A number of well-known writers have looked to the plant world for inspiration

Have you heard this famous verse: “O, Adam was a gardener, and God who made him sees, that half a proper gardener’s work is done upon his knees.” Rudyard Kipling had those lines in the closing stanza of The Glory Of The Garden as well as And the Glory of the Garden it shall never pass away!

An interesting factoid, more than 125 plants and trees are listed in the Bible – and gardens are mentioned in more than 61 verses.

Even the bard, William Shakespeare, used plants and their symbolism many times in his writing. He must have been a gardener at heart, even if he never had time in between writing to actually get out there and putter among the flowers! In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the entire play takes place outdoors in the woods, and these romantic surroundings help set the mood for love!

Just listen to these four lines: “I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses and eglantine.” In four lines, there are six plants mentioned! As a gardener, I had to look them up and find out what they were.

We know thyme, of course: a sturdy, dependable herb that can survive in our climate, has a low growing