Glossary - B
Here you will find a glossary of garden terms that start with the letter B.
- B & B - balled & burlapped; digging a plant to maintain the soil around the rootball, and wrapping it in burlap to hold it together until it's transplanted.
- Backfill - replacing dirt from the original hole after planting.
- Backyard Wildlife Habitat - a home yard area growing native plants and materials that provide food and shelter for birds, insects and mammals.
- Bacteria - microscopic organisms having round, rod-like, spiral or filamentous single-celled or noncellular bodies often gathered into colonies.
- Band fertilize - to apply fertilizer in a narrow line along a row of plants or in a circle around individual plants.
- Bare root - a plant that is sold or shipped dormant with no soil surrounding its roots.
- Bark - a hard protective layer of dead cells on the outside woody plants' stems and roots.
- Bark Ring - when a ring of bark is removed from the trunk of a tree, usually causing the tree to die.
- Basal - the lowest part of a plant or stem.
- Basal Cutting - a cutting taken from the base of a plant.
- Basal Rosette - a ground-level arrangement of leaves around a plants central stem where it joins with the roots.
- Bearded - a short, cascading patch of hairs on a flower or other plant part, ie: Iris.
- Bed Out - planting an entire garden bed with one plant species.
- Bedding Plant - plants suitable for mass planting in gardens; usually annuals.
- Bell Jar - a bell-shaped jar with a knob on the top, used to protect plants from inclement weather.
- Beneficial insects - insects that prey on or parasitize pests.
- Beneficial nematodes - microscopic, nonsegmented worms that occur naturally in all soil.
- Bentgrass - a high-maintenance grass used on putting greens. It requires frequent cutting with a reel mower, frequent fertilization and watering. It is highly susceptible to several diseases.
- Biblical plant - a plant that is mentioned in the Bible.
- Bicolor - flower petals that are two different colors on the same plant.
- Biennials - plants that complete their life cycle in two years or growing seasons.
- Binomial nomenclature - a system in which the scientific name of a plant consists of two parts indicating the genus and species.
- Biological control - the use of living organisms or their products to control pest populations.
- Biological diversity - presence of many different types of living organisms.
- Black spot - a disease of rose foliage.
- Blade - the flat part of a leaf of grass.
- Blanch - keeping light from a plants leaves and stem, to keep the tissue soft.
- Bloom - the process of a plant bearing flowers.
- Bog plant - also called marginal plants or shallow water plants, are perennial aquatic plants.
- Bolt - the tendency of cool-season plants to grow rapidly and produce seeds when exposed to warm temperatures.
- Bone meal - finely-ground white bone fertilizer that adds nitrogen and phosphorus to the soil; particularly used for flower bulbs.
- Bonsai - a potted plant dwarfed by special cultural practices.
- Botanical name - the latin scientific name of plants.
- Botrytis - a fungi disease of fruits and vegetables; aka grey mold.
- Bottle garden - a small terrarium created in a large glass bottle.
- Bottom heat - providing electric heating pads or cables under pots, for propagating plants.
- Bract - a modified leaf, usually reduced in size or sclae-like. Sometimes large and brightly colored.
- Bramble - any shrub with thorns in the rose family; usually refers to blackberries and raspberries.
- Branch crown - plant tissue that is the junction of the roots and stem that forms on the side of a strawberry plant. These only form foliage.
- Brassica - a member of the Brassicaceae family (formerly Cruciferae); ie: broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower.
- Break - the development of lateral shoots after pruning a shoot back to an axillary bud.
- Broad spectrum - pesticides that affect a wide variety of pests.
- Broadcast - to scatter seeds in bulk, randomly over a garden bed.
- Broadleaf - a plant with broad leaves.
- Brown rot - a fungus disease common on fruit plants.
- BT - Bacillus thuringiensis; a bacterium used to kill insects, but it's safe for humans, birds, pets and plants.
- Bud - the embryo flower or shoot.
- Bud eye - a potential growth point that is used for budding.
- Bud scales - specialized tissue that covers the terminal bud and embryonic leaves of a plant during winter.
- Bud union - the location of a graft.
- Bulb - an underground storage organ made up of enlarged and fleshy leaf bases and a bud.
- Bulbil - a small bulb that forms along the stems of certain plants, such as tiger lilies and bladder ferns.
- Bulblet - a small bulb that develops around a parent bulb and can be removed to propogate additional plants.
- Bush - a small shrub with many stems and no distinct main stems.
- Butterfly garden - a garden designed, using plants and features, to attract butterflies.
- Button - the small heads of broccoli or cabbage that form as a result of seedlings being exposed to freezing temperatures.
- Buttress - a huge, wedge-shaped root, which is above ground and helps support the trunk of some tropical trees.
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