But what is the 'correct' botanical name - going back to my pyracantha - if I look at the rhs site for pyracantha I come across this https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/79022/Pyracantha-Saphyr-Rouge-Cadrou/Details - so the family is 'Rosaceae' - genus 'pyrancantha' and then 'cultivar' is 'Saphyr Rouge' - so three levels is enough but presumably two would do - ie 'pyracantha' 'Saphyr Rouge'? I presume the family becomes superfluous as I assume all pyracantha are the part of 'Rosaceae' - so that becomes a given?
Just looked back at this, and it's a confusing one. And consequently not really an ideal one to model all your records on!
Pyracantha Saphyr Rouge = 'Cadrou' - Pyracantha is the genus - there is no species given; it's therefore a 'lost species cultivar', ie: the exact species has been lost in the processes of cultivation and can't be confirmed - Saphyr Rouge is the cultivar name, but it has a synonym of Cadrou (that's why it has the = sign). Others may know better than me on this, but I imagine this has more to do with the commercial aspect than the scientific one. - and Firethorn is the common name for these plants (not specifically this cultivar, all of them).
So, a better (ie:more standard) example would be
Buddleja davidii 'Royal Red' - Buddleja is the genus - davidii is the species - 'Royal Red' is the cultivar - and Butterfly bush is the common name, again for all/most buddlejas not just this one.
Hope that kind of helps to answer your 'but what is the correct botanical name?' question a bit. Yes, family is superfluous.
'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
What i've done (or tried to do!) this afternoon is to bring the 20+ plants that I have catalogued so far up to the same 'standard'. I was working on a diary/reminder bit for it today - and the aim was to allow generic notes (ie in my case I had 'care' on four acers that basically repeated the same stuff) - now I can link an action to genus 'Acer' (if that's correct!) so there's now one note that reminds me to do the acers in autumn and another for what needs to be done in spring.
After the comments today I'll read up more on the three level approach and change my terminology to suit (that's relatively painless).
Thanks again.
(Frustrating though that gardeing sites don't all appear to show the same terminology in the same format - would make it so much easier to find stuff!)
(Frustrating though that gardeing sites don't all appear to show the same terminology in the same format - would make it so much easier to find stuff!)
I think that's because they're trying to appeal to different audiences. Some would be put off by extreme botanical Latin, others not. And commercial sites are going to call plants whatever they think will appeal to their customers, so common names, pretty names, familiar names, descriptive names will all be a priority. If in doubt, check on the RHS site as they *should* be getting it right.
A small word of warning - the same care won't *always* apply to an entire genus, for instance Clematis (as detailed before by FG). Or the aforementioned Buddleja davidii vs Buddleja globosa - if you pruned the latter in the same way as the former, you'd lose all the flowers.
It sounds like you're enjoying the database aspect . Have fun
'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
I use a mix of English common names, Latin names, correct botanical names in Czech (which is usually translated Latin, we have also translated names for all groups within the taxonomy), common names in Czech and rarely common names in Slovak. Usually, I don't know all these because I learnt to know wildflowers in Czech but gardening in English. I often don't know the Czech names and my Czech family don't know the Latin names, but usually, it is easy to cross reference and find out.
Then there is the pronunciation. I've been taught medieval Latin in school so I pronounce them as they should be, in Latin. But I noticed in TV shows, they are often pronounced in an anglicised way (like a-kvi-lee-ja instead of a-kvi-le-gi-a).
I get that, but surely showing 'London Pride' and then in brackets or in a smaller font or.. showing the 'technical' name would help everyone. As even with the simpler plants (like London Pride) there seems to be differing varieties.
I was aware about the care - thanks for pointing it out though. Just in my case, the acers I have have a 'standard' care requirement as per RHS.
Even with RHS though they seems to present 'stuff' in different ways - their plant search and shop show different things. The shop is more as you say - buyer friendly - but the plant search then shows family, genus and what they then call detail.
...oh well...
As for the coding...it's like being back at work. Luckily I have a laptop with my development environment on it. It was hard getting back into it after nearly 6 years though. I haven't slept as well for years. Total brain ache! But it's about the gardening and not the software.. This is just to get me motivated to get out and do the right stuff at the right time! (But for the past month it's kept me more inside - luckily the weather hasn't been tooooo good down here - so I haven't felt too guilty).
@steveTu - I wouldn't bother with the family name, it's never used in a general sense and might make you look a bit pretentious if used in general conversation. All you need is the plants Latin name and variety when you want to be specific.
I keep a spreadsheet of every plant in the garden under heading of type I.e perennial, latin name & variety, colour and a section for notes about it. Mostly works except for when It comes to remembering where I put them or if I've moved them.
Glad I'm only dealing with English (...well and Latin)!
How on earth does anyone actually know how latin is supposed to be pronounced? My latin teacher always pronounced 'v' as 'w' - weni, widi, wici - but I think that was purely down to the 'known' difference between early Latin and English alphabets (22 letters to 26? Or something like that) - and his flamboyant nature!
@Bijdezee - I think I should have done that - ie used a spreadsheet! But I think I'm nearly there now - and what I've got allows me to define the garden areas, the plots in the gardens and what plants are in the plots - and I can use the software to move them (well it doesn't actually go out with a shovel - sorry showel). It's ok until the bugs in the software make me lose the lot, then the laptop gets thrown out the window and I'll go back to a quill!
No matter what names I call my plants, they never answer to them.
My favourite name in my own garden is an apple variety called "Goose's Arse". The grower assures me this describes the shape of the fruit, not the flavour.
Hi @steveTu and welcome to the small club of plants database fans on these forums! I've been interested in botany since I started my first herbarium when I was at school. And when I re-vamped our small garden 5 years ago I decided to create a database of all my plants, both on my desktop computer and on my website.
I created my database with the LibreOffice Open Source office suite db. Do send me a private message if you are interested in having a look. It has a French and an English interface. Here's a screenshot:
From that screen, clicking on the Edit Specimens button takes you to another screen with actual details of that plant specimen(s) in my garden, see an extract below:
With links from the plants individual details page to their location on the garden plan (and vice-versa). Again this is bi-lingual English/French although the actual cultivation details are more regularly updated on the French pages than on the English ones.
Posts
Pyracantha Saphyr Rouge = 'Cadrou'
- Pyracantha is the genus
- there is no species given; it's therefore a 'lost species cultivar', ie: the exact species has been lost in the processes of cultivation and can't be confirmed
- Saphyr Rouge is the cultivar name, but it has a synonym of Cadrou (that's why it has the = sign). Others may know better than me on this, but I imagine this has more to do with the commercial aspect than the scientific one.
- and Firethorn is the common name for these plants (not specifically this cultivar, all of them).
So, a better (ie:more standard) example would be
Buddleja davidii 'Royal Red'
- Buddleja is the genus
- davidii is the species
- 'Royal Red' is the cultivar
- and Butterfly bush is the common name, again for all/most buddlejas not just this one.
Hope that kind of helps to answer your 'but what is the correct botanical name?' question a bit. Yes, family is superfluous.
A small word of warning - the same care won't *always* apply to an entire genus, for instance Clematis (as detailed before by FG). Or the aforementioned Buddleja davidii vs Buddleja globosa - if you pruned the latter in the same way as the former, you'd lose all the flowers.
It sounds like you're enjoying the database aspect
I keep a spreadsheet of every plant in the garden under heading of type I.e perennial, latin name & variety, colour and a section for notes about it. Mostly works except for when It comes to remembering where I put them or if I've moved them.
Happy gardening
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
My favourite name in my own garden is an apple variety called "Goose's Arse". The grower assures me this describes the shape of the fruit, not the flavour.
http://www.rezeau.org/wp-garden/en/category/plantae-en/