Gardening words

The gardening words PlotHand uses, each in a sentence. The first time one appears on a page, it links here.

Last updated 25 September 2026.

A

Autumn-fruiting raspberry: Raspberry kinds that crop from late summer into autumn. They are usually smaller plants than summer-fruiting raspberries.Source: RHS.

B

Bacterial canker: A disease of plums, cherries, peaches and their relatives that causes sunken patches of dead bark and small holes in the leaves.Source: RHS.
Bare-root: A plant sold while dormant with little or no soil around its roots. You can only buy them in winter and early spring.Source: RHS.
Bark ringing: Removing part of a ring of bark on a fruit tree to slow growth and boost fruiting. The RHS advises home gardeners against it.Source: RHS.
Blanch: Covering part of a plant to keep the light off it, so its stems or leaves grow paler and less bitter.Source: RHS.
Bleed: When sap leaks out of a cut or wound on a plant, often after pruning at the wrong time.Source: RHS.
Blind bulbs: A bulb, such as a daffodil, that has ‘gone blind’ comes up with leaves but no flowers.Source: RHS.
Botanical name: A plant’s scientific name, written in italics, which gives each different plant one unique name used everywhere.Source: RHS Plant Finder.
Bulb: A rounded food store that some plants, like daffodils and tulips, grow from. It feeds the plant while it rests after flowering.Source: RHS.
Bush rose: A rose that grows as a bush, such as a hybrid tea (large flowers) or a floribunda (flowers in clusters).Source: RHS.

C

Cane (fruit cane): One of the long fruiting stems of a raspberry, blackberry or similar berry plant. That is why these crops are called cane fruit.Source: RHS.
Chelsea chop: Cutting back many border plants at the end of May, Chelsea Flower Show time, to keep them smaller and change when they flower.Source: RHS.
Clematis pruning group: Clematis are sorted into three pruning groups (1, 2 and 3) by when they flower. The group tells you how to prune yours.Source: RHS.
Climbing rose: A rose with long stems that cannot cling by itself, so its shoots are tied to trellis or horizontal wires.Source: RHS.
Cloche: A low cover of glass or clear plastic, easy to move, placed over plants, especially vegetables, to shelter them from the weather.Source: RHS.
Coppicing: Cutting a tree or shrub right down to ground level so that new stems grow from its base.Source: RHS.
Cordon: A plant pruned to grow as one main stem, upright or at an angle, with only short side shoots.Source: RHS.
Corm: An underground food store that looks like a bulb, with buds on top and roots from the base. Crocuses grow from them.Source: RHS.
Crown: The base of the plant, where the leaves come up from the roots. Rhubarb and asparagus are often sold as dormant plants called crowns.Source: RHS.
Cultivar: A named variety of a plant, usually bred for something special, such as its flowers, fruit, flavour, size, hardiness or disease resistance.Source: RHS.
Curing: Drying freshly lifted bulbs, such as garlic, in the sun or an airy place so they store well.Source: RHS.
Cut-and-come-again: Picking just a few leaves from each plant at a time, so the plant grows more and you can keep picking.Source: RHS.

D

Deadhead: Remove faded or dead flowers from a plant, to keep it looking good and encourage more flowers.Source: RHS.
Disbudding: Nipping off the smaller flower buds behind the big central bud, so the plant gives bigger, better flowers.Source: RHS.
Dormant: Resting over winter: the leaves have fallen and the plant has not yet started growing again.Source: RHS.
Double cropping: Pruning autumn raspberries so the plants give a small summer crop and then a slightly smaller autumn crop.Source: RHS.

E

Earth up: Piling soil up around a plant’s stems. On potatoes it shields the young shoots from frost and keeps light off the new potatoes.Source: RHS.
Established: A plant that has been in its spot long enough, usually two or three years, to grow strong roots.Source: RHS.

F

Fan-trained: Grown in a flat, fan shape, with branches spreading out on either side of a short central stem.Source: RHS.
Feed: Give a plant fertiliser, a concentrated source of the nutrients it needs to grow.Source: RHS.
Fleece: A soft, light fabric that lets light through, laid over or around plants to protect them from weather and pests and speed their growth.Source: RHS.
Forcing: Making a plant grow or flower earlier than normal by keeping it dark or warm, like rhubarb under a bucket or hyacinths indoors.Source: RHS.
Framework: The main branches that give a fruit bush its shape.Source: RHS.
Free-standing: A fruit tree grown as an ordinary tree in the open, such as in a lawn, rather than trained into a compact shape.Source: RHS.

G

Garrotting: Twisting wire tightly round a fruit tree’s branch or trunk to hold back its growth and make it fruit more.Weaker source: Gardeners Tips.
Group (botanical): A word in a plant’s full Latin name marking a set of garden varieties of that plant that share similar features.Source: RHS Plant Finder 2013.

H

Hampton hack: Cutting back early-flowering perennials, such as lupins, once they have flowered, usually in early July, for fresh growth and often more flowers.Source: RHS.
Hand pollination: Moving pollen onto flowers yourself, by hand, to make sure they are pollinated when few natural pollinators, such as insects, are about.Source: RHS.
Hard pruning: Cutting stems right back, close to the ground or to low branches, rather than giving a light trim.Source: RHS.
Hardneck garlic: A kind of garlic that readily grows a flower stem. Remove the stem as soon as it appears; it can be eaten.Source: RHS.
Haulm: The leafy stems of a potato plant above the ground.Source: RHS.

I

In growth: While the plant is actively growing, which is broadly from spring to autumn.Source: RHS.
In the green: Snowdrops bought and planted just after they have flowered, while their leaves are still green.Source: RHS.
Indeterminate: A tall-growing tomato, also called a cordon tomato. It needs a tall support, regular tying in and its side shoots removed.Source: RHS.

L

Layering: With sweet peas on single canes: untying them, laying the stems along the ground and tying them to a cane further along.Source: National Sweet Pea Society.
Lift and divide: Digging up a clump-forming plant and splitting it into pieces to replant. Done regularly, it keeps the plant healthy and gives you more plants.Source: RHS.
Lift and store: Dig the plant up and keep it somewhere frost-free over winter. ‘Lift the carrots’ simply means dig them up.Source: RHS.

M

Male flower: Cucumbers can carry separate male and female flowers. Only the female flowers, which have a tiny fruit behind them, grow into fruit once pollinated.Source: RHS.
Mulch: A thick layer of material, such as compost, manure or bark, spread on the soil around plants to hold in water and keep weeds down.Source: RHS.

O

Old wood: Older, woody stems. Some plants, such as most conifers (apart from yew), will not grow new shoots if cut back into old wood.Source: RHS.
Onion sets: Small, immature onion bulbs that you plant instead of seed. They grow quickly and reliably.Source: RHS.
Ornamental: Grown for its looks, such as flowers or leaves, rather than to eat.

P

Pinch out: Nipping off a soft shoot tip, usually with finger and thumb. Taking out the main tip makes the plant bushier, with more flowers or fruit.Source: RHS.
Plant out: Moving a young plant from its pot into its final spot in the garden, where it will grow on to flower or crop.Source: RHS School Gardening.
Pot-grown: Sold growing in a pot or container, rather than dug up with bare roots. RHS pages call this container-grown.Source: RHS.
Prepared bulbs: Bulbs that have been heat-treated so they flower earlier indoors, around Christmas. They usually cost a little more.Source: RHS.
Prune: Cutting off parts of a plant to control its size, remove dead growth, improve its shape or keep it healthy and flowering.Source: RHS.

R

Rambling rose: A type of rose grown up a support that usually flowers only once, around June. A climbing rose, by contrast, flowers through summer.Source: RHS.
Renewal pruning: Cutting out some of the oldest stems each year so new ones grow from the base and the bush keeps fruiting well.Source: RHS.
Restricted-form: A fruit tree pruned into a compact, set shape, such as a cordon or fan, rather than grown as an ordinary bush or tree.Source: RHS.
Rhizome: A swollen stem that grows sideways on or just below the soil surface. Bearded irises grow from them.Source: RHS.
Ridge cucumber: A cucumber grown outdoors in a sunny, sheltered spot, rather than in a greenhouse.Source: RHS.
Rod-and-spur: A way of growing a grape vine with permanent main stems. Each winter the shoots that fruited are cut back to one or two buds.Source: RHS.
Rootstock: The roots a fruit tree is joined (grafted) onto. They control how big and vigorous the tree grows.Source: RHS.
Runner: A long stem a strawberry plant sends out, with a small new plant on it.Source: RHS.

S

Scape: A plant’s flower stalk, such as the one garlic sends up. Picked young, garlic scapes can be cooked and eaten.Source: RHS.
Seed potatoes: Small potatoes specially prepared and checked free of virus, sold for planting to grow new potato plants.Source: RHS.
Sideshoot: A shoot growing out from the side of a main stem, from the joint where a leaf grows.Source: RHS.
Silver leaf: A fungus disease of some trees, especially plums and cherries. It gets in through cuts, turns the leaves silvery, then kills the branch.Source: RHS.
Softneck garlic: One of the two main kinds of garlic. It rarely sends up a flower stem, while hardneck garlic often does.Source: RHS.
Sow outdoors: Sow seeds straight into the soil outside, with no pots or compost needed. Also called direct sowing.Source: RHS.
Sow under cover: Under cover means somewhere sheltered from frost, such as a greenhouse, conservatory or indoor windowsill. Sowing under cover means sowing seeds there, not outdoors.Source: RHS.
Spencer sweet peas: A type of sweet pea with large, frilly flowers held on long, straight stems.Source: Gardeners’ World.
Spp: Short for ‘species’, plural. After a plant group’s name it means several kinds in that group, not one in particular.
Spray chrysanthemum: A chrysanthemum that produces lots of flowers in large clusters, called sprays.Source: RHS.
Spur: A short, stubby shoot on a fruit tree, such as an apple, that carries the fruit buds.Source: RHS.
Stake: Putting in a support, such as a cane, for a tall plant, so strong winds or heavy flowers don’t damage its stems.Source: RHS.
Stooling: Cutting a shrub hard, right down low, so it grows back strongly with fresh, colourful stems or large leaves.Source: RHS.
Stopping: Pinching off the tip of a shoot with finger and thumb. Also called pinching out.Source: RHS.
Subsp.: Short for subspecies: a recognised variation within a plant species, written as part of its botanical name.Source: RHS Plant Finder.
Successional sowing: Sowing small batches of the same crop every two or three weeks, not all at once, so you can pick all season without a glut.Source: RHS.
Summer-fruiting raspberry: Raspberry kinds that crop in summer, from early to late summer depending on the variety.Source: RHS.

T

Tender: A plant that will not survive being frozen, so in most of the UK it needs frost-free shelter under glass in winter.Source: RHS.
Thin: Removing some seedlings, young fruits or spurs so that the healthiest ones left have room to grow well.Source: RHS.
Tie in: Fixing a plant’s stems to its support, such as a cane or wire, with soft string.Source: RHS.
Trained: Pruned and tied into a set, space-saving shape, such as a cordon or fan, rather than left to grow as an ordinary bush or tree.Source: RHS.
Trench celery: Traditional celery varieties whose stems must be kept from light (blanched) to make them paler and less bitter.Source: RHS.
Tuber: A swollen root, as in dahlias, or a swollen stem base, as in cyclamen, that a plant grows from.Source: RHS.

U

Under glass: Kept in a greenhouse (a glasshouse) rather than outdoors. ‘Under glass year-round’ means it never goes outside.

V

Var.: Short for variety: a recognised variation within a plant species, written as part of its botanical name.Source: RHS Plant Finder.

W

Witloof chicory: The most widely grown Belgian chicory. Its crisp young shoots are forced and kept from light in winter so they taste less bitter.Source: RHS.

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