VOA慢速英语2009-Agriculture Report - Growing Flowers in a Stormy

This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
　
Tulips at the Public Gardens in Boston, Massachusetts (file photo)

We have a question from a Chinese student who is interested in floriculture. Wang Yue wants to know what kinds of flowers Americans like to plant in their gardens.

Some of the most popular bedding flowers are chrysanthemums¹, impatiens and petunias². Bedding plants are usually started in greenhouses³. People buy them in containers and replant them.

Roses are also popular in American gardens. So are tulips, a welcome sign of spring. At the Chicago Botanic Garden in Illinois, workers plant twenty-nine thousand tulip bulbs every fall. The workers move in a long line as they plant row after row of tulips.

Kris Jarantoski is the director of the Chicago Botanic Garden. He says a flowering plant called agastache is also popular in gardens. Hummingbirds⁴ love it. Salvia is another popular flower that attracts hummingbirds.

Kris Jarantoski says people also choose flowers such as the spiderflower for its ability to reseed. Another quality that people often look for is the ability to resist dry periods. Lantana is an example of a popular drought-resistant plant.

Where people live can limit the choices for their gardens. The United States is a huge country with all kinds of weather conditions, from desert heat to arctic⁵ cold. But something else can also limit people's choices: a stormy economy.

In a recession⁶, people often "trade down." They buy a lower-priced version⁷ of a product to save money. Home gardeners are no different. Alberto Jerardo at the Agriculture Department says people still want flowers even if they do not have much to spend. To save money, they may buy small bedding plants instead of more costly⁸ plants or trees.

The Agriculture Department says growers in California led the nation in the value of floriculture products in two thousand seven, the latest year available. The wholesale⁹ value was one billion dollars. Florida was close behind. The leading states for bedding and garden plants are California, Michigan, Texas, North Carolina and Ohio.

But any American growers or home gardeners hoping for an early spring this year just got some bad news. Monday was Groundhog Day and it seems that the famous animal in Pennsylvania, Punxsutawney Phil, saw his shadow. Tradition says that if a groundhog sees its shadow, that means people can expect six more weeks of winter weather.

And that's the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Faith Lapidus.

1 chrysanthemums   

n.菊花( chrysanthemum的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The cold weather had most deleterious consequences among the chrysanthemums. 寒冷的天气对菊花产生了极有害的影响。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The chrysanthemums are in bloom; some are red and some yellow. 菊花开了， 有红的，有黄的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

2 petunias   

n.矮牵牛（花）( petunia的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The petunias were already wilting in the hot sun. 在烈日下矮牵牛花已经开始枯萎了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• With my porch and my pillow, my pretty purple petunias. 那里有我的前廊我的枕头，我漂亮的紫色矮牵牛。 来自互联网

3 greenhouses   

温室，花房( greenhouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Cypress and redwood are seldom used in the superstructure of commercial greenhouses. 扁柏和美州红松很少用于商用温室的上部结构。
• They grew tomatoes in two greenhouses, each with a CD-player inside. 他们在两个温室里种西红柿，每个里面都有一个CD播放机。

4 hummingbirds   

n.蜂鸟( hummingbird的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Hummingbirds have discovered that nectar and pollen are very nutritious. 蜂鸟发现花蜜和花粉是很有营养的。
• Why do hummingbirds and gorillas both have backbones? 为什么蜂鸟和大猩猩都有脊骨？

5 Arctic   

adj.北极的；n.北极

参考例句：

• They flew over the unlimited reaches of the Arctic.他们飞过了茫茫无边的北极上空。
• The sort of animal lived in the Arctic Circle.这种动物生活在北极圈里。

6 recession   

n.（工商业的）衷退（期），萧条（期）

参考例句：

• Manufacturing fell sharply under the impact of the recession.受到经济萧条的影响，制造业急剧衰退。
• A rise in interest rates plunged Britain deeper into recession.利率的提高导致英国经济更加萧条。

7 version   

n.版本；型号；叙述，说法

参考例句：

• His version of the events is pure supposition.他对这件事的说法纯属猜测。
• What is your version of this matter?你对这件事情的看法 怎么样？

8 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

9 wholesale   

n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售

参考例句：

• The retail dealer buys at wholesale and sells at retail.零售商批发购进货物，以零售价卖出。
• Such shoes usually wholesale for much less.这种鞋批发出售通常要便宜得多。