Tom, Dick or Harry…..

When talking about the plants in my garden, I tend to equate them with either sex – they’re either male or female.  I’m not sure how or when this occurs, but it seems natural to me at the time. “Look at my lovely geranium – she’s blooming her head off!”  Heck, some even have names (but that’s a system mainly invented by my husband, Tom, so he can remember what they are).  My husband’s not alone in this – through the years I’ve had the pleasure to meet many different types of clients, and I’ve noticed that in general  men tend to relate to plants with masculine names.  For example my husband can always identify Joe and Al (my ‘Just Joey’ and ‘Altissimo’ roses), Jack (our Jacaranda tree) or Harry (our ‘Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick’).  This method is a great example of one way a person can relate to a plant, bringing it ‘closer to home’.

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Think about it – which is easier to relate to:  Jack? or Jacaranda mimosifolia?

Personally, I’ve got a memory like a sieve, but when it comes to plants, I’ve got a pretty darn good ‘card catalogue system’ going on in my brain – what they look like, their names, and the exact location where I’ve seen them.  Do I know all the botanical names of plants?  Absolutely not!  Of course knowing the latin name is extremely useful- it determines the genus, species and variety of a specific plant, it allows plants to be universally classified to eliminate confusion (there are usually several plants which are called the same ‘common name’), or when communicating with other plant professionals.  But a person can also use it’s common, everyday name as well with a pretty good chance they’ll be understood.

For some people, however, it’s just another form of name dropping.  Super snobby.  And what’s funny is when these ‘name-droppers’ mispronounce the name while trying to impress.  I had one woman who spent the better part of an hour trying to convince me of her extensive plant knowledge. Not for the sheer joy of just talking about gardening, but trying to seem self-important.  Then she starts trying to go toe to toe with me in plant-speak, waxing on and on about the glories of our native Lupine.  But…here’s the beautiful part….instead of pronouncing it ‘Loopin’, she pronounced it ‘Lupeeen’ over and over and over again.  It took me several minutes to figure out what the heck she was trying to say.  Super funny.  Did I correct her?  Never. I refuse to be the person who goes around correcting others’ mispronunciations (certain that I mispronounce names, myself, all the time).  But it’s definitely funny, that’s for sure.

On the other hand, there’s the cutest older couple who walk by my house every evening.  The woman just loves gardening, and likes to talk about plants any chance she gets.  The really endearing part is that she completely massacres the names of plants (like referring to her Angel Trumpet Plant as a Horn Tree, for example) but the light that shines from her eyes as she’s talking is un-mistakable and brings me such joy, that I would never dream of correcting her.  There’s a huge difference between throwing names around as an attempt to impress, versus using them as a form of everyday communication.

Simple rule of thumb:  Please, go ahead and try and learn the botanical name of plants – it’s important to do so. But make sure you’re doing it for the sole purpose of educating yourself, and NOT to impress others.  Otherwise, you’ll undoubtedly come out NOT smelling like a Rosa centifolia!!

For a really, really great place to actually hear how a plant name is pronounced, check out this link from Fine Gardening Magazine: