Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart   Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee   Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter | Daily Gardener Community   Friends of the Garden Meeting in Athens, Georgia Register Here   Spring Break Next Week Hi there. The show is on spring break next week. New episodes will resume on March 21.   Historical Events 1775 Birth of Pierre Jean François Turpin (books about this person), French botanist and illustrator. Pierre was friends with the botanist, gardener, and botanical artist, Pierre Antoine Poiteau. And although we know that he learned a great deal about botany from his friend Poiteau, Pierre was self-taught when it came to his botanical illustrations. And Redouté's work was an obvious influence on him. Pierre created over 6,000 magnificent botanical watercolors. He was an expert on fruit trees, and his fruit prints are considered some of the best in the world. There are two fascinating stories about Pierre I wanted to share with you today. First, Pierre created a fictional plant for Goethe that was an amalgam of different angiosperms. Goethe wanted an illustration to show the diversity of angiosperms, and when Goethe saw Pierre's drawing, he named it the Urplant. Goethe wrote, The Urplant would be the most wondrous creation in the world, for which nature itself would envy me.  With it, one could invent plants to infinity... The second Pierre story that I wanted to share with you is about his son, Pierre Jr. No doubt Pierre taught his son how to draw. But tragically, Pierre Jr. died young, and his final drawing was of an Amaryllis. After his death, Pierre made sure his son was credited for the work, and then he did something unusual for botanical illustrations: he made a little personal remark on his son's passing, writing: This original illustration was painted by Pierre John Frederick Eugene Turpin.  The illustrator, who was 18 years and six days of age, ceased to live on the 21st of August in 1821. Less than 20 years later, Pierre himself would die in Paris in 1840 at 65. Now, speaking of Amaryllis, this is the time of year when gardeners get all kinds of questions about them. My neighbor Jan, up at the cabin returned from a trip to Las Vegas to find her Christmas gift, an Amaryllis, in full bloom - and she's utterly captivated by this gorgeous Amaryllis, but of course, she called me to say, What do I do with it after it's done blooming?  And this is the question that's on everybody's mind because they're wrapping things up about now. So what are your options if you have an Amaryllis? Well, number one, you can throw it away. You can simply be done with it. If you choose to, you could put it in the compost pile and so forth. Or, if you're committed to trying to get your Amaryllis to bloom again next year, it is possible to do. You can force it to flower again next year. Keep it on a sunny window inside until June when things warm up and then harden it off, the way you would any of the houseplants that you bring outside, take it outside for a few hours, and then bring it back in. Gradually increase the amount of time it stays outside until it's out all day. Make sure that it's in a sunny spot. And then, in the fall, you can bring it back indoors. This is the time when you're going to impose dormancy. Put the Amaryllis in a cold area. (If you have a dark cellar, that would be ideal). And remember that during dormancy, you don't want to water your Amaryllis. Think about your Amaryllis like a sleeping beauty that you'll wake up in time for the holidays. And then, at that point, you can resume watering, and your Amaryllis, with any luck, will flower again. So there you go—a little Amaryllis care 101 inspired by the son of Pierre Turpin.   1811 Birth of Katherine Sophia Kane, Irish botanist, and horticulturist. Orphaned as a little girl, Katherine was raised by her uncle, who fostered Kate's love for the outdoors and, ultimately, her focus on botany. When Kate was 22, s