Becoming a plant parent can be therapeutic and rewarding. One way to care for your plants is by giving them great names.
My number one golden rule of plant parenting is naming your plant. This is easy! I give examples of the ways I named my plants.
After all, someone nicknamed every type of plant (example- Elephant Ears, because their leaves look like the ears of an elephant), so I am just taking it another step.
Just something simple.
Rosemary, Basil, and Sage from my Herbal Series. These plants of mine I have named after the type of plant they are.
Getting a little more creative.
Here is an example of a little more creative way of naming your plant. When my son visited, he got a spider plant. I told him he had to name it. The side of the planter it came in had “Bonnie” on it, so he named her Bonnie. So, when I got mine, I named him Clyde.
Steal from movies, cartoons, and musicians.
Examples are Count Olaf, my lemon tree, from Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Marcel, my banana tree is named after Ross’ monkey on Friends.
I named my Wandering Jew, Prince, because he is purple.
Slim Shady my snake plant, because he is tall and slim, so I named him Slim. Snake plants are low-light plants, therefore; I started calling him Slim Shady.
Name by appearance or resemblance.
Absolem is the caterpillar on Alice in Wonderland and my Baby Rita Cactus looks like him. Also, the fact that this is a desert cactus, and when you think of the desert an image of smoke from the heat comes to mind, hence a smoking caterpillar.
Name based on the plant’s name.
Examples are Monstera is a big plant or monster plant, so I named him Sully from Monsters Inc.
My Starfish cactus has blooms that look just like a starfish, so I named him Patrick Star from SpongeBob.
My Elephant Ears I knew I wanted to name after a famous elephant. I went with Horton. I do love Dr. Seuss.
I asked myself the question what do you name an elephant? I typed it into Google and found a site about how to name an elephant.
Name them after holiday characters.
Examples are my Poinsettia Merry, my Cyclamens Dasher & Dancer, and my string of hearts Cupid.
When the name just speaks to you.
Sometimes, a plant name just comes to me. For example, my Norfolk Pine is part of my Holiday Limited Ed., which means normally I would name it after a holiday character, however; Freddy was what I named my Norfolk Pine. Freddy just suits him!
I hope this has inspired you to name your plants!
Read on to learn about my Beginner’s Level Rule #2- You Must Talk to Your Plants here.
Until next time!
