A Gardener's Latin: The language of plants explained (National Trust Home & Garden)

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Definitions and other text are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. Her previous titles include How to Read Gardens and The Shaker Book of the Garden, and she regularly contributes to Gardens Illustrated and Hortus magazine. This data can be used for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development.

So where a plant has the word orientalis as part of its Latin name you’ll recognise it’s something to do with the orient or east.

As a novice I joined this group thinking I would just read the tips and hints on growing fruit and vegetables. The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK's leading gardening charity dedicated to advancing horticulture and promoting good gardening. Individual plants are also profiled throughout, showing how their names can illuminate their hidden histories. There were lovely ices [… ] with every kind of cream cake, of sandwich, of éclair, and peaches, muscat grapes, and nectarines.

They are all likely to need similar growing conditions and will have similar pest and disease tolerance. This is helpful as Acer rubrum remains the same regardless of whether the gardener is in Iowa or elsewhere in the world. Cognate with West Frisian gard, Low German Goorn, Dutch gaard, gaarde, German Garten, French jardin, Spanish jardín, Italian giardino, Sicilian jardinu.This could be a result of deliberate breeding, or it may be a lucky accident in the garden or nursery. They can tell you a lot about a plant, too, including its main characteristics and where it hails from originally. A Rosa rugosa (Japanese rose) will be recognised as such whether you live in Manchester, Melbourne or Mumbai.

For example, Lavandula angustifolia'Nana Alba', pictured, has narrow leaves ( angustifolia) and is compact ('Nana') with white flowers ('Alba'). The “genus” is the larger of the two groups and can be equated to the use of a last name like “Smith. intransitive , cricket ) Of a batsman, to inspect and tap the pitch lightly with the bat so as to smooth out small rough patches and irregularities. Primping and pruning the secret garden might seem like a totally 21st century concept, but the fact is women have gotten into below-the-belt grooming since before the Bronze Age.

John Parkinson, “The Situation of a Garden of Pleasure, with the Nature of Soyles, and How to Amend the Defects that are in Many Sorts of Situations and Grounds”, in Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris. From Old French jardin ( “ garden, enclosure ” ), probably from Vulgar Latin or early Gallo-Romance hortus gardinus, from Old Frankish *gardin, oblique case of *gardo ( “ enclosure, yard ” ), from Proto-Germanic *gardô ( “ enclosure, garden, house ” ), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰordʰos ( “ hedge, enclosure ” ), from *gʰerdʰ- ( “ court, yard ” ). A work in progress, presently with preliminary A through R, and S, and with S (in part) through Z essentially completed. The final -in derives either from the Frankish inflected form *gardin or is a Romance diminutive of * gard (compare Old French jart alongside jardin, Medieval Latin gardinus). Latin words for the genus or species of a plant are descriptive terms used to describe a specific type of plant and its characteristics.

While it isn’t necessary to learn scientific Latin plant names, they may be of significant aid to the gardener as they contain information regarding specialized characteristics among similar plant species. Best of all it is used globally so the confusion created by local names or foreign languages is no longer a problem. An outdoor area containing one or more types of plants, usually plants grown for food or ornamental purposes. Stefan has a practical no nonsense approach to gardening, obviously based on many years of experience in horticulture, and particularly vegetable growing.I find his approach down to earth, (no pun intended), while his knowledge of the growing of fruit and vegetables is extensive. Linnaeus’ International Code of Botanical Nomenclature dictates that a plant name start with a capitalized genus, followed by a lower-case species, then either a variety (if naturally occurring), cultivar (if created by a breeder) or hybrid name (if it’s a cross between two plants, indicted by an “x”). RHS Latin for Gardeners is an informative, entertaining and beautifully illustrated unraveling of the mysteries of botanical Latin. Everyone was dressed up to the nines, high-heeled shoes, muslin frocks with blue sashes, large leghorn hats with drooping roses.