Suzanne Hively, over at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, has an excellent article on the importance of latin (also called botanical) names.

The goes back to my earlier post about how Garden Diaries are very helpful. A big part of garden diaries is the log of all the plants going into your garden (with botanical names). That way, if your friends want to know what you have, you can tell them Pennisetum villosum, instead, "feathery grass stuff"

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