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 Sometimes
the “simple” action of naming a hosta can become quite
complicated. One of the classic examples of this situation
involved the hostas of
Ursula
Syre-Herz who just wanted to give her introductions a series
name involving the name of a local river basin in South
Carolina. The name of the river was Pee Dee so all her plants
would be in the format H. ‘Pee Dee Elfin Bells’ for
example. Sounds simple enough until the “official” rules for
naming plants come into play. Then it gets complicated.
The following is a summary of the journey that Ursula’s hosta
names took from Pee Dee to Peedee and finally to PeeDee. It was
written by then
Hosta Registrar,
Kevin Walek and appeared in the 2007 Registrations booklet.
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 Preamble
9 of the 2004 edition of the International Code of
Botanical Nomenclature states: The only proper reasons
for changing a name of a plant are either a more
profound knowledge of the facts resulting from adequate
taxonomic study or the necessity of giving up a name
that is contrary to the Rules of a Code. In this case,
the name is not changed, but the spelling is corrected
in this case to the form originally desired by the
authors of the name. The original spelling “Pee Dee”
could not be registered under a previous Code as
explained later. The original name is acceptable under
the new Code, as detailed study now shows. Article 32
declares that correcting the spelling of a cultivar
epithet should be used with reserve, especially if the
change affects the first syllable and above all the
first letter of such an epithet. This is not the case in
this correction.
 Recently,
a letter sent to the THJ (The
Hosta Journal) editor referred to a caption in the
story “The Best Gardens You’ll Never See” in Volume 38,
Number 2. That letter referred to a caption contained
and also referenced a prior article by Warren Pollock
where he discussed the “Peedee” hostas in “What’s in a
Name,” Volume 37, Number 3, page 11, where Warren talks
about why the “d” is lower-case.
Because of that letter, I as Registrar, and
W. George Schmid, as Chairman of the AHS
Nomenclature Committee began to refresh our recollection
of the history involved in the registration of the
“Peedee” hostas.
If you happen to have a copy of the original Silverbook
(which was published in 1992, with all registrations
from inception through 1991), you will see that from
inception “Peedee” was spelled as Warren mentions. But
this does not tell the whole tale. Further, I went back
to the original registration forms and found that the
first registered “Peedee” was H. ‘Peedee Elfin
Bells’.
 When
I was editor of the Journal, I also helped
David Stevenson with the layout of the Registration
Issues and the second “Silverbook” and I dusted off my
old notes as I remembered asking David about this, as I
pass through the Pee Dee (Little, Great and Lesser)
River Basin of North and South Carolina on my way to
Florida, and always get a kick out of the name, but
wondered why Ursula had it as one word. You will note
that I use it as two words with both in caps. If you
Google “Peedee,” or “PeeDee” it asks you if you meant
“Pee Dee,” and you will note that it lists many correct,
historic, geographic, scientific, and other U.S.
references to “Pee Dee” but also to “PeeDee.”
In response, David indicated to me at the time that,
when the original submissions came in to Warren Pollock
(who was then editor of the Journal) and
Merv
Eisel (who preceded David as registrar), Warren and
Merv had made the decision, because under the 1980
International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants
(“the Code”) no more than 3 words could constitute a
cultivar name. In addition, by Code and in common
English usage, capitals do not exist in the middle of a
word so they made it “Peedee” (later Code issues also
allow interspersed capitals). Thus, to prevent denying
H. ‘Pee Dee Elfin Bells’ it became ‘Peedee Elfin Bells’.
Merv had this “approved” by Ursula at that time, and
thus he registered the name accordingly. This remained a
consistent practice with David Stevenson following
Merv’s example as to the Peedee usage.
 In
1997, the issue arose anew when
Jim Wilkins became registrar and revisited this
issue. As a consequence, George did some considerable
research on this River’s name. In short, George found
that all versions are correct. Many native Carolinians
use the old name, i.e., Peedee, which was the name of an
Indian tribe in the area. That was the only way it was
spelled in colonial times. The modern spelling on maps
is Pee Dee, but many old-timers there refuse to use that
“newfangled spelling.” However, it was decided at that
time, with all the new registrations that were coming in
that the registrar would continue to use Peedee.
The origin of the name goes back to Juan Pardo's second
expedition to South Carolina in the late 1560's. He
recorded the existence of a tribe called Vehidi
(pronounced Ve-ee-dee) in their language with the V
being an “explosive” sound. This may have been the way
it sounded to the European settlers. Vehidi phonetically
became Veedee (notice: one word) became Peedee or PeeDee,
and later Pee Dee. Today the tribe is known as the Pee
Dee. There is no one way to spell it. The various
spellings constitute what we call synonyms in botany.
Modern spelling uses all of the existing ways of
spelling the name: The United States Geological Survey
and Corps of Engineers spell it the new way (Pee Dee)
and most river system maps have it that way. Then again,
some modern Carolinian agencies purposefully use the old
spelling, but with the “Dee” capitalized, like the North
Carolina Office of Environmental Education, which uses
PeeDee as in “Yadkin-PeeDee. The basin’s Uwharrie
Mountains are the remains of an ancient chain of
volcanic islands that were pushed upwards during the
collision of the African and North American continents.”
 The
spelling PeeDee is also supported and used by the North
Carolina Department of Environment and Natural
Resources. Also, The Yadkin PeeDee River Basin
Association (“YPDRBA”) uses PeeDee. It is THE coalition
of point source dischargers in the Yadkin River basin.
This coalition was formed to consolidate the stream
monitoring that must occur in order to comply with NPDES
permits. So there are plenty of important users of the
version PeeDee and several scientific papers and books
have been published using the PeeDee in their titles. In
modern spelling, the second D is always capitalized,
space or no space, as in Pee Dee and PeeDee.
Thus, as it was requested by the Registrant and is
allowed under the current version of the Code, and
appears the way the registrant wanted it to be from the
beginning, accordingly, I have made the change to “PeeDee”,
which will be reflected going forward beginning with the
publication of this the 2007 Registration Issue, as
under the Code official usages must be published to
become effective.
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1987 Registration: H. ‘Peedee Elfin Bells’. This
name was registered correctly, but see discussion
above. It is now registered as H. ‘PeeDee
Elfin Bells’.
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1987 Registration: H. ‘Peedee Gold Flash’. This
name was registered correctly, but see discussion
above. It is now registered as H. ‘PeeDee
Gold Flash’.
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1987 Registration: H. ‘Peedee Graymulkin’. This
name was registered correctly, but see discussion
above. It is now registered as H. ‘PeeDee
Graymulkin’.
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'1989 Registration: H. ‘Peedee Treasure’. This
name was registered correctly, but see discussion
above. It is now registered as H. ‘PeeDee
Treasure’.
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1990 Registration: H. ‘Peedee Absinth’. This
name was registered correctly, but see discussion
above. It is now registered as H. ‘PeeDee
Absinth’.
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1990 Registration: H. ‘Peedee Spring Fever’.
This name was registered correctly, but see
discussion above. It is now registered as H. ‘PeeDee
Spring Fever’.
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1992 Registration: H. ‘Peedee Dew Catcher’. This
name was registered correctly, but see discussion
above. It is now registered as H. ‘PeeDee
Dew Catcher’.
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1992 Registration: H. ‘Peedee Granny Smith’.
This name was registered correctly, but see
discussion above. It is now registered as H. ‘PeeDee
Granny Smith’.
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1992 Registration: H. ‘Peedee Laughing River’.
This name was registered correctly, but see
discussion above. It is now registered as H. ‘PeeDee
Laughing River’.
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1992 Registration: H. ‘Peedee Picotee’. This
name was registered correctly, but see discussion
above. It is now registered as H. ‘PeeDee
Picotee’.
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1996 Registration: H. ‘Peedee Apollo’. This name
was registered correctly, but see discussion above.
It is now registered as H. ‘PeeDee
Apollo’.
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