Hi, Cohan, Your comment about needing to know the botanical name rather than
the vernacular name if you want to look them up or find them in catalogs jogged
my memory. The second situation is what pushed me into learning the botanical
names. When I started really delving into high-altitude gardening, there were
no library books anywhere on the subject and no experts to guide me and,
especially, no Internet to query. But there were numerous free plant and seed
catalogs available for the price of a post card. I sent off 175 post cards and
received 147 catalogs! I read each catalog from cover to cover. Some read
like a horticultural guide; others simply listed what was for sale. Most had
their plants or seeds listed alphabetically by BOTANICAL NAME! Oh, dear, this
was a problem for me. Even if I found a familiar species when photos were
included, I wasn't sure, because common names usually were omitted. One
catalog included a pronunciation guide to each botanical name listed. I
started there. Then I found an old 1940's vintage Taylor's Encyclopedia of
Gardening in the reference section of our library. It had a pronunciation
guide for most of the genera (but not the species). I was not permitted to
check out a reference book so I wrote down names of species I thought might
grow in Breckenridge, took them to the library, sat at the table and carefully
copied the syllabification and stress marks for each species. Then I brought
home that information and practiced pronouncing those names aloud until I could
do it without looking at my paper. I learned about a dozen or so additional
ones each time I returned to the library (which is a 20-miles round trip from
where I live). Having no contact with other gardeners or horticulturists and
no Internet to search, I had no way of knowing what books might be out there
that could help me. A few years later, on a winter camping trip to southern
Arizona, we stopped at used book store and there was Stearn's Botanical Latin.
I thought I had "died and gone to Heaven"!!! I snapped it up quickly (from the
coating of dust on that book, I was not in danger of losing it to another
shopper) and read it from cover to cover. This opened up the world of
botanical nomenclature to me. If you would converse with me verbally, some of
my pronunciations may sound strange to you because I have not HEARD most of the
names spoken by knowledgeable people. It's like learning a foreign language
from books and knowing it perfectly but not being understood very well by
native speakers. However, when it comes to correctly spelling the Latin/Greek
names, I have no problem because I inherited a photographic memory from my
father. Now that I have a facility with botanical nomenclature, I love it! I
think there are two major impediments to learning this naming system for novice
gardeners. The first is obvious -- the usually long names with extra letters
that are not common in American English vocabulary. The second is no immediate
guide to pronunciation of each separate genus and species. Stearn's Botanical
Latin is a great reference but it is a tome, and most "newbies" would not want
to spend their precious and limited free time perusing it. I saved all the
catalogs that included syllabification of the species names. When I write
articles or brochures that introduce novice gardeners to various aspects of
mountain gardening, in the style of those catalogs, I will include in
parenthesis the pronunciation of the botanical names of the species I may
recommend (along with their most-used common name). Acquiring knowledge in a
new and complex field like gardening/horticulture/botany can be a slow and
lengthy process for many people, once they are on their own, away from the
structure and discipline of a classroom setting. However, sometimes the
pressure to meet certain academic objectives in a finite period time causes the
classroom student, by necessity, to skip over the details of certain subjects
and just absorb the "meat" of the concept in order to pass a test. I, myself,
prefer a slow, relaxed learning process with down time in between doses of new
information to think about what I have read, how to apply and the time to seek
additional information from other sources before proceeding to another facet of
this study. Since I'm retired, I can and do indulge in this luxury. However,
I know most people have very busy, demanding lives and can't devote that amount
of time to what is an "optional" activity for them. So I do the "leg work". I
read, analyze and then rewrite what I think will be helpful to a novice
gardener in a concise, easy-to-understand form and always include my full
contact information, encouraging folks to ask me questions. It may take years
or decades before a visitor to my gardens decides to become keenly involved in
gardening. I may not even live long enough to see that happen. But I'm
hopeful that in some small way I will have encourages at least one person to go
down that gardening path. Jane HendrixMountain View Experimental GardensPeak 7
Area - Breckenridge, Colorado U.S.A.Elevation: 10,000 feetUSDA Zone 4Website:
http://www.picturetrail.com/hendrix ---------- Original Message ----------
From: cohan fulford <[email protected]>
To: "Alpine-L, the Electronic Rock Garden Society, postings copyright by
authors." <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [Alpine-l] Names vs. Numbers vs. GPS??
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2011 00:41:10 -0700
Hi Jane!
Of course you can grow beautiful plants and love them dearly without any
technical 'knowledge' or vocabulary at all, it just becomes necessary when you
want to talk about them, look them up, find them in catalogues, etc..
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