I recently had a gardener ask me about the first herb I'd ever grown.   That would be chives.   Chives, like many herbs, are so easy to grow. Plus, you get the cute purple puffball blossoms.   I had a chef friend show me how she liked to cut off the flower. Then, she snipped a little triangle off of the bottom where the bloom comes together (like cutting paper to make a snowflake). By doing this, you basically get "chive-fetti" and you can easily sprinkle the little chive blossom over salads or dishes. Mic drop.   Goat cheese and chive blossoms pair very well together. You can serve that at a party or just add it to an omelet. Very decorative. Very pretty. Something anyone can do.     Brevities #OTD Today, Japan celebrates “Botany Day”.    Held annually on April 24, the celebration honors the Father of Japanese Botany, Tomitaro Makino, on his birthday. Makino was born in 1862. His dad was a successful brewer of the Japanese national drink, sake. Sadly, by the time he was six, his father, mother, and grandfather had died. He was raised by his grandmother.    Makino became fascinated with plants as a boy.  He loved to collect specimens. Every spare minute, until he became bedridden before his death, he would roam the countryside adding to his personal herbarium which would ultimately max out at over 400,000 specimens. (The University of Tokyo is now home to the Makino herbarium). Makino adopted Linnaean principles for naming his plants. In 1940, he published the Illustrated Flora of Japan - an exhaustive work that details more than 6,000 plants. (I ordered myself a first edition online from Abe Books for the fine price of $67.)  The Makino Botanical Garden was built in his hometown of Kochi City after he died in 1957 at the age of 94.  Tomitaro Makino, Japanese botanist said, "Plants can survive without humans; but humans can't survive without plants".   #OTD Today is the birthday of  french botanist Lucien Plantefol (1891-1983).   He developed his owntheory to explain how leaves are arranged on the stems of plants. He served in the first World War.  Modern chemical warfare began in his home country, France; on April 22, 1915 German soldiers attacked the French by using chlorine gas. Plantefol was wounded during the war, but he went on to serve his country by working on a team at a national defense laboratory that developed the gas mask.     #OTD On this day in 2017, Botanist, Vancouver’s highly acclaimed new restaurant inside the Fairmont Pacific Rimhotel, officially opened... they started their first day with breakfast service. Very on trend, the restaurant boasts pastel tones and loads of houseplants.  Divided into quarters Botanist includes: a dining room, cocktail bar and lab, garden, and a champagne lounge.  The champagne lounge is surrounded by glass and planters filled with greenery indigenous to British Columbia. The Garden invites guests to chill in a glass-walled space filled with greenery, a trellis and more than 50 different types of plant species that include rare fruit bushes, and edible species such as green tea camellia, cardamom and ginger.     #OTD On this day Paul George Russell was born in 1889 inLiverpool, New York. His family moved to DC in 1902 and this became Russell's lifelong home. Russell received his advanced degrees fromGeorge Washington University. He got his first job atthe National Herbarium; Russell would end up working for the government as a botanist for 50 years.  Early on, Russell went on collecting trips in northern Mexico with botanists Joseph Nelson Rose and Paul Carpenter Standley. In 1910, during a Mexico trip, the Verbena russellii - a woody flowering plant - was named for Paul George Russell. Later, he accompanied Rose to Argentenia where the Opuntia russellii - a type of prickly pear -was named for him.   Back in the States, Russell was a vital part of the team dedicated to creating the living architecture Japanese cherries around the Washington Tidal Basin. As the consultin