[FRUITFULL]

Why are there so many names for one plant?I was at the garden center yesterday and 2 very helpfull assistants were banging on about latin names etc for plants that are common but i didnt recognise.
I will never remember,quote or spell all these complacated names  :?
When i buy carrot seeds they are carrot seeds but when i buy a border plant im boggled  :roll:

[DD.]

Carrots???

Oh - you mean Daucus carota ssp. sativus!  

[Alex 98]

The Swedish botanist Karl Linnaus (splet twrongly.. ) started it all
Naming classification, its actually a fascinating story.
Its all in the name.

Rainy day stuff I guess.

Alex 98

[FRUITFULL]

  You lot are teasers  :roll: Dont get me wrong i want to know if im buying an Apple tree,what Apples grow on it but..........come on :roll: These women yesterday were talking gobble de gook.I dont need to learn the latin or alternative names.Not all us gardeners are that inteligent.
Dont get me wrong im keen to learn.I have last year learnt the correct pronunsiation for St Tropez and Lingerie.(used to say what i see)Also i know what a tetrapak is now.
Shame my spellings poor

[Yorkie]

The difficulty with using names other than the latin, is that there are often several names for one plant - or one name can refer to several different plants.

Frequently on my local radio gardening phone-in, someone will have a problem with a plant described with a common name.  It then takes the expert several minutes to work out which plant he is dealing with (sometimes it's not possible).

Another reason the latin is helpful is you get to know which plants are related to each other.  eg. tomatoes and spuds - so will be liable to similar diseases.

[Stripey_cat]

It makes it much easier to talk about plants in a foreign language.  Including different dialects of English!  Also, you can see easily which plants are closely related (same genus), and distinguish between closely related and similar plants.  Plus, most of the names mean something in Latin (some are just "Joe Blogg's geranium", or whatever), so you can get a bit of information just from the name.  Mostly, it's a precision thing, though.  "Poppy" is pretty unhelpful (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poppy for a list of the genera it can mean in different contexts), and "paeony-flowered poppy" is just as bad a mouthful as Papaver paeoniflorum.

What I find utterly hilarious is that I'll use the Latin name to my mother or grandmother, then in the same conversation turn to my father or boyfriend (non-gardeners) and use the common name for the same plant, without realising I'm doing it until they point it out!

[Salmo]

Gardeners, or should I say horticulturalists, tend to get a bit like computer nerds and speak over your head in a condescending way. They have to learn to communicate at the level of their customer, or should that be client.

Next time assert youself and ask them to explain in terms you can understand.

[peapod]

Stripey is right, we keep latin names as they do not need to be translated and are the same the world over
I dont know many though in fact,Im not big on even common names on flowers at all,and only know a few latin names of trees