A to Z Glossary of Gardening Terms
A
Acid Soil
Acid Soil is where the soil has a low pH value is between 3.5 and 6.
Aerate
Puncturing or loosening soil to allow water penetration
Alkaline Soil
Alkaline Soil is where the pH value is higher than 7.
Annual
Annual plants are plants which life cycle lasts for only one year.
B
Bareroot
Plants with all the soil removed from their roots.
Biennial
Biennial plants are plants which live for two years. Producing flowers and seeds the second year.
Bolting
Bud
Early stages of development/growth of a flowers or plant growth.
Bulb
An underground storage organ for the group of perennials which includes daffodils and tulips.
C
Cane
Chitting
Chelsea Chop
The Chelsea chop (so called because it is usually carried out at the end of May, coinciding with the RHS Chelsea Flower Show) is a pruning method by which you limit the size and control the flowering season of many herbaceous plants.
Circinate Vernation
Circinate vernation is the manner in which a fern frond emerges.
Cloche
Cold Frame
Cordon
Corm
An underground stem which produces roots, leaves and flowers during growing season.
Crown
D
Dead-head
Deadheading is the process of pinching or cutting off used blooms to keep the plants from seeding.
Deciduous
Deciduous means “falling off at maturity” or “tending to fall off”, and it is typically used in order to refer to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally (most commonly during autumn) and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe.
Dehisces
When a pod or seed vessel would gape or burst open.
Direct Sow
Direct seeding or direct sowing just means that you start plant seeds in the garden, rather than starting seeds indoors earlier and transplanting them outside. Many seeds of both flowers and vegetables can be started outdoors, at the start of the growing season.
E
Earth Up
Ericaceous
Everbearing
continuously producing or bringing forth, as a tree or shrub.
Evergreen
In botany, an evergreen is a plant that has leaves throughout the year, always green. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.
F
F1 Hybrid
An F1 hybrid (or filial 1 hybrid) is the first filial generation of offspring of distinctly different parental types. F1 hybrids are used in genetics, and in selective breeding, where it may appear as F1crossbreed.
Feathered Maiden
First Early Potatoes
Floricane
A flowering and fruiting stem or cane of a plant such as a bramble
G
Germination
Germination is the process by which a plant grows from a seed. The most common example ofgermination is the sprouting of a seedling from a seed of an angiosperm or gymnosperm. In addition, the growth of a sporeling from a spore, such as the spores of hyphae from fungal spores, is alsogermination.
Grafting
H
Half-hardy Annual
Half-hardy Perennial
Harden Off
Hardy annual
Hardy perennial
Haulm
the stems or tops of crop plants (as peas or potatoes) especially after the crop has been gathered.
Herbaceous plant
(in botanical use frequently simply herbs) areplants that have no persistent woody stem above ground.Herbaceous plants may be annuals, biennials or perennials.
L
Lime
Long Canes
M
Maiden Tree
Maincrop Potatoes
O
Organic Matter
P
Pedicel
A small stalk bearing an individual flower in an inflorescence.
Pinching Out
Pollination
Pot On
Pot up
Prick Out
Primocane Variety
Propagate
R
Rhizome
In botany and dendrology, a rhizome is a modified subterranean stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks and rootstocks.
Rootstock
A rootstock is part of a plant, often an underground part, from which new above-ground growth can be produced. It can refer to a rhizome or underground stem.
Rose End
Runner
S
Second Cropping Potates
Second Early Potatoes
Seed Potatoes
Self-fertile
Semi-evergreen
Semi-deciduous or semi-evergreen is a botanical term which refers to plants that lose their foliage for a very short period, when old leaves fall off and new foliage growth is starting.
Slips
Specimen Plant
T
Tender Perennial
The best definition is a perennial (usually herbaceous) plant that will not overwinter in the garden because it’s too cold. Simple as that. According to this definition, the list of tender perennials will increase for each step north you take, including half-hardy perennials, subtropicals and tropicals.
Tuber
A much thickened underground part of a stem or rhizome, e.g. in the potato, serving as a food reserve and bearing buds from which new plants arise.
Tilth
Cultivation of land – Soil with large pore spaces for air infiltration and water movement.
