Book Review: Latin for Gardeners

Book Review: Latin for Gardeners

Posted on by ridgetownrick

Book Review 4 – Latin for Gardeners 

I thought I’d approach this book review a little differently. For those who struggle with the botanical names for plants, I’m going to give you some suggestions for useful books and provide some comparisons to help you decide which one (or ones) you might want to acquire.  

A Portable Latin for Gardeners: More than 1500 Essential Plant Names and the Secrets They Contain 

By James Armitage 

  • Publisher: ‎ University of Chicago Press, 2017 
  • Paperback‏:‎ 160 pages 
  • ISBN-10: ‏ 9780226455365 
  • Dimensions: 7.7” X 5.7” 
  • Price: $23.27 (Amazon.ca); $18.00 (Amazon.com) 

and 

Latin for Gardeners: Over 3,000 Plant Names Explained and Explored 

By Lorraine Harrison 

  • Publisher: ‎ University of Chicago Press, 2012 
  • Paperback‏:‎ 224 pages 
  • ISBN-10: 022600919X 
  • Dimensions: 6.4” X 9.1” 
  • Price: $31.94 (Amazon.ca); $25.00 (Amazon.com) – hardcover 

Either of these books would be a great addition to your library. Although written by different authors 5 years apart, they were both published by University of Chicago Press and so they are very similar in content and layout. 

Of the two, I prefer the second one, even though it’s a bit pricier. Not only does it contain twice as many terms, but it is hardcover and comes with a ribbon attached to the spine that can be used as a bookmark. The Portable Latin also has a built-in bookmarker, but it is an elastic attached to the back cover that, although it does the job, is not as easy to use. It is a very sturdy cover, for a paperback, and seems very well constructed and durable. 

Both books are beautifully illustrated with artistic renderings of plants, and the larger Latin for Gardeners also contains one- and two-page inserts throughout that highlight various genera of plants (20 of them), discuss the people who hunted for and discovered plants (10 of them), and other, assorted “Plant Themes” (7 of them). It also has a number of ¼ page inserts, titled Latin in Action, that include a drawing of a plant and discuss some of its attributes or how it can be used in the garden. 

The terms listed in Latin for Gardeners are listed in alphabetic order, from “a-“ (used in compound words to denote without or contrary to) to “zonatus” (with bands, often colored, as in Cryptanthus zonatus). The Portable Latin breaks the book down into sections based on the characteristics the terms refer to, then lists the terms in alphabetic order within each section. This necessitates the use of an index to find words, but it also makes for a much more interesting read, and in some ways, more educational and informative. 

The sections in A Portable Latin are “Color”, “Plant Form”, “Features of Plants”, “Comparisons”, “Places and People”, and “Ideas, Associations, and Properties”. Within each of these categories are subcategories. For example, the section “Color” is further divided into “Light Colors” (e.g. albiflorus, albiflora, albiflorum With white flowers, as in Buddleja albiflora), “Bright Colors” (e.g. fucatus, fucata, fucatum Painted; dyed, as in Crocosmia fucata) and “Dark Colors and Multicolors” (e.g. purpurascens Becoming purple, as in Clianthus purpurascens). 

A Portable Latin
Latin for Gardeners
Gardener’s Handbook of Plant Names
A sampling of a page from each of the 3 books.

Both books will help you better understand the botanical names that we often struggle with. And even though 3,000 terms seems like a lot, there are many terms I encounter regularly when working with native plants that don’t show up in either book, such as oolentangiense (as in Symphyotrichum oolentangiense, Sky Blue Aster) or prinoides (as in Quercus prinoides, Dwarf Chinquapin Oak). 

A similar book that just arrived in the mail this week (I found a good used copy online through Thrift Books in the US for under $8) is  

A Gardener’s Handbook of Plant Names: Their Meanings and Origins 

By A. W. Smith 

  • Publisher: ‎ Dover Publications, 1997 (reprint of original 1963 version)  
  • Paperback‏:‎ 448 pages 
  • ISBN-10: 0486297152 
  • Dimensions: 5.4” X 8.54” 
  • Price: $25.12 (Amazon.ca); $16.68 (Amazon.com) 

This book contains no pictures of any kind, but it has a lot more terms defined than the other two (alas, it doesn’t include oolentangiense or prinoides, either). In my research for this review, I couldn’t find out exactly how many terms, but it does include some other interesting things, as well. One of these is a table of 1800 common plant names and their corresponding botanical ones. Whereas the first two books only list terms that are used in the specific epithet (species name), this book also includes the terms used in the generic names (e.g. Asclepias for milkweed). It also gives a much more detailed description of how the Latinized words are used and pronounced for botanical names, and points out some of the exceptions that tend to throw us for a loop when we think we finally have it figured out.  

Any of these books would be useful, and it depends on what you are looking for. The artwork in the first two books make them wonderful books just to read through, but the dictionary-like structure of the third one, as well as the extra information contained within it, makes the third book a bit more practical.  

Or, you could do like I did, and get all three. 

Happy native plant gardening. 

A Garden for the Rusty-patched Bumblebee: Creating Habitat for Native Pollinators 

A Garden for the Rusty-patched Bumblebee: Creating Habitat for Native Pollinators 

Posted on by ridgetownrick

A Garden for the Rusty-patched Bumblebee: Creating Habitat for Native Pollinators 

By Lorraine Johnson and Sheila Colla with illustrations by Ann Sanderson 

  • Publisher: ‎Douglas & McIntyre, 2022 
  • Paperback‏:‎ 256 pages 
  • ISBN-10: ‏ 1771623233 
  • Dimensions: 7.9” X 9.2” 
  • Price: $22.95 (Amazon.ca); (currently not available on Amazon.com) 

I am a long-time fan of Lorraine Johnson’s native plant gardening books. 100 Easy-to-Grow Native Plants for Canadian Gardens, Grow Wild: Native-Plant Gardening in Canada and Northern United States, and The New Ontario Naturalized Garden are some of the first books I bought on the topic when I started down the path of growing native plants. All of those books were informative and helpful on my journey. However, A Garden for the Rusty-patched Bumblebee is a giant step up from those, in my opinion.  

First off, in the introductory chapters, the authors carefully build the argument for growing native plants in our gardens and they tackle the sometimes contentious issues of cultivars, raising honeybees, and the myth of the value of city green-spaces (at least as they are currently manifested). They share important information on the differences between many of our pollinators – solitary bees, bumblebees, various specialist bees and their critical needs, as well as on other insects that are pollinators. They also discuss the reasons why we need to “leave the leaves” and otherwise ensure that these pollinators, be they bees, moths, butterflies or beetles, have suitable overwintering habitat. 

But what I like best are the plant descriptions. These are placed in alphabetic order by scientific name (which, if you’ve read any of my blog articles, you’ll know I’m adamant about) and divided into season of blooming (spring, summer, fall). Each plant description includes height, colour, growing needs, and a short blurb about the plant. I especially like the “Specialist relationships” and “Good companions” sections for the plants. And each plant has either a photograph or one of Ann Sanderson’s beautiful and accurate drawings. 

But our perennial herbaceous flowers aren’t the only things that need pollinators and vice-versa. So there is a section on Grasses and Sedges that are important food sources for many pollinating insects, and there is also a section on Trees, Shrubs and Woody Vines. 

The book then wraps up with a discussion of rain gardens, boulevard gardens, some sample garden designs, and a list of resources.  

As the current native plant “guru”, Dr. Douglas Tallamy, stated in a recent webinar (I’m paraphrasing here) – if you only buy one book on native plant gardening, this is all you’ll need. 

Happy native plant gardening. 

© The Native Plant Gardener 2022 

Book Review: The Northeast Native Plant Primer: 235 Plants for an Earth-Friendly Garden

Posted on by ridgetownrick
The Northeast Native Plant Primer: 235 Plants for an Earth-Friendly Garden

By Uli Lorimer

  • Publisher: ‎Timber Press, 2022
  • Paperback‏:‎ 252 pages
  • ISBN-10: ‏ 1643260464
  • Dimensions: 8” X 9”
  • Price: $31.94 (Amazon.ca); $22.46 (Amazon.com)

A beautiful but brief synopsis of native trees, shrubs, vines, wildflowers, ferns, grasses, sedges and rushes suitable for gardens in the northeastern US and southeastern Canada (from the Maritimes through southern Quebec and into southern Ontario).

I’ll start by saying that the quality of the book and the images is fabulous – just what I’d expect from Timber Press. I love just looking at the pictures. Unfortunately, at least from a serious native plant gardener perspective, that’s about where it ends. Like its predecessor – The Midwest Native Plant Primer: 225 Plants for an Earth Friendly Garden by Alan Branhagen – it falls short in so many ways from becoming a truly useful book. The one MAJOR improvement over the Midwest Primer is that in this book, at least, the plants are listed in alphabetic order by scientific name. For one thing, this keeps all the similar plants (e.g. milkweeds, oak trees, etc.) together in the book. And for another, it overcomes the issue of the huge variability in common names found throughout the region.

The book starts, as this genre usually does, with an introduction covering a variety of related topics. These include such things as: the definition of a native plant, expecting and living with change as your garden evolves, straight species vs cultivars (Lorimer believes, as I do, that the straight species is always the better option), preparing the new garden bed, soils, moisture and light, etc. The intro also includes a fairly lengthy section listing the plants in the book that are hosts for various moths and butterflies and which moths and butterflies those are. Finally, the book also includes some simple icons with each plant indicating if the species is valuable for birds, pollinators, butterflies, caterpillars and/or mammals, reptiles and amphibians.

That’s what I liked about the book. Now for where I felt it let me down and could have been more useful.

It states in the intro that each profile includes information on current scientific name, common name, native habitat, height at maturity, light requirements, wildlife value and a description of the plant. It does. Sort of. The level of information is so brief, however, that I came away feeling like I needed more information. One short paragraph covers all of this info. There is little or no information on propagation, on WHERE in the northeast the plants are native to/can be grown, and even though the author talks about plant hardiness zones in the intro and even provides a chart at the back explaining how it works, none of the plant descriptions indicate the hardiness zone. Why was it brought up in the first place if you’re not going to include the information for each plant. But to me, the biggest flaw is that the book does not tell me if a plant is native to where I live or not. The Northeast covers a lot of real estate, climate zones, geological variability, soil types, etc. and there is no indication in the book as to where the plants are actually native to. It is my belief that native plant gardeners, more so than any other type, want to know if a plant is actually native to where they live. There are few other minor things (like only listing one common name for each plant) that do not really detract from the book.

All in all, it’s a beautiful book to look at, and can give you some ideas for plants you can try growing. It’s nice enough that even after my disappointment, I will be keeping in on my shelf as a handy, quick reference. But it really is just the starting point. Once you find a plant in it that you like, you’ve got a fair bit of work ahead of you before you will know if you should try growing it or not.

Large photos
Very skimpy descriptions
Back Cover – map indicates a large area – not all plants will grow everywhere throughout this range.

© The Native Plant Gardener 2022

Native Plants of the Midwest

Native Plants of the Midwest

Posted on by ridgetownrick

Book Review 1

Native Plants of the Midwest: A Comprehensive Guide to the Best 500 Species for the Garden

By Alan Branhagan

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Timber Press, 2016
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 440 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1604695935
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.5” X11”
  • Price: $44.47 (Amazon.ca); $38.97 (Amazon.com)

This big and beautiful text is the Midwest’s answer to Donald Leopold’s Native Plants of the Northeast: A Guide for Gardening and Conservation (Timber Press, 2005). The large format, hardcover volume is a comprehensive encyclopedia of garden-worthy native plants of the region. Unlike Leopold’s book, this one appears to have photos of every plant listed (my one major beef with Native Plants of the Northeast). And unlike Branhagen’s other book on the topic – The Native Plant Primer (Timber Press, 2020) – this book lists species alphabetically by scientific name – a much more logical way to do it than by common name, as common names often vary from region to region.

A fairly lengthy (approximately 80 page) introduction discusses the importance of native plants in the landscape as well as in the garden, and includes chapters on plant selection and on garden design.

The book is then divided into 12 sections of “Plant Profiles” – Shade Trees, Evergreen Trees, through Shrubs and Vines to Perennials, Bulbs and finally Annuals and Biennials. He even breaks down the Perennials into Prairie, Woodland and Wetland Perennials. Most of the plant profiles contain a short paragraph (or occasionally 2 paragraphs) about the plant. It then provides a paragraph on How to Grow which describes general soil and moisture needs, another on Landscape Use and another on Ornamental Attributes. A few contain a paragraph on Related Plants as well. Each plant description includes one photo of a general characteristic – whether that be an overall view of the plant, a picture of its fruit, or a shot of the flower.

Overall this is a great book for the gardener who wants to explore the world of native plants, and as a beautiful picture book, I would give it 5 stars. But as a valuable tool for gardeners, I only give it 4 stars for one major problem that I see.

The author devotes a section in the introduction to talk about plant hardiness zones and heat zones, and then provides a table at the back of the book that defines these zones, but not one single plant description includes what zones it will grow in. The Midwest is a very large expanse of geography and climate, and there are many plants that grow in the north that won’t survive the summer heat of the south, and likewise southern plants that won’t tolerate the freezing temperatures of the northern parts of the region. In addition, soils and microclimates will further impact where the plants grew before humans began drastically modifying the landscape. Native plant gardeners, more than other gardening enthusiasts, are very interested in whether a plant is actually native to where they live. No range maps are provided. And even though the author includes a map delineating the Midwest, subdivided into ecoregions, and another that breaks the Midwest into 4 sections (Upper, Lower, Eastern and Western), there is only a very general indication in the How to Grow section of the plant descriptions as to which areas the plants were native to. I would have much preferred a clear range map for each plant.

If you’re looking for a beautiful coffee table book that will give you some ideas about native plants, this one provides a pretty comprehensive list of choices. Because of what I see as a serious flaw as far as plant ranges go, I couldn’t give it 5 stars, but I would give it a 4.5/5.

This book is available on Amazon.