YardBuilder has created this library of terms and information to help those with limited knowledge of the landscaping process. You’ll find the library easy to use and always available any time you need to look up a term or find landscaping information.

From plant bulbs to soil, water and sunlight, we’ve covered the basics of home exteriors. Be sure to check back, as the information is updated regularly.

If you’re looking for more specific information, try our articles page to find stories detailing the ins and outs of landscaping.

Plant uses

Depending on growth habit, mature size and ornamental features, plants can meet specific landscape needs. By matching plants to their most appropriate landscape niche, the result is a diverse palate of plant material that will provide year-round interest, room to grow and an aesthetic that enhances your home. Some plants fit into more than one use category. The key is understanding which plant use best suits your landscape.

Specimen: A plant with unusual foliage, flowers, bark or growth habit; often used for accent.

Foundation: Any plants used on, against or near the foundation or walls of a building; provides aesthetic transition from the rigid building to the softer landscape.

Massing: Plants are spaced close enough to look like a blanket of color, increasing the visual impact of a bed.

Screening: The use of plants as a substitute for fencing or walls; most often created by a hedge of evergreen trees or shrubs.

Ground cover: A low-growing plant used as a substitute for an area of grass; often used in locations such as steep banks or densely shaded spots where lawn grass is difficult to establish.

Street trees: Trees that are suitable for planting along the street; often selected for their resistance to pollution, diseases and insects.

Windbreak: A type of plant screen intended to diffuse wind gusts or reduce wind speed.

Landscape styles

Style is an expression of personality. Garden spaces may be defined by a particular style, though it is not unacceptable to express multiple styles in a single landscape. Landscape styles may be dictated by environmental conditions, cultural heritage or even whimsy. Determining a landscape style often assists the plant selection process, since plant characteristics may favor one style over another.

Xeriscape: Using plant materials, often native plants, and landscape practices to minimize water use.

Woodland: A garden maintained under a deciduous tree canopy; shade-loving perennials are ideal additions to the natural flora of the forest floor; also often provides wildlife habitats.

Cottage garden: A carefree garden packed with colorful flowers and herbs; often accented with a picket fence, arbors and rustic ornaments.

Rock garden: Groundcovers and perennials are planted among rock outcroppings; plants well-suited for a rock garden generally prefer hot, dry conditions.

Formal: A garden design featuring regular lines and symmetrical or geometrical plantings.

Informal: A garden design with flowing lines and gentle contours.

Oriental: A centuries-old garden style that relies on several essential elements, including stones, sand or pebbles, water and appropriate plantings.

Botanical terms

Botanists have established terms that detail plant anatomy and physiology. Plants are often differentiated by their botanical features. The plants’ life cycle and reproductive means are often important aspects to consider for the landscape.

Annual: A plant that completes its lifecycle in one season; it grows from seed, flowers, produces seed and dies in one year.

Biennial: A plant that completes its life cycle in two seasons; in the first year, it produces vegetative growth and, in the second year, it produces reproductive growth (flowers), then dies.

Deciduous: A plant that loses its leaves during the fall or early winter. New foliage emerges the following year.

Dioecious: A plant species that has sexually independent flowers; i.e., male flowers (staminate) are on male plants, and female flowers (pistallate) are on female plants.

Cone: The fruit of conifers; made up of scales that bear one or more seeds.

Scale: A leaf-like segment of a cone.

Sucker: A stem originating below ground from the roots, forming a new shoot of the main plant.

Dormant: A state of plant rest; a non-growing period often occurring in winter.

Plant forms

Some plants have a natural habit that resembles a familiar shape. Plant forms can occur unaided or with the help of careful pruning to achieve a desired shape. Varying plant forms create visual interest in the landscape. Plant forms may also be selected to mimic or contrast a structural feature.

Espalier: A plant that has been trained (pruned) to grow in a flat plane, often along a wall or trellis.

Conical: Cone-shaped growth habit.

Columnar: Narrow, upright growth habit.

Globose: Rounded or globe-shaped growth habit.

Nomenclature

Plants are often known by more than one name, despite an international system that aims to minimize confusion. Unfortunately, the proper Latin-derived names are often difficult to pronounce, much less remember. No matter which names you become familiar with, it’s important to be able to recognize and distinguish scientific and common names.

Scientific name: Internationally recognized plant name consisting of Latin-derived genus and species; e.g., a binomial; e.g., Acer rubrum.

Common name: Plant name recognized locally or regionally; may vary from one location to another; often easy to remember, but may be difficult to use outside a given region; e.g., red maple.

Genus: A group of plant species with well-defined basic traits, with some differences in lesser traits; the first word in a scientific name; e.g., Acer.

Species: A group of plants sharing many characteristics and interbreeding freely. Species are identified by both the genus and the specific epithet; e.g., Acer rubrum.

Specific epithet: The second part of a species’ scientific name; e.g., rubrum.

Cultivar: Variations within a species that are propagated asexually; derived from “cultivated variety;” identified in the scientific name with single quotes; e.g., Acer rubrum “October Glory.”

Variety: Subdivision of a species having a distinct, though often inconspicuous difference, and reproducing (by seed) true to that difference; e.g., Acer rubrum var. trilobum.

Landscape terminology

The landscape industry uses many specialized horticultural terms. The home owner’s familiarity with these terms can improve effective communication between home owner and landscaper. Do not hesitate to ask your landscaper to define a term or explain a process so that you can fully understand the care and maintenance your yard requires.

Bare-root: A plant has been dug from the ground, and the plant roots have been washed or shaken clean of soil for shipping purposes.

Balled and burlaped: A ball of soil is left around the roots of a tree when it is dug for transplanting; the soil and roots are wrapped with burlap to hold the ball together and retain moisture.

Flat: Common container for annual bedding plants. Multiple plants (usually 18 to 48 plants), each with its own rootball, can be grown in one flat.

Drip line: An invisible circle on the ground indicating the outer canopy edge of a tree where the majority of the tree’s roots are concentrated.

Host plant: A specific plant on which a specific disease or insect lives.

Mulch: Any material used to cover soil for weed suppression and moisture retention.

Soil amendments: Materials added to the soil to improve moisture retention, drainage, nutrient availability or soil texture.

Soil pH: A measure of relative soil acidity or alkalinity.

Transplant: To move plants from one growing location to another, often for the purpose of providing more space for plant growth and development.

Trickle irrigation: An irrigation method by which water is applied at very low rates directly above the plant root zone; recognized as a water-wise, efficient irrigation method.

Weed: Any plant growing where it is not wanted.