clemat-is or cle-matis

A certain frisson seems to have invaded The Times this week - an argument has broken out over the correct spelling of Wisteria. With the government in meltdown, an ongoing credit crunch and very little signs, as yet, of the prolonged hot summer we were promised, I would have thought people would have more to worry about.

I have noticed, in a very long journalistic career, that people get exercised over such things. Personally, I have always spelt it Wisteria and said it the same way, but The Times style guru says it should be Wistaria. So I looked up Plant Names Simplified, which was first written in 1931, to see what they said. Sure enough they have Wisteria, so named after Casper Wistar, "sometimes, but not originally spelt Wistaria." Well that seems pretty clear. Not to be in any doubt I then checked the RHS A-Z Enclyclopedia of Garden Plants. They also used Wisteria but put the spelling Wistaria underneath, while referring to the plant as Wisteria in the text. So there, Reckless has spoken!

We all pronounce garden species in different ways as well, often more to do with regional accent than anything. Clematis is one of the most common, where one can say clem-atis or clemat-is. Neither is wrong, and everyone knows what you are talking about.

During that lovely brief sunny spell we had recently, I popped into Sizergh Castle gardens. They were really lovely and the acers a treat to see. I have reproduced a photo here so you can enjoy the flavour of them as well.

The latest edition of Which? Gardening takes a look at sweet peas - they have trialled 30 varieties to see which will bring the most perfume to the garden. Research found that some of the showiest sweet peas had little or no scent at all. There is also a section on new plants and an item on lunchbox cucumbers! Plus three top jobs for June and a report on whether or not it is possible to grow Asian style herbs in a wet, dull UK summer.

Finally, there seems to be an awful lot of greenfly about this summer, far more than usual, so don't forget to encourage those ladybirds into the garden and if you are or want to be organic, then just use finger and thumb and squash them off!