Today in botanical history, we celebrate an American doctor, a Viscountess, and a Canadian fiction writer. We hear a little excerpt about September - such a milestone month for so many people. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book about one of America’s greatest explorers. And then we’ll wrap things up with tomato tips from garden writer Stuart Robinson who shares how to get the last of your harvest to ripen faster. A question on many gardener’s minds...   Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to “Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast.” And she will. It's just that easy.   The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf.   Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org   Curated News Torture Orchard | The Counter | Julie Cart   Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and original blog posts for yourself, you're in luck. I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there’s no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you’d search for a friend... and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group.   Important Events September 15, 1795  Birth of James Gates Percival, American poet, surgeon, and geologist. In The Language of Flowers, he wrote, In Eastern lands they talk in flowers, And they tell in a garland their loves and cares: Each blossom that blooms in their garden bowers, On its leaves a mystic language bears. In The Flight of Time, he wrote, Roses bloom, and then they wither; Cheeks are bright, then fade and die; Shapes of light are wafted hither, Then, like visions, hurry by.   September 15, 1872  Birth of Frances Garnet Wolseley, 2nd Viscountess Wolseley, English gardening author, and teacher. Her Glynde College for Lady Gardeners in East Sussex was patronized by Gertrude Jekyll, Ellen Willmott, and William Robinson.  She wrote, It is with real sorrow that we see so many [survivors] of an era of not particularly good taste in the shape of iron benches. It is their undoubted durability which has preserved them, and we who try to rest upon them are the sufferers, not only for their unpleasing appearance but from the ill-chosen formation of the back…   September 15, 1937  Birth of Marjorie Harris, Canadian non-fiction writer, garden expert, and garden author. She was the host of The Urban Gardener radio show for CBS. In addition to countless articles and columns for various publications, she wrote more than a dozen books on gardening.  She wrote, The longer you garden, the better the eye gets, the more tuned to how colors vibrate in different ways and what they can do to each other. You become a scientist as well as an artist, with the lines between increasingly blurred.   Unearthed Words The windows are open, admitting the September breeze: a month that smells like notepaper and pencil shavings, autumn leaves, and car oil. A month that smells like progress, like moving on. ― Lauren Oliver, Vanishing Girls   Grow That Garden Library The World was My Garden by David Fairchild This book came out in 1938, and the subtitle is Travels of a Plant Explorer. In this book, you learn directly from the fabulous Plant Explorer David Fairchild about what it was like to travel the globe searching for new plant species to bring home to the United States. In this first-hand account, David shares his extensive botanical expertise in addition to detailed stories about