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learning names

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  • ashley13ashley13 Posts: 162
    I'm interested in history, and i make questions and answers from a book that im reading, i find it helps me to remember facts and things i want to remember.   How can i do this with plants?  Shall i make question and answers from information of a plant on the RHS website? I remember Camellia Japonica being at the garden centre
  • ButtercupdaysButtercupdays Posts: 4,546
    HI Ashley, me again! The RHS site is generally reliable.
    People will want to know how tall/wide a plant grows, if it is fast or slow growing and how to look after it. Some plants aren't too particular, but others need acid or alkaline soil, dry /well-drained/ moist or even boggy soil. Some can't cope with sun/shade , others hate wind or get damaged by it. Some are hardy and some curl up and die at the first breath of winter. RHS hardiness ratings are the thing I most often look for on their site.
    I can see the Dee estuary from the top of the hill where I garden, so in easy reach of the Welsh coast, but I regularly get winter temperatures of -12C, so want Hardiness rating 5, can maybe get by with H4, if I give it extra care. Just over there in Wales, level 4 will be fine, near the coast maybe even H3 in favoured places, as long as plants are wind resistant.
    Perhaps  if you made little cards, with the plant name on the front and what you need to learn on the back, you could practice putting them into piles. Needs sun, shade, moist soil or dry, acid,neutral/alkaline tall/short  and the rest. Then turn the cards over and see how many you got right. Keep your score, then try again later and see if you can do better.

  • ashley13ashley13 Posts: 162
    My line manager says,   Have a look at why they have those names. What the parts of the name mean. Make yourself a list of the words and meanings. Words like
    angustifolia aurea hirsuitum japonica sinensis ovalifolium Give it a go!    Can you explain?   what does she mean?  japonica is japonica?
  • ashley13ashley13 Posts: 162
    ashley13 said:
    My line manager says,   Have a look at why they have those names. What the parts of the name mean. Make yourself a list of the words and meanings. Words like
    angustifolia aurea hirsuitum japonica sinensis ovalifolium Give it a go!    Can you explain?   what does she mean?  japonica is japonica?  wikipedia says that Japonica is an asian shrub of the rose family with bright red flowers followed by round white green or yellow edible fruits.

  • tui34tui34 Posts: 3,493
    @ashley13  Yep, Ashley. Japonica is Japonica because the plant came from Japan in the beginning.  You can have different plants with the name Japonica because they came from Japan.
    A good hoeing is worth two waterings.

  • Silver surferSilver surfer Posts: 4,719
    edited March 2021
    ashley  13 I fear they are expecting too much of you.
    Info like this is learnt gradually over time.
    Plant names, when they flower, growing conditions, how tall etc etc.....cannot be learnt overnight.

    Yes, plant names can be helpful
    eg ....Hirsutum...means......rough, shaggy, hairy, bristly, prickly.
    eg.....Aurea..means golden. ..so in a plant name it tells you leaves will be golden.
    eg.... Japonicum...means coming from Japan.
    ..but it is not possible to learn/remember all this info at once.

    Is this a job that you really wanted or might you be happier in one that is less demanding? I fear this is just too stressful for you.
    Perthshire. SCOTLAND .
  • ashley13ashley13 Posts: 162
    Here's an example my line manager sent me.,   Yes. For example Pieris japonica - a pieris first found in Japan. Pieris forestii - a pieris first discovered by Mr Forest, a plant hunter. Hemerocallis - hemero =beauty, callis=day. Beauty of the day or day lilly, the flowers only last for one day. Buddleia davidii - discovered by Father David, and named after his friend Reverend Buddle!
  • coccinellacoccinella Posts: 1,428
    Hi Ashley. Angustifolia is made of two words directly from Latin "angusto" narrow and "folia" leaf. "Aurea " = golden. Sinensis means it is from China and Ovalifolium is another double word: Oval+ folium (leaf). Hirsute means hairy or bushy. It is very hard to remember scientific names, you are not the only one.
    I am not sure why you have to learn these words, most of the customers won't know them either.  I think and A-Z book (perhaps one for each season) as suggested above will help. Write the plant names with soil and water requirements, the rest should be on the label really. You'll be fine. :) Good luck 

    Luxembourg
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    ashley13 said:
    Here's an example my line manager sent me.,   Yes. For example Pieris japonica - a pieris first found in Japan. Pieris forestii - a pieris first discovered by Mr Forest, a plant hunter. Hemerocallis - hemero =beauty, callis=day. Beauty of the day or day lilly, the flowers only last for one day. Buddleia davidii - discovered by Father David, and named after his friend Reverend Buddle!
    Thing is Ashley, if I went to our garden centre and they started telling me all that info,  I would ask where the cafe was.  Does the everyday plant purchaser ask you those sort of questions? 

    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • ashley13ashley13 Posts: 162
    Can you give me a task to do and how to do it please?
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