A PASSION FOR PLANTS Plants 101 - The Basics
by Nancy Schramm
edgreenthumb@att.net
I
’ve met a few people recently who, when they found out that I own a nurs- ery, their first comment was “I don’t know anything about plants.” It started me thinking about how much I enjoy sharing my love of plants, and how much I learn from others. Because no matter how little you think you know about plants (or any- thing, for that matter) there is someone who knows less. And, no matter how much you think you know—there is always more to learn. So I thought that this middle-of- the-summer-vacation-time column would be a good time to look the basics. Let me intro- duce you to the world of plants! In order to introduce you properly, I need to use a plant’s botanical name. It’s fine to use nicknames (common names) among friends, but like the kid who aban- dons a childhood nickname and acquires a new one at work, plants have one real name and sometimes many common names. The scientific name of a plant comes in two parts (genus and species) like our first and last names, just in reverse order, like Smith, John. So in the case of Quercus lobata,
Quercus means oak, and lobata refers specifically to our majestic valley oak. The English oak is Quercus robur. And Quercus coccinea is the scarlet oak native to the east- ern U.S. All oaks belong to the genus Quercus. The wonderful thing about this naming system is that it works all over the world. If you go to a nursery or arboretum in England or Russia or Germany, and the plants are labeled with their scientific names, you can read the label and know what the plant is—or at least be able to look it up!
One of the first things you might ask when meeting someone for the first time is “Where were you born?” Well, that’s a good thing to find out about plants, too. The world is a huge place, and there are plants growing almost everywhere. People native to a specific area develop survival techniques suitable to that specific climate. Plants native to a climate similar to yours will be much easier to keep alive than plants from a completely different climate. We live in a Mediterranean climate, with cool, wet winters and hot, dry summers.
There are areas with this same climate pat- tern around the world, in South Africa, Australia, Chile and (of course) the Mediterranean. Careful selection of plants native to these areas will help make your garden much easier to care for. And if you have a taste for something different, for instance, tropical plants, then knowing how cold their native climate can get will tell you how much supplemental heat will be need- ed to grow those plants here in our freezing winters.
The next question you might ask some- one you’ve just met is, “What do you do?” That works for plants, too. Plants come in all different forms, from groundcovers to shrubs to trees. These are innate growing patterns, and you can subvert them to a certain extent (think of bonsai) but it takes skill and dedication. If you want a small shade tree for your backyard, something that won’t grow so big that it overpowers the space, then you need to look at plants that are naturally smaller when mature. In other words, not a coast redwood that can get 100 feet tall! And when you’re thinking
QUERCUS LOBATA - VALLEY OAK 12 July 2011 • Out & About
QUERCUS ROBUR - ENGLISH OAK
QUERCUS COCCINEA - SCARLET OAK
www.outandaboutmagazine.com
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