Last night I shared the trailer for The Secret Garden remake which just dropped.  It is a visual feast for lovers of gardens everywhere. The new adaptation of the children's classic stars Colin Firth and Julie Walters and is set for release in April (2020). It looks fantastic.   The Secret Garden is a children's novel written by American author and gardener Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was first released in the early 1900's as a serial in The American Magazine.   The story is about a young girl, Mary Lennox, who was living in India with her wealthy British family. She is a spoiled, neglected little 10 year old girl. When cholera kills her parents, she is sent to England to live with a widowed uncle, Archibald Craven, at his huge Yorkshire estate. Mary learns that her dead aunt had a walled garden which has been locked away 10 years, ever since her death. Determined to find it, Mary finds the key to open the garden and she discovers a lost  paradise.  Spending time in the garden is transformational for her; she becomes softer and kinder and more optimistic.  That's why the trailer ends with this quote, "This garden; it's capable of extraordinary things. Now will you believe in the magic?"     Brevities #OTD  Today is the birthday of the Irish-born botanical steward of the plants collected by Lewis and Clark; the Philadelphia nurseryman, Bernard McMahon, who was born on this day in 1816. McMahon's lasting legacy was his American Gardener's Calendar. Packed with monthly directions and information about all things gardening, McMahon's Calendar was the most popular and most comprehensive gardening publication of the first half of the nineteenth century. Through his work, McMahon was helping to shape the gardening identity of America; which was becoming more distinct and defined as it transitioned away from English traditions. The Calendar was like a gardening bible to Thomas Jefferson and it was that connection that led McMahon to become his gardening mentor. It also meant that when it came time for Jefferson to pick a curator for the Lewis and Clark expedition, McMahan was his pick. Lewis and Clark are forever remembered for their famous expedition which led to many botanical discoveries. The live plants and the seeds they had collected were expertly curated by McMahon who didn't dither; especially with the seeds. Once the specimens were in his hands, he immediately set about cultivating them.  There were constraints placed on McMahon. As the sole nurseryman fortunate enough to steward the collection, he could not propagate the plants for profit (they were the property of the United States Government) and he could not tell anyone about the collection (at least not until Lewis and Clark had a chance to write about it). In honor of his work, the botanist Thomas Nuttal named the genus Mahonia for McMahon. Mahonia is an evergreen shrub, also known as Oregon holly. The low-growing shrub can be kept tidy with pruning and looks like a holly, although it belongs to the barberry family. The Mahonia produces yellow flowers followed by clusters of bluish-green berries that turn red in the fall. The red berries attract birds and gardeners love that it is a favorite of cardinals. Mahonia has a glossy, dark green foliage that turns a gorgeous bronze in autumn.         #OTD Today is the anniversary of the death of the botanist and chemist John M. Darby who died on this day in 1877. In 1841, Darby wrote one of the earliest floras and he focused on the south eastern United States. His flora was practical and regional, so it's no surprise that his work became a textbook for botany in the South East. After John Torrey and Asa Gray had released their North American Flora, Darby's work was one of many regional floras that started popping up all over the United States. Sadly, Darby's work was basically dissed by Asa Gray who felt that Darby's work was amateurish. This dismissal was too hasty and ignored the rigorous botanizing performed by D