Gardening Glossary » B
Baluster - One of a series of short vertical posts that support a rail and form a balustrade, often forming the roofline of a building as well as the border of a staircase or porch.
Bare Root - Plants offered for sale which have had all of the soil removed from their roots.
Baroque - Artistic style of the seventeenth century characterized in sculpture by passion, in architecture by grandeur and the use of curved structures, and in painting by voluptuous figures, huge landscapes, and dramatic subjects.
Bastion - A projecting part of a rampart or other fortification; in landscape gardening, a bastion is a projecting section of the ha-ha.
Bedding Plant - Plants (mainly annuals), nursery grown and suitable for growing in beds. Quick, colorful flowers.
Belvedere - An architectural structure, such as a gazebo or a roofed open gallery, situated in a landscape so as to command a good view of the surrounding countryside; literally "beautiful view" in Latin.
Biennial - A plant that grows the first year, flowers the second year, and then goes to seed. Many biennials will then reseed and continue this process on their own for many years. A plant that usually only lives two years, normally producing flowers and seed the second year.
Bolting - The early flowering of a plant before it develops its crop. Cabbage, lettuce, radishes, and several other crops are subject to bolting. Often caused by rapid temperature changes, cool temperatures, and over fertilization with hot manures.
Bonsai - The art of growing carefully trained, dwarf plants in containers.
Botanical Name - The Latin or "scientific" name of a plant, usually composed of two words,the genus and the species.
Bracts - Leaves that develop just below the flowers on some plants. For example, poinsettia bracts, which most people think are the flowers because they turn red, pink, or white. On close inspection, however, you will discover the flowers singly or in clusters above.
Broadcast - To simply scatter seed by hand over the area to be seeded, rather than sowing in rows.
Bud - Early stages of development of a flower or plant growth.
Bud Union - The point where a plant has been grafted. Usually indicated by a small knoblike growth on a tree, shrub, or rosebush.
Bulb - The thickened underground storage organ of the group of perennials which includes daffodils and tulips.