In the spring of 1837, Count Richard Ursini von Blagay, the owner of the Polhov Gradec Mansion and a botany enthusiast, was brought an unknown plant from the Polhograjska gora hill by one of the locals. Count Blagay turned to Henrik Freyer, a curator at the Provincial Museum of Carniola, who named the previously undescribed Daphne species Daphne blagayana in honour of Count Blagay. Along with edelweiss, Daphne blagayana, which grows in Slovenia, on the Balkan peninsula, and in Romania, became protected in Carniola back in 1898.
Back in 1838, King Frederick Augustus II of Saxony and his escorts stopped in Carniola on their way to Montenegro. Post horns were blown as the king arrived in Polhov Gradec to meet his fellow botany enthusiast Count Blagay and climb the Polhograjska gora hill to see Daphne blagayana, a plant species identified only a year earlier, but already famous. In honour of the king's visit, Count Blagay had an obelisk erected at the foot of the hill.
