Today we celebrate the author and poet who wrote some beautiful garden verses. We'll also learn about a magnificent Australian artist and botanical illustrator, and her art is now part of Australia's national library. We celebrate the selection of the State Flower for Arkansas - and the very cute story of how it came to be picked. We honor the life of the poet and WWI soldier who wrote what is probably the most popular poem ever about trees. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about living naturally with eco-friendly ideas that don't sacrifice style, function, or sustainability. And then we'll wrap things up with the story of first academy award-winning animated cartoon that gardeners will love. But first, let's catch up on some Greetings from Gardeners around the world and today's curated news.   Subscribe Apple  | Google  | Spotify  | Stitcher | iHeart   Gardener Greetings To participate in the Gardener Greetings segment, send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org And, to listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to play The Daily Gardener Podcast. It's that easy.   Curated News Director of science at Kew: it's time to decolonize botanical collections Professor Alexandre Antonelli is the Kew Gardens director responsible for the world's largest collection of plants and fungi. He was born and raised in Brazil and wrote this landmark piece for The Conversation research website. Alexandre believes that the time has come to decolonize botanical collections by ridding the field of "structural racism." Here's an excerpt: “I’ve often struggled to answer the simple question, “Where are you from?” As I was born and raised in Brazil, like many people my origin is mixed… I dislike pre-defined labels. At school, I was taught that Brazil was “discovered” in 1500 by the Portuguese. The fact that several million people lived there prior to that was barely mentioned in our books. We were told of a long history of brutal exploitation of our natural resources, including vast amounts of gold, rubber and timber. All this was achieved through the exploitation of our native people and African slaves – including my own ancestors. …[That] Brazil is … the world’s most biodiverse country... astounded colonial botanists. Charles Darwin was astonished at our “lands teeming with life”, as was Alfred Russel Wallace, who spent years in the Amazon. It is not lost on me that these were both white British men. And Britain is also where I ended up professionally. After two decades studying biodiversity across the world, I’m now head of science at Kew, responsible for the world’s largest collections of plants and fungi. For hundreds of years... colonial botanists would embark on dangerous expeditions in the name of science but were ultimately tasked with finding economically profitable plants. Much of Kew’s work in the 19th century focused on the movement of such plants around the British Empire, which means we too have a legacy that is deeply rooted in colonialism. ...Scientists continue to report how new species are “discovered” every year, species that are often already known and used by people in the region – and have been for thousands of years. ...The first inhabitants of Brazil and the first users of plants in Australia often remained unnamed, unrecognised, and uncompensated. They are quite literally invisible in history. This needs to change. By opening up our collections and practices, we will give voice to a past that includes troubled chapters, but one that will hopefully contribute to a brighter future.”   Have you tried growing Castor Bean? It's one of Michael Pollen's favorite plants. Check out the way he starts his article on the plant called, "Consider the Castor Bean": "Pretty they are not, but a garden can labor under a surfeit "surfut" of prettiness, be too sweet or cheerful for its own good. Sometimes what’s needed in the garden is a hint of vegetal menace, of