Latin Names Are Your Friend

Every gardener eventually has to confront the dreaded Latin names of plants. We all know why it’s important – because the common names are so misleading. Flowering maple isn’t a maple. Yellow flag is an iris; Spanish flag is not. If someone asked you about bluebell, would you know what they meant? And good grief, what about sage? There are more than 400 sages, including the culinary types, annual ornamentals, and perennial ornamentals.