Today we celebrate the botanical illustrator who was wrongfully fired from his first job and the French botanist who spent a month in California with a boatful of Russians. We'll learn about the botanical name of the city where people leave their hearts, and we’ll fall in love with a classic garden writer from Bronxville, New York. Today’s Unearthed Words feature an English poet who loved gardens and wrote many poems about them. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book that talks about the revolution that will save our food. I'll talk about a garden item that I have WAY too many of - but, then again, can you really have too many? I digress. And, then we’ll wrap things up with the story of the woman who wrote a flora dictionary anonymously - signing her work very  mysteriously with the words “by a Lady.” But first, let's catch up on a few recent events.   Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart   Curated Articles Good Decisions by @papaver Good Decisions in the garden -Alison Levey ("Lee-Vee") - The Blackberry Garden  " I planted them and whispered to the nearby ants 'when you wake up, take the seeds and spread them throughout the garden.'”   The Plight of the African Violets — In Defense of Plants The Plight of the African Violets — In Defense of Plants — "their numbers in captivity overshadow a bleak future for this genus in the wild. Many African violets are teetering on the brink of extinction."   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 1708 Today is the birthday of the botanist and the incomparable botanical illustrator Georg Dionysius Ehret. Georg was born in Heidelberg, Germany, to Ferdinand Christian Ehret, who was a gardener and also had a talent for drawing. He taught his son both skills- gardening and drawing - before he died. Georg made his way to Regensburg. There, he met an apothecary who hired him to draw of specimens from his herbarium and garden. Georg earnestly took on the job, creating over 500 pieces in one year. Taking advantage of his young employee, the apothecary fired Georg and told him he should have completed 1,000 drawings. It was basically the apothecary's way of avoiding paying Georg. After this dreadful experience, Georg made his way to England and worked at the significant botanical gardens - Including Chelsea Physic. Isaac Rand, the first director of the Chelsea Physic Garden in London, told Georg to paint the rare plants in the garden. The uniqueness of the specimens added to the demand for Georg's work. As a result, Georg was on friendly terms with the plant collectors and naturalists of his time. Chelsea was formative professionally and personally for Georg; He married the head gardener's sister-in-law, Susanna Kennet. In The Art of Botanical Illustration, Wilfrid Blunt noted that, “By the middle of the century he had become a popular figure in London society: the highest nobility in England clamored to receive instruction from him,” Indeed, the wealthiest woman in England, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (the Duchess of Portland), gladly retained Georg as a drawing instructor. Struck by the luminescence of his work, and ultimately she would buy over 300 of his paintings. In 1737, Georg was hired to draw by Sir Charles Wager, First Lord of the Admiralty. In August of that year, Wagner's personal garden is where Georg first observed the Magnolia grandiflora flowering. The bloom was so inspiring that Georg walked for an hour each way, from Chelsea to Wagner's house (in Fulham), to see and sketch every stage of the Magnolia grandiflora; from bud to full flower. Georg's work provided the world with the first Magnolia to be illustrated