What have you done in the garden today? Part 2

[ThreeRingCircus]

A continuation of the last thread.

One thing that's bugging me seeing as we're on the subject - pronunciation. I always said nik-o- tain-ee-ana but on Gardeners W they say nik-oh-cee-ah-na. Or something! What do you all say? @catwithflowers is probably the accepted version but is an anglicised pronunciation. I usually say nik kot ee AH na because it retains the link with nicotine and because pronouncing ti as sh has no place in any Latin derived language. And because I’ve not knowingly heard anyone else pronounce it.

All of my friends were Lancaster, and DH and I (and later, my Mum) went to Lancaster Uni! Small world...

Did a bit of weeding the drive this afternoon, cursing the previous owners with the block paving and slate which is a haven for weeds, although letting all the flowering ones live. Also did the spot watering, and delighted in the fact the little gardenia I planted is flowering!

What do you all say?

Tobacco flower.

Well, our 30 foot leylandii has gone. And in its place we have the beautiful view of a 25 foot electricity pylon. Funnily, I prefer the view of the pylon 😂. The guys did an amazing job and ground out the stump too so now we just have to sow grass seed and then deal with the oak and copper beech trees that were abutting the conifer as they are a crazy shape on one side.

There's so much more light in that part of the garden now!!

Google says

in Latin and

in English

@catwithflowers https://www.pylonofthemonth.org/

Things are getting exciting on my patio!

I’m not much of a linguist, but it strikes me that in English there’s plenty of precedent for the sh sound in Latin-derived words like cognition. Anyway, ErrolTheDragon nimbly sidesteps this vexed question with tobacco flower!

That’s all looking good, MannyMontana.

@MereDintofPandiculation Hilarious. And weird 😂

Some things have survived the relentless rain. Picked chamomile and hyssop for drying and using in teas and cough syrup.

Oh quite. But that's English. And you know how we massacre words. If you're going to anglicise scientific names you have have huge scope. Cotton Easter for a start.

Finally got my arse in to gear after a week of fuck all. Have weeded a small part of rockery and patio. I find weeding utterly depressing, the constant 'demand' of it drains me mentally. But I've done a little bit at least. For those that remember, I'm still avoiding pruning the cherry laurels in the back garden and the spotted laurels in the front. Just seems like such an enormous job. Will mow lawn on Thursday before we go on holiday, and keep weeding bits in the meantime.

Am taking great pleasure in seeing the bees feasting on the three large lavenders in the front though. The purple is festooned with black, yellow, orange and brown buzzing!

This’ll be my last word (geddit) on the matter but, even as a grammar pedant, it seems to me that Latin names are immensely useful for clarity and avoiding ambiguity, but insisting on authentic pronunciation of them is doomed to fail; firstly, because it’s so hard to know what is correct and, secondly and more importantly, because it’s immensely offputting for novice gardeners.

LostAtTheCrossRoad - I agree about the relentlessness of weeding, but I draw some satisfaction from how much better things look afterwards, plus it feeds the compost heap!

Another 'funny word' is echinacea 🤣. I pronounce it ec-an-ay-sha but last year I heard the great Monty himself pronounce it ec-in-ay-see

Who knows? It's still a lovely plant, whatever the name!!!

I’m with you on that one, catwithflowers. Latin doesn’t do silent letters, to the best of my recollection speaking as an ancient Roman. I just wish I could grow them without them being demolished by snails!

Except Echinacea will be Greek originally, which is another can of worms.

I love how people murder Latin. We use Latin in the nursery where I work, and my favourite was someone asking for 'Long Nice Sarah' (lonicera).

How do we think liriope is meant to be pronounced? I assume Greekish, like Penelope, but my colleague thinks 'op' to rhyme with 'hop'.

Afternoon, I’m hoping the photo attached, well this monster must be 8/10 feet tall and is swamping everything , there are roses under there ! We moved in at the end of last summer, so this year is see what comes up . I’m going to have to dig it up in the autumn… but any ideas what the heck it is ??? Ps any takers for this triffid ?

<<peers>> Is that helianthus Lemon Queen? I was given a clump of it years ago but eventually dug it up, as it was marching across the flowerbed, annihilating everything in its path.

As for the Greek, my dim schoolroom memory is that there are no silent letters there either, so in my head liriope is like Penelope.

I don't think the leaves are right, look too big for the helianthus?

Maybe something like this en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silphium_perfoliatum

As for the Greek, my dim schoolroom memory is that there are no silent letters there either, so in my head liriope is like Penelope.

I've never studied Greek so I feel like a pseud contributing ... how do Greeks pronounce psi?

The wiki page has a whole paragraph on how to pronounce liriope

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liriope_(plant)

Yes, I’m not wholly convinced it’s the helianthus, but the colour, size and thuggery made me wonder …

I know Greek lirope would have no silent e - the controversy is whether you pronounce it Greek-ish or not.

'Psi' is 'si' with the barest audible 'p' at the start, I think. But it's a whole letter in Greek so the silent letter thing doesn't arise.

Geranium psilostemon @SarahAndQuack

Nerines: I'd always pronounced them as if they were Greek nymphs, nerinees. Monty says nereens.
And then there's which syllable do you emphasise? PoLYStichum or PolySTIchum? CercidiPHYllum or cerciDIPHyllum. The latter has been a bone of contention in my (fairly new) marriage.
That could be Telekia speciosa, @Popetthetreehugger -another big yellow daisy thug.

What about it? I've no idea how to say it! I was just thinking about the letter in the Greek alphabet in response to @ErrolTheDragon.

Syllable emphases make my head ache. I have a very pretentious colleague who insists it should be 'vee-BUR-num TEEnus'. Apparently this is 'correct'. I think I say 'cercidiPHYllum' because that seems like the natural way the word breaks up. But I'm not sure!