You're listening to Away with Words, the show about language, and how we use it.

I'm Grant Barrett.

And I'm Martha Barnett, and Grant, I bet you've been up to the same thing I have been up to,

which is perusing seed catalogs and dreaming of this year's garden.

Yep, it's like the adult version of the Sears catalogs that you looked at at Christmas time

when you were a kid. Isn't that the truth?

They're so beautiful, all these lovely plants and flowers, and it's just delightful.

Well, yeah, the images, but of course also the language is what's catching my eye.

You know, some of those names are just, I mean, why would they be naming fruits and vegetables

things like diplomat or albion or seascape, you know? I mean, there's sort of like paint chips or

something. Yeah, there's a there's a sequence of three that I saw as divino sabetto orok.

They're like some characters from the news, you know, the new Star Trek series.

Oh, I was thinking a law firm or something. I've had some fun fooling around with those names

and just putting them together, just piling them together into little poems. How about this one?

Purple passion, Jersey night, silky sweet hybrid, ruby perfection.

Wow, that's a prom night with your sweetie playing Bruce Springsteen on the radio.

Actually, it's a poem about cabbage and asparagus. Oh, yeah, that too. I do like a good cabbage.

Asparagus, asparagus, not so much, but cabbage I do.

Here's another one. Sugar, baby, starlight, crimson sweet sparkle, tasty bites.

Wow, and that's first love, right? That's what I'm thinking here. This is your first love,

a little shy handholding and then you both give a little, your first smooch. Yeah, actually,

it's about watermelon and strawberries. One more. German winter, white swan, night and day,

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