The Dirt

I say boo-gen-vee-ya; Penny says bo-gen-vil-lah.

And neither of us has budged a syllable on that in the three years we've traded tips on bougainvilleas.

Thing is, according to my dictionary, we're both wrong. It's boo-gen-vil-ee-a or boo-gen-vil-ya.

Sorry, Pen, the bo is a no-go.

Pronouncing plant names can be a challenge - especially if you try to do the Latin thing. Gaillardia x grandiflora plus geranium pylzowianum equals garden goddess perplexus.

But if there's one plant I never thought I would ever get wrong, it's the sweet, simple, monosyllabic ti. I mean, really, how hard is that?

Then Tribune reporter and friend-of-the-blog Courtney Cairns Pastor e-mailed the other day to ask if I knew whether it was "ty" or "tee." She recently read online that it's "tee" everywhere but Florida, and I found the same thing. Nothing as to why that is; it just is.

That got me thinking about all the other plant names we mispronounce, either because that's the way we've always heard them or because we've never actually heard them at all, just read them on a tag or in a book. Penny and I also disagree on mandevilla (she got this one right - man-duh-vil-lah). My husband tortures "jatropha" (which is pronounced ja-tro-fuh or ha-tro-fa, but never his way: ja-thro-pah). And almost everyone I know slaughters "frangipani" (it's fran-juh-pan-ee, not fran-juh-pan-jee).

I found a cool new toy at www.taunton .com/finegardening/pguide/pronunciation -guide-to-botanical-latin.aspx. It's a plant guide from the folks behind Fine Garden magazine, and it not only spells the Latin pronunciation for you, but you can also hear the word spoken out loud.

Funny thing is, the guide often contradicts itself. It pronounces "portulaca" as por-chew-lah-kah, for example, but spells it por-tew-lah-kah. It pronounces "fuchsia" as fyoo-shah but spells it fewk-see-ah.

Somehow it makes me feel better to know that even the experts can't get it quite right.

And, bottom line, it's still a fun gardening tool to play around with on a rainy day, when the shovel and hoe have to stay in the shed.

Kim Franke-Folstad

Come play in The Dirt at TBO.com, keyword: Dirt. We provide all the tools.