This easy-to-use glossary will help you translate and define some of the botanical, horticultural and landscaping terms used on this site.
Click on a letter to view terms & definitions.
SANDY SOIL
Soil with a high percentage of sand, or large soil particles; water travels through sandy soil very easily, so nutrients leach out quickly.
SCAPE (Daylily)Daylily blossoms are presented above the plant foliage on flower stalks called "scapes". A scape typically contains 12-35+ buds on various branches. The scape is the entire blossom stalk above the crown. Desirable hybrids have high bud counts, thus lengthening the bloom season. Tetraploid daylilies typically have thicker, heavier scapes than do diploid daylilies, which have more slender scapes. Both scape types are desirable.
SCULPTED
A 3-D quality on the surface of a daylily petal caused by raised veins.
SEED POD (Daylily)A pollinated fertile flower will produce a seed pod, a thickened, three or four lobed cylindrical container in which seed form and ripen. A ripe seed pod gradually turns tan-brown and splits open. Daylily hybridizers harvest seed pods when the pods begin to split but before the pods drop their seed. Each seed possesses characteristics of the pod and pollen parents. Daylily seed, if planted, will not produce a plant that is identical to the pod parent.
SELF
A blossom in which the blossom segments (petals and sepals) are all the same color, except that the throat may be a different color. A complete self has all blossom parts of the same color.
SEMI-EVERGREEN
By definition, a semi-evergreen daylily behaves like a dormant in the north but acts like an evergreen in mild, frost-free climates. Semi-evergreen daylilies theoretically perform reasonably well in both Southern and Northern gardens. In reality, however, the semi-evergreen classification may be considerably more complex.
SEPALS
A daylily blossom typically has six petaloids. The bottom three are called sepals.
SPECIES
Related strains of a plant that occur naturally.
SPIDER (Daylily)A spider daylily is one with long, narrow blossom segments. True spiders are daylilies in which a length-to-width ratio of 5 to 1 has been achieved. The term, however, has typically been applied more loosely, and there are many so-called spiders that do not meet that specification.
SPORTNaturally occurring variants that have distinctly new or different characteristics.
Sports are quite common in Hostas.
STAMENS (Daylily)Daylily blossoms typically have six stamens attached to the base of the petals in the throat of the flower. Each stamen is composed of a slender stalk or filament that is topped with an anther that contains yellow pollen. The stamens are regarded as the male portion of the flower's sexual segments.
STOLON
Slender, trailing stem that roots at the nodes.
STOLONIFEROUS
Spreading by means of stolons - prostrate branches from a plant base along or just under the soil surface, which root at nodes and form new plants. Stolons are often called 'runners'.
SUNFAST (Daylily)A term used to describe a daylily's blossom texture. Sunfast daylilies withstand a full day of sunshine, heat, and humidity with little if any deterioration in blossom quality. Most yellow and pink cultivars have been improved to the point where their blossoms are totally sunfast. Darker colors, such as reds and purples, are typically less sunfast, although hybridizing advances are improving sunfastness throughout the color spectrum.