November 29, 2022 John Ray, Amos Bronson Alcott, Louisa May Alcott, Flower Flash by Lewis Miller, Edward Hummel, and Gertrude Jekyll

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Historical Events
1627 Birth of John Ray, English naturalist and writer.
In 1660, he published a catalog of Cambridge plants.
John developed his own system for classifying plants based on their observed similarities and differences. So he was clearly thinking about ways to distinguish one plant from another. And in his book, History of Plants, John was the first scientist to use the terms petal and pollen.
John also wrote a Collection of English Proverbs. In one for summer, John wrote:
If the first of July be rainy weather,
It will rain, more or less, for four weeks together.
 
1799 Birth of Amos Bronson Alcott, American teacher, writer, Transcendentalist and reformer.
In most aspects of his life, Amos was ahead of his time. He was also an abolitionist and an advocate for women's rights. He also advocated a plant-based diet. 
Amos once wrote,
Who loves a garden still his Eden keeps, Perennial pleasures, plants, and wholesome harvest
reaps.
In 1830, Amos married pretty Abigail May, and together they had four daughters; the second-oldest was Louisa May, born on this day in 1832.
 
1832 Birth of Louisa May Alcott, American writer, and poet. 
She grew up in the company of her parents' friends and fellow Transcendentalists like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
In 1868, she wrote Little Women. In it, she wrote,
Jo had learned that hearts, like flowers, cannot be rudely handled, but must open naturally...
Louisa could be witty. She once wrote,
Money is the root of all evil, and yet it is such a useful root that we cannot get on without it any more than we can without potatoes.
 
1978 Death of Edward C. Hummel, American plantsman and hybridizer.
Edward and his wife Minnie ran Hummel's Exotic Gardens of southern California for 43 years. They specialized in cacti, succulents, bromeliads ("brow·mee·lee·ads"), and orchids. 
In 1935, Edward and Minnie were featured in a Quaker State Motor Oil advertisement. The young Hummel family is in their home cactus garden. Edward is examining a cactus specimen while his daughter Marquetta and son Edward gather around. Mother Minnie is standing behind them, looking on. The ad garnered plenty of attention, and soon Edward was fielding requests from American gardeners for more information about his cactus garden. The letters gave Edward and Minnie the idea to start a mail-order business for their plants.
In 1943, during WWII, Edward published Hummel's Victory Picture Book. The cover featured a photo of two 6-foot-tall Barrel cacti at the base, leaning away from each other at the top in a perfect V formation for victory. The book was a smash hit, and subsequent editions were quickly put together. In the first edition, Edward wrote a note to his customers in the forward.
Perhaps you will wonder at receiving this free picture book which contains no prices of plants. If you enjoy a few minutes of interest and relaxation in looking it over, it will have fulfilled its obvious purpose. If your interest and curiosity are stirred to the point that you write us for further information, it will have fulfilled its hidden purpose.
After the War, the fumes from LAX drove the Hummels to find a new home for their nursery. They settled in Carlsbad and purchased an existing nursery after the founder Dr. Robert W. Poindexter, died unexpectedly. The nursery was a perfect fit. Robert Poindexter shared the Hummel's passion for cacti and succulents. Robert's son