Garden Names

[bayside mike]

What's Hawaiian for 'More Work?'

That's a good one.

[John Case]

What's Hawaiian for 'More Work?'

That's a good one.

and its now offical.....see my signature.....

[metalfan]

I refer to my greenhouse as "Chaos Central".

I refer to my yard as the "Tropical Ponderosa"

[amazondk]

I have not really determined what I want to call our country place. But, I am leaning toward Chacara Bela Vista. Chacara in Portuguese is a country place normally near a city. And, Bela Vista is a good view. The name of the street that runs by our place is Rua Bela Vista. And, there is an great view of the Negro River from the place. More than likely I will stick with this name.

dk

[PalmGuyWC]

My garden changes from season to season. Right now it could be called The Weed Patch.

Dick

[Jeff Searle]

My garden changes from season to season. Right now it could be called The Weed Patch.

Dick

[LilikoiLee]

Amongst our fellow palm-crazed forum members, I notice a few, at least, have bestowed names on their gardens. So we have "Jackson's Jungle" at Wal's, named after his late companion, Jackson, a beloved canine. Then we have Rock Ridge Ranch from Gtlevine, which is a fitting description of the terrain. Also, MattyB is developing Manambe Lavaka, which is Malagasy for...er,...something to do with a garden. It sounds good. Then there is the eponymous Lundkvist Palm Garden, no explanation needed. Many large gardens are named after the people who started them: Huntington, Fairchild. But then you have Lotusland, named for the flowers growing in the pond, and possibly reference to the owner's interest in eastern religions.

It hasn't yet occurred to me to name my garden, and I wonder if the garden will need a name, or if a name will eventually suggest itself. Of course, it's very small, very young, doesn't draw palm pilgrims, nor does it have its own web site. Still, a day may come when a name rises out of the fog and sticks, because it will seem right.

Anyone else have a name, official or unofficial, for your garden? If your garden doesn't have a name, have you ever thought about it? What is it that makes us name our gardens? Does a name enhance a garden, or suggest a way of thinking about the garden? Is it the affection for the garden that brings about the name? Is it merely a practicality? Or whimsy, or fantasy? Are there traditions involved in naming gardens?

What do you think?

[Kim]

I get the feeling you want to tell us something, LilikoiLee, but not sure what...

[LilikoiLee]

Kim,

I have loved reading this thread; thanks for introducing it.

We call our garden Rainbow Ridge because it is magical to sit among our treasured plants and see a rainbow in the distance. So much so that we organized the garden like a rainbow - curving bands of color starting with purple at the top.

We also use names for certain areas of the garden, such as Arrow's Hill which was where our wonderful dog loved to lay and survive his domain and is now laid to rest. The names are both sentimental and practical as my husband does not usually know the names of the plants, but if I say "the tall palm on Arrow's Hill", he knows exactly which palm I am talking about. I started doing this after our first visit to Bo-Goren's amazing garden, which is organized by the palm's native habitats. Such a great idea! Unfortunately it was too late for us to emulate that plan, but I found his ability to identify the parts of the garden by name very helpful.

Lee

[Kim]

Sounds beautiful, Lee! People on this board love to see photo introductions to personal gardens, whether mature or in their earliest stages of planting. If you have some pix, start a thread in the "Discussing Palms" forum and show us your Rainbow Ridge. Gardens on the Big Island are admired and coveted by many. (If you need help posting photos, there is a tutorial in the second forum from the bottom, "PalmTalk Basics for Beginners".)

[LilikoiLee]

Kim,

Although we love our garden and think that it will be beautiful one day, the palms are in such a fledgling state that they are dwarfed by our older, established plants. Until we saw Bo-Goren’s garden, ours was to be a tropical one with a wide diversity of species. For several days after experiencing Bo-Goren’s we wished we could start fresh and have a palm garden, but the reality was we had invested too much time and money in what we already had. We are now trying to integrate as many palms as we can, but since we are in blue rock, 10 gal holes are usually our max and sometimes even that size is impossible. As a result the current plant/palm proportions are not pleasing. However, we’ll see if we can find some areas that are photogenic and which we can share.

I forgot to comment earlier on the post about the naming of palm trees. I think that is a lovely idea – particularly naming them after opera characters. What a wonderful way to integrate two passions. We like to listen to opera in our garden and just might have to start naming our favorite palm trees after them.

[plamfrong]

We're just starting our new garden but as we plan out everything we want to do here on paper, names for the different areas have come into my mind quite effortlessly... they have about named themselves. The garden is designed to be highly plantocentric and divided into rough categories. Austrillea, Mexizona, Antipodea, Cactusland, Sclerofornia, Ianswood, and The Palmicideum to name a few. The whole place may be called Cactopia (as that is a major specialty here) but that hasn't totally stuck yet. Thought about calling it 'Natural Disaster' but it's not really natural enough.