Without oversharing, this week involved a fall out with my wife as she called be a ‘gardening snob’! She said that I assume that everyone knows what gardening terms mean and that I always give plants their Latin names. She is right about the Latin names – as a student that’s how I learned about plants and so I think about plants in that language.

But I am not a gardening snob, and want everyone to love gardening, so as homage to my lovely wife, let me explain some gardening terms;

• Annual – this is a plant that lives and dies in one season

• Biennial – you can probably guess that this means that it is a plant that will live and die in two seasons

• Cultivar – a plant that has been bred for its specific features e.g. bred to be compact, short flowering, brighter in colour

• Deciduous – this is a plant that sheds its leaves each year

• Hardy – a plant that can survive Scotland’s frost

• Herbaceous – this plant will die back to ground level in the winter but will resume its growth in the spring

• Perennial – a plant that can live indefinitely

• Rootstock – the underground part of a plant including the roots

• Truce – a suspension of hostilities by mutual agreement!!

I do hope that my wife reads all the way to the end!!! Have a great week and happy gardening.

PLANT OF THE WEEK: ALLIUM ‘MILLENNIUM’

This plant is actually a member of the onion family and has a strong onion like or garlic scent. It adds the most wonderful colour and shape to your garden with it’s rounded or ‘pom-pom’ shaped flower head with dark green, narrow leaves. It has the most beautiful pink to purple colouring and loves a sunny area. It is a clump formong perennial (see above!) and very hardy and actually quite likes the Scottish climate and will pretty much add colour to beds, borders and patio containers. A great addition to any garden.

Colin has been working in the gardening industry for over 30 years and owns 7 Garden Centres across central Scotland and is passionate about Scottish plants.