When you visit your garden centre, do you know your alba from your aculeatus, your japonicus from your officinalis?
By Hannah Stephenson
The use of Latin names for plants is common throughout the world and can reveal a lot about the plant you are buying in its infancy, such as what colour it will be, the shape of its leaves and other distinguishing features.
Nomenclature may seem like mumbo-jumbo, but once you've got the hang of the names, the plants become much more interesting.
Plants are named in Latin simply because the sciences date from a time when it was a universal language. The first system of plant classification was created in the 18th century by a Swedish naturalist, Carl von Linne, who called himself by a Latin name, Linnaeus.
All plants have two names, with the first describing the genus - the Latin word for family. Roses, for example, all have the first name Rosa, regardless of their colour, habit or size.
The second name denotes the species or specific class. Within a family group of plants, there will be differences in the plants. All the species in a genus have common characteristics considered close enough to form the group, but each has different characteristics to distinguish it from the others.
Sometimes there is a slight difference within a species, so the plant is given an extra name to denote this. For instance, the olive tree is Olea europaea, but a variety which had larger fruits and smaller stones was named 'El Greco', so its full botanical name is Olea europaea 'El Greco'.
Latin names are usually written in italics, and any extra names are usually put into single quotation marks at the end.
Many variety names are now in the language of the country in which the plant was raised. So, with a name like Erica arborea 'Albert's Gold', the word Erica tells you that the plant is a heather (all ericas are heathers), the arborea shows it's a tree variety (arbor is tree in Latin), while 'Albert's Gold' indicates the plant was named after an Albert somewhere and that it is gold in either leaf or flower.
Other additions can muddy the waters of a name. Hybrids, or crosses between different species, are given unique names that are preceded with an x. Forsythia x intermedia, for example, tells us that it is a hybrid between two species, but unfortunately it doesn't tell us which ones.
It may all sound extremely complicated, but many names help the gardener by describing the plant and its attributes.
Names describing colour include lutea (yellow), alba (white), carnea (flesh-coloured), purpurea (purple), atropurpurea (red) and caerulea (blue). Those which tell you the plant is perfumed include aromatica, citriodora (lemon-scented), suaveolens (sweet smelling) and foetida (strong and unpleasant).
To give you an idea of shape, look for horizontalis (growing horizontally), repens (creeping and rooting as it grows), fruticosa (shrubby) and pendula (weeping), among others.
If you want to find out about foliage shape, look for words including angustifolia (narrow), dissectum (finely cut), latifolia (broad-leaved), palmatum (palm-like) and macrophylla (large-leaved). Choose a plant with sempervirens in its title and it's likely to be evergreen.
Other generally descriptive words include elegans (elegant), aculeatus (prickly), officinalis (medicinal) and spectabilis (spectacular).
Some words indicate the country of origin, such as japonica (Japanese), chinensis (Chinese) and novi-belgii (of New Belgium), which doesn't necessarily give us too many clues as to how the plant is going to look. Kerria japonica and Anemone japonica, for instance, are completely different plants with only the country of origin the same.
As for pronunciation, well that's another discussion for another time. But don't worry about saying a name wrongly - take comfort that most of your gardening pals will be doing the same!
Best of the bunch - Malus (Crab apple)
These deciduous trees are ideal as specimens for smaller gardens, bearing crab apples in autumn ranging from yellow to red, their leaves turning yellow and orange too.
Grow M x zumi 'Golden Hornet' for its spherical golden yellow fruits, which appear in autumn and remain on the bare branches well into winter. In spring, the trees bear masses of blossom ranging from white to pink and purplish red.
They can be grown in any fertile, well-drained soil in sun and will tolerate light shade, but purple-leaved varieties are best in full sun. Prune them in winter to remove dead or damaged branches.
Good varieties include M 'Veitch's Carlet' and M 'John Downie'. Many are best grown as specimen trees where their pretty fruits can be fully appreciated.
Good enough to eat - Winter radish
Winter radishes are not often grown in the UK, although they are popular in the Far East as a winter vegetable. You can buy the long white mooli, a type of winter radish, in larger UK supermarkets and Asian/Caribbean stores.
They can grow very large and may be very hot, but are a good follow-on crop from other harvested veg as they are best sown from July onwards.
Sow seeds directly into open ground in seed drills 1cm deep and 25cm apart, watering the drill thoroughly before sowing. Thin the seedlings in August and September to 15cm apart and then leave them through the summer and autumn.
They should be ready for harvesting in October and November, when you need to cut off the leaves almost to the base of the root, stand the roots upright in a box and pack damp sand round them. Leave the tops exposed to the air to prevent rotting, and store in a cool, frost-free place.
Cooking reduces the strength of the flavour, which will suit really fiery varieties like 'Black Spanish'.
As well as grating them raw in salads, winter radishes can be used instead of onions in hamburgers, or marinated in vinegar. They can also be roasted instead of parsnips to go with Sunday lunch.
Three ways to... naturalise bulbs in lawns
1. If you are planting a lot of bulbs, slice through the turf and fold it back to reveal the soil. Plant bulbs in the soil, fold back the turn and stamp down to ensure that the turf connects with the bulbs.
2. Choose the area in which you want to naturalise bulbs, gather some in your hands and throw them into the air, letting them fall to the ground. Then use a bulb planter to remove a plug of soil for the bulbs.
3. Water the bulbs when the autumn is dry and the soil is like dust, and don't use weedkillers or fertilisers in the area, as naturalised bulbs are happy without any artificial stimulants.
What to do this week
:: Cut the lawn for the last time this year and clean and store the lawnmower.
:: Prune wisteria to increase flowering next year.
:: Lift begonia tubers, dry them and store in a cool, frost-free place.
:: Protect perpetual spinach with spare cloches, if you have any.
:: Clear out and take under cover decorative containers that are not frost hardy.
:: Check the pots and bowls of bulbs that are being forced for Christmas and New Year flowering, ensuring they don't dry out or become waterlogged. Move them into a light but cool position indoors when leaves reach around 2.5cm in height.
:: Continue to harvest vegetables, including the first Brussels sprouts, kale, cabbages, endives, spinach, turnips and Jerusalem artichokes.
:: Consider installing a pond heater to keep a small area of water ice-free if you keep fish.
:: Top-dress established borders with compost or well-rotted manure.
:: Remove the fruited canes of any blackberries, hybrid cane fruits or summer raspberries that have not yet been dealt with and tie the new ones to the wires in their place.
:: Complete all picking of apples and pears as soon as possible.
:: Start planting bare-root trees and fruit bushes.
:: Put up temporary windbreaks around newly-planted evergreens to prevent damage.
:: Ventilate the greenhouse freely on sunny days but close the ventilators early in the afternoon to keep in some of the daytime warmth.
