Bitbit, to the mid Atlantic!

Bitbit has a post on the landscaping forum asking about design ideas for her/his new garden in MD. Head on over if you have any design recommendations!

Thanks SS! I can't wait to get back home and back to gardening! (Oh, and I'm a "her" but appreciate you not making an assumption.)

I was meaning to ask about plants, but I'll take that type of edibles, and would love to contribute to the collection as well! Sangria isn't my style, though, so more for you guys

I was wondering if anyone has seen the changes to Dave's Garden? What a mess they've made of it. I used to spend time on both sites, but I think that is about to change. Fact is I'm going there to invite everyone in the MA forum to come on over.

Ric, I was venting over at the mid-at photos and chat forum.

If we all moved here, we'd all save about $300 per year as a group.

I still like going to both sites and will still do that. Once they get the bugs out of the system and I get use to the changes it will be all good. Until then I can vent about the mess over there.

I agree Teri. If we all came here there would be nothing to miss over there.

The only think I still like about it is they give the phonetic pronunciation and the family. Unless they removed that also. I haven't been there in awhile.

well, you all are welcome here, that's for sure!

I read that there is no "correct" pronunciation of scientific plant names anyway! but sadly I can't find the article.

Say it how you like, was the message though.

Yes, there was a lengthy thread somewhere on that topic--how so many of the botanical names are 'pseudo-Latin' based on a person's or location's name that don't really have a 'correct' pronunciation, and how different nurseries and different regions of the country have different so-called 'correct' pronunciations.

I was first told that they are based on dead languages - nope.
Greek and Latin. Latin may is alive and well in science - including botany.

What IS true though, that I learned on a garden field trip to Carnegie Mellon is that the classifications are so odd because plants were first grouped by the shape of their flower before the field got serious enough to go to scientific classification.

I have a couple of acquaintances who relish correcting mispronounced names, to me it is insignificant, if they understood what I was saying, I have accomplished what communication is all about.
It's like an Italian trying to figure out what aussie-aah-go cheese is.

crittergarden, you're correct, some of the classification names reflected the flower characteristics, like pentaflora would indicate a 5 petaled flower. Some of the names seem inaccurate after the classification was sorted out.

Ugh, Latin names!

I always thought that clivia was pronounced how it was spelled, but I recently heard it was pronounced Clive-ia, because it was based on a person named Clive. Ugh! How was I supposed to know?

I've been trying to find that thread--it was really good and also really funny as people gave examples...
I remember trying to look for a particular cultivar of Agastache, and regardless of how I pronounced it, every nursery I went to corrected my pronunciation and insisted it was pronounced some *other* way!

I go out to look at my garden this morning and found a Clematis still in bloom with a new bud ready to open and the bee was out on the Helleborus! I love this winter in the North East so far this year. When I was learning about plants every instructor





said the same thing. " As long as you pronounce every letter you should be ok with the name. Every country has their own way of pronouncing the words since Latin is a dead language. Spelling is more important."

I saw petunias blooming at the Golf Course today.

Now, Holly, is that "pee toon yas" or "pee tuh nyas"?

Clematis and petunias in mud December!

So is that KLEMuhtis or klemAHtis?

OK here is a true story. A number of years ago I worked in a garden center and on Mother's Day a young man came in and wanted to buy "one of those chlamydia vines" for his wife. So I took him to our vine area and showed him the different one we had in stock carefully mentioning each with correct KLEM-uh-tis or the next one klem-AH-tis so he could hear the correct pronunciation. Over and over I mentioned each name. He finally selected one and at the register he said, 'My wife always wanted me to give her this chlamydia bushes." And away he drove in his truck. I'll never forget that Mother's Day.