Botanical Names 101 - Lesson 2

The latest Bluebird newsletter has some more fun species names.

angustifolius (an-gus-ti-FO-li-us). Narrow-leaved.
australis (as-TRA-lis). Southern.
canadensis (kan-a-DEN-sis). From Canada.
deltoides (del-TOID-ez). Triangular shape.
mollis (MOL-lis). Soft, hairy.
nutans (NU-tanz). Nodding.
pallida (PAL-lid-a) Pale.
rupestris (ru-PRES-tris). Rock-loving.
scandens (SKAN-denz). Climbing.
speciosus (spe-si-O-sus). Showy, good-looking.
spicata (spi-KA-ta). With spikes.

I can only think of a couple of these off the top of my head but they do fit. For example, Lady's Mantle is Alchemilla mollis and the leaves are indeed soft and fuzzy. Gayfeather or Liatris spicata blooms on long, narrow spikes.

Bouquets for Monday April 20th

For the first two or three weeks each season, all the bouquets look pretty much alike. I've only got tulips and daffodils to work with so they differ mainly in colors and types of greenery. Here is one for today that has boxwood. The daffodils (which were open by today) are pale yellow so they look pretty good with the pinks.

Bouquets for April 13th and 17th, 2009

The first bouquets of 2009 looked very similar to the one shown below. This picture was taken on Tuesday evening of a bouquet made up for Monday. In the bouquets for Monday, I had cut some of the daffodils too early and they did not all open properly. They still looked OK until they started to actually fade, but they didn't look exactly like daffodils. You can see how the daffodils look like yellow tube flowers instead of daffodils.

Here is the same bouquet on Wednesday evening. The tulip stems have lengthened even more now.

On Thursday evening I recut the tulips to different lengths and rearranged them. The daffodils are looking pretty tired.


And here they are again on Friday evening.

Last of all is a picture from Saturday. I pulled out the daffodils but the tulips are still looking pretty good.