Diane Rehm, the excellent morning talk show host on NPR, talked Thursday about English gardens with Andrea Wulf, author of The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession.

It is the story of how a colonial American farmer with a passion for plants and a group of eighteenth century explorers, botanists, and collectors triggered the English obsession with gardens and gardening.

You can listen to a recording of this segment of her show by going to WAMU-FM's Web site and clicking on the appropriate content link.