Names are so confusing sometimes. I mean, we seem to have trouble with directions. How did Cleveland, Ohio end up in the midwest? Probably not from continental drift. And we certainly can’t tell verbs from adjectives from nouns, so in football we play contain defense instead of containment defense, and in Congress we lock in the sequester instead of sequestration. Perhaps the explanation is…
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We’ve certainly had our share of strange winters in recent years. For instance, 2009-10 was remarkable for sustained cold. After an abnormally warm December 2009, January ushered in the coldest two-month period since 1940. There wasn’t much frost, except in the most interior districts of southern Florida, but persistent very cool days and nights eventually took a…
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The genus Pimenta comprises 14 flowering species, among which are a some of the most interesting and desirable aromatic trees in the world. But it’s all a mistake . . . a big mistake. Spanish explorers poking around Mexico in the 16th century found an attractive medium-sized tree whose berry-like fruits resembled black pepper, so they called it…
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The management and staff of Richard Lyons’ Nursery always make a sincere effort to urge customers to use both scientific and common names of plants. But considering how hard it is to say Holmskioldia sanguinea, we’ll forgive you if you favor the common names, Mandarin Hat Plant (the name preferred in southern Florida), Chinese Hat…
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Firespike can really fool you. You might think that a plant native to Central America would perform poorly in cold weather, but this species is capable of doing quite well along a huge swath of the U.S. running almost uninterrupted from southern South Carolina to southern Washington. And it’s beautiful to boot! This evergreen shrub, known botanically as Odontonema…
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