Gardening Terms H

A listing of the common terms you may hear or read about when dealing with garden centers and gardening articles.

This list is by no means a complete collection of horticultural techniques and terms.

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Gardening terms H

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H Gardening Terms

habit of growth: Ahe characteristics (height, width etc..) of a plant in its natural habitat.

hardening-off: Process of slowly introducing plants to the extreme temperatures and water conditions of nature after having been cared for indoors or in greenhouses.

hardiness: Ability of a plant to withstand climate changes typically winter temperature and frost.

hardpan: Dense soil layer under the topsoil that is hard to dig through.

hardwood: A term applied to dicot trees and shrubs and their wood, because the wood contains fibers.

hardy: A garden term that means a plant is capable of surviving winter temperature changes without any protection.

heading back: Pruning branch tips to encourage the plant to fill out inner stems and create a bushier effect.

heartwood: The colored, aromatic wood in the center of a trunk or branch.

heaving: Plants get pushed out of the ground by freezing and thawing of the ground in winter.

hedge: Plants growing close together to create a mass of foliage in a continuous line.

heeling-in: Temporarily placing plants and shrubs into the ground until they can be planted.

herb: A plant that consistsonly of primary tissues; lacking wood.

herbaceous plant: Plants that do not form woody stems, the stalks remain soft.

herbicide: A chemical used to kill weeds and other herbaceous plants.

herbivore: An animal that eats plants.

hilling-up: Mounding earth about a plant to protect shallow roots from sun damage and to strengthen and increase the rooting system. Do Not do this to just any plants it is mainly used on vegetables.

hip: The fruit of a rose plant, the seed pod you see after the flower petals have fallen off.

humus:Organic matter in soil made up of decaying plant material; it is usally dark brown or black in coloring.

hybrid: A plant resulting from crossing two plants of different species or varieties.

hydroponics: Gardening without soil, plants are grown in water and supplied with the nutrients they need to grow.