Plant Gardens 101

A dry one-celled fruit with thicker walls than a capsule.

A spade with a narrow blade, useful for digging out a plant from a crowded flower bed without disturbing neighboring plants.

See Gramineae.

1. To bury a pot in which a houseplant is growing up to its rim in the garden, done in summer to refresh the plant. This is usually preferable to removing the plant from its pot, because the roots are still contained.
2. To water a potted plant by soaking it in a container of water deep enough to totally immerse the pot. This is a useful way to revive plants if the potting soil has gotten very dry.

The botanical name for blue-eyed grass.

The botanical name for primrose.

See cell pack.

The botanical name for pear.

A straw or wicker beehive, these days most often used as an ornament in an herb garden.

Pear shaped.

A natural contact insecticide made from the roots of a tropical plant. It kills beneficial as well as destructive insects, is moderately toxic to humans and other warm-blooded animals, and is highly toxic to birds and fish.

The folding together of leaves, leaflets, or petals at night or on cloudy days. For example, crocuses, gazanias, moss rose, and many other flowers close at night and reopen the following day. Mimosa trees, clover, garden beans, and many other plants have leaves that fold up or down at night.

The botanical name for knotweed and silver fleece vine.

A cutting taken for grafting or rooting.

The botanical name for leadwort.

A broad-tined fork, useful for digging into sod, for harvesting potatoes or root crops, or for mixing amendments into the soil.

As part of a species name, means “feathery or fringed.” For example, carnation, Diantbus plumarius, has fringed petals.

A sturdy digging tool with a thick handle and a heavy flat blade that can be pressed into the ground with the foot.

A method of pruning and training trees or shrubs to produce a hedgelike wall

The transfer of pollen from a flower on one plant to a flower on a different plant. Some species require cross-pollination in order to set seed.