Gardening A to Z: S

Useful information for you, brought to you by Garden NZ

Introduction
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Savannah
A kind of very open woodland, characteristic of many regions of the dry tropics and subtropics.

Scale Insect
Small sap-sucking insects of the family Coccidae (coccids), which in their adult phase are stationary on leaf and stem surfaces, coating themselves with an adhesive waxy shell which repels water and makes them difficult to eradicate. They can cause considerable damage to longer-lived plants such as trees and shrubs and are unsightly as well.

Scarify
To break or soften the hard coat on the seeds of certain plants, especially legumes such as sweet peas and wattles, to allow water to penetrate and thus speed up germination. It can be done by rubbing carefully with fine sandpaper or soaking the seed for a little while in hot water.

Scion
In grafting, the piece of plant stem of the desired variety that is grafted onto the rooted stock (or rootstock) and subsequently grows, comprising all the branches, flowers and fruit of the grafted plant.

Sclerotinia
Sclerotinia is a brownish rot that can attack plant stems and foliage.

Sculptural Plants
See Architectural and Sculptural Plants.

Sedge
Any member of the large plant family Cyperaceae, though sometimes used in a narrower sense of plants of its largest genus Carex.

Seed
The organ of propagation of flowering plants. Seeds are not immortal, and it is not worth saving left-over seeds of vegetables and flowers for the following year; the percentage that will germinate decreases markedly.

Seed Head
A general term for a dry, inedible fruit that contains seeds.

Sepal
One of the parts of the calyx, usually green, leaf like and sometimes coloured and showy, as in hellebores and clematis. In many one-seed-leaf plants the sepals are almost indistinguishable from the petals, as in lilies and tulips.

Shoot
Any part of a plant that bears leaves.

Shrub
A plant with several permanent woody stems that arise from ground level. A tree has only one, but in gardening the distinction is not quite clear cut – many plants such as the larger cotoneasters or bottlebrushes can be treated equally well as large shrubs or small, multi-stemmed trees.

Silverbeet
See Vegetables.

Slugs
See Snail & Slugs.

Snails & slugs
Snails and slugs love slightly cool, moist conditions typical of spring when most seedlings are planted and can decimate fresh plantings overnight.

Solenia Patio Begonia
A new breed of fibrous-rooted begonias that perform well in sunny outdoor situations.

Southern Woods Nursery
Southern Woods is a "one stop shop" for the rural tree-planter. Over 400 species of trees are available for shelter, forestry, native revegetation, edible tree crops, animal fodder and olives. We also supply all the accessories and advice you may need to successfully realise your tree planting ambitions.

Sowing Seeds
Have you ever tried to grow plants from seed? If you have you will know how rewarding and easy it is. It's not hard and we have put together some easy to follow steps.

Species
A population of wild plants which are sufficiently alike to carry the same name, and which will freely breed with one another to give rise to offspring like themselves. The honour of naming a species goes to the scientist who discovers or describes it.

Sphagnum
A type of rather luxuriant growing moss, normally an inhabitant of boggy ground and much used when dried as an ingredient in potting mixes, especially for orchids. Live plants often grow from spores in the dried material, and are welcomed by orchid growers as a sign that conditions are right.

Spike
A type of inflorescence where the flowers are borne on a long, usually upright stem. Unlike a raceme, a spike has no separate flower stalks, as in gladioli.

Spore
The equivalent of a seed in non-flowering plants such as ferns and fungi. Much tinier than seeds, they are produced in great numbers and blow about in the wind.

Spotty Dog Design
Ellen Giggenbach and Deby Smith have created Spotty Dog Design with the desire to give the traditional art of Mosaic a new contemporary edge. They have now successfully established themselves in the Wellington region. Their outlet in Eastbourne displays a large range of Mosaic products plus applied art works and paintings by Annie Hayward.

Sprays
Protect your plants from natures nasties with these sprays.

Spring Planting
At Garden-NZ we know what a hectic time it can be so we have put together a useful section for you on what needs to be done this season.

Stalk, Stem
The two terms are almost interchangeable, but in horticulture a stem usually has leaves growing from its sides while a stalk does not.

Stark HoseSwivel
The Stark HoseSwivel is a unique product specifically designed to avoid kinks and twists in hoses.

Stars of Spring
New varieties of plants are constantly being developed with improved looks and better performance. Each year our Stars of Spring are selected as the best of the new plants available in the market. Take a look – they are stunning.

Stem
The main body of a plant, that connects the roots to the leaves and flowers, or any part of it. Trunks, branches and twigs are all stems.

Sterile
Incapable of bearing seeds or pollen or both (flowers) or spores (the fronds of ferns). A plant may produce perfectly normal flowers but not mature fertile seed due to some aberration in its genetic make-up, something which often occurs in hybrids; or the reproductive parts of the flower may have been transformed into the extra petals of a double flower.

Stock
In grafting, the rooted plant (rootstock) onto which the scion is grafted. Any subsequent regrowth from the stock must be trimmed off as soon as it appears, otherwise it will rob food and water from the more desirable scion.

Stolon
A slender, rapidly elongating rhizome, generally rooting only at long intervals. The stolons of strawberries are produced above ground, but stolons may also be buried, such as those produced by some bulbs as a means of extending their colonies.

Stratify
A technique used to break the dormancy of seeds of such plants as roses and apples, which need a period of cold before they can germinate. In its simplest form, it involves bundling them up in damp sphagnum moss and putting them in a refrigerator for a few weeks.

Subspecies
A group of plants within a species, different from the norm but not sufficiently so to rank them as a species in their own right.

Succulent
A plant which has evolved swollen water-filled organs, either stems or leaves, which help it to survive in arid climates. Cacti are the extreme example, but other plants show succulence to a lesser degree, as most orchids do in their pseuod-bulbs.

Sucker
A shoot or stem that arises from the roots of a tree or shrub or, undesirably, from the understock of a grafted specimen.

Sulphur
Plays an important part of plant proteins. Also connected to chlorophyll production. Responsible for the odour and flavours of some Legumes and Brassica's.