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Treasured as one of the most beautiful and mysterious native plants in America, the Franklinia tree was almost lost to extinction were it not for the efforts of John and William Bartram. John Bartram was an extraordinary, self-taught naturalist who was appointed by England’s King George III as Botanist for the North American colonies in 1765. William Bartram was John Bartram’s third son, and he would become America’s first native-born natural history artist. This father and son pair explored widely throughout the American colonies to collect and preserve botanical specimens, se...

Early Years and Marriage Custis was born in Northampton County, at the Hungars Creek plantation of his parents, John Custis (ca. 1654–1714), later a member of the governor’s Council, and his first wife, Margaret Michael Custis. A bequest of £100 from his grandfather John Custis (ca. 1629–1696), also a member of the governor’s Council, helped support his education in England, where for almost seven years he studied the intricacies of the tobacco trade with the London consignment merchant Micajah Perry. Indirect evidence in a commonplace book Custis compiled suggests that he also had s...

Some drastic pruning is needed to rejuvenate overgrown lilac trees.

Good intentions, from Ben Franklin to the USDA played a part.

" "Prairie Night" ( Monarda didyma) bee balm is a showy variety sure to attract hummingbirds and butterflies to the garden. Paroli Galperti/REDA&CO/Universal Images Group/Getty Images Meet genus Monarda, aka bee balm, a member of the mint ( Laminaceae) family, named in honor of the 16th century Spanish physician and botanist Nicolas Bautista Monardes. Monardes wrote some of the earliest books about the medicinal uses of America's native plants from intel gathered by early explorers who "discovered" Monarda and some of its many uses from the indigenous people who inhabited the New World...