Plant Gardens 101

A short pruning saw attached to a long handle, useful for pruning overhead branches.

The tendency of many hybrids to grow faster, get larger, bear more flowers and fruit, or be more adaptable than their parents. Also called heterosis.

The planting of different species in rotation on the same piece of land, to reduce the risk of soilborne diseases and to vary the pattern of nutrient uptake.

(1915–1979)

The author of many practical gardening books and the original host of the PBS-TV show The Victory Garden.

The botanical name for jacob’s ladder.

As a species name, means “a crisp curly edge or texture,” like the leaves of curly parsley, Petroselinum crispum.

Minutely scalloped.

To prune a tree so that all its main branches are cut back to the trunk. The result is a dense globelike mass of foliage.

A branched flower cluster that blooms from the center toward the edges.

The waxy surface that reduces water loss from a leaf, evident on, for example, the leaves of rhododendrons and laurels.

A plant whose flowers can be prepared for dried arrangements.

The orchid genus that includes the oldest cultivated orchids.

1. That part of a plant where the roots and stem meet, usually at soil level.
2. The part of a tree or shrub above the level of the lowest branch.

Minute grains containing the male germ cells, produced in the anthers of flowers. Pollen is often yellow, but it comes in other colors, too. Examined under a microscope, pollen grains have very distinct shapes and surface textures. When a pollen grain is deposited on the stigma of a suitable flower, the germ cell travels down through the style and fuses with an ovule, which then grows into a seed.

The point where a main branch of a tree joins the trunk.

The transfer of pollen from stamens to pistils, usually between two flowers on the same or different plants. See also open-pollinated; self-pollination.

The botanical name for Japanese cedar.

A smooth, wormlike, brown or green moth larva that feeds near the soil, cutting off the stems of new transplants. A cardboard collar placed around a seedling will keep cutworms away from it.

An agent that transfers pollen from one flower to another, accidentally or intentionally. Bees, butterflies, moths, other insects, hummingbirds, bats, and humans all serve as pollinators.

The botanical name for a large genus of hardy or tropical ferns.