RHS Latin for Gardeners: Over 3,000 Plant Names Explained and Explored: More than 1,500 Essential Plant Names and the Secrets They Contain

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Stearn is my botanical hero; so I am glad to see that Parker lists his Botanical Latin (first published in 1966) in his bibliography.

So where a plant has the word orientalis as part of its Latin name you’ll recognise it’s something to do with the orient or east. Lorraine Harrison has a masters degree in Garden History from the University of London and has written several books on the subject.

Biography: The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) is the UK's largest gardening charity, dedicated to advancing horticulture and promoting good gardening. Vital to the protection of plants, gardens and green spaces for future generations, the RHS helps over two million school children get into gardening and supports more than 1,700 communities to create their own gardens, encouraging people to grow their own food. If you enjoy learning the meanings and histories of names, you will find Latin for Gardeners to be a diverting and useful book. For instance, isn’t it worth something to know that Alyssum (now Lobularia) was at one time used to treat madness? Learning the botanical names was my favourite part of the course when I was completing my first qualification as a horticulturalist, while the other students were groaning through the plant Id classes I was just enthralled, by the language of plant names, which sounded just so poetic and rolled off the tongue!

The charity also promotes horticulture through world-renowned flowers shows such as the Chelsea Flower Show, the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, the Tatton Park Flower Show and the Cardiff Flower Show. Now that plant names are no longer nonsense syllables to memorize, I have no trouble remembering them. It's important to be exact when using plants in the kitchen and knowing the meanings of the descriptive Latin binomial names is helpful for both herbalist and naturalist.Her previous titles include How to Read Gardens and The Shaker Book of the Garden, and she regularly contributes to Gardens Illustrated and Hortus magazine. For instance digitalis “grandiflora” has smaller flowers than the common foxglove (but bigger than the other yellow foxgloves). Behind the Name’ feature boxes further increase the book’s practical value, and a wide range of botanical watercolours ensure that it is beautiful as well as functional.

But there is really interesting information on the what the Latin names that are applied to plants actually mean. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, gained its present name in a Royal Charter granted in 1861. As the government’s national archive for England, Wales and the United Kingdom, The National Archives hold over 1,000 years of the nation’s records for everyone to discover and use. Harrison presents it in an encyclopedic format for easy reference, but also interjects interesting plant profile pages and illustrated feature articles that dive a bit deeper.I once had durian ice cream at a Thai restaurant, and it made me think of a cross between a peach and a really dirty sock. The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK's leading gardening charity dedicated to advancing horticulture and promoting good gardening. Ellis which has helped me with plant- and garden-related terms, such as astemonous (lacking stamens), stooling (mound layering), or resupinate (upside down, usually flowers that are turned on their stems like impatiens). Unfortunately we cannot offer a refund on custom prints unless they are faulty or we have made a mistake.

At the same time, could we have a comprehensive alphabetical list that includes not only the plants he mentions but also other items? Harrison's "Latin in Action" sections were cute and nicely illustrated but it bugged me that in the explanation of Aconitum napellus monkshood, "like a little turnip, referring to the roots" the illustration does not include the root! From the cover: “ RHS Latin for Gardeners is an informative, entertaining and beautifully illustrated unravelling of the mysteries of botanical Latin. He does list genera and species but only in a few short pages at the end of his subject-orientated eight chapters, giving examples relevant to each topic. By the way, I’ve noticed a strange phenomena – Wikipedia in German often has much more detail on plants and botany than the equivalent English pages.His carefully chosen alphabetical plant lists are useful once the reader has established the relevant chapter. He feels that ordinary gardeners can enjoy unravelling ‘meanings’ through their historical background. of a durian ice-cream, but I do have this book, its very useful and interesting, the botanical illustrations are really lovely too.