Have you ever wondered how flowers got their names? I know I have. I have a book 100 Flowers and How They Got Their Names by Diana Wells. In the book, she tells of how 100 plants were named. I decided to look up two plants that I have in my yard. There are some flowers I have growing that she does not mention. Below are two I do have.
ROSES
The Rose family name is Rosaceae. It represents the love and the mystery of life. The name refers to its color in Latin rosa means red. The name is said to be dated back to early civilization. Hybrids and descendants of roses with the white rose X represent the House of York in the War of the Roses. Another interesting tidbit is the Persian word for rose is “gul” which means flower.
CAMELLIA
The Camellia family name Theaceae is the result of centuries of cultivation in China. The name reflects that it is a relative of the tea plant.
The story goes that it was named after “Lady of the Camillas” a famous 10th Century French Courtesan because she always carried a bouquet of camellias.
But Linnaeus named the flowers after George Josef Kamel. Linnaeus changed its “K” to a “C” as the Latin alphabet has no “K”.
This is just a small bit of information for each of these two plants. If you are interested and want to learn more, you can check your local library or go online to locate this book.
