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NEIGHBORHOOD GARDEN FOR JULY 16, 2005 ****************************************************************** WHAT IS THE NAME OF THAT PLANT? PART III BY JUDY SHULL-HIEBENTHAL (Our guest writer
today is Judy Shull-Hiebenthal, a Seward County Master Gardener. We are
delighted that she has agreed to share with us her research about the
names of some common plants. . We are not able to do all of them in one
issue so parts IV and V will come later. Parts I & II were published
in May and June.) Gardeners tend
to be readers. We peruse the catalogs that arrive Fuchsia:
(Onagraceae) The fuchsia
plant originated in Brazil and resembles a lady's earring. It has
eight stamens which is a little unusual. It also breaks the
'rule' of putting red and purple together in the same flower! It
came to America in the 1830s. A Quaker gardener named James Lee
heard the plant described and hurried to the lady who owned it. He
offered to buy it, but she said it was a gift from her husband and she
wouldn't sell. She did loan it to Lee for eight guineas.
He divided it, redivided it, and within a year had 300 plants.
Lee gave two plants to the lady and sold the rest for a guinea a piece. Rose:
(Rosaceae) Although roses
are known to represent ideas and emotions, the name is simply Latin for
red. There are 35,000 cultivated varieties ranging from six
inches in height to 20 feet tall. The Chinese grew them from
pre-history. A few were found in the West in the 1400s.
The first yellow rose came to Europe from Persia in the 16th century.
Chinese roses came to Europe 200 years later. Among these were
the "teas" which were boxed with imports of tea....thus the
name. They were tender and had to be crossed with hybrid
perpetuals in order to survive. This combination serves as the
basis for all modern roses. Napoleon's Empress Josephine had the
most famous rose garden of her era. It is said she desired one of
every rose that existed in her lifetime. Nicotiana:
(Solanaceae) Varieties of
this plant are close relatives of smoking tobacco. It was named
for Jean Nicot, a French diplomat on the Iberian Peninsula who was given
the plant by the king of Portugal. It had come to the king from
Florida. Nicotiana alata (the alata portion) comes from the Latin
for "winged". Nicotiana was grown to adorn garden
landscapes. It's especially fragrant in the evening. Later
its medicinal features were discovered. Infused leaves were used
as an insecticide until the insecticide- was removed from the market. As
we know, pure nicotine is one of the most powerful poisons in existence. Salvia:
(Labiatae) Salvia, or
scarlet sage, is a member of the mint family. The word
'sage' is an English corruption for the Latin word salvus, "saved
or healed". Baron Alexander von Humboldt, a German aristocrat, sent
salvia back to Europe from his South American explorations. His
discoveries and writings influenced Charles Darwin. Salvia arrived
in British gardens in the early 1800s. It is especially revered
by hummingbirds and the people who enjoy watching hummingbirds flitting
about their gardens. Tulip:
(Liliaceae) The cultivation
of tulips started more than 1000 years ago. They were brought to Europe
from Turkey. The name is a corruption of the Turkish name for
turban. Bulbs were carried under the men's turbans. It is
said that the Spanish ambassador mixed up the names of the hat and the
flower bulb carried beneath it. Tulip bulbs grew especially well
in the soils of the Netherlands. During the interesting economic times
in Holland called "Tulipomania", tulip bulbs became very
expensive and there is the tale of one breeder who put his last blanket
on the tulip bed to protect them from the cold, and he died as a result.
The most prized of the early tulips were the "broken,
striped" ones. However, in time the economic bubble broke and the
market crashed and fortunes were lost. Tulip bulbs then became so cheap
they were eaten.
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