A Quick Latin Lesson

Happy Thursday! As many of you may or may not know, in the professional world of horticulture all plants and flowers are generally classified by their Latin names, and not the common ones we are all familiar with. This means that our daily trips to the nurseries for your beautiful gardens are almost like traveling back to Ancient Greece! (emphasis on ALMOST)

That said, we thought we would take some time today to teach you the proper Latin names of the early Spring bloomers we are all currently seeing pop up around the city.

First up we have a newly flowering Apricot tree, otherwise known as Prunus armeniaca. This literally translates to "stone fruit", and is a very close relative of the peach tree (Prunus persica). 

 Another flower that has taken NYC by storm this Spring is the Daffodil. The proper Latin name for these are Narcissus. The flowers were named for the vain star of Greek mythology because it has been said that after Narcissus drowned from his obsession with his own reflection in a pool of water, a Daffodil sprung up in the place where he died.

Finally, we've also been seeing some pretty Pansies popping their heads up lately. These flowers are called Violax wittrockiana (say that ten times fast!), and bloom in both the Spring and Autumn.

...And that wraps up your Latin vocabulary lesson for today! As more flowers begin to bloom throughout the season, we will continue to teach you about the origins and proper names of what you're seeing, and hopefully by the end of this season we'll all be writing our own flowery renditions of "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey".... or something similar ;)

Vade in pace!