It is worth getting to know the latin names of plants as well as the common names as all over the world from the US to China and Japan a plant is known firstly by its latin name which is the linqua franca ( OK the common world wide language !) of the plant world . It may sound pretentious and a little intimidating and I know it did to me when I was starting out in gardening and while local names are fine the problem is that every country has its own local name so it can be tricky to identify a plant you fall in love with abroad and want to try and source at home . Of course there are the sh.ts of the garden world that like to intimidate and show off but by and large real gardeners are helpful and will go out of their way to assist and even share plants and slips . My assistant here in the garden ( aka Sanna ) resolutely refuses to learn the latin names and maintains that it is a load of pretentious crap and maintains that you can get away with calling a plant uxi / cuxi/ coxi ( finnish alphabet ) by adding the word japonica after it … you have been warned so if you meet her in the garden ……
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