What's in a name

Being vague in gardening often yields hilarious results. I will apply myself to relea
ing horticulture basics next season, and heed the experts' advice to be specific about what I'm planning to plant. Here are a few lessons I learned this year.

Paying attention to the correct Latin designation of Saint John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum) makes the difference between getting the familiar medicinal plant and getting a gangly bog native (Hypericum pyramidatum) that keeps its flowers open for all of five minutes.

You tell somebody you'd love to plant some phlox in the garden, but what they take from that is everybody's guess, because garden phlox is Phlox Paniculata, creeping phlox is Phlox Stolonifera, moss phlox is Phlox Subulata, and trailing phlox, Phlox Nivalis, is in fact a protected species that only grows in Texas. None of them look anything alike, they may belong to the same family, but you can't tell that from their attributes.

You know the amaryllis bulbs that bloom indoors during the winter months? The term amaryllis actually refers to a different species, Amaryllis Belladonna, the belladonna lily, a lovely outdoor bulb that bears bunches of trumpet shaped flowers on long slender stems during the summer and fall. The Christmas bulb we all know and love belongs to a subspecies, Hippeastrum, and blooms in the middle of winter, indoors. Both come from South Africa, which explains the unusual bloom times.

When you plan to plant sage, do you mea
Salvia Officinalis (the common sage, a kitchen and medicinal herb), Salvia Apiana (the white sage, a sacred Native American Herb), Salvia Divinorum (diviner's sage, a psychedelic), or Salvia Hispanica (the chia plant)?

Lenten roses actually belong to the buttercup family and stonecrops cover the whole range of plant types and growing habits, from rock garden lovers, to groundcover, to specimen planting, featuring every leaf shape, in more than one color.

The list could continue, I blame myself for my superficial approach and go back to the gardening manual to advance my knowledge before next season. I don't want to end up planting goldenrod at the front of the flower border again.