Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart   Support The Daily Gardener Buy Me A Coffee    Connect for FREE! The Friday Newsletter |  Daily Gardener Community   Historical Events National Public Gardens Week  This week marks the beginning of National Public Gardens Week (May 6-15). This celebration started in 2009 as part of the effort to bring attention to the country's public gardens. Go Public Gardens is an ongoing, evergreen Association initiative to drive the public to visit, value, and volunteer at public gardens in their area and when they travel. You can be part of the celebration by visiting a public garden this week. You can find gardens near you on the interactive Garden Map.   1781 Birth of Henri Cassini, French botanist and naturalist. Henri's second great grandfather was the famous Italian astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini; he discovered Jupiter's Great Red Spot and the Cassini division in Saturn's rings. Henri took a decidedly different path than his ancestors. He was the fifth generation of a family of star scholars, so Henri is often referred to as Cassini V. Henri became a lawyer, and like many professionals, botany was a hobby for Henri. His heart belonged to the sunflower family, and it is fitting that the genus Cassinia(the sunflower genus) was named in his honor by the botanist Robert Brown. Henri's work had staying power. Many of his sunflower descriptions and observations are still valid over two centuries later. Henri married his cousin and had no children. He died of cholera at 50, and he was the last of the Cassini name - and a punctuation mark on the wonderful Cassini legacy.   1807 On this day in 1807, Lewis and Clark returned a book they had borrowed from Benjamin Smith Barton. Before starting their incredible expedition, Meriwether Lewis visited Barton at his home. Meriwether left with Barton's copy of The History of Louisiana by Antoine le Page. Meriwether memorialized the gesture in the flyleaf of the book, writing: Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton was so obliging as to lend me this copy of Mons. Le Page's History of Louisiana in June 1803. It has been since conveyed by me to the Pacific ocean through the interior of North America on my late tour thither and is now returned to its proprietor by his friends and obedient servant, Meriwether Lewis. Philadelphia, May 9, 1807.   1860 Birth of James Matthew Barrie (books by this author), Scottish novelist, and playwright. James is best remembered as the creator and author of Peter Pan, and he drew inspiration from the real world's Kensington Gardens. In 1912, James commissioned Sir George Frampton to build a statue of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. It's been a favorite of visitors to the park ever since. Gardens and flowers were other sources of inspiration for James. The following are just a few samples of his garden inspired prose: There is almost nothing that has such a keen sense of fun as a fallen leaf. The unhappy Hook was as impotent as he was damp, and he fell forward like a cut flower. All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was two years old, she was playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs. Darling put her hand to her heart and cried, ‘Oh, why can’t you remain like this forever!’ This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end.   James also wrote, God gave us memories that we may have roses in December.   1921 Birth of Sophia Magdalena Scholl (books about this person), German student, and anti-Nazi activist. Sophia was part of the White Rose non-violent resistance group started by her brother Hans. The two were arrested and convicted of high treason after distributing anti-war leaflets at the University of Munich. Sophia was e