The Garden Gate: Teaching Garden

The Teaching Garden

Last updated December 10, 2002.

Finding Answers

The Gardener's Guide to Finding Answers on the Internet: The Garden Gate's useful pointers on how to zero in on answers to specific gardening questions. Emphasis on use of high quality, authoritative sources of horticulture information.

Collections

Cooperative Extensions by State: Find out what your state's Extension has to offer. Can be an excellent source of regional horticulture information. Don't forget to check neighboring states, too, for information relevant to your USDA Zone and climate.
Gardening at About.com: Annotated gardening links and articles organized by topic.
Gardening Launching Pad: A large collection of gardening links organized into categories.
Open Directory: Another organized directory maintained by knowledgeable volunteers.
World Wide Web Virtual Library: Gardening: Part of the WWW Virtual Library, maintained by Robert Stewart, editor and publisher of GardenWeb.

Databases

Carnivorous Plants Database: This database includes over 3000 entries giving an exhaustive nomenclatural synopsis of all Carnivorous Plants. For some entries, pictures or other information is available, by clicking on highlighted descriptions in the entry.
Thompson and Morgan's Guide to Germination: A guide for gardeners raising plants from seed. From the folks at Thompson and Morgan, publishers of my favorite seed catalog. Who else offers baobab seeds?
Herb Directory.: From Penn State. Directory of over 60 commonly grown herbs. Excellent cultural facts sheets include information on harvesting and uses.
National PLANTS Database Access: From the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service. Replaces the National List of Scientific Names (NLSN). The PLANTS Database provides a single source of standardized information about plants. PLANTS provides standardized plant names, symbols and other plant attribute information.
Rooting Database: Extensive information on rooting cuttings of woody plants, organized by botanical name. Developed for commercial growers but of interest to the serious home gardener as well.
Seed Germination Database: Part of Chicago gardener Tom Clothier's Garden Walk and Talk, this useful collection includes a seed-starting database for perennials.
USDA Hardiness Zone Map: Detailed climate zone information for the North America and Hawaii. More detailed maps for states with a wide variety of climates.
PLANTfacts Factsheet Database: Part of Ohio State University's WebGarden, this specialized search engine lets us search over 59,000 pages of factsheets from dozens of University and Cooperative Extension sites in the US and Canada.
Weed Images and Descriptions: Know Your Enemy! From Rutgers.
Tree Fact Sheets [PDF Format]: I usually don't link to materials in Adobe Acrobat PDF format but this collection of 680 fact sheets is too good to pass up. It says 'southern trees' but includes many common landscape trees that grow throughout the US.

Image Galleries

Hort.net Gallery: A very straightforward image gallery, searchable by botanical or common name. Certainly the best photo of the elusively blue Echinops ritro I've ever seen.
Google Images: Search by common or botanical name. Accuracy in variety naming and identification will obviously depend on the source site, but it's a great way to see multiple photos of a plant you're interested in.

Tutorials

Garden Tutorials: Illustrated tutorials on a wide range of topics by My Garden Guide.

FAQs and Homepages

Asclepiads - The Asclepiad Page: Information about the family Asclepiadaceae - milkweeds and carrion flowers.
Associations, Plant Societies
Bonsai
Books.
Cacti and Succulents
Camellias
Catalogs.
Community Gardens
Cut Flowers
Daylilies
Fruit
Herbs
Irises
Japanese Gardens
Lawns
Mailing Lists
Mail order
Native Plants and Wildflowers
Orchids
Plant Propagation
rec.gardens
Roses
Urban Agriculture
Water Gardening
Wildflowers. See under Native Plants, above.

Glossaries


Dictionary of Botanical Epithets: Chuck Griffith's excellent dictionary is searchable. If you're unsure of the spelling, you can search by partial word.
Glossary of Botanical Terms: The GardenWeb Glossary of Botanical Terms contains thousands of terms relating to botany, gardening, horticulture and landscape architecture
A Short Botanical Glossary: Compiled by Jim Croft, Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Australia.
Dictionary of Botanical Terms: If you need help telling a mericarp from a mesocarp, check this dictionary. The site is unfortunately flawed by banner ads that masquerade as Windows warning boxes.
BOTRTS: Roots of Botanical Names: Over 1000 roots from a- to zyg-. Did you know that 'Lavender' (Lavandula) comes from the Latin word 'to wash'? Ever wonder why the daylily is called Hemerocallis? Or what angustifolia means? Look it up in the BOTRTS glossary. Originally compiled by Bob Riffle.

Additional Glossaries.

Plant Lists

Black Walnut - underplanting: An extensive list of plants which will co-exist peacably with the black walnut. Source: American Horticultural Society.
Butterfly Garden Plant List: A butterfly garden's list of plants for Zone 5. Includes many tallgrass prairie natives.
Deer-resistant Plants: Landscape Designer Jeff Chorba offers this very helpful list along with his article Designing for Deer Resistance: Combining Flora with Fauna.
Houseplants: Requirements and Uses: Find the houseplant that will grow well under particular conditions in your home.
Selected Plants for Special Situations: Looking for slope stabilizers? Lawn alternatives? Plants for heavy shade? Check out this useful list, adapted from a Virginia Cooperative Extension factsheet.
Xeriscape Plants for the Southwest: Hundreds of tough, beautiful plants for the water-conserving gardener. Nicely illustrated. Browse or search by name.

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