This episodeās vocabulary
Allergy
noun ā a condition that makes a person become sick or develop skin or breathing problems because they have eaten certain foods or been near certain substances.
To brighten up
phrasal verb ā to become happier or more full of hope.
Petal
noun ā any of the usually brightly coloured parts that together form most of a flower.
Stem
noun ā the stick-like central part of a plant that grows above the ground and from which leaves and flowers grow, or a smaller thin part that grows from the central part and supports the leaves and flowers.
Thistle
noun ā a wild plant with sharp points on the leaves and, typically, purple flowers.
Emblem
noun ā a picture of an object that is used to represent a particular person, group, or idea.
Heraldry
noun ā the study of coats of arms and the history of the families that they belong to.
Heather
noun ā a low, spreading bush, usually with small pink, purple, or white flowers, that grows wild, especially on hills.
Shrub
noun ā a large plant with a rounded shape formed from many small branches growing either directly from the ground or from a hard stem, grown in gardens.
Bonsai tree
noun ā a very small tree that is grown in a small container and is stopped from growing bigger by repeated cutting.
Care
noun ā the process of protecting someone or something and providing what that person or thing needs.
Maintenance
noun ā the work needed to keep a road, building, machine, etc. in good condition.
To make a habit of something
idiom ā to begin to do something regularly, often without thinking about it.
Questions and answers
What flowers do you like?
The ones I'm not allergicĀ to? I mean, from a safe distance, I like all flowers, especially if they're in the wild. I think it really brightensĀ things up.
What's your favourite flower?
I'm not sure I have a favourite one, to be honest. I like tulips, just because of the shape of the petalsĀ and the simple stem. They have different colours, but I'm not crazy about them or anything.
Are there any flowers that have special meaning in your country?
We have a... ThistleĀ is the national flower of Scotland. So that appears on a lot of emblemsĀ and heraldry. Aside from that, I'm not really sure. Perhaps heatherĀ is a sort of shrubĀ that grows in the Highlands, but I couldn't tell you anything in depth about it.
Have you planted any flowers?
Well, I'm growing a bonsai treeĀ from the seeds I got. Does that count? It took ages to get them to grow, and it needs constant careĀ and maintenance.
Have you sent flowers to other people?
Well, not for a long time. I think the last time it was the flowers I sent to my cousin Hilda on her 90th birthday. That's not something I make a habit out of, since flowers are dying, and I doubt many people really like having dying things in their houses.
Discussion
Dear listener, we discussed the topic of flowers back in 2021, so could you please listen to our first episode about flowers? We also give you good grammar and vocabulary there. Listen to this episode.
Yes, you'll also hear Maria calling me a plant killer. It's very unkind.
Flower power. Flower power, move your feet. So I'm allergic to flowers, or I'm not allergic to flowers. If you have allergies, we say allergies. Like... Allergies. You say I have allergies. I'm allergic to lots of flowers. And if you have allergies, you can say I like flowers from a safe distance. So not close to me. If flowers are far away, I like them
But if they are too close, then I have allergies and I'm not very happy with them.
I like flowers if they are in the wild. So animals are in the wild, flowers are in the wild. They are not in a shop, but in a forest, on a field. And Rory tells us that flowers brighten things up. They make our life more bright. Okay? Brighter. So they brighten things up. You should be ready to answer what your favourite flower is. So Rory told us about tulips. You can google tulips, but you can also say something like...
Daffodils, roses.
Daffodils. Lilies, lavender. This, you know, like this beautiful flower that has this smell. You can say daisies. So just go to Google Images and type in flower kinds and choose maybe three interesting names of flowers. I would go for daisies, lilies and lavender. Daffodils are also nice. But don't say that roses are my favourite flowers, because a rose is like a...
Why not?
No, because it's a usual word. Everybody knows a rose. But kind of, for example, a daffodil is already an interesting word. Oh, coronations, dear listener. Pink coronations. You should google it. So just remember two, or three interesting names of flowers. Okay? To impress the examiner with your vocabulary. Tulips have nice petals. So a petal is a part of a flower. So this, you know, a petal. A flower also has a stem. This stick. The stick is called a stem.
So the petals open to attract the insects, and the stem supports the flower.
Yeah, and where are tulips popular? In which country?
Well, I think they're popular everywhere, but you hear about them in Holland.
Yeah. The Netherlands, dear listener. Ooh... Like fields and fields of tulips.
There's a very interesting story about that, I think. A long time ago, about 300 years or something, tulip bulbs were really popular, and they were traded as stock on the Dutch Stock Exchange, and they crashed the entire economy because people became over-invested in it, and, like, flooded the market. It's amazing. It almost destroyed their economy.
Oh, wow. And, you know, the Netherlands have the oldest botanical garden where the first tulips were planted. Back in 1593, dear listener. Okay? They have black tulips. Like white tulips, tulips of all colours.
Black tulips are quite cool.
Yeah, they are quite cool. Dear listener, you should also know what flowers have special meaning in your country. So Rory told us about the national flower of Scotland, which is a thistle. Thistle. National flower of Scotland. Yeah. So this is their emblem. So the flower appears on different emblems. Okay? And then, Rory, you said something...
Heraldry. These are the symbols associated with different clans and noble houses in my country and in any country that has these things.
Okay, so this is not only about Scotland?
No, no. It could be about England or any other country that's like this, possibly France, maybe Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, or other countries with a royal family or some kind of royal connection.
Yeah, dear listener, you need to have a king or queens, kings. So heraldry is very difficult to pronounce. Heraldry is about the history of the families. So this emblem with this flower belonged to this king. Okay? This flower appears on emblems and heraldry. And then Rory mentions another one, which is Heather. Heather. Like I'm googling this flower because I don't, I don't remember what it looks like. And you should also Google, Heather.
I think it's a kind of small bush or shrub that's quite common in hills in my country. I think it's purple.
Nice. So it's a sort of a shrub. A shrub? Like a bush. Yeah, grows in the highlands, in the mountains in Scotland. Hey! Yeah, dear listener, so you should know what's the meaning of this special flower in your country. We plant flowers, we grow flowers. And Rory told us about this bonsai tree he has. So he got seeds from somewhere, and now he is growing a bonsai tree. Beautiful. And this bonsai tree is in a pot, right?
It is, yes. Or in a bowl, to be more precise. But there are... I just discovered it. The bonsai tree is not just one thing. I was given many seeds, so now there are many tiny bonsai trees growing in my pot or bowl. But I don't think a bonsai tree is a flower. I just wanted to talk about how the bonsai tree... That I have one.
It's okay. You can talk about plants. Okay? They may not be flowers, but plants.
But it's a good time to ask this rhetorical question, does that count? Meaning does that mean the same thing as a flower? It gave me a chance to use words connected to plants, like grow and general words like care and maintenance for plants. And it took me ages because bonsai trees take forever to grow.
Yeah, because now I'm googling what flowers can be grown at home in pots, and the names of the flowers are just crazy like one of them is chrysanthemums. How do you say this?
Chrysanthemums. They're quite popular in Japan, I think.
Say it again.
Chrysanthemums.
Chrysanthemums. You see, dear listener, they are just difficult to pronounce. So, yeah, you can say, like, roses, yeah, daffodils. I grow daffodils. Okay? I grow daisies. All right? Or any other pot flowers. And you can say that, well, it takes ages to get them to grow, to get my flowers to grow, and they need constant care. So I have to care about them all the time, and they need maintenance. So our flowers need maintenance. We need to take care of them, we need to maintain them. And water them. We water flowers. We sometimes send flowers to other people, or we give flowers. Or kind of like we send flowers as a gift. So we give flowers on different occasions. And Rory said that the last time I sent flowers to people was a long time ago.
Or not for a long time.
It's not something I make a habit out of. So I don't make a habit out of sending people flowers. And then the idea that, well, flowers are kind of dead, and it's not a nice thing to have some dying things in your house. No, I disagree. Flowers are cool. They are alive.
Flowers are dying, unless they are connected to the plant.
You mean to the ground, to the soil?
Well, yes, you've got to put the plant in soil too. So no. Flowers, if you have them just in a vase with water and nothing connected to them, they will die, and that will not be very pretty. You want a plant to live and thrive and grow and not die.
Yeah, dear listener, so you can say that, no, I'm against growing flowers. But if you grow flowers, you grow them, so they are kind of connected to the earth, to the soil. So it's okay.
Yeah, that's fine.
Okay, okay. Yeah. You can listen to our episode about plants. Yeah, we also talk about, like, growing plants. Rory is a plant killer and murderer.
My bonsai trees are thriving. Thank you very much. In fact, I have three plants, and all of them are doing very well.
Ooh. How long have you had them? A week?
That is not important. I have had them alive. I've kept them alive.
You see, dear listener? He says that he has three plants, but he has just had them for a week. So we'll wait and see. Okay?
I don't know. I could have had them for much longer.
Three months later. Rory, how many plants do you have?
Zero.
Alive or dead? I have one dead, and two alive. Okay. Yeah, we need to see pictures of your bonsai tree. That seems interesting.
Okay.
So, dear listener, thank you very much for listening! Have you chosen two or three interesting words about flowers? Have you? Thank you very much for listening, and we'll see you in our next episode! Bye!
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