Comments on: Name that plant http://blog.blithewold.org/greenhouse/name-that-plant/ a garden journal about public garden maintenance, seasonal tasks, garden events, stories about gardening, volunteers, flowers, bugs and wildlife Thu, 23 May 2013 15:15:56 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Kris http://blog.blithewold.org/greenhouse/name-that-plant/comment-page-1/#comment-1053 Kris Thu, 27 Dec 2007 13:04:12 +0000 http://www.blithewold.org/blog/greenhouse/name-that-plant/#comment-1053 Wiseacre, It's always a good idea to provide as much entertainment for greenhouse staff as possible - keep up the good work! And I think there's a whole other language I forgot to mention for when one talks about plants with friends and compatriots or when both names have left the building - it sounds like, "you know the one with leaves like [hand gesture] and it's kind of pinkish?" (I actually get a lot of descriptions like that from visitors and sometimes I know what they're talking about...) Wiseacre, It’s always a good idea to provide as much entertainment for greenhouse staff as possible – keep up the good work! And I think there’s a whole other language I forgot to mention for when one talks about plants with friends and compatriots or when both names have left the building – it sounds like, “you know the one with leaves like [hand gesture] and it’s kind of pinkish?” (I actually get a lot of descriptions like that from visitors and sometimes I know what they’re talking about…)

]]> By: wiseacre http://blog.blithewold.org/greenhouse/name-that-plant/comment-page-1/#comment-1041 wiseacre Sun, 23 Dec 2007 14:18:08 +0000 http://www.blithewold.org/blog/greenhouse/name-that-plant/#comment-1041 I use common or latin depending on whom I'm talking to and find myself using the common name most often since most of the people I talk "garden" to are new or use the common name themselves. I find the conversation goes much better when my tongue doesn't get tied in a knot. I suffer from Beards tongue and have a hard enough time with English. At the nursery I speak broken latin - If I want the right plant I have to know the specific name and usually after a couple attempts at pronunciation (or a written note) I'm pointed in the right direction leaving behind the help to recover from a laughing fit. I use common or latin depending on whom I’m talking to and find myself using the common name most often since most of the people I talk “garden” to are new or use the common name themselves. I find the conversation goes much better when my tongue doesn’t get tied in a knot. I suffer from Beards tongue and have a hard enough time with English.

At the nursery I speak broken latin – If I want the right plant I have to know the specific name and usually after a couple attempts at pronunciation (or a written note) I’m pointed in the right direction leaving behind the help to recover from a laughing fit.

]]> By: Kris http://blog.blithewold.org/greenhouse/name-that-plant/comment-page-1/#comment-1020 Kris Fri, 21 Dec 2007 14:05:33 +0000 http://www.blithewold.org/blog/greenhouse/name-that-plant/#comment-1020 D.F., I like how on your blog you include a pronunciation guide for the Latin/Scientific/botanical names. And you're absolutely right - consistency in labeling is important and I'm working on figuring out a system for the gardens that's easy to do on the fly, legible and fully informative. (something other than my current china marker scrawl!) Jodi, Rant away - I enjoyed that! There are gardeners in my extended family who don't like to learn and use the Latin names because they think it sounds too hoity-toity. It's the snobs who ruined it for them. The more I butcher the binomials, the more they get that it's the people's language too! And the taxonomists are busy keeping us on our toes (it's their job - otherwise they'd be bussing tables at the local Italian restaurant). Pretty soon everything will have an a.ka. like Farfugium aka Ligularia and go from Lisianthus to Eustoma and back again! (I have to make sure the labels are erasable.) As for labels going missing ... It's hard to believe anyone would be so inconsiderate. But whatcha gonna do? My memory is bad enough that I shrug and think I must not have labeled that plant yet! D.F., I like how on your blog you include a pronunciation guide for the Latin/Scientific/botanical names. And you’re absolutely right – consistency in labeling is important and I’m working on figuring out a system for the gardens that’s easy to do on the fly, legible and fully informative. (something other than my current china marker scrawl!)

Jodi, Rant away – I enjoyed that! There are gardeners in my extended family who don’t like to learn and use the Latin names because they think it sounds too hoity-toity. It’s the snobs who ruined it for them. The more I butcher the binomials, the more they get that it’s the people’s language too! And the taxonomists are busy keeping us on our toes (it’s their job – otherwise they’d be bussing tables at the local Italian restaurant). Pretty soon everything will have an a.ka. like Farfugium aka Ligularia and go from Lisianthus to Eustoma and back again! (I have to make sure the labels are erasable.) As for labels going missing … It’s hard to believe anyone would be so inconsiderate. But whatcha gonna do? My memory is bad enough that I shrug and think I must not have labeled that plant yet!

]]> By: jodi http://blog.blithewold.org/greenhouse/name-that-plant/comment-page-1/#comment-1016 jodi Fri, 21 Dec 2007 05:13:48 +0000 http://www.blithewold.org/blog/greenhouse/name-that-plant/#comment-1016 Oh, and one more thing...it really bugs me when hardworking public garden staff go to a lot of trouble to label plants with botanical/common names...and then some idiots tear up the labels and take them home! It happens in most public gardens I know of; and in nurseries too, of course, where twits pull out labels and either take them or put them back in the wrong pots. There, lest I get a reputation for ranting...;-) have a lovely last-few-days-to-Christmas! Oh, and one more thing…it really bugs me when hardworking public garden staff go to a lot of trouble to label plants with botanical/common names…and then some idiots tear up the labels and take them home! It happens in most public gardens I know of; and in nurseries too, of course, where twits pull out labels and either take them or put them back in the wrong pots.

There, lest I get a reputation for ranting…;-) have a lovely last-few-days-to-Christmas!

]]> By: jodi http://blog.blithewold.org/greenhouse/name-that-plant/comment-page-1/#comment-1014 jodi Fri, 21 Dec 2007 05:10:04 +0000 http://www.blithewold.org/blog/greenhouse/name-that-plant/#comment-1014 Great post, Kris, as others have commented. In my articles and usually in my blog when I remember, I use Latin/binomials and common names both, but one of my ulterior motives is to encourage more gardeners to not be afraid of the botanical names. Lightning will not strike us if we mispronounce a Latin tongue twister. And it really peeves me if some garden snob says to another gardener "It's pronounced For SYTHe ee aa, not for Sith ee ah." Oh, great! Just what a gardener needs--someone slamming them, instead of encouraging them. As for the gardening snobs, I hope that Pseudomonas syringae infests them. :-) The origin of certain common names is just as intriguing as the botanical names, too. Our common (and beloved by some of us) dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) goes by a lot of common names, including, in Newfoundland, Piss-a-bed; in France, they go by Pissenlit, as well as Dente de lion. What DOES marinate my mind is when taxonomists, having nothing better to do, reclassify plants into different families, genera, etc--and then change the botanical names accordingly. They did this with the ostrich fern when I was in college. I'd just mastered the name and spelling of Pteretis pensylvanica, when we were told that we were now supposed to call it Matteucia struthiopteris. Oh, that's SO similar! Happily, Taunton's Fine Gardening website has a nice pronunciation guide, which can be found at http://tinyurl.com/3dlq77. Both Fine Gardening and Horticulture have pronunciation guides in their magazine issues, for the plants that are mentioned. So that helps us learn the names and how to not feel so daunted by the spelling or pronunciation. I'll still misspell and mis-pronounce by times, but so what, right? :-) Great post, Kris, as others have commented. In my articles and usually in my blog when I remember, I use Latin/binomials and common names both, but one of my ulterior motives is to encourage more gardeners to not be afraid of the botanical names. Lightning will not strike us if we mispronounce a Latin tongue twister.

And it really peeves me if some garden snob says to another gardener “It’s pronounced For SYTHe ee aa, not for Sith ee ah.” Oh, great! Just what a gardener needs–someone slamming them, instead of encouraging them. As for the gardening snobs, I hope that Pseudomonas syringae infests them. :-)

The origin of certain common names is just as intriguing as the botanical names, too. Our common (and beloved by some of us) dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) goes by a lot of common names, including, in Newfoundland, Piss-a-bed; in France, they go by Pissenlit, as well as Dente de lion.

What DOES marinate my mind is when taxonomists, having nothing better to do, reclassify plants into different families, genera, etc–and then change the botanical names accordingly. They did this with the ostrich fern when I was in college. I’d just mastered the name and spelling of Pteretis pensylvanica, when we were told that we were now supposed to call it Matteucia struthiopteris. Oh, that’s SO similar!

Happily, Taunton’s Fine Gardening website has a nice pronunciation guide, which can be found at http://tinyurl.com/3dlq77. Both Fine Gardening and Horticulture have pronunciation guides in their magazine issues, for the plants that are mentioned. So that helps us learn the names and how to not feel so daunted by the spelling or pronunciation. I’ll still misspell and mis-pronounce by times, but so what, right? :-)

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