Re: Plant names GWL

**J* L* <h*@yahoo.com>**

As a long-time editor, I have a slightly different perspective on this issue of how to handle common names. Unless you're writing in your own blog, I don't think capitalization is a decision that's usually left up to the writer. Each publication has its own style for such things, and writers should be following that. And the copy editor who edits whatever you're submitting should be editing it to that publication's style. If this is a new publication for you to be writing for, a writer should ask (preferably the copy editor) about how they do it.  

Most newspapers follow the AP Stylebook, but some have their own guides. And magazines and book publishers have their own, too. Whether a garden writer capitalizes plant names isn't a matter of right or wrong; it's a matter of style -- and that's up to the publication and/or its editor[s] -- as anyone who writes for newspapers, books and magazines knows only too well, as he or she has been asked to follow a different style and reference guide -- even a different dictionary as the final authority -- for each. ("OK" for newspapers and "okay" for books...) 

That's not to say that you can't argue with the editor or copy editor if you think you have a better way -- I know I always 
argue for daylily instead of day lily as the newspaper official 
dictionary has it. And if a publication is capping Sweet Potato in your text, I'd lay out my case for lowercasing the words. They may not have thought of it before.

If you have to decide for yourself which way to do caps, for some reason, I agree with everyone that lowercasing common names is best (including lowercasing hosta when it's used as a common name). 

Now I'm going to outrage many of you here and say that I believe that the fewer botanical names you can use IN GENERAL TEXT FOR NONGARDENERS the better. Having worked in newspapers for decades -- and answered countless phone calls and responded to who-knows-how-many emails about newspaper gardening articles -- I can tell you that many garden writers write for all audiences as though they were hort-savvy, which certainly isn't the case. It confuses nongardeners and novices greatly and turns them away.

I'm not saying to be inaccurate, and I'm not suggesting never to use botanical names -- they're valuable and can clear up confusion -- but writing for a general audience who knows very little about gardening and nothing about botanical names is very different from writing for a publication aimed at serious amateur or professional gardeners. 

Sorry about that little rant. I'm hopping off my soapbox now. Apologies.

I think one of the big problems for writers today is that very little that's written for the Web is ever edited or copy edited. I know that bothers some others, too. But that's a different subject altogether. 

Judy Lowe

> On Feb 25, 2013, at 7:51 AM, Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp <hoosiergardener@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> 
>> I have a question about common names. Think print, in newspapers and magazines, most of which have an aversion to too much fancy stuff in text:
>> 
>> Should common names be capitalized, such as Lilac or Sweet Potato Vine? I say no, because these are not proper names.
>> 
>> Next, what if you are writing about Hosta or other plants, where the scientific and a common name are the same. Should all hosta, petunia, impatiens, etc., references as a common names be cap or cap and Italics or can they be lower case?
>> 
>> 
>> jems
>> ____________________
>> Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp

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