Today we celebrate the German botanist who’s 1542 book is one of the most historically significant works of all time and the birthday of a man who discovered the rutabaga. We'll learn about the man known as “The Father of English Botany” and the man known as the “Father of American Horticulture.” Today’s Unearthed Words celebrate the sleeping winter landscape. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that helps us create a spa experience in our own homes using herbs from the garden. I'll talk about a garden item that can turn your plants into wall art, and then we’ll wrap things up with the story of a man who came up with the idea for a magazine for gardeners who read and readers who garden. But first, let's catch up on a few recent events.   Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart   Curated Articles Great Dixter's Head Gardner, Fergus Garrett, On Conifers | House & Garden Great post from @_houseandgarden about "Why the Conifer is Having a Comeback." "Conifers do not have to be plonked in island beds with gaudy heathers, or peppered around Seventies-style rockeries like missiles... Their range is mouth-watering, adding form and texture with a twist."   Best Plants To Paint For Beginners | Kew Pick up your brushes - Here's Kew’s list of the best plants to paint for beginners | @kewgardens   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, search for Daily Gardener Community and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.   Important Events 1501 Today is the birthday of the German botanist Leonhart Fuchs. Leonard and his wife had ten children. The genus Fuchsia is named after Fuchs. Leonhart published the first drawing of a corn plant. He also drew one of the first illustrations of the pumpkin plant. It took Leonard 31 years to write his herbal masterpiece called Historia Stirpium. In the book, he describes 497 plants and 500 illustrations. In 1542, the book was published, and the medicinal uses for each plant were included in the descriptions. His goal was to make the knowledge of herbs accessible to the people. The fact that his book contained so many illustrations definitely helped him achieve his goal. Leonard’s book described over a hundred plants that had never been written about - like Pumpkins, Chili Peppers, Corn, and Squash. Leonard's Historia Stirpium is regarded as one of the most historically valuable and significant books of all time. Now, I wanted to share that the cover of the book - which is beautiful - was a bit of a mystery to me. It shows a tree with a coffin in its branches. It turns out it was a printer mark of the printer, Michael Isingrin, who was the printer of Historia Stirpium. The image of the coffin in a tree forms a Christian cross, and the tree holding the coffin was a holly tree. The inscription "Palma Ising" (i.e., by the hand of Isingrin) is the mark that identifies Michael Isingrin, the printer. " The depiction of a holly tree (Ilex spp. ) was deliberate. Holly is a symbol of eternal life. So essentially, the image represents life and death - the coffin in the tree. Incidentally, the holly tree is regarded as the evergreen twin of the oak.   1560 Today is the 460th birthday of the Swiss botanist Gaspard Bauhin. Gaspard spent his life classifying plants, and he ordered plants in a way that's familiar to us today - using binomial names, one name for the genus, and one name for the species. Gaspard was also the first to document a vegetable he named the napobrassica, the vegetable we know today as the rutabaga. Gaspard’s name for the rutabaga was prophetic because DNA testing has proven that the rutabaga is the result of a turnip crossing with a cabbage. Gaspard mentioned in his work that the rutabaga was grown in the northern fields of Bohem