Monday Miscellany: Bawdy Hymenopteras, Beautifying Barbeques, and Brilliantly Bad Plant Names


The ladies over at Garden Rant are having far too much fun again, first running a Bawdy Hymenoptera Limerick contest for the new Timber Press book Bees, Wasps, and Ants, then challenging the folks over at Timber to recite the winners on video for the gardening public’s enjoyment. I believe bee suits were mentioned in the challenge.

Surprisingly, Timber was up for it, and came back a day later with this hilarious video:

The guy in the blue glasses and the worker bee are my favorites…

The next cool thing I read this week was Fern’s ugly-barbeque makeover. While this is a single-year planting – as things fill in you’ll want to transplant a couple of the bigger herbs to larger pots – it’s one of the few “plant stuff in unusual containers” ideas I actually think is cool.

I mean, it’s not like you’re using that crusty old barbeque, right? Here’s another way for it to help you get fed! That said, let’s not get cocky and move on to planting your old toilet after this. I don’t care how many garden gurus recommend it, planting toilets is just not attractive.

On to the brilliantly bad plant names. Jenny takes a swipe at some horrible common and botanical Latin names of plants. I found it particularly funny because this morning I was writing an article on non-toxic houseplants, and was stopped short because I couldn’t bear to publish an article perpetuating the common name “Wandering Jew” for Tradescantia. Yet nobody knows it by its proper name!

I’ll add another: Kaffir Lime. I hear that Kaffir is a very nasty word in South Africa for people who are rich in melanin. Yet if I try to refer to it by any other name, Makrud Lime, Asian Lime, whatever – nobody knows what the dickens I am talking about.

Perhaps the k-lime needs an ally like Jenny, who recommended renaming Tradescantia to “Wandering Episcopalian”. Works for me!

Have you read anything cool this week? Let me know in the comments!


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