Garden Glossary - F
Here you will find a glossary of garden terms that start with the letter F.
- F1 Hybrid - a first generation offspring of two pure plant varieties.
- Fallow - cultivated land that is allowed to lie idle for a growing season.
- Fan - a tree trained with the central main stem and branches into a fan shape, usually against a wall or other support.
- Fertile - able to produce seed.
- Fertilization - the application of nutrients for plant growth.
- Fertilizer burn - the browning and in extreme cases, killing of plants from exposure to excessive nitrogen.
- Fibrous root - a root system where the roots are finely divided.
- Fiddlehead - an unfurling fern frond.
- Field capacity - the amount of water soil can hold against the force of gravity.
- Field grown - plants that have been grown in a field rather than from root cuttings or in a greenhouse.
- Filiform - a leaf that is threadlike, long, slender and tapering.
- Fine fescues - a fine-leaved turfgrass that grows well in shade, low soil moisture, low fertility and low pH. It requires well-drained, slightly dry soils. Red, hard and chewing fescues are included in this group.
- Fireblight - a bacterial disease usually associated with fruit trees and members of the Roseacea family.
- Flat - a shallow, topless tray with drainage holes used for germinating and/or growing transplants. Annuals are usually found in flats at garden centers.
- Floret - one of the small flowers from a cluster that makes up a flower head.
- Floribunda - a plant that flowers in abundance.
- Floricanes - on raspberries and blackberries, two-year-old canes which bear fruit and then die.
- Floriculture - the study of producing and marketing fresh flowers.
- Flower - the reproductive structure of most garden plants with the exception of ferns.
- Flowerpot - a container for growing plants.
- Flower spike - a flowerhead consisting of a main central stem with the flowers growing directly on it.
- Flowering shoot - a stem that produces flowers.
- Focal point a plant with form or color that attracts an eyes focus to an area.
- Foliage - the leaves or vegetative tissue of a plant.
- Foliar - concerning a plants foliage or leaves.
- Foliar fertilizer - a liquid, water soluble fertilizer sprayed on a plant and absorbed through the leaves.
- Food chain - a sequence of organisms in a community in which each member of the chain feeds on the member below it, as in fox, rabbit and grass.
- Force - manipulation of environmental factors to make a plant blossom out of season.
- Foundation planting - growing plants around the base of a building, which adds to the buildings aesthetics.
- Framework - the bare branches (skeleton) of a tree or shrub.
- Friable soil - loose and crumbly soil that is easy to cultivate.
- Frond - the leaf of a fern.
- Frost - the condensation and freezing of moisture in the air.
- Frost free dates - the dates during a growing season when there are no plant killing frosts.
- Frost pocket - a depression in the terrain into which cold air drains, but cannot escape.
- Fruit - the ripened, fertilized ovary of a plant, that contains the seeds.
- Fruit fly - a small pest that will lay its eggs beneath the surface of developing fruits. The hatching larvae cause holes in the fruit which causes it to then rot.
- Fruiting wood - on grapevine, the one-year-old canes that will produce the current year's fruit.
- Fruticose - a plant with many wood stems and branches, resembling a shrub.
- Full sun - Six or more hours of unobstructed sunlight each day.
- Fungi - saprophytic and parasitic organisms that lack chlorophyll and include molds, rusts, mildews, smuts, mushrooms and yeast; singluar, fungus.
- Fungicide - a chemical used to prevent or kill fungi diseases on plants.
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