Plant Gardens 101

The botanical name for primrose.

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

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

A tool with a long handle and a broad scoop or blade, used for digging and for moving dirt.

The orchid genus that includes the oldest cultivated orchids.

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.

The botanical name for Solomon’s seal.

The botanical name for lily-of-the-valley.

The botanical name for mock orange.

A solid, bulblike underground stem, resembling a bulb but without its scales and sometimes with a membranous coat. Typical examples are the corms of crocus and gladiolus. Corms bear roots at the base and nourish the young plant just as bulbs do.

One of the outermost series of flower parts, arranged in a ring outside the petals. It is often small, green, and leaflike but is sometimes large and colorful. Collectively, the sepals make up the calyx.

Any container bought or built to contain the ingredients of a compost pile.

The botanical name for sycamore or plane tree.

A leaf with two or more leaflets branching off a single petiole (stalk).

The botanical name for sweet fern.

A bacterial disease that infects, weakens, and kills many types of plants. The brown, rough, woody galls, often resembling blackened walnuts, may be present on larger roots near the surface of the soil, as well as on the crown.

A bottomless band placed around the stem of a newly planted tomato or other plant to protect against damage from cutworms.

A term used to describe a plant grown from seed, not by vegetative propagation.

A flower that has all of the normal flower parts, namely, the sepals, petals, stamens, and pistil.

The botanical name for cottonwood, poplar, and aspen.