Talking to people and watching gardening shows can help a bit. When I was first married, and we had our own garden, I announced I had bought a cotton easter for it I still have cotoneaster in our garden now.
Latin names are very important as they can tell you so much about the plant.
Some people think you are being pretentious when using them but it is really no different to a football nut who knows all the teams,players,matches etc.or any expert who knows the various terms and words used for their own particular interest.
When I am sometimes told to use the 'common' name I have to explain that the reason you have it is to distinguish between plants.
Some of us have a nickname but we all have christian names and a surname which helps us know who everyone is!
“Every day is ordinary, until it isn't.” - Bernard Cornwell-Death of Kings
I'm in total agreement with you - Nutcutlet, Verdun, Madpenguin etc - that the "Latin" names are so important when describing plants. My OH, who teaches English as a foreign language in Russia, invited a Russian teacher he met over there to come & stay with us. Her passion was gardening, and though neither of us knew, in each others' languages, the common names for the plants we grew, since we both knew the botanical names there was no barrier in understanding.
I went to a perfectly ordinary state grammar school, but am old enough to have been taught Latin as a matter of course. It's such a shame young people don't have that advantage, and so have limited understanding of the information they can learn from the plants' botanical names.
When I worked in a GC, writing descriptive labels for beds of plants, I always included the botanical names even for plants universally known by their common names - like "Pelargonium (bedding geranium)". Got accused of pedantry by some of my colleagues - but did I care?
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
Posts
Talking to people and watching gardening shows can help a bit. When I was first married, and we had our own garden, I announced I had bought a cotton easter for it
I still have cotoneaster in our garden now.
And if anyone laughs at your pronunciation, they are the rude and ignorant one, not you
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I say Cotton Easters too lesley, good job there are no Roman's around nowadays to laugh at our
pronunciation
Latin names are very important as they can tell you so much about the plant.
Some people think you are being pretentious when using them but it is really no different to a football nut who knows all the teams,players,matches etc.or any expert who knows the various terms and words used for their own particular interest.
When I am sometimes told to use the 'common' name I have to explain that the reason you have it is to distinguish between plants.
Some of us have a nickname but we all have christian names and a surname which helps us know who everyone is!
davesgarden.com
This is useful site.for help and with how to pronounce names,just google it if link does not work.
I'm in total agreement with you - Nutcutlet, Verdun, Madpenguin etc - that the "Latin" names are so important when describing plants. My OH, who teaches English as a foreign language in Russia, invited a Russian teacher he met over there to come & stay with us. Her passion was gardening, and though neither of us knew, in each others' languages, the common names for the plants we grew, since we both knew the botanical names there was no barrier in understanding.
I went to a perfectly ordinary state grammar school, but am old enough to have been taught Latin as a matter of course. It's such a shame young people don't have that advantage, and so have limited understanding of the information they can learn from the plants' botanical names.
When I worked in a GC, writing descriptive labels for beds of plants, I always included the botanical names even for plants universally known by their common names - like "Pelargonium (bedding geranium)". Got accused of pedantry by some of my colleagues - but did I care?