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Magazine Reference: Clay
A design of plants which form a close mat on the surface of the ground and respond to severe cutting back, as distinguished from groundcover plants which may stand several inches above the ground. Clay:
Earthy material (occurring in nature), whose chief property is plasticity when wet. The size of particles varies from 1-5000 to 1-25000 of an inch in diameter. Bakes and cracks freely when dried out. Clay Loam:
Clump:
A loam soil containing a predominance of clay.
A cluster of roots or bulbs or tubers capable of being divided into separate plants or of producing one large mass of plants resembling a single plant.
Collected Stock:
Plants which have been taken from their native habitat and shipped direct from the collecting ground to the new location. These require more care and are subject to greater loss than nursery-grown stock. Cold Frame:
An unheated, outdoor, covered plant house, generally covered with glazed sash; but sometimes prepared paper or cloth is used. No manure is used in the soil at bottom of a cold frame. Cold frames are most frequently used as a transition space in the hardening-off process. Compost:
A soil made by mixing loam with decayingorganic compounds and sometimes inorganic fertilizers, allowing nitrification and oxidation to proceed; but preventing plant growth until a very rich soil is produced. Congested:
A term applied in planting to a situation having impure air or restricted feeding area for roots, or both.
Conifer:
A plant which bears its seeds in a cone. With the exception of the ginkgo, the larches, and the bald cypress practically all conifers are evergreen needle-bearing plants, as the pine, spruce, and fir. (See Evergreen.) Cover Crop:
A herbaceous crop sown to cover the ground temporarily and thus protect it from atmospheric and water action; generally plowed under for its fertilizing value.
Creeping Plants:
GLOSSARY Those plants whose stems run along either on or under the ground and root at intervals.
Crevice Plants:
Those plants with tenacious root systems adapted for use in the narrow and congested soil areas between flagstones in a walk or between stones in a dry wall.
Cross Fertilization:
The conveyance of pollen from one flower to another. Crown, of bulbs or other herbaceous plants:
The persistent portion of the stem which bears the buds which form the next stem.
Cuttings:
Detached leaf buds or portions of branches which are capable under favourable circumstances of forming new plants when placed in a moist, warm soil.
Deciduous:
Plants that drop their leaves each fall and produce a complete new set of leaves each spring.
Dehorn:
To remove a portion of the top of a plant, leaving only short portions of the main branches.
Design Bedding:
Dibble:
A design of herbaceous plants used for the purpose of producing a definite effect from their flowers and not their foliage, and allowed to continue their normal growth without being cut back. A pointed implement of wood or metal used to make holes in the ground, especially for plants, seeds, or bulbs.
Dividing:
The propagation of plants by separating the roots; more especially the dividing of bulbous and tuberous plants into several plants. Dormant:
A resting condition of plants when growth is not active and the flow of sap is stopped.
Double Flowers:
Commonly the result of the substitution of brightly coloured petals for stamens or pistils. A perfect double flower has no stamens or pistils, hence is sterile and the plant must be propagated by cuttings. Drainage for plants:
The carrying away of excess water from the soil in which plants are placed. This drainage promotes a deep root system, which aids the plant in surviving periods of drought; it also prevents a soil from becoming water-soaked and "drowning" the root system, especially of newly transplanted stock.
Dry Wall:
A wall constructed of individual stones with loam filling the crevices between them. Such a wall may be used either as a retaining wall to support an embankment of earth or against an earth slope to prevent unnecessary erosion. Ericaceous:
A family of plants which require for their normal growth an acid soil (a soil free from lime or magnesium).
Establish:
The act of transplanting any plant to a new location and causing root growth which makes the plant as capable in its new location as in its old location, of continuing normal growth.
Evergreen:
Plants with persistent leaves. These plants drop but a small portion of the old leaves each year, and may be conifers, broad-leaved evergreens, or opposite-leaved evergreens. Excurrent:
Having a main stem extending up through the top of the plant. Fertilizer:
Plant food, either directly available, or which upon nitrification will be available for use by the plant. Many fertilizers (such as sheep manure and dried blood) contain plant food in an immediately soluble form for plant requirements or in a form (such as bone meal and lime rock) which does not become available until after a period of chemical reaction.
GLOSSARY Field-grown Stock:
Fillers:
Nursery-grown stock which is grown in the field, as distinguished from plants grown in pots, in cold frames, or under other especially favourable and artificial conditions, which tend to make better looking specimens, but usually less hardy plants. Thus, field-grown plants are often more desirable, even though not nearly as good looking specimens.
Short-lived or rapidly growing plants temporarily planted between permanent plants as in orchards or in mass plantings. Fire blight:
Flat:
A bacterial disease.
A shallow box, averaging in depth from three to four inches, to receive soil in which to plant seeds, or to start cuttings.