• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Carol J. Michel

Award winner author of gardening humor books

  • About
    • Contact
  • Blog
  • Books
    • Shop
    • Gardening Humor
    • Children’s Books
    • New – The Halloween Hare
  • Social
    • YouTube
    • Instagram
  • The Gardenangelists Podcast
  • Gardening Humor
  • Children’s
  • All Books

May Dreams Gardens

What is a floracrat?

January 7, 2022 By Carol 4 Comments

I recently started reading Some Ancient Gentlemen: Being an Examination of Certain People, Plants and Gardens by Tyler Whittle (1966, Taplinger Publishing Co., Inc. )

Ah, the good ol’ days of garden writing. I’m not saying that gardening books these days are boring. I’m just saying that reading books from 50—oh wait—56 years ago, introduces one to a style of writing that we don’t often see these days.

I could quote and quote and quote from this book but instead I’ll just hone in on the word “floracrat” of which he writes, “In one tormented afternoon I saw five species of stove climbers which, if there is such a word (and I believe there ought to be) deserved to be called floracrats.”

Floracrats. What a wonderful word! But it’s a word that doesn’t seem to have a definition or even widespread use. We must fix that!

First, I did an online search for the word, and the internet came up with a book with that word for its title, but the author uses the word to talk about certain bureaucrats and botanists, not flowers. Since that book was written a few years ago, we’ll let that author’s definition be the second definition of the word.

On to the first definition!

The sentence prior to the one I quoted above gives us our first clue as to the definition of “floracrat.” “In the temperate houses of botanic gardens, I felt precisely like Raffles regarding the Crown Jewels, or Billy Bunter outside a locked up pantry.”

Whittle, who is British, took me down a tiny rabbit hole to look up information about Raffles and Billy Bunter. What they have in common is they couldn’t get to what they wanted. Whatever it was, it was unattainable.

Unattainable! Now we can assume that floracrats are unattainable for us mere mortal gardeners, who may look but can’t touch. They are out of our reach, perhaps due to the climate we garden in, or maybe the cost, or who knows why? Floracrats are just for some reason not something we are likely to successfully grow in our own gardens.

Further on, I read, “Exotics like these have a meaty quality of beauty. They are elegant and delicate, but too voluptuous to be ‘pretty’ in the ordinary sense.”

He then lists some of these stove climbers, which is his word for vigorous, rampant climbing plants.

There’s Crab’s Eye Vine (I’ve never heard of it), Antigonon (also new to me and not hardy enough for my garden), Beaumont (also new to me and I can’t find it in a quick search), Mediterranean Angels’ Trumpets (Bignonia tweediana) (I am familiar with Bignonia) and three varieties of passion flowers (which we assume are Passiflora sp., some of which I can grow.)

What do all these flowers have in common?

Other than being lovely flowers on vines, they don’t seem to have too much in common except Whittle considered them elegant and delicate, with a meaty quality of beauty. And we would likely describe them with a more enthusiastic word than “pretty.”

So back to our definition of floracrat, here’s my best shot at it, using the clues Whittle left us in this one reference in this one book.

floracrat

flôr′ə crat

noun

  1. A flowering plant that is unattainable to a gardener due to climate or other limitations of their garden or life circumstances;
  2. A flowering plant that has an exotic look which one would describe as elegant and delicate, even meaty, definitely much more than pretty.
  3. A vigorous flowering vine of remarkable beauty.

flor-a′·crat′ic, flor-a’·crat′i·cal adj. flor-a′·crat′i·cal·ly adv.

Yes, I see that’s three definitions, but such a word needs all these definitions.

Some sample sentences…

She went to the local conservatory to see all the floracrats blooming profusely on a cold wintry day.

The staff at the local garden center advises new gardeners to avoid floracrats until they have more experience tending to plants.

What’s a floracrat you’d like to grow (meet) someday?

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: books, gardening

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kris P says

    January 7, 2022 at 3:37 pm

    I love this definition – and your effort to peel the proverbial onion to reveal it. There are many floracrats I covet, including peonies, tulips, and Astrantia among many others. For the record, I’ve tried growing all those I just named, some multiple times, always with minimal to no success. While people periodically comment on my “exotic” plants, most are really just plants that happen to be suitable to my Mediterranean climate.

    Reply
  2. Dee A Nash says

    January 8, 2022 at 9:00 am

    You are crazy girl.

    Reply
  3. Helen Malandrakis says

    January 8, 2022 at 2:20 pm

    I wish I could grow Rhododendrons. I grew up in Northern West Virginia. They were everywhere. My parents had one that would get so big.It was gorgeous! My dad had to cut it back, because it would cover a large window!

    Reply
  4. Heidi Jasper says

    January 17, 2022 at 2:25 pm

    I would call my purple Passionflower a floracrat. It looks too exotic to be a Hoosier Native plant and I can grow it on a south-facing rail fence in my Walnut-infested woodland garden.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Updates from Carol Michel

* indicates required
Email Preferences

Categories

  • Blog (3,053)
  • Internal (2)

Blog Tags

annuals Blogging books bulbs dr. hortfreud embrace fairies fall family flowers fruits garden bloggers bloom day garden bloggers book club garden design gardeners gardening gardening geek gardens hoes holidays hortense hoelove houseplants humor indoor gardening insects lawn letters to gardening friends perennials rabbits reviews Secrets seeds shrubs spring tools trees vegetable garden vegetable gardening vegetables weather weeding weeds when a gardener wildflower wednesday winter

The Gardenangelists Podcast with Dee Nash

Gardenangelists Podcast

Footer

Gardenangelists Podcast with Dee Nash

Gardenangelists Podcast

Connect

  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • maydreams icon

Quick Links

  • Home
  • Contact
  • Books
  • May Dreams Gardens
  • Podcast

Updates from Carol Michel

* indicates required
Email Preferences

Newsletter Archive

Copyright © 2023 · CarolJMichel.com · Sitemap · Privacy Policy

Book purchase links are affiliate links and Carol earns a small commission if you make a purchase.

We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Do not sell my personal information.
Cookie SettingsAccept
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT