Well I'm a brummie born and bred and I can assure you we all talk proper here. Loike owamya (how are you)
yamguinouttnite (are you going out tonight) simples eh!

I always pronounce it cotonie - astor. But my aunt calls it cotton - easter

I've always said Ko-tony-aster

see I'd have said "cotton-aye-ahster" or something like that, but what do I know?

Ain't linguistics, fun...

I'm with you M. G.

it's like that song "you say tomayto, I say tomahtoe"... - you say "cle-MAY-tis", I say "CLE-mah-tis" (the latter for me, but probably only because my mother taught me so...)

They grow, or not, don't they, whatever we call 'em.

I think that I pronounce it the same way as Andrew.
But it doesn't matter how you pronounce the name, there is no 'correct' way, just so long as the other person recognises what you are talking about.

we 're all perhaps going to sit in front of our mirrors this winter (when it's too cold to garden), doing a Laurence Olivier impression: 'tradescantia', 'myosotis'...'something-or-other variegata', 'purpurea' (without ejecting the dentures)... - etc.!

Agreed, though - since they probably all came from a land or a time other than their present growing spaces, they probably won't mind how we pronounce the names we've given them!

But alas since I worked for many years in a language and linguistics department, plant names and their origins still intrigue me! (Beefsteak plant, anyone?)

Ko tony aster in my part of the world

I heard a cam pan you la (campanula) called a cam pa nula the other day. It brought a smile to my face !

Ka -tony- aster for me too..and while we're at it..Heuchera !
I pronounce it hoo-kerra,but someone I know says Hoo-cherra ...

If you're going to be purist about it, I'm afraid your wife is correct in her pronunciation, sorry! (I have a little book from when I did my studies which gives you the correct pronunciation of Latin plant names)

Bloomer I 'think' Heuchera is meant to be pronounced HUE-ker-ah snag is Latin is a dead language and no matter what the pundits say there is no guarantee we are pronouncing correctly and does it matter so long as we know which plant we are referring to?

Ah yes,HUE is what I meant,but as you say,it really doesn't matter ..I know what I mean :o)

Cotoneaster is Latin and therefore every vowel is pronounced individually. So in actual fact the correct pronunciation is cottony aster. And I'm afraid the Lady is right.

Heuchera: try saying it in French, they mostly use the Latin names here rather than "common" ones, and I got severely ticked off for my pronunciation in French of "hue-ker-ah", apparently "uh-share/er-share" (or something similar), would be correct here.

Oh and by the way re Latin I totally agree with those who say no-one knows how it was pronounced, I went to a French Lycee school in London(many millennia ago), and when we got to O-level exam (as it was in those days!) stage, we had to have special "English Latin" classes to correct our "French Latin" pronunciations...

Daft world, ain't it?

You say tomato and I say tomato lol.

And you say potato and I say spud!

I say fewsha and you say ?????

and I say the same as you ,Bulba :o)...how about Mange tout ? my friend used to call it mangy towt ! Lol.

Andrewr you say potato and I say dinner (I'm Irish so perhaps I may be permitted that racist joke?) But Bulba how else does one say few-cheea? Instruct me. Also anyone, none of you rose to the bait: CLE-mah-tis or cle-MAY-tis? I've always said the former but have been told the latter by people who grow them.

OK everyone who says it doesn't matter as long as we understand what we mean but as a transplant (I hate the label 'expat') to another land, sometimes if you take a step or two away the language is no longer interchangeable (Latin notwithstanding!)

For instance I tried to translate last winter a recipe for a warm goat's cheese salad with avocado and endives and walnuts (v. nice, by the way) for a friend, the internet version came up as Chickory Hot Goats and Lawyers Salad... Mmmm!

Clem-at-is is how I say it but lord knows if its is correct!

All you lot who say the lady is right, I never want to speak to you again.
Stupid name for a shrub anyway.

:)

hee hee :o)...The lady knew best !..this time .Lol.

Try saying 'Fuchsia' phoneticaly, Monjardinlra. Or is it just my mind!

LOL, Treetop.

No bulba not your mind and I often think that way in my mind, but PC says use ch instead of k. :-)