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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
[-The Garden Gate's Pick-]
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
  • Tons of good information from the City Farmer at Canada's Office for Urban Agriculture.
Cut Flowers
Daylilies
Fruit
Herbs
  • Culinary Herb FAQ. Henriette Kress' Culinary Herb FAQ offers the distillation of the cumulative gardening and cooking skills of rec.gardens readers.
  • Directory of Herbs. From Penn State.Directory of over 60 commonly grown herbs.
  • Medicinal Herb FAQ. Henriette Kress' Medicinal Herb FAQ offers the distillation of the cumulative knowledge alt.folklore.herbs readers.
  • SunSITE Herb Archives. Maintained by Larry London.
Irises
  • The Iris Page Jim Wilson's Iris Page offers cultural tips, answers to frequently asked questions, as well as lists of suppliers, organizations, reference books and other useful information.
Japanese Gardens
  • Japanese Garden Database. An excellent resource for anyone interested in the art of the Japanese Garden. By Robert Cheetham.
Lawns
Mailing Lists
Mail order
  • Garden Watchdog. The Garden Watchdog is a free directory of thousands of mail order gardening companies with review.
Native Plants and Wildflowers
  • Pacific Northwest Native Wildlife Gardening By Allyn Weaks. Also offers a mailing list and discussion forums.
  • The Tallgrass Prairie in Illinois. Learn about the Grand Prairie in this Web site by Dr. Ken Robertson of the Illinois Natural History Survey. Original photographs of prairies and native prairie plants. Bibliography.
  • Wildflowers in Bloom Images and growing information on wildflower gardens and meadows taken from the Wildseed Farm catalog. These mostly annual wildflowers come from all over the world and even include favorite 'garden escapes'. Includes pictures of seedlings.
Orchids
  • Linda's Orchid Page. Don't let the humble title mislead, Linda offers up a well-organized collection of information, illustrations and photos as well as links for the orchid-lover.
  • The Orchid House An collection of original information for the orchid grower, everything from a lists of journals and growers to information on showing and judging orchids.
Plant Propagation
rec.gardens
  • Archives and FAQs Larry London at SunSite has put together these WWW pages for easier access to the rec.gardens archives and FAQs at SunSITE.
Roses
Urban Agriculture
  • Tons of good information from the City Farmer at Canada's Office for Urban Agriculture.
Water Gardening
  • Pete's Pond Page Pete tells all about his experience constructing his pond, provides a list of suppliers, and throws in some very nice pictures of his pond for good measure.
  • Wildflowers. See under Native Plants, above.

Glossaries
Dictionary of Botanical Epithets
[-The Garden Gate's Pick-] 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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Updated by Karen Fletcher. E-mail The Garden Gate
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