Not ‘Geraniums’! Grrrr! 🤬

Dovefromabove

How many times does the geranium/pelargonium confusion crop up on this forum every year?  

How many times do we have to risk patronising a poster by asking ‘are you sure your plants are geraniums?’

How many times do we painstakingly type out with our fingers on our phones the difference between geraniums and pelargoniums and why it’s important?

How annoying was it this morning when I opened my emails and saw an email from Gardener’s World magazine promoting an offer (yes, from Thompson & Morgan 🙄) on ‘geraniums’ which are actually ‘pelargoniums’!?!

https://www.thompson-morgan.com/TM_GWE19

I will bet good money that later in the season we’ll be starting up our explanations yet again!

Come on GW editorial staff ... have you no influence?  Can you not have a word with your advertising team and get them to ask advertisers to describe their plants a bit more accurately?  😭

B3

☕🍰

Hostafan1

ditto.
I know some say it's snobbery, but it's not , it's just accuracy. 

Dovefromabove

B3 said:

☕🍰

🙏 😘 

B3

Maybe it would be better to come at it from another angle and stop calling cranesbills geraniums.

Dovefromabove

But ‘geranium’ is their proper scientific botanical name! Cranesbill is merely a common name ... there may be other plants which also have that name. 

Using the proper name should be a way to ensure there is no confusion. 

Papi Jo

Maybe keep some kind of reference at hand, such as e.g. https://www.geraniumrozanne.com/geraniums-and-pelargoniums/

Dovefromabove

Good link @Papi Jo 👍 

but why should we have to keep doing it ... why can’t the advertisers describe their goods properly and not expect us to help their customers when they’ve been misled? 

Maybe we should send the link to T&M ?

Nollie

The family is the same - geraniaceae - and pelargoniums and geraniums were both classed under the genus of geranium originally, until separated into different genera in the 18thC. Pelargoniums are still commonly called ‘zonal geraniums’ in other parts of the world with ‘hardy geraniums’ referring to geraniums, which all adds to buyer confusion. You would think plant retailers would have got it right by now, though, they have had long enough 🙄

I wonder how many centuries it will take for the new name for sedums to catch on?Hylotelephium is a bit of a tricky one to remember or indeed spell!

B3

The thing is people who aren't particularly interested in gardening or just want some to put in a window box will have heard them called geraniums and may avoid the unfamiliar'pelargonium'
They probably wouldn't buy a pound of Daucus carota subsp. sativus either.

Dovefromabove

But they wouldn’t get them confused with anything else ... everyone knows what a greengrocer or supermarket means by ‘carrots’. They don’t sell anything else also called carrots. 

The least T&M could do is to describe them as ‘pelargoniums ... sometimes known as bedding geraniums’.  That would remove confusion and inform their customers.  😊