Plant knowledge and botany

Plant knowledge is the basis for reading a plant list and choosing the right species for the location. Here are the plant groups, the botanical names (genus, species, variety), site requirements and the Danish hardiness zones.

Introduction

Plant knowledge is one of the landscape gardener's core competencies: you need to be able to identify plants, understand their requirements for light, soil and moisture, and select species that thrive in the specific location where you plant them. Without this, a planting plan becomes guesswork — and wrongly chosen plants die or grow incorrectly. This article explains the system: the groups, the names and the requirements that determine plant selection.

The plant groups

Plants in the garden and landscape are divided into groups according to growth form and lifespan. The groups determine how the plant is used, planted and cared for.

Plant group	Characteristic	Example (Danish / Latin)
Trees	One continuous stem, woody, perennial	Pedunculate oak / Quercus robur, beech / Fagus sylvatica
Bush	Multiple branches from base, forward	Cornelian cherry / Cornus alba, privet / Ligustrum
Stalwarts	Perennial herbaceous, dies down in winter	Storkenæb / Geranium, funkia / Hosta
Bulb and tuber plants	Overwinters as bulb/tuber, spring/summer flower	Tulipan / Tulipa, narcis / Narcissus
Ornamental grasses	Grass-like ornamental plants	Elephant grass / Miscanthus, blue fescue / Festuca glauca
Climbing plants	Climbs or swings up the support	Ivy / Hedera helix, clematis / Clematis
Ground cover plants	Low, ground-covering, dense	Periwinkle / Vinca minor, Japanese pachysandra / Pachysandra
One- and two-year	Undergoes lifecycle of 1–2 seasons	Summer flowers in beds and pots

Botanical names — genus, species and variety

Plants have an international botanical name in Latin, so a species has the same name everywhere — unlike the Danish names, which can be ambiguous. The name is binomial (two parts) after the Linnean system: first the genus (capital letter), then the species (lowercase). Finally can come a cultivar, which the gardener has selected.

01Genus: e.g. Acer (maple) — collects closely related species.
02Species: e.g. Acer platanoides (Norway maple) — genus + species is written in italics.
03Species/cultivar: e.g. Acer platanoides 'Globosum' — selected variety, written in normal font in single quotation marks.
04Cross (hybrid): marked with the multiplication sign × — before the species epithet in a hybrid between species, e.g. Tilia × europaea (common lime), and before the genus name in a hybrid between genera (ICN Art. H.3.1).

ToolsLatin plant namesHow to write genus, species, hybrid and cultivar correctly

Deciduous, evergreen and coniferous trees

01Deciduous: lose leaves in winter (beech, oak, maple). Bare-root plants can only be delivered during the leafless planting season.
02Evergreen broadleaves: retain their leaves all year (yew, cherry laurel, boxwood). Supplied with root ball or in container.
03Conifers: have needles and cones; most are evergreen (spruce, pine, thuja), some are deciduous (larch).
04Flowering, autumn colour and bark are part of plant selection — the plant must contribute across multiple seasons, not just when it flowers.

Members only

The rest of the article is locked

Create a free user account to unlock all articles, calculators, templates and range — and get access to quizzes and classes. It takes less than a minute: name, email and a password. No payment card.

Create free user →Log in

Want to try something first? See what you can use without an account — the junior zone, the encyclopedia, the videos and more.