NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE
A NEWSLETTER from LUCRETIA WEEMS
STORIES: Jane Colden, 1724-1766?
A lifelong devotion to plants, evident in her gardens and in her spectacular As a young woman growing up in the Hudson Valley woods in colonial America, Jane Colden collected and described well over 300 plants. READ MORE
THE LAWN DEBATE
To Lawn or not to Lawn?
This debate was heated when I was in school, and all these years later we are still talking. Yes, lawn affords carbon sequestration but it is also thirsty. and high- maintenance. There are many lovely, easy and successful options!
I have a presentation on this topic available live and by zoom.
NATURE'S BEST HOPE
A friend recently gave my this book. Tallamy is one of the great minds pioneering simple effective ways of impacting the ecosystem. He offers a great education in how much we can affect the world and its health by how we address our own humble patch of ground.
PERADENIYA GARDENS
The Botanical Garden in Peradeniya Sri Lanka is the largest in Asia, and one of the oldest, begun adjacent to the King's Palace in the 1400s. This is the area where the intrepid Anna Maria Walker explored and collected plants in the early 1800s.
Over 4000 species of plants flourish there. I have added a number of images of this spectacular public garden to the images in the Plants and Gardens section of the websit this month.
THIS WILD LIFE
Heroines in the History of Botany 1650-1850
The women in these pages led amazing lives. Some encountered pirates, some witnessed historic earthquakes, some received visits from the Queen.
Each was a true heroine who contributed dramatically to our knowledge of plants before the term botany even existed.
They explored, collected and propagated plants alongside men. Courage, determination and intelligence underscored their work yet their historic endeavors were too often barely acknowledged.
Hundreds of years have passed, and their names have been largely forgotten. Here are the remarkable stories of their lives and work, that we may know them and that their stature be reclaimed and celebrated anew.
