vigorous and you won't see them anyway.   Brevities #OTD  On this day in 1773, French explorer and botanist Aimé Bonpland was born. Bonpland had traveled with Alexander von Humboldt in Latin America for five years - from 1799-1804, collecting & classifying 6,000 new plants. He co-authored many books about his discoveries. One of his journal entries says this: "We just arrived at a town where the locals invited us to eat a dish called enchiladas. When I tried it, my tongue burned and I started to sweat. I was told that this feeling is due to a fruit called "chili." I have to analyze it ..." And here's a little trivia about Bonpland: When Napolean's wife Josephine died, Bonpland was present at her deathbed.     #OTD  Today in 1798, the first American vineyard was planted 25 miles from Lexington, Kentucky. It was started by a Swiss immigrant named John James Dufour. He established the first successful commercial vineyard and winery in America. He called it “The First Vineyard.” Dufour had read newspaper accounts of the American Revolution as a young boy in Switzerland. What struck him most was something the French fighters had said.  They were fighting alongside the colonists and they bemoaned the fact that they didn't have any wine to drink in America. It left an impression on DuFour. His grandfather and father were both vine dressers in Switzerland. Dufour wanted to bring their winemaking skills to America. In 1796, Dufour arrived in America. Initially, he made a point of visiting Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and other estates. DuFour noticed they were working with the wild grapes, which Dufour felt were inferior. After one year of success with "The First Vineyard", Dufour wrote to his father, brothers and sisters in Switzerland and invited them all to join him. Seventeen members of his family made the voyage.  After his family arrived, Dufour petitioned congress for the privilege of getting land in Indiana. The area had a steep valley that reminded the family of Switzerland. Congress granted a special approval for Dufour. By 1806, the first wine was made from the vineyard in Indiana, known as "The Second Vineyard" and the area became known as New Switzerland.     #OTD   Today is the birthday of the man known as the King of Colorado Botany, Charles Christopher Parry, who was born on this day in 1823. Parry discovered both the Torrey pine and Engelmann spruce which gives you a clue about his impressive mentors. Although he rubbed shoulders with the best botanists of his time, Parry's focus was not academic. He was more interested in making sure the public and the common man benefitted from his work. In 1845 while he was at college, Parry's teacher was the great John Torrey. Parry was good friends with Asa Gray - who was also a student of John Torrey. In 1848, Parry learned about the botanical trade from the star of the Missouri Botanical Garden: George Engelmann. In the summer of 1862 he brought Elihu Hall and J. P. Harbour on an expedition to Colorado. The men gathered ten sets of over 700 species. According to William Weber, their effort remains "the largest [collection ever] made in Colorado in a single season".  Parry spent 20 summers in Colorado - in a cabin nestled between Torrey Peak and Gray Peak - mountains he named after John Torrey and Asa Gray. Parry named anothe