Today’s Sudoku Garden marks the centenary of the death of Luther Burbank. Burbank was a self-taught American horticulturist who over a 55-year career developed more than 800 new strains and varieties of plants. His first success was the Burbank potato. He sold it for $150, and used the money to move from his native Massachusetts to Santa Rosa, California.
A self-taught botanist, he would cross strains of plants to create seedlings that he would graft onto mature plants, in order to assess them quickly. He did this on a staggering scale. Often he had thousands of experiments, using millions of plants. This work produced over a hundred kinds of plum, the Shasta Daisy and the plumcot.
He died April 11, 1926, and was buried under a Cedar of Lebanon he had grown from seed in the yard of his Santa Rosa home. It’s this burial that inspired Frida Kahlo’s portrait of him five years later.
How to Play
Six plants fill each row
each column, each box of six
no bloom may repeat
Tap an empty cell
then choose your plant from below
watch the garden grow
Or pick a plant first
then tap the cells where it goes
faster hands plant more
Red borders will warn
when two alike share a line
rethink and replant
Ticked plants rest complete
all six placed in rightful soil
fewer choices left
The clock starts to run
the moment your first plant falls
how swift is your hand?
Select a plant, then tap cells
Two ways to play: Tap an empty cell then pick a plant, or select a plant below then tap cells to place it.
Cover image: Portrait of Luther Burbank by Frida Kahlo.
