A growing encyclopedia of botanical terms, flower varieties, and floral design concepts — from the everyday to the esoteric. Bookmark this page; we add to it regularly.
Flower Varieties
- Dahlia
- A tuberous perennial prized for its dramatic, geometrically perfect blooms. Dahlias range from tiny pom-poms to dinner-plate-sized flowers and come in every colour except true blue. Peak season is late summer through first frost. Named for Swedish botanist Anders Dahl.
- Garden Rose
- Distinct from the long-stemmed hybrid tea roses sold by florists, garden roses are grown for scent, character, and the particular way their petals unfurl. Varieties like David Austin English roses are bred to combine old-fashioned fragrance with repeat flowering.
- Sweet Pea (Lathyrus odoratus)
- An annual climbing plant beloved for its intoxicating fragrance and delicate, butterfly-shaped flowers. Native to Sicily and the Aegean Islands. The more you cut them, the more they bloom. Peak season in Britain is June and July.
- Ranunculus
- A spring-blooming perennial with layer upon layer of tissue-thin petals, resembling a ruffled silk confection. Grown from claw-like corms planted in autumn. Colours range from pure white through every shade of pink, coral, and burgundy.
- Peony
- A long-lived perennial producing enormous, fragrant blooms in late spring. Peonies can live for a century in the same spot. Their brief season — just a few weeks in May and June — is part of their magic. Named for Paeon, physician to the Greek gods.
- Clematis
- A climbing vine with star-shaped flowers in white, purple, pink, and burgundy. Essential in the English cottage garden, where it clambers over arches and through roses. Some varieties bloom in spring, others in summer, a few in both.
- Hydrangea
- A shrub with enormous, long-lasting flower heads that shift colour with the seasons — from fresh green through full colour to papery, faded parchment. Flower colour in some species is determined by soil pH: acid for blue, alkaline for pink.
- Hellebore (Christmas Rose)
- One of the few flowers that blooms in the depths of winter, hellebores produce elegant, downward-facing flowers in cream, plum, pink, and near-black. Their season — December through March — makes them precious to winter gardeners.
Floral Design Terms
- Ikebana
- The Japanese art of flower arrangement, dating to the 7th century. Unlike Western arranging, which celebrates abundance, ikebana is about line, space, and the relationship between stem, vessel, and negative space. The goal is not decoration but contemplation.
- Tablescape
- A designed table setting where flowers, linens, candles, glassware, and place settings work together as a cohesive composition. A term that emerged from the wedding and event design world and has since entered the home entertaining lexicon.
- Foliage (Greenery)
- The unsung hero of floral design — leaves, branches, ferns, and vines that provide structure, texture, and negative space in an arrangement. Key varieties include eucalyptus, ruscus, smilax, ivy, and beech.
- Compote Arrangement
- A low, sprawling floral arrangement in a wide, footed bowl. Perfect for dining tables because guests can see over it. The flowers appear to spill from the vessel, creating an organic, garden-gathered look.
- Hand-Tied Bouquet
- A bouquet arranged in the hand rather than in a vessel, with stems spiralled and tied at the binding point. When placed in a vase, the stems spread naturally. The technique originated with European floristry and is now the standard for market bouquets.
- Mechanics
- The structural elements that hold a floral arrangement together — chicken wire, floral foam, pin frogs, tape grids. In contemporary sustainable floristry, foam-free mechanics (chicken wire, moss, reusable structures) are increasingly preferred over single-use floral foam.
Gardening Terms
- Cutting Garden
- A garden planted specifically for harvesting flowers to bring indoors. Unlike ornamental borders, cutting gardens are designed for production — planted in rows, densely packed, and replanted seasonally. Key crops include sweet peas, dahlias, zinnias, cosmos, and sunflowers.
- Hardy Annual
- A plant that completes its life cycle in one year but can withstand frost. Hardy annuals (sweet peas, cornflowers, calendula) are sown in autumn or early spring and flower before the summer heat. Distinct from half-hardy annuals, which cannot tolerate frost.
- Perennial
- A plant that lives for more than two years, dying back in winter and returning in spring. Peonies, hellebores, delphiniums, and roses are perennials. The backbone of any garden, perennials provide structure and reliability year after year.
- Deadheading
- The practice of removing spent flowers to encourage a plant to produce more blooms. Without deadheading, many plants — particularly annuals — will set seed and stop flowering. A daily ritual for the dedicated gardener.
- Succession Planting
- Sowing crops in intervals so that something is always in bloom. A cutting garden might have three sowings of sweet peas — March, April, and May — to extend the harvest across the entire summer.