Today we celebrate a wealthy vineyardist who came up with the idea for a raisin coop and the willow expert raised in beautiful gardens. We'll learn about the botanist who was murdered thanks to miscommunication and the oldest tree in New Orleans. We'll hear a garden poem about being shut out of the garden. We Grow That Garden Library with an oldie but goodie about a favorite of many gardeners: alliums. I'll talk about a practical but essential garden gift and then we'll wrap things up with a sweet story about the impressionist painter whose friend made sure his coffin wasn't draped in black.   But first, let's catch up on a few recent events.   Today's Curated Articles: An Economic History of the English Garden by Roderick Floud review – finance and flowers | Books | The Guardian An Economic History of the English Garden by Roderick Floud:   "Filled with fascinating and often surprising details – a rhododendron would set you back the equivalent of more than £1,000 in the 1770s – the book reveals the economic context to our love of gardening and shows that “the history of English gardens is, in many senses, the history of England”.   “Spending money on gardens has been one of the greatest, and certainly most conspicuous, forms of expenditure on luxury in England since the 17th century or earlier.”         Bee exhibit creates a buzz at Museum of the Earth | Cornell Chronicle Excellent post about bees from @cornellento "People don’t conserve what they don’t know anything about... People hear a lot about honeybees, & they hear a little about bumblebees, but the other 96% of Bees on Earth don’t get much press coverage... One of these, Wallace’s giant bee (Megachile pluto) – the world’s largest bee, with a wingspan of 2.5 inches – was thought to be extinct but was rediscovered in Indonesia in 1981. But these bees fetch thousands of dollars on eBay, which spurs collectors to catch them, further threatening the species’ survival. "     Stinging nettles, a troublesome but useful weed | Jack Wallington Garden Design, Clapham in London Great Common Sense Post from @JackWallington on Stinging Nettles: "Although it’s hard to control like mint, it’s SO useful for homemade fertilizer, and in nutritious teas and soups and also for wildlife. Every garden deserves a little nettle!" You get a nettle! And you get a nettle! And you get a nettle!     Now, if you'd like to check out these curated articles for yourself, you're in luck - because I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. There’s no need to take notes or search for links - the next time you're on Facebook, just search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.     Brevities #OTD  Today is the birthday of the California oilman, vineyardist, and attorney Henry Welsh who was born on this day in 1856. In 1912, California raisin growers, including Welsh, decided to band together to sell their raisins as a group. The plan was to create a million-dollar corporation and the concept drove Welsh to set up an innovative coop that paired investors with raisin growers. Unlike other coops of the time, the raisin coop was unique in that it bound the growers to deliver their entire crop for a guaranteed price - and they were locked in for three years. The coop was known as the California Associated Raisin Company and it quickly became known as the Sun-Maid Raisin Growers Association. The first president of the Association was none other than Henry H. Welsh. One little piece of trivia about Welsh was his deep love for the Fresno area. He loved the climate and his vineyard so much that, in 1941, Welsh bragged that he had not left the area for more than 40 years - not even to take a vacation.     #OTD  Today is the anniversary of the death of the Ohio-born botanist and Willow Expert Michael Schuck Bebb who died on this day in 1895. In 1896, Walter Deane wrote a biography o