Paul2032 said:I grew up in a gardening family saying Kle-MAT-tis but now say KLEM-uh-tis........How do you pronounce Peony?

PEE-uh-nee

Paul, I pronounce peony pee-uh-nee. How do you say it?

I came across this article on correct pronunciation that I thought was interesting.

http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net/P...

I say pee-uh-nee but I also hear pee-O-nee.

Well, I prefer pronunciation number 2 (living in Washington state, but originally from SoCal). I refuse to be intimidated by so-called "correct" pronunciation of anything after looking up the pronunciation of "quixotic" in the dictionary. I mean, if you're going to steal words from other languages, the least you can do is steal the pronunciation as well. Humph!

And I say PEE-oh-nee. I have a friend in Oregon who insists it's pronounced pee-OH-nee.

Horntoad said:
I came across this article on correct pronunciation that I thought was interesting.

http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net/P...

Very interesting Jay; especially when a term or descriptive word has more than three syllables.
Quoting from the article: "Let me repeat—there is ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY, NO correct or official way to pronounce scientific names!"

I am officially declaring my personal correct pronunciation to be #1, KLE-ma-tis, accent on first sylLABle.

Oh, and ag a STACH e.

That's it for me; y'all can say it however you want to.

TBGDN said:
Very interesting Jay; especially when a term or descriptive word has more than three syllables.
Quoting from the article: "Let me repeat—there is ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY, NO correct or official way to pronounce scientific names!"

Wow. That's very good to know.

And while we're at it, is it HOST-a or HOSS-ta?

Good debate. Good night everyone!

I grew up in the Pac. Northwest and my mother taught me Kle-MAT-is. We raised our family in Utah and still it was called Kle-MAT-is there. Now I live in Florida and nobody here grows it, so I still say it the same way.

Do I get 3 votes for 2. Kle-MAT-is ?? I'm down for a ga STASH, PEE uh nee and HOSS ta too.

I'm from southern Indiana and say #2 Kle-MAT-is. What a fun question!

Catmint20906 said:


Reminds me of Agastache. I heard so many variations of this locally, with the staff at every nursery having a different favored pronunciation. In Nursery B I mistakenly used the preferred pronunciation of Nursery A, and was summarily corrected by the staff person: 'well, I'm telling you the *right* pronunciation!' I'm actually afraid to say the word out loud now...

I'll put in 3 votes for Kle-MAT-is as well--from CO, UT, and MN.
I read the scientific names mostly, rather than say them or hear them said, so I am regularly amused when I do find out how bad my mispronunciations are.

Worse than that even, we've taken it to a whole new low by purposefully calling plants something kinda close but really very wrong, just for fun.
As I once confessed here http://garden.org/thread/view_... in

I came across a cute saying once and always think about it when this discussion comes up:

"Because it grows on lattice
Some folks will say Clem-At-is;
But Webster will not cease to hiss
Until they call it CLEM-a-tis."

Not saying that I agree, just that it sticks in my mind!

In The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany we use (only) #2 kle-MAT-is
I've never even heard #1 :-)

Mayo

Horntoad said:
I came across this article on correct pronunciation that I thought was interesting.

http://www.jlhudsonseeds.net/P...

thanks, Horntoad--great article! Love this part:

'Anyone who corrects you is only showing their own ignorance, and the correct response is to just smile and say "Yes, that's what I said, (and repeat the name as you pronounced it before)."'

#2, with MAT rhyming with CAT. Pee-uh-nee. DH pronounces pecans as pee-cans, I say puh-cahns.

Angie, I pronounce pecans the same way you do. Pee-cans just sounds so strange to me.

I had a friend visit from another area a few years ago and we had noted that I said puh-cahns and she said pee-cans. I did not think any more about it until we were touring some gardens and she noticed some pecan trees loaded with nuts. She said quite happily 'would you just look at the lovely pee-can trees just loaded with puh-cahns'. ....had to laugh.