Here are some examples of the words and terms you’ll come across when gardening. Learn what they mean here.
Heel In
When nursery stock cannot be planted for several days, heel it in by digging a shallow trench in a well-drained location. Place the plant or plants lengthwise in the track and cover the roots with soil.
Harden-off
This means gradually accustoming house plants or window-grown seedlings to the outside air, wind, and direct sun rays. Then, on warm spring days, set the plants in a protected spot safe from the wind, where they get filtered sunshine through branches of shrubs or trees or under a slatted cover.
Should the temperature drop to dangerous levels or the wind get too boisterous, bring the plants inside until balmy weather returns. It takes a week to 10 days to harden-off plants.
Flats
These are shallow boxes to plant seeds or transfer seedlings when they require transplanting. Fruit lugs are a convenient size. Milk cartons may be laid lengthwise and the top side removed.
Flat rectangular oil cans may be converted in the same way. The lugs and cartons are less lasting than those made from more durable material but cost nothing.
Hotbed
It is a planting bed surrounded by boards with a protective glass sash or plastic on top and with bottom heat. Because of the bottom heat, hotbeds can be planted 6 to 8 weeks before garden planting is possible.
Coldframe
Like a hotbed, except that it has no bottom heat. Plants from the cradle or those started in the house can be shifted to cold frames to harden off. Semi-hardy plants that winterkill often live over in a rigid structure.
Seedframe
Like a cold frame, except that it is left open at the top or covered with burlap bags or lath covered.
Seedframes are used throughout the year—a splendid place to plant seeds in late fall and early winter—almost a must-have for growing lilies from seeds, and a protected place to start annual and perennial seeds in the spring.
Planting Medium
A convenient term to designate the material used for seed planting, potting soil, or other planting purposes.
The medium may be vermiculite, peat, sand, sifted sphagnum, loam, or other growing substance, or a combination of two or more materials.
Community Pot
It is a pot to which small plants are first transferred before being potted individually or set out into a permanent location. Any size pot becomes a community container when it holds a number, or “community,” of small plants.
Pin Holders
Something everyone who arranges cut flowers should have. These holders, in various shapes and sizes—miniatures 1″ inch across to large ones measuring 6” inches—are anchored firmly with floral clay to the bottoms of flower containers.
The sharp pins hold the flowers in place. They are also called pin-type holders, needlepoint holders, and pin-frogs. Those fastened permanently in tip-proof units that have water are called aqua-pin holders.
Deciduous
Shrubs and trees which shed all their leaves in the fall are deciduous.
Evergreens
These are plants that retain their green growth throughout the year. Pine and spruce are needled evergreens, but there are also broad-leafed evergreens such as rhododendrons, euonymus, and Vinca minor.
Pinching
The method used to shorten shoots on plants to have compact plants. It means to squeeze or pinch the tips of the nodes between the thumb and forefinger to remove them. This causes side shoots to develop and prevents leggy upright growth.
Disbudding
Pinching off unwanted flower buds. When extra large flowers are wanted on chrysanthemums, dahlias, or peonies, the giant bud is left, and the rest is removed by disbudding.
44659 by Olga Rolf Tiemann