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by Liz Walter

Here in the UK we are well into our spring season, which made me think about the words and phrases we use to describe the plants that are now growing or coming back to life after the long winter.

When plants start to appear above the ground, we often say that they are coming up. We refer to the first parts that appear as shoots. This word can also be used for new parts that start to grow on bushes or trees:

The daffodils are starting to come up.

We could see the first shoots of garlic.

The word flower is a verb as well as a noun. We often say that a bush or a tree comes into flower, or that it is in flower. We also say more simply that flowers come out or that they are out:

These plants flower in summer.

This bush usually comes into flower in early June.

The garden looks wonderful when the rhododendrons are in flower.

The tree is spectacular when its flowers come out.

I suggest you visit in July when all the flowers are out.

The parts of a plant that will turn into flowers are called buds. When a plant produces buds, it is budding or in bud:

Buds were already forming on the blackcurrant bush.

The shrub should start budding in September.

The roses are in bud at the moment.

Blossom is a mass of small, usually white or pink flowers, for example on a cherry tree. Again, this word is both a noun and a verb. A bloom is a flower, especially a big or impressive one. Both this and the verb bloom are slightly literary or used in rather technical gardening contexts rather than everyday speech:

The ground under the trees was covered in blossom.

The trees blossom in spring.

He displayed the blooms in a large glass vase.

This clematis blooms from May through to September.

When trees start to produce leaves, we often say that they are coming into leaf. A slightly more technical word for the leaves on any plant is foliage. We usually use this term when a plant has a lot of leaves or to talk about an area with a lot of leafy plants:

The weather is getting warmer, and the trees are coming into leaf.

We had to cut through dense foliage to reach the lake.

I hope you find these words useful, and I’ll leave you with the words of the poet Christina Rosetti, who wrote that ‘There is no time like Spring, When life’s alive in everything.’