Understanding Root Words, and Other Landscape Lingo
Here is some landscape lingo that I am often asked to define for students and home gardeners.
Amendments. Nutrients, compost and other materials that improve soil structure. While generally a positive horticultural practice, amending can also cause problems, such as over-fertilizing, which burns plants and can increase disease susceptibility, or by filling a planting hole with lots of compost that prevents drainage and causes the plant to die from wet feet.
Annuals. Plants that don't grow back after freezing, so they must be planted every year. They could be flowers, such as petunias or impatiens, ornamental grasses, such as red fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum') or herbs such as basil.
Bedding plants. Flowers, herbs and vegetables that need to be planted annually are often called bedding plants. The term most commonly means flowers that are used for annual displays. See also "annuals."
Biennials. Plants that grow foliage the first year, then flower and go to seed and decline or die the second year. These include foxgloves (Digitalis), larkspurs (Delphinium), poppies, pansies, hollyhocks (Alcea), forget-me-nots (Myosotis sylvatica) and dame's rocket (Hesperis matronalis). Some plants will seed and grow back to flower biennially, with some of them blooming every year.
Broadcast. A way of evenly scattering seed or fertilizer. It's a fast method of application by means of a gear-driven wire or tray that throws the material out as it spins. The material broadcast is susceptible to being caught by wind, and could blow into areas where you don't want it. It's good to broadcast fertilizer and seed, but not weed killer, which should be drop spread. See "drop spreader."
Compost. A mixture of decaying organic material, such as leaves, grass trimmings, sticks, manure and other debris that when decomposed is used to condition soil and contribute to the health of many plants.
Container plants. Plants propagated and grown entirely in containers. They are usually transplanted from small pots to larger ones. Containers are usually rated as one, two, three, five or seven gallons.
Cultivar. A hybrid plant, bred for special reasons such as flowering, growth habit, disease resistance or color. When you learn a common plant name, it is often the cultivar name that is used, such as the crimson pygmy barberry, harbour dwarf nandina or October glory red maple tree.
Cultivate. Loosening the soil to a set depth. The depth will depend on why you are loosening it. Cultivating soil for weeding might only be done at a half inch or less, depending on the depth of the weed. Planting a lawn requires only two to four inches of cultivated soil. Trees are better planted in a deeply tilled medium, perhaps 12 to 18 inches deep and three to six feet wide. A perennial vegetable such as asparagus requires a planting hole that's six to eight inches deep and 18 inches wide with cultivated soil high in organic material placed in the bottom of the hole and two to three inches of loose soil covering the root. As asparagus grows, continue to fill over the top of the plant until the trench is filled.
Culture. Refers to what a plant needs to thrive in a specific location. It could be the conditions necessary for the soil, the tendencies of a plant to wilt or stand up to heat, when to prune or any other item important to the growth of the plant.
Drop spreader. This is a method of applying dry fertilizer, weed killer or seed in even rows with a machine that drops the material close to the lawn or bed. This lowers the danger of wind catching the weed killer and causing it to drift onto ornamental plants. Wind drift can occur with broadcast spreading or spraying. See "broadcast."
Espalier. An ornamental tree or shrub that is trained to grow in a flat plane, as fastened against a wall. Espaliers can be simple, in which a shrub growing more or less naturally is pinned to a wall for effect. Or they can be extensive and their patterns quite elaborate, with interlacing branches and forms.
Friable. A crumbly, soft, yet chunky texture. When referring to a growing medium, it usually means soil that is high in organic material, with good fertility, moisture retention and lots of space between soil particles to allow air circulation and drainage.
Garden shelter. An outdoor structure, usually ornamental, constructed to offer a canopy overhead for sitting or strolling under. It can be made of rustic branches, latticework. Roses or other vines may grow over it.
Hardscape. The walks, patios, sheds, arbors, trellises, pools and other structural elements of the landscape.
Knot garden. A complex, compact, interlacing pattern of plantings in a garden bed that appear to be crossing in a pattern resembling a rope or chain knotted together.
Microclimate. A climate created in a small area because of very local conditions. It may support plants that are not typically hardy to a location.
Mulch. Any of a wide variety of materials that can be spread over the soil surface to hold moisture and control weeds and erosion may be called mulch. Mulch can be plastic, newspaper, ground up tires, stone, landscape fabric, bark chips or other materials. I prefer organically based partially decomposed mulches that condition the soil as they decay, such as compost.
Naturalize. Plants that have relocated on their own or have been placed by animals or humans. They have the ability to colonize (naturalize), spreading by stems, roots or seeds.
Parterre. A garden in which beds are separated by paths and designed to form a pattern, usually geometric.
Perennials. Plants that are able to grow back every year from their roots. They might be woody or soft stemmed plants, including trees, shrubs, bulbs, grasses
and ferns.
Pesticide. Any herbicide, fungicide or insecticide used to kill a pest.
Root prune. The act of cutting a plant's roots while it's still in the ground. The job is performed with a flat nursery spade by slicing deeply into the soil, 12 to 18 inches, in a circle around the perimeter of a plant. It is usually done on trees and shrubs a year or more prior to transplanting, to encourage new feeder roots
to grow.
Selective pruning. Pruning by choosing and cutting one branch at a time. Pinching new tender shoots, cutting off old rose blooms, taking out select branches from a lilac, yew, crapemyrtle or other shrub, or cutting off huge limbs on trees are all examples.
Softscape. The trees, shrubs, foliage and flowers in a landscape. See "hardscape."
Wet feet. The condition of a plant growing in constant moisture. There are plants that thrive with wet feet, such as river birch or winterberry holly. In many cases, though, wet feet will rot or suffocate plant roots by keeping oxygen from getting to them. This is why the expression for keeping most plants watered is
"moist but well-drained."
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