Wednesday, April 23, 2008

The Names Of Flowers

Or how you say the name..
The sun was shining two days ago when the Anemone Blanda flower opened fully. I have them in shades of purple, white, and pink all in the left border. Anemone comes from the Greek word for Wind, as they propogate by the wind dispersing the styles from the fruit. They are a Genus of 120 species related to Buttercup family.
How do you pronounce it?I call it An-Ee-mone (rhymes with phone), whereas Cat and her parents call it Anim-O-Knee.
The other flower that makes me laugh is Cotoneaster...I pronounce it Cotton-Easter, where as Hils says Coton-ee-aster.
What other names of flowers cause consternation in their pronunciation? That rhymes after my first night shift, random flower thoughts on a Wednesday morning.

PS it is Shakespeares Birthday today, traditionally April 23rd.He would have loved the pronunciation of words and played on them.It is said one of his plays is being performed every day throughout the world.I will do a bigger post about him soon.

3 comments:

Sue Swift said...

Oregano (origano?) gets me. I can never remember which is the English pronunciation/spelling and which the Italian. One is oREGano and the other is oriGARNo - but which is which stumps me every time I have to say it.

David (Snappy) said...

Thanks Sue,Like the original Tomato problem.Tom-ah-to or to-may-to.I guess language is great for variations.If you look at say Finnish garden blogs the plants have strange names, and its only if they have a botanical name you will realise what it is.Thats why photos are great, and universal despite linguistic differences.I hope the Bee's have been finding their way to your Balcony :)
Good luck with your Veg and herb growing on the Balcony garden.I love the Hamster..

janelle said...

I recently purchased a plant/shrub,"YESTERDAY,TODAY,&TOMORROW. I goggled your site, and decided to ask WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS PLANT/SHRUB? It produces a beautiful blueish flower.
I live in Pensacola,Fl.
Can you help?
JFSMITH03@COX.NET