Portland Nursery - Plant of the Month

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Perennial Pick of the Month Native Pick of the Month Trees & Shrubs Pick of the Month Houseplant Pick of the Month

Monthly Plant Pick and Plant Pick archives

Our monthly feature displays Portland Nursery's plant picks of the month. Each month our buyers select a favorite genus from a different area of the nursery drawing from perennials, trees and shrubs, and northwest natives.

We hope you find these descriptions helpful. The text is written by our staff and reflect their favorites. Look through our featured plant picks and return to this page each month to catch the latest picks.

You'll find our featured plant picks below:

	May 2008 Perennial Plant Pick Hardy Geranium
	May 2008 Native Plant Pick Native Lewisia
	May 2008 Tree & Shrub Pick Cornus: Dogwood
	May 2008 Houseplant Plant Pick Dracaena deremensis: Janet Craig Compacta

Past Plant Picks
We've compiled all of our previous plant picks for you to enjoy.

	Genus of the month Perennial Archive
	Genus of the month Trees & Shrub Archive
	Genus of the month Northwest Native Archive
	Genus of the month Houseplant Archive

Native Lewisia at the nursery

GENUS PRIMER

GENUS confused? Refer to the definitions below taken from Sunset Western Garden Book.

GENUS: Plant families are subdivided into groups of more closely related plants called genera. The first word in a plant's botanical name is its genus - such as Rosa which comprises all the roses, and Hemerocallis, which includes all the daylilies. The second word is the species. Both are written in italics with just the name of the genus capitalized as in Rosa moschata, musk rose, and Hemerocallis lilioasphodelus, lemon daylily.

SPECIES: Each genus is subdivided into groups of individuals called species. Each species is generally a distinct entity (though it may closely resemble other species in the genus), reproducing from seed with only a small amount of variation.

VARIETY: Like a subspecies, a botanical variety is a variant of the basic species as it occurs in nature. For example, it may be a type whose leaves are narrow rather than broad. It is written in italics as the third word in a plant's botanical name. It may be preceded by the abbreviation "var." The word "variety" is also used in a general sense to include cultivated varieties. Example: Ilex pernyi var. veitchii.

CULTIVAR: This coined word is shorthand for "cultivated variety." cultivars are genetically distinct plants, maintained in cultivation by human effort; they may be of hybrid origin or simply selected varieties of plants that occur in the wild. Cultivars are propagated by division, cuttings or in(in some cases) seed. Cultivar names are enclosed in single quotation marks and are not italicized as in Lobelia erinus 'Crystal Palace'.