My Garden

Pronunciation Guide

Last post 01-02-2009 8:44 PM by Suzie. 10 replies.

• 29/01/2009 11:31 AM

  pwgarden Location: Petts Wood Joined on: 28 Jan 2009 Posts: 22

  Reply | Contact Like many new gardeners looking through their recent purchase of the extremely weighty 12.2 pound copy of the RHS A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants, I found the genus and family latin names rather tricky to pronounce.  That's was all before I came across an american website on fine gardening which features a pronunciation guide with audio player which reads out a selection of plant names.  Try it for yourself here: http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/pguide/pronunciation-guide-to-botanical-latin.aspx Let me know how you get on and if you know of any reputable competitors I'd love to hear about them. Happy gardening! Rob

• 30/01/2009 11:04 AM

  In reply to

  Sue Location: Loughton, Essex Joined on: 20 Nov 2008 Posts: 7

  Reply | Contact Saying all the names correctly is pretty difficult, unless you have a Latin background, so I will most certainly take a look at this later. I have some friends who love nothing better than to drop the correct botanical name of a plant in every conversation, just to show they know it. Sorry, but there is a lot of snobbery in gardening and I refuse to be impressed when someone, other than a gardener, knows how to say the botanical name of the latest blade of grass! One thought about the site, and I am yet to try it out, is that Americans often say words differently to us.

• 30/01/2009 11:12 AM

  In reply to

  Suzie Location: Oxfordshire Joined on: 01 Jun 2008 Posts: 81

  Reply | Contact I am currently studying for RHS L2 and if we don't use the latin names in the exam we don't get the pass marks - it is giving me nightmares!  I am using an excellent book to help me through this period which is 'A Gardener's Handbook of Plant Names, Their Meanings and Origins - by A.W. Smith.  It is an excellent reference if you wish to try out the names - but I do agree with Sue that the Amercian site may cause a little confusion.

• 30/01/2009 12:31 PM

  In reply to

  miranda Location: Oxfordshire Joined on: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 2,976

  Reply | Contact When I was studying the RHS General Certificate, it was impressed upon us that it doesn't matter how you pronounce botanical names as long as you can recognise and spell them. Botanical names may be a lingua franca, but people from different countries still pronounce them differently. There is indeed a lot of snobbery about pronunciation of plant names and I can't help but feel that it's a bit of a cheap shot to be aimed at others so that people can feel better about themselves.

• 30/01/2009 09:31 PM	In reply to
  bogweevil Location: Joined on: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 2,043	Reply | Contact An eminent botanist once told me that it does not matter how you pronounce plant names as long as both people know what plant they are referring to. I am afraid Miranda is in the right of it. Boggy Beware the bat-eared bogweevil

• 01/02/2009 03:52 PM	In reply to
  miranda Location: Oxfordshire Joined on: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 2,976	Reply | Contact Don't be afraid, boggy. The law of averages says I have to be right occasionally.

• 01/02/2009 07:51 PM	In reply to
  bogweevil Location: Joined on: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 2,043	Reply | Contact This is not about you Miranda. Boggy Beware the bat-eared bogweevil

• 01/02/2009 07:54 PM	In reply to
  miranda Location: Oxfordshire Joined on: 17 Nov 2004 Posts: 2,976	Reply | Contact I know.   It was a joke...

• 01/02/2009 07:58 PM	In reply to
  Digger Location: Northern UK Joined on: 18 Jul 2005 Posts: 4,743	Reply | Contact ooooooooow handbags at twenty paces digger

• 01/02/2009 08:05 PM	In reply to
  bogweevil Location: Joined on: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 2,043	Reply | Contact I was joking too. B Beware the bat-eared bogweevil

• 01/02/2009 08:44 PM	In reply to
  Suzie Location: Oxfordshire Joined on: 01 Jun 2008 Posts: 81	Reply | Contact isn't it scary how joking can be lost in translation - hey, that sounds like a good name for a film