What’s in a name me ‘aul flower?

Clivia miniata may have foliage like Agapanthus but it is frost tender and must be kept protected during winter.

It likes its roots cramped in a pot whilst appreciating extra nourishment in active growth.

It is easy to understand why many gardeners fall for the poetry and charm of common plant names. Who can resist the romance of flowers with names like love-lies-bleeding, love-in-a-mist, or forget-me-not?

The only drawback to using colloquial plant names is that sometimes they can lead one up the proverbial garden path. The easily remembered love-in-a-mist also answers to the name devil-in-the-bush so beware!

Then again, these florid appellations are so much easier to remember (and certainly to pronounce) than Amaranthus, Nigella damascene and Myosotis sylvatica.

However poetic-sounding common names may be, they often tell us nothing about the origin of a plant, nor indeed of named people who lie behind the plants botanical name. Who for instance was Jacqueline Postil which follows Daphne, Nora Barlow of Aquilegia fame, or indeed Mr Johnson of Geranium Johnson’s Blue?

Perhaps they struggled to rescue these specimens from the anonymity of a Turkish hillside or helped in one of the many expeditions led by Sir Joseph Banks, Ernest Wilson or Augustine Henry.

Augustine Henry as many will know, was an Irish plantsman best known as a plant explorer and for sending, in his time, over 15,000 dry specimens and seeds and 500 plant samples to Kew Gardens in the UK.

On the other hand, these famous people may simply have been honoured by giving their name to some new variety of rose, perennial or alpine.

All have therefore achieved a sort of immortality, but it would be nice to know something more about them for they don’t deserve to sink into obscurity.

I broach this subject this morning as I pause to admire the flowering of an indoor bulbous plant sold as Clivia. Like myself, anyone who, in a moment of extravagance spends €20 on one of these will find that they have made a long-term investment with increasing returns.

Of South African origin, this plant normally produces but one (exceedingly beautiful) flower stem, but year by year the bulb increases, eventually producing offsets and more stems crowned with bold clusters of lily-like flowers in startling orange (in the variety miniata).

These are particularly long-lasting if kept out of strong sunshine.

Clivia miniata is frost tender and it likes its roots cramped in a pot whilst appreciating extra nourishment in active growth. And who was the Clive whose name it bears?

None other than a granddaughter of Clive of India who, as duchess of Northumberland was a noted gardener in the 19th century.