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The Gardeners Who Planted for US Presidents - Prescott eNews

Duke of Atholl, near Dunkeld. In 1856 McKerichar was hired as a foreman under John Watt, taking on the role of head gardener nine years later. Known for his hothouse grapes, he also raised off-season Caledonian cucumbers for President Grant. Like the gardeners before him, he resigned from the White House to open a garden center in Alexandria, Virginia.George Field (Served 1875–1877, under Ulysses Grant.) The first English gardener at the White House, Field's floral fame came after he left the White House. He opened a garden center on Georgia Avenue NW with his brother Thomas. Field was responsible for naming and promoting the 'American Beauty' rose, originally selected on historian George Bancroft's estate as 'La Madame Ferdinande Jamin.' Field supplied the cattleya orchids for Alice Roosevelt Longworth's bridal bouquet in 1906. The Washington Post described him as an orchid specialist. He was an active member of the Florist Club of Washington. In 1916, he sold his stock of orchid plants for $15,000.Henry Pfister (Served 1877–1902, under Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt.) A native of Zurich, Switzerland, Pfister trained in the conservatories of a Swiss banker and at the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris. He made his way to Cincinnati and then to Washington, where he was hired under Hayes. Pfister managed the greenhouses, designed and planted the ornamental beds around the White House lawns, and provided all indoor floral and plant decorations, including the wedding of Grover Cleveland and Frances Folsom. He later opened his own florist and landscape design business on Connecticut Avenue.George Hay Brown (Served 1902–1909, under Theodore Roosevelt.) The son of a landscape gardener in Perthshire, Scotland, where he learned the family trade. In 1850, the family immigrated to the United States. In 1858, Brown took a job in Washington D.C. at the government experimental gardens. During the Civil War, he served with the Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans. By 1890 he was back in Washington D.C. as a public gardener with the War Department. Brown worked on the Capitol grounds, city parks, and the government propagating gardens and greenhouses near the Washington Monument, as well as the White House. He taught Theodore Roosevelt's children how to propagate plants in his greenhouses.Charles Henlock (Served 1909–1931, under William Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover.) A Yorkshireman, and proud of his horticultural training, having worked for Lord Mowbray in Yorkshire, Lord Denbigh in Warwickshire, and Lord Harrington in Derbyshire before spending five years with the Royal Horticultural Society. Henlock arrived in Washington D.C. just before President Cleveland's wedding in 1886 and was hired as a foreman gardener at the White House, and grew to the propagating gardens and city parks. Henlock was the White House head gardener in 1909, where he was responsible for the first shipment of cherry trees sent from Japan as well as the successful plantings around the Tidal Basin.William Saunders Reeves (Served 1931–1945, under Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt. William Saunders Reeves was the first American-born White House head gardener.) His grandfather, William Saunders, was the chief of experimental gardens for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and founder of the National Grange but is perhaps best remembered for introducing the navel orange. Reeves worked under both Roosevelt's, starting as a groundskeeper at the White House during... https://www.prescottenews.com/index.php/features/columnists/mountain-gardener/item/34856-the-gardeners-who-planted-for-u-s-presidents

Revealed: The First Flower, 140-million Years Old, Looked Like a Magnolia - Scientific American

Previous evidence pointed to different answers. On the one hand, one of the earliest diverging lineages of flowering plants, represented nowadays only by a rare shrub from the Pacific island of New Caledonia called Amborella, has flowers that are either male or female. On the other, most modern species combine both sexes in the same flower.The authors of the study settle the question and show that the ancestral flower was a hermaphrodite. This means that early flowering plants could reproduce both as a male and a female. Combined sexes can be advantageous when colonising new environments as a single individual can be its own mate, and indeed many plant species colonising remote oceanic islands tend to be hermaphrodite. Maybe the combination of sexes helped early flowering plants to outcompete their rivals.The devil’s in the detailDespite the apparent similarity with some modern flowers, their ultimate ancestor has a few surprises up its sleeve. For example, botanist have long thought that early flowers had floral parts arranged in a spiral around the centre of the flower as can be seen in modern species such as the star anise.The new reconstruction, though, strongly suggests that early flowers had their organs arranged not in a spiral, but in series of concentric circles or “whorls”, as in most modern plants. The early flower had more numerous whorls, however, suggesting flowers have become simpler over time. Paradoxically, this simpler architecture may have given modern plants a more stable base upon which to evolve and achieve more complex tasks such as sophisticated interaction with certain insects as in orchids, or the production of “flower heads” made of dozens or hundreds of simpler flowers as in the sunflower family.Although now we have a good idea of what one of the earliest flowers may have looked like, we still know little about how that flower came to be. The detailed steps leading to its evolution are unknown. Perhaps we will have to wait for the discovery of new fossil flowers spanning the gap around 250m-140m years ago, before we can understand the very origin of what is the most diverse sexual structure on the planet.This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Caledonia florist Mary Ann Schmitz is ready to retire after 65 years - La Crosse Tribune

CALEDONIA, Minn. – At age 87 and after more than six decades in business, Mary Ann Schmitz is finally ready to retire and sell Mary Ann’s Floral & Gift in downtown Caledonia to her great-niece.Schmitz is selling the business and building to Aimee Welscher as of Jan. 1. She will help Welscher until she retires April 2 – exactly 65 years after she and her late husband opened the shop.“Willie and I started the business on April 2, 1952,” said Schmitz, who was parade marshal for the local Founder’s Day Winter Wonderland parade earlier this month (on Dec. 2).Willie died in 1994.Mary Ann’s Floral was in two other Caledonia locations before the Schmitzes bought the house at 308 E. Main St. where the shop has been since 1955. It’s also the home where they raised their children, Ken, Steve, Bill and Debbie.Schmitz said she is retiring for health reasons, and expects to miss operating the floral and gift shop. She plans to continue enjoying playing cards.“I love it,” Schmitz said of being in... http://lacrossetribune.com/business/local/caledonia-florist-mary-ann-schmitz-is-ready-to-retire-after/article_8b06e1cf-2fa6-5dc1-832e-744d35eeb25c.html

Best Flower Shop: Julie's Personal Touch Flowers - Journal Times

First place: Julie's Personal Touch Flowers, 5445 Spring St., Mount Pleasant; and 4060 N. Main St., CaledoniaSecond place: Millers Flowers,  219 Sixth St, RacineThird place: Milaeger's, 4838 Douglas Ave., Racine; and 8717 Durand Ave., SturtevantSpring is in the air year-round at Julie's Personal Touch Flowers as flowers and vibrant colors fill the shop.Julie Mohrbacher opened the shop in her basement in 1971. Demand for her work grew quickly. She started doing funerals as well and opened a brick-and-mortar location in 1977.Years of experience and honest service is what Mohrbacher believes makes them the number one flower shop in Racine County.“Originally I only did weddings," Mohrbacher said. "Mothers started calling and thought of me as their florist so I expanded."Her two daughters, Melissa Mohrbacher and Jamie Doe, manage the stores with her — Jamie at the Spring Street location and Melissa at the Main Street location.The locations offer green plants, blooming plants, arrangements, and fresh flowers among its products."We get flowers from all over the world," Doe said. "We get flo... http://journaltimes.com/best-flower-shop-julie-s-personal-touch-flowers/article_f8a5c3ed-cf6b-5f20-8e82-36041e2806d0.html

Getting a green thumb — tips for beautiful plants - WOODTV.com

Harder and Warner gave us some tips.Tip #1 – pruningTip #2 – waterTip #3 – fertilizeHarder and Warner is located at 6464 Broadmoor AveCaledonia(616) 698-6910Share this:AdvertisementWOOD TV8 provides commenting to allow for constructive discussion on the stories we cover. In order to comment here, you acknowledge you have read and agreed to our Terms of Service. Commenters who violate these terms, including use of vulgar language or racial slurs, will be banned. Please be respectful of the opinions of others. If you see an inappropriate comment, please flag it for our moderators to review. http://woodtv.com/2015/07/23/getting-a-green-thumb-tips-for-beautiful-plants/

A Flower Display in Burlington Honored the COVID-19 Dead - Seven Days

Burlington was one of about 80 cities nationwide that hosted an art installation as part of the Floral Heart Project. Created by New York City-based artist Kristina Libby, the idea was to designate March 1 as a national day of mourning to publicly grieve those "lost to and suffering from COVID-19." As of Tuesday, more than 515,000 Americans have died. Munn said one woman he talked to had lost her husband to the disease. She told him that visiting the flower memorial had been the first time she'd publicly grieved his death; both she and Munn "started bawling," he said. He gave her a rose. "It was a really touching, touching moment," Munn said. Daniel "D.J." Boyd of Wilmington was walking down Church Street when he saw a crowd by the display and thought, Gee, only in Burlington do you see a bunch of roses in the street and everyone just walking around taking pictures. Boyd walked over himself and read the sign that Munn had erected explaining the display, "and it just struck me," he said. His uncles, twins Leon and Cleon Boyd, had died of COVID-19 early last April, just six days apart.  "It's amazing," Boyd said of the display. "It's a good gesture. It puts it into perspective, you know?" Boyd walked over to Munn and told him he'd lost his uncles. Munn picked up two long-stemmed roses from the bricks, and then handed them to Boyd. https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/a-flower-display-in-burlington-honored-the-covid-19-dead/Content?oid=32450871

Coco Shop Designer Taylor Simmons Wore Floral Oscar de la Renta for Her Outdoor Ceremony Overlooking the Ocean - Vogue

CDC recommendations to ensure safety and reduce the risk of contracting and transmitting COVID-19.Taylor Simmons and Jameson McFadden actually met at Acme—the famed cocktail bar in downtown New York that has served as the location for so many romances and rendezvous that it spawned an Instagram account and subsequent podcast focused on millennial dating. It was late September of 2017 and Taylor was with an old friend from Antigua, a place she grew up visiting often as both her parents and grandparents had homes there. (Her parents live on the island now for part of the year.) She now runs Coco Shop, a clothing brand that was founded in 1949 and had a 60-year run on the island, making and selling printed cotton clothing. Taylor relaunched the company in 2019, and it’s quickly taken off. Coincidentally, Jameson was at Acme with someone Taylor and her friend had grown up with on the island. “This makes Antigua sound big,” Taylor jokes. “But our community is tiny!” While their friends were catching up, Jameson, who works in finance, introduced himself, and after a few minutes, asked if Taylor would have dinner with him. “He asked one or two more times, and eventually, I agreed, and we went out to dinner a few days later,” she remembers.The two started dating and then eventually Jameson proposed on a quiet street in Rome on the last night of a long weekend road trip through Puglia. “We had spent five days exploring Puglia from Polignano a Mare to Gagliano del Capo and then gone ba... https://www.vogue.com/slideshow/taylor-simmons-jameson-mcfadden-cape-cod-wedding

Nanan creates flower arrangements to last a lifetime - Korea JoongAng Daily

The enthusiastic response was even beyond my expectation.   Nanan's window painting on display in Lower East Side, New York in 2007.   The major popularity of “Long Long Time Flower” could lead to plagiarism. Are you concerned about that?   I’ve already seen copycats! My Instagram followers keep me informed of such cases. As I learned from the painful experience with my window paintings before, I have already obtained a patent for my “Long Long Time Flower” including its concept and its title. I politely warned the copycats and then they withdrew their works.   After my window paintings earned popularity, some people began to draw on windows in a very similar style and with a simi... https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2021/03/31/culture/artsDesign/Nanan-Nanan-Kang-Long-Long-Time-Flower/20210331162800400.html

Florist brightens her city with gorgeous floral installations - Aleteia EN

With major events being canceled, a lot of work and profit has dried up. However, one Pittsburgh florist, Anne Dickson, has decided to put her skills and time to good use.Inspired by fellow florist, New Yorker Louis Miller, who’s been creating some stunning “flower flashes” to brighten up New York City, Dickson decided she wanted to spread some floral joy in her own community, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.She started by sharing her gratitude with health workers for all their hard work. So the owner of Fox and the Fleur florists went along to Shadyside’s Family House, where patients and their families can stay together. She brought some bright blooms to decorate the facade of the house with an impressive installation. She also tagged her work “F&F [Heart] Pittsburgh #flower power” in chalk on the sidewalk in front of the home, and added it to her Instagram account to spread a little more joy.From there Dickson created more impressive pop-up displays: from brightening up a light pole to creating an impressive display in a recycling can. While the impressive creations take a lot of hard work, the florist is thankful to  one of her suppliers, B W Wholesales, for passing on flowers to her that would otherwise been thrown out.While the blooms might not last long, and Dickson makes sure they’re taken down once... https://aleteia.org/2021/03/24/florist-brightens-her-city-with-gorgeous-floral-installations/