Latin is fun
The large pine tree that overshadows the sensory bed
I’m back in the Museum of Homelessness garden and it is another day of weeding. (See last week’s blog!) However in the meantime I have started to put together a shared document, listing out the plants we have in this sensory border. The process of researching the plants is fascinating and for me it is a great way to learn. I wonder who planted the Olearia x haasti, common name Daisy Bush which comes from the South Island of New Zealand? When work started to restore the garden, Euphorbia had taken over in this part of the garden and though it is beautiful, the sap is an irritant and the community decided they didn’t want this plant, in this place. So technically I guess you could call it a weed - a plant in the wrong place. It is certainly still popping up all over the bed which was apparently once called the Beth Chatto bed.
Gardens change and evolve. People see spaces differently. Yet as I worked in the garden on Tuesday and looked up at the huge pine tree which overhangs this section of soil, sheltering it from rainfall and taking goodness from the soil, I could see why perhaps the ideas of Beth Chatto and her Essex garden with its well chosen drought tolerant plants that survived in the poorest of soils (the old gravel car park) had taken root in Finsbury Park.
The document I am creating will have the Latin names, the English common names and perhaps some of the Polish common names too. I learned on Tuesday that in Polish, ‘krzew’ means bush. So starting with the Latin, we have in the sensory garden - Ilex aquifolium, the common English name is holly and in Polish: Ostrokrzew - Spikey bush.
We search for another plant - Lagurus ovatus, a small grass which has ivory coloured, soft oval flowers. They’re very tactile and have the English common name - bunny tails. The Latin word ovatus means egg-shaped. The Polish common name is Dmuszek jajowaty - which apparently translates as egg-shaped puff!
I am sure I am not the only gardener who occasionally makes an impulse buy on the plant front. Last weekend I was tempted by a honeysuckle Lonicera periclymenum ‘Graham Thomas’. We once had a honeysuckle in our garden and I loved the smell. However standing looking at it on Tuesday morning I realise I really don’t have the room for this plant which wants to wind and twine its way along a fence or a trellis. I decide it will be much happier in the MOH garden and happily it turns out to be one of the plants that Jess really wanted in the garden. In Polish it is called Wiciokrzew - winding bush!
That this garden was tended in the past is clear, it would be interesting to see photographs of its past life. Apparently there was once a Persimmon ‘peace’ tree that was reared from a tree that survived the bombing of Hiroshima. I wonder if it is still in the garden?
One more note on Latin names. Writing this blogpost I am reminded a book on my shelves, one of my ‘finds’ in a second hand bookshop. The Naming of Names - the search for order in the world of plants, by Anna Pavord. (First published in 2005) The flyleaf reads: “The Naming of Names is about the men who searched for the rules of nature’s game. What were plants to be called? What were their similarities and differences? How should they be grouped and ordered? The world was surely more than a random, chaotic jumble - if only a rationale could be found.”
Flicking through it, I build on the knowledge gained from the Rebel Botanists that ‘officinalis’ in a plants name tells us that it was used for medicinal purposes. I discover that ‘Opificina’ - later corrupted to ‘officina’ - was the original Latin term for a pharmacy.
On the podcast front I have been editing the next episode - Philippa’s dahlias. It will go out on Tuesday. This episode has its roots in a conversation from a year ago. Two friends messaged me from the Strawberry Hill Flower Festival in South-West London, saying can you come - there must be some amazing plant stories to be found here. Sadly I couldn’t get there but I got in touch with the two floral designers behind the festival and from that conversation came next weeks plant story. If you happen to be anywhere near Strawberry Hill I would urge you to take a look at the festival - it sounds wonderful and I am excited to be going this year. Booking is advised.
Have a lovely weekend
Sally
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