A Word on Gardening Terminology

"Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent." -George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language"

I will try to avoid using gardening terminology for the most part because a) I don't know a lot of it anyway, and b) I want to be as clear as possible to the greatest number of people. However, there are several terms that I think are important for everyone interested in plants or gardening to understand. The following is a list of terms* that I may or may not use in future posts:

• Annual - A plant that completes its life cycle in one year.
• Biennial - A plant that completes its life cycle in two years.
• Compost- A mixture of decaying, organic materials (such as kitchen scraps) used for soil amending, fertilizing, and mulching. 
• Cutting - A plant propagation method wherein a part of a plant is cut and dipped in a rooting hormone to eventually grow into a new plant.
• Full sun - If a plant requires “full sun” then it needs at least 6 hours of direct sunlight each day to thrive.
• Germinate - The beginning of growth in a seed; to sprout.
• Hardy - A plant that can withstand frost exposure without means of protection.
• Heirloom - An open-pollinated plant variety that has remained unchanged through hybridization for at least 50-100 years.
• Hybrid - The crossbreeding of two plants of different species or varieties with distinct characteristics.
• Open pollination - Plants whose seeds develop through random, natural pollination such as wind, field movement, or insect activity, not through human involvement.
• Ornamental - Plants grown for aesthetics, not consumption or economic use.
• Perennial - Plants that live for multiple growing seasons.
• Pollination - The transfer of pollen from the stamen (male part of the flower) to the pistil (female part of the flower), which results in the formation of a seed.
• Pruning - The process of cutting off leaves or branches within limits in order to remove dead, injured or diseased foliage or branches.
• Self-pollinating - Plants that do not require pollen from another plant to produce fruit.
• Thinning - To reduce the number of excess seedlings (discarding the weakest ones) to allow freer air circulation and increase the light for foliage, thereby, encouraging remaining plants to thrive.
• Transplant - To remove plants from one place and replant them in another (or from a container into the ground).

*Note: All definitions are taken from this Glossary of Gardening Terms.