In message , Broadback
writes
JennyC wrote:
"BoyPete" wrote in message
...
I've lurked for ages, just posting occasionally. I do hope my pond
orientated posts don't annoy. My garden is about 20ft square, nearly
half is pond now. Most people here seem to be 'real' gardeners,
something I'd love to be if I had the room! I dream of retiring to a
large old house with half an acre..........yeah.....dream on. In the
past, I've grown carrots, Swede, peas, runner beans, lettuce etc,
but until recently, especially sweet corn......great picked and
straight on the BBQ Now, I only have pots Something which
bugs me, is the use of the Latin names for plants. I realise that if
you are really into gardening, these things are important, but to
the likes of me........an interested wannabe, they are meaningless.
It would be nice if folk could call plants by their 'common' name
perhaps with the Latin in brackets? What do you think? Thanks for a great friendly group.
ßôyþëtë
Hi
I too am very bad with the Latin name....but they can be confusing as
people call things different names in different parts of the country.
Also Latin can be handy when looking for stuff - especially on the
net. I use these sometimes to translate stuff:
http://www.pp.clinet.fi/~mygarden/diction2.htm
http://www.plantpress.com/dictionary.html
Jenny

Using Latin names is confusing enough for me, but why do they so often
seem to change plant names?

The botanical names of plants reflect botanists opinion as to how they
should be classified. Botanists change their opinions as new evidence is
uncovered. There is also the eternal war between the lumpers (who place
more plants in a single species or genus) and the splitters (who divide
them into more species and genera).

But botanical names are not all that unstable - many of them go back all
the way to the mid-18th century.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley