Tell us the name!

Garden writers often discuss plant names and how to make sure we use them accurately and according to the International rules that govern their use. Only last month many garden writers were involved in a detailed discussion of the subject.

So there was I in Lowe’s the other day (for British readers: Lowe's is like a monster B&Q), looking over their stock, and they had rows of dahlias, salvias, helichrysums and more - not one of them with a name tag. Every one was labelled with the same generic tag saying “Assorted Annuals”.  The fact that most of them were perennials, although not all hardy up here in zone 5/6… well, that’s another issue.

But how unhelpful could they be? Here are we writers trying to get the names exactly right so that everyone knows precisely which plant we mean – and Lowe’s take the easy way out and don’t even bother to try. What’s more, at $3.58 these plants are too cheap – give us a decent tag, charge $3.98 and they’d still be cheap. Charge $4.58 and they wouldn’t be expensive. Another case of knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing, I’m afraid.

[Sorry for the recent break in transmission, so to speak: busybusybusy… extending the deer fence, building a dock, lots of garden and desk work. Normal service now resumed.]

Comments

[Carol]

I agree and saw similar no-label plants at the Lowe's near where I live. I want to know the names of the plants in my garden and won't buy unnamed plants unless I am sure of what I am getting.

[Graham Rice]

Good for you!

[Joanna]

Utterly enraging. But I was in the wonderful new glasshouse at Wisley last week, admiring a lilac semi-succulent - lots and lots of them in the planting, not one of them labelled.

Joanna
joannasfood.blogspot.com

[digger]

Well I have been at a gardeb centre and two clematis were labelled as hagely hybrid but the flowers were different colours, there was no other information on the labels at all.

[digger]

The price where you are must be competitive Graham but with the exchange rate at just over $2 for £1 will you benefit from this?

[max]

I'm always astonished to read yet another explanation of why plant names are important. Who ARE these people who buy plants without the slightest interest in what they are? I've noticed this is esp. common with "succulents" and "air plants" (a bizarre common name for Tillandsia spp.).

And perennials labeled annual is not a new problem, viz. Eschscholzia californica.

[Graham Rice]

Well, that seems to have stirred people up!

Joanna: that new glasshouse at Wisley has only just opened, and I know they were in a great rush to get it ready for the Queen to open it... so let's cut them just a little bit of slack. Shall we? I'll be checking it out in about three weeks. I'll remember to report on the labeling.

digger: It's infuriating when plants are wrongly labeled - worse than no label because we're lulled into a false sense of security. At least those clematis were in flower so you could tell. Exchange rate? Yes, those plants at $3.58 are, in British money, £1.78 - too cheap in any currency.

Max: To be fair, some people who shop at Lowe's, or B&Q in Britain, may only buy anything horticultural once in the year - they buy a few plants for the summer and that's it for the year. The thing is: if one of these once-a-year plant buyers buys something and they find they really like it - they might want to buy it again the following year. No label ... no chance.

[william]

The naming of 'varieties' does disturb me. I will give an example: Blepharocalyx cruckshankii - 'Temu' pinched/stolen from a botanic garden - and is propagated for general distribution, but the person responsible decides to give it a varietal name 'Heaven Scent' so that it will (perhaps) sell well. Actually there is absolutely no difference between the variety and the species; they are identical. This seems to be the weakness - nurserymen (persons) can 'publish' a new varietal name by including it in a new edition of the 'Plant Finder' and if it accepted, it becomes an accepted varietal name. I can give other similar examples. Surely there must be a better way of 'publishing' varietal names to stop this abuse?

[BPB]

At a local nursery I saw a plant labelled "Cornus 'Prairie Sun'" in big letters. In tiny print was the true name of the plant, Cornus alba 'Aurea.' Would it have hurt sales to sell it under its actual name, rather than something made up to fool people into believing they were buying a new cultivar?

[Graham Rice]

William: Forgive me, but while we're on the subject of getting things exactly right, you should say Cultvars (= CULTIvated VARietieS) rather than Varieties, when you refer to garden plants rather than naturally occurring wild forms.

But what you say opens a bit of can of worms... cultivar names are often ignored in favor of trade designations (or "selling names") which are sometimes deemed more commercial than the original culivar names. The cultivar name for Geranium Rozanne, for example, is 'Gerwat'- the trade designation should be without inverted commas and in a distinctively different type face - sorry, I can't work out to do a different typeface in these comments. The key rule to follow is that both the trade designation AND the cultivar name should always be used together.

BPB: The above remarks sort of answer your point. I can't say that I approve of simply setting aside a well-established cultivar name - 'Aurea' - and using Prairie Fire instead. But whatever else it is, Prairie Fire is not a cultiivar name... it's a trade designation (or selling name). The distinctive typeface required by the international regulations, along with the inclusion of the correct cultivar name on tags and in catalogs, is supposed to help make the situation clear.

The fact is: some nurseries will do almost anything to sell a few more plants. Here, we support those listed in the right-hand panel who don't stoop to such behavior.

[luise]

let's not be so quick to gang up on lowes and other big box stores like them.some people actually just want "pretty flowers"for a very affordable price.more serious gardeners usually have a variety of nurseies they like to shop.there they will find expert advice,correctly labeled plants,and well cared for nursery stock.let's face it,we all like a bargain now and again,but with all bargains sometimes there are risks.personally i do not want to limit my plantshopping to any one place.

[Graham Rice]

The problem is that without tags from which they can learn the names, people who may start off as just wanting some pretty flowers - and that's fine - cannot take a small step towards developing their interest. And I like a bargain as much as the next gardener - but it's not a bargain if an important part of it is missing.

[max]

Sorry to return to this so late, but one could argue that unlabeled plants will actually inspire some of the more intrepid people to figure out the name.

The thing that really bothers me is the serious gardeners (whether real or imagined by bored garden writers), who need the usefulness of plant names explained to them.

[Graham Rice]

I think if serious gardeners were to shop at Lowe's and buy something from the "no label" department they would indeed make the effort to find the name. But shoppers at Lowe's are primarily less experienced gardeners and I feel that the lack of labels impedes their increased enjoyment of plants.