Today in botanical history, we celebrate an American poet and writer, a look back at a one-of-a-kind event at the gardens at Iowa State, and the English gardener who bred phenomenal lupins. We'll hear an excerpt from Thomas Merton's diary entry for October. We Grow That Garden Library™ with an award-winning modern book on scent in the garden. And then we'll wrap things up with the legacy of a college head gardener and how his memory still lives on at the greenhouse.   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   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.   Curated News 10 Things Your Landscape Architect Wishes You Knew (But Is Too Polite to Tell You) | Gardenista | Barbara Peck   Important Events October 15, 1830 Birth of Helen Hunt Jackson, (pen name H.H.) American poet and writer. She fought for the dignity of Native Americans and wrote about mistreatment by the US government in A Century of Dishonor (1881) and Ramona (1884). Today Helen is remembered for her light-hearted poems like: By all these lovely tokens September days are here, with Summer's best of weather and Autumn's best of cheer. And O suns and skies and clouds of June, And flowers of June together, Ye cannot rival for one hour October's bright blue weather Her poem Vanity of Vanities is a favorite of gardeners. Bee to the blossom, moth to the flame; Each to his passion; what’s in a name? Red clover’s sweetest, well the bee knows; No bee can suck it; lonely it blows. Deep lies the honey, out of reach, deep; What use in honey hidden to keep? Robbed in the autumn, starving for bread; Who stops to pity a honey-bee dead? Star-flames are brightest, blazing the skies; Only a hand’s breadth the moth-wing flies. Fooled with a candle, scorched with a breath; Poor little miller, a tawdry death; Life is a honey, life is a flame; Each to his passion; what’s in a name? Swinging and circling, face to the sun, Brief little planet, how it doth run! Bee-time and moth-time, add the amount; white heat and honey, who keeps the count? Gone some fine evening, a spark out-tost! The world no darker for one star lost! Bee to the blossom, moth to the flame; Each to his passion; what’s in a name?   October 15, 1897 On this day, The Des Moines Register ran a headline from Ames Iowa: Crowd Ruins Iowa State's Flower Plots. An unfounded rumor that flowers in the Iowa State college gardens could be had for the picking because of an expected frost led to an unprecedented display of vandalism here.  A crowd estimated at 150 to 200 persons Sunday went through the horticulture department gardens, stripping off flowers and pulling up bushes until routed by Ames police.  Officers relieved the mob of most of the flowers they had seized, but members of the horticulture department said the loss would be heavy.  Most of the flowers and plants stripped were being used for experimental work, they added, and the loss, therefore, could not be