So You Want To Dumb Us Down Even More?

By contributing Ranter Allan Armitage

I was one of a number of speakers at an excellent landscape symposium on Long Island a couple of years ago; during a panel, we were all asked to field questions from the audience. I always cringe at such opportunities. (I try to mind my own business and stay out of trouble, and usually don’t have a good answer to problems of deer or shade trees anyway.) This was written with the retailer and professional in mind.

Most of the questions were straightforward enough, and the session was almost completed when a fellow asked, “What do you think about the increasing use of common names in our industry?”

One of the speakers, a rhododendron guru, stated that he used botanical names exclusively in his retail and wholesale nursery, and the other experts essentially said the same. Common names were confusing, they didn’t match up in different parts of the country, and as gardeners and landscapers became more competent, they shouldn’t have too much problem speaking about plants or asking for plants botanically.

Toad lily or tricyrtis japonica?

As the moderator was about to move on, I couldn’t help myself. I said (nicely), “Wait a minute, you guys are crazy! We have fewer customers than ever; the baby boomers can’t be expected to keep funding this industry, but most importantly, we have to make gardening and landscaping simpler.

“We as professionals should know the botanical names of everything we grow and sell, that is why we call ourselves professionals. Knowing the botanical name keeps us from ordering the wrong plant, and we all speak the same language. However why do we want to force feed them to our customers?

“As professionals, we should know, use and promote the common names to simplify and make the buying experience more user-friendly. To think that my daughter Heather is ever going to learn Chaenomeles instead of quince, Baptisia rather than indigo, and to think she will ever get her tongue around Calibrachoa is ludicrous; she hasn’t the time or the interest. We should know those names, but yes, we should be using common names. Absolutely. Not as a substitute but as a way of making Heather feel more comfortable.”

The place buzzed a little, and then the same fellow, obviously somewhat upset with my inappropriate answer, bellowed “So you want to dumb us down even more?”

I had tried to be unemotional, but the gauntlet was thrown. “Come on now, this is not dumbing down horticulture, it is lifting it up. It makes us more accessible to people like Heather and her generation, making her experience in the retail store that much more comfortable. Baby boomers are looking to simplify—a couple of shrubs is now more in keeping with their lifestyle than a dozen perennials. They will be buying less, and we need to attract the Heathers of the world. We won’t do it by being holier-than-thou. Fortunately, landscapers today are buying more and more plants, but we should not expect them to know all the names. It would be nice, but it’s not going to happen.”

Essentially that was the gist of the friendly repartee on Long Island. It turns out my debating opponent worked at a public Arboretum and saw things in a little different light than we do.

Aquilegia or columbine?

It seems to me that we in the plant trade have many parallels with the computer industry. Everybody wants a computer that performs well, but if the people at Computer Doodle expected the people who walked into the store to know the difference between ROM and RAM, what a cache was, and how to change the resolution on their screen, well, they’d never make a sale. Instead they talk about speed, reliability and memory, words everyone is familiar with. The computer professionals know their buzzwords, but the computer industry long ago realized that if they were to attract new customers, they had to make the buying experience more friendly. So should we.

So when a gardener like Heather wants some plants for her garden, I hope that the industry people tell her about their lovely baskets of trailing petunias and how beautiful are the fan flowers. She will come back again and again.

Comments

[EACH LITTLE WORLD]

If I must learn cooking terms and measurements to cook, sew, knit, design a blog on Typepad, work as a graphic designer — why is that different than learning botanical Latin? Today in a multicultural world, people's very names are more unusual and take time to learn how to say and pronounce (think Hamid Karzai, Benazir Buhtto, Barrack Obama). And we're teaching school chilren to speak a foreign language at younger and younger ages.

All you have to do is spend a year waiting for a plant to flower and realize you bought the wrong thing because you used the common name and you will start learning Latin. If you belong to a garden club or plant society you have to learn it cause that's what most folks use — at least around here.

[mr_subjunctive]

*ahem*

If the horticultural experts tell Heather about the beautiful Petunias, they ARE using the botanical name. By this logic, we should invent some alternate name for them, then, to make them "friendlier?" And if so, might I suggest "wet-kleenex flower?"

Secondly, it is a grave, grave mistake to think that customers are going to retain common names any better than botanical ones. I can't tell you how many circular conversations I've had with customers where the only information they could give about a plant they were looking for was that it was green and had [ovalish hand-gesture]-shaped leaves, or that it was "like a tree" and had white flowers.

Professionals should know both sets of names, but I disagree that it's a waste of time to try to get customers using the botanical ones. "Ficus" was a scary, alien word to people at one time; now a fair number of the customers I talk to know what a Ficus is (and usually they also know that they don't want one). They can be taught. They should be taught.

[Colleen]

I think it's like just about anything in life: the true geeks will get a kick out of knowing the botanical names (and find it absolutely necessary to do so) but the casual gardener doesn't want to be bothered with learning something extra. I like Allan's computer analogy. I just want my PC to work, I don't care what all the crap that makes it work is called. My husband, on the other hand, is a total tech geek and really gets into all of the specs and terminology. Why should gardeners be any different?

[Sylvia (England)]

In the UK we use botanical names a lot but I think there is room for both. I use Hosta not plantain lily yet bluebell not Hyacinthoides non-scripta. In Scotland the bluebell is Campanula rotundifolia which I would call Harebell. But any good plants person will know both including local variations. I feel it is very arrogant to insist on one or the other - it doesn't make any difference to the plant!

A subject that comes up regularly and will never be resolved. Thank you for an interesting post.

Best wishes Sylvia (England)

[susan harris]

All plant labels should have both names, but I agree that for the retail customer, the common name should be dominant. I've been gardening for 30 some years, writing about it, blah, blah, and still only know the Latin name for the plants I grow myself and a few others. Customers are overwhelmed and intimidated ENOUGH at garden centers, for crying out loud.

[Colleen]

And, at least from what I've seen, most customers of both big box and many smaller nurseries aren't "gardeners" as much as they're "homeowners" who just want their yard to look nice. There is a big difference in the mindset between the two groups. And that's as it should be--I don't expect everyone to have the same level of interest in plants that most of us who are commenting do.

[Christopher C NC]

Heather may not even care what the common name is. All she may want to know is if it is a bush, a tree, a vine or groundcover and that it has pretty flowers or leaves, stays green and blooms 365 days a year, can be planted and forgotten and will fill a certain space perfectly. At least we can hope she wants to know all that a minimum.

In my twenty years working as a landscaper, (I know you have a rant about them in you) my use of botanical binomial nomenclature got very very rusty. In order to communicate with my clients I had to speak in a language they understood. That green bush over there would often suffice. Or in the case of Hawaii, that red bush over there. I was even chided at my local nursery for using proper plant names.

As a professional and plant enthusiast I want and need to know the proper botanical names. I need to know both languages.

A good label with the correct botanical name and the most common, common name should make everyone happy.

[naomi]

When I was a carpenter, I was amazed (also very young) at how little people understood about building. Of course, that's why I was the one working, not they. I know some botanical terms and use them; I thank my mom and our friend Dan Franklin for that. But most people I encounter don't know those terms. It's been funny at times in a conversation when we're both attempting to identify what plants we're discussing. And pronouncing some of those words! That's my big problem. I did get my crackhead yardman using latin. I watched him go from shuffling past with his head down, hunched over, to his shoulders back, head high, pointing at a plant, saying, "Don't tell me, I remember, Butterfly Weed, Asclepias." But did I teach him wrong, is it Asclepias or Asclepiadaceae? I don't know.

[Lisa - St. Marys]

I am a plant geek, and I know that when I nonchalantly, without thinking throw out a latin term, my friends look at me like I've grown 2 heads. My friends as you may have figured out, are not plant geeks, they just want their yards to look good. I have also been named a snob, when I got excited talking about plants, and started (again) using the latin names. I often need to stop and think what the common term is to describe what plant I'm talking about, and even then most people in the 30, 40, 50, and 60's don't have a clue what I'm talking about. Most people don't want to walk into a store and feel stupid. If you want to sell to them, you need to make them comfortable, and not make them feel substandard. Maybe that's why they even like the Big Box stores, they don't feel like everyone else there actually knows something.

[Michele Owens]

Yeah, Allan! I feel like a horse's ass using Latin. English, on the other hand, is a very blunt and beautiful language.

[Joe Lamp'l]

It's not an "either / or". Allan's right about that group of folks that will never have an interest in learning the botanical name of a plant. And although "we" appreciate the value of using a plant's proper name, other's don't care. Of course we understand the downside of trying to identify plants by their common names, I still contend that we need to do what we can to embrace all who want to stick a trowel in the dirt (or even pay someone to do it). If they're inclined, they'll learn the botanical name too, but let's not turn them off in the process.

[inadvertentfarmer]

"Secondly, it is a grave, grave mistake to think that customers are going to retain common names any better than botanical ones."

Of course we retain common names better than botanical ones...if we didn't there wouldn't be any common names.

I love that you all know the latin names, just please don't expect your customers to. I'm a well educated fairly intelligent person who has too many kids and too many responsibilities and I'm lucky to get to the nursery at all. So please just let me buy my hostas and lillies and willow trees without expecting me to know any more than their common names. If you make me comfortable, have decent prices, and healthy stock I will be back over and over again! Free coffee doesn't hurt either, lol!

[Pat]

As a "non-professional" gardener, I want to see both Latin and common names on ID tags, which ideally will make me bi-lingual. It's education by habit: if I see the two names together often enough, I might become comfortable using them either/or/both.

[Brie]

I don't find it that difficult to learn the botanical names of the plants I'm interested in because my dad was in the nursery trade and would train me with the latin instead of the common names. However, most people don't have the luxury of exposure.

Maybe instead of keeping the average plant shopper cozy with common names, exposure of the botanical names should be increased. Not to say that common names aren't useful, but how can we expect anyone to be comfortable with latin words if they never see them displayed prominently or hear them used in casual discussion of the plant?

I know a lot of people my age (late 20s/early-mid 30's) who buy loads of plants. Sometimes they sound funny mispronouncing the latin names they've learned, but at least they care to learn, and at least I know what they're talking about when they fumble with "buddleia". But I've heard people refer to all sorts of things as a "butterfly bush". My mom likes to refer to her duranta erecta as butterfly plant instead of golden dewdrop, skyflower, etc. (note there's also a thunbergia people call a skyflower...). Then I hear people drop the "butterfly bush" label when pointing to a clerodendron ugandanese. This is just one example of how confusing common names can be for VERY common plants in Florida.

Latin names should not be so scary for people. They could be part of the average person's plant vocabulary if we let them.

[eliz]

Well, my thing with common names is that the common name for one plant OFTEN gets assigned to another plant. Than you REALLY have a mess. With botanical names, there is only one name for the plant. You know what you have.

[Bob Vaiden]

Yes to both sides... (how's THAT for a cop-out?).

I lead tours and hikes...I use common names. There's often an historical meaning there (why DID they call it "Mountain Mint???); Who was "Culver"; why "Rattlesnake Master"?

Common names can be amusing: Orange Glory Flower or Butterflyweed for Asclepias tuberosa...without a mention of it being a Milkweed (that can scare folks off!)

But how to tell people what to plant? How to be sure yourself of what someone else has? One must know the Latin name to be sure!

And, of course, in the USA, "Bluebell" is "Mertensia"!

[luise h.]

When I talk to People about Plants I like to use both botanical and common names.When I plan someones Garden on Paper I also include both botanical and common Names.Avoids confusion and educates in a non condescending way.I would like my Customers and Friends to learn.Gardening is about sharing,sometimes knowledge.

[Jean]

Amen to plant labels carrying both Latin and common names. (Actually, at some nurseries I'd be happy to get a plant label, period!) I really think that this argument is about knowing your customer. If you live in a place where the Latin names would be appreciated for being more precise, then use that. But if not, use the common name. I only wish there weren't so many "butterfly bushes" out there...

I'd also like to rant a bit about the professionals who work in the horticulture business but who don't know a thing about it, much less any Latin names. I think that would be a good topic for a future G.R. post.

[Pam]

Yes, but what about Laura, Dr. Armitage? (I went to school with your other daughter!)

I do both Latin and common names, and I like when the information is there on the plant. I may be looking for a specific cultivar, so I like all the details spelled out for me. I am, however, planting a zoo garden in memory of my son, so I've been going by common names for that.

As a customer I like to feel like the seller knows his product. Using only common names can be confusing. Geranium is a good example.

[Lynn]

I think there's a lot to Bob Vaiden's comment about WHY something is named that way, in Latin or English--those are the interesting bits and get us thinking about plants on different levels. Knowing some back story (and a few poetic terms) also helps you remember what the dang thing's called!

[Susan (garden-chick)]

Insisting that non-professionals use botanical names is like creating an exclusive club where you have to pass a test to gain admittance - exactly the opposite of what gardens are about. I have been reading Chris Grampp's "From Yard to Garden - The Domestication of America's Home Grounds" and it makes some interesting points on how people view plants in relation to the whole outdoor experience.

In the prologue, the author writes about conclusions he gained interviewing 50 people about what their yard meant to them for his master's thesis in the San Francisco Bay Area.

His basic conclusion "I learned that habitability was far more important to people than was the pursuit of gardening. This is not to say that people considered gardening objectionable or a waste of time, but rather that it was neither their first concern nor the purpose for their yard."

I'm far more interested in creating habital spaces and steering novice gardeners towards culturally appropriate plants than I am in expanding their botanical vocabulary, even if they end up referring to their plants as butterfly bush one, butterfly bush two and butterfly bush three.

[Gen Schmidt]

I really agree with the thought that as professionals we should know both, but not be snotty or force conversation in one set of names rather than another.

That said, I'm getting a general air of looking down at younger gardeners and assuming that we're too *something* to learn the things that the older generation has. Just because Heather hasn't found the inclination doesn't mean that assumption should be spread to the rest of us.

There are passionate gardeners of every ilk, and stereotypes to go along with every generation.

Even if your stereotypes are meant in a friendly fashion, they aren't accurate for the many young gardeners I know (and met when I was a nursery pro) nor is that mild condescension helpful in forming a community of people bound by a shared interest.

There is something delightful about stepping into a new hobby and realizing all that there is to know. It's great to be friendly and willing to talk at every level, but it takes away a great deal of what makes gardening attractive if we try to remove any sense from newbies that there might be more of value to learn. A general trend towards over-simplification reduces the allure of gardening, not the opposite.

Also? It's really hard to have a delightful conversation with someone about her "white bushes" and how I should try one in my garden. Sometimes the things of value in life do require effort.

[Kathy]

The people who care that they are getting the right plant will learn the botanical name. The people who just keep reading and loving plants will learn it without realizing it. I never set out to learn botanical Latin, but pored over gardening magazines and catalogs in the winter months. It wasn't until a neighbor gasped and said, "You know the scientific names of plants?!" that I even realized I knew them.

[mael]

I'm 23. I manage to retain, in my head, the names of plants in botanical Latin, English, and Italian. Honestly? It's not that hard.

I am very glad that the nursery I go to uses the botanical names to sort the plants, and has both the botanical name and the common name on the tag. If "casual gardeners" need help finding something, they can simply ask.

[Ginny Stibolt]

I agree that I would want to see both the common name and the Latin binomial on plant tags and in descriptions in catalogs--both online and print. So I can be sure of what I'm getting.

I use common names in writing my columns with the Latin binomial in parentheses and in my book, "Sustainable Gardening for Florida," I used common names throughout--the Latin names are only in the plant list appendix.

That being said, the biggest problems with the Latin binomials, isn't the snobbishness or the problems with pronouncing the Latin, it that the plant taxonomists unfortunately change the names on a regular basis. Smooth aster is no longer Aster laevis, it's now Symphyotrichum leave and Zinnia elegans is now Z. violacea. Venus' Looking-glass used to be known as Specularia perfoliata, but now it's Triodanis perfoliata. The taxonomists justify these changes by straightening out old herbarium records and giving the first named specimen preference over the one that has been most commonly used. I usually tell people I have a master's degree in botany and don't specify that it's in plant taxonomy because I fear the reactions of people rebelling against these changes.