Winter, 54896 Wisconsin
Phone 715-266-4963
mail@wintergreenhouse.com
www.wintergreenhouse.com

Featured Sale...

Celebrating 25 Years Growing With...

Sale lasts until Sunday, August 30th.
Or as long as supplies last!

Please see our tips and a slideshow!

What does it all mean?

Genus/species: Back in the 1700's, a Swedish botanist named Linnaeus devised a system of classifying plants using Latin names so that scientists all over the world could communicate with each other without the confusion caused by using common names that vary from place to place. Today's gardeners benefit from that same system, because when you get information about a plant using its botanical name - which is its genus and species names - you can be sure you're talking about the exact plant you want. You can think of a plant's genus as its family - actually, in scientific taxonomy, family is a broader classification than genus, but for the purposes of our explanation the concept of the genus as the family is very sensible.

Take lilies for instance. They belong to the genus Lilium, and within that genus there are thousands of relatives called species, like Lilium tigrinum (commonly known as the Tiger lily) and Lilium longiflorum (sometimes called the Trumpet lily). They are all lilies, but they differ somewhat in color, height of the plant, etc. Plants that belong to the same genus will have many similar characteristics, but those in the same species will have even more in common. Within each species there can be many cultivars, or what we call varieties; plants of the same variety will have virtually identical traits.

Keep those thumbs green!

From all of us at
Winter Greenhouse