In my vocabulary (a form of English from Britain), a 'bloom' describes an individual flower such as might be mounted on a board or examined in order to compare with blooms from other related plants. Blossom is a mass of flowers. To me a 'yard' is either a measurement, or a utilitarian space -"stable yard", "timber yard", "truck yard", "kennel yard". A "back yard" to me is the space at the back of my house where I wash pots, mend the car, chop logs..... The "garden" is an amenity space where I grow plants, or children play on the lawn.... I would like to know the American English term for a utilitarian space such as the British 'back yard'. :p Peter (UK) On Sat, Feb 8, 2014 at 10:30 AM, Tim Eck <teck11@embarqmail.com> wrote: > > Subject: Re: [pbs] what's in bloom > > According to my Oxford English Dict., in this instance, flower would more > correct, but there don't seem to be any hard and fast rules. Anyway, > there's always inflorescence to fall back on. > > And efflorescence for the other. > >