Pacific Northwest Gardening Connections

The Pacific Northwest is an ideal climate for growing plants from all over the world. Certain regions of the world have a climate similar to ours and plants from those regions grow especially well here. Those regions are the Mediterranean, New Zealand, Australia, China, Japan, South Africa and Chile. In the library we have a section devoted to books about plants and gardens from these regions. Below is a growing collection of web resources with connections to the Pacific Northwest climate.

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Pacific Northwest

List of PNW Public Gardens
List of PNW Organizations & Plant Societies

PNW Herbaria what is an herbarium?

Otis Douglas Hyde Herbarium
“TheHyde Herbarium (WTUH), collects and houses voucher specimens of all accessioned plants in the Washington Park Arboretum and the Center for Urban Horticulture, horticulturally significant plants, and plants that reflect the research and project efforts of faculty, staff and students at CUH and WPA.”

UW Herbarium at the Burke Museum
“The UW Herbarium (also known as WTU) is an international resource for plant, fungal, lichen, and marine algae research. The UW Herbarium is one of the largest in the Pacific Northwest.”

Marion Ownbey Herbarium at WSU
“The Ownbey Herbarium is a collection of nearly 350,000 specimens of vascular and non vascular plants and lichens. The Herbarium includes plants from around the world, although those of the Pacific Northwest, Great Basin, and California form the majority of the collection.”

Oregon State University Herbarium
“The OSU Herbarium houses approximately 405,000 vascular plant, bryophyte, algal, and fungal specimens. The collections are worldwide in scope, with a focus on the state of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest.”

Eastern Oregon University Herbarium
“EOU maintains a herbarium collection of approximately 9,500 specimens. The collection represents flora of the Pacific Northwest, primarily from the Oregon counties of Union, Wallowa and Baker. The website features a database that currently contains data for lower vascular plants, gymnosperms and monocotyledons.”

University of British Columbia Herbarium
“The UBC Herbarium is the largest in Canada west of Ottawa, home to over half a million plant specimens from around the world. The UBC Herbarium has five major collections: vascular plants; bryophytes (the largest collection in Canada); macroscopic algae; lichens; and fungi.”

University of Alaska Museum Herbarium
“The ALA Herbarium contains more than 200,000 specimens of non-vascular and vascular plants and is the only major research herbarium in Alaska. The collection emphasizes plants from Alaska and includes plants from other states, Canada, Greenland, Fennoscandia, Japan, and Russia.”

Humboldt State University Herbarium
“The HSU Vascular Plant Herbarium (HSC) consists of nearly 100,000 specimens, with a strong emphasis in the flora of northwest California and southwest Oregon. The Herbarium serves as a botanical resource for students and faculty, as well as community members and professional botanists.”

PNW Native Plants Images and Information

Washington Flora Checklist
A database contructed by members of the UW Botany department. "The Washington Flora Checklist aims to be a complete checklist of the vascular plants of Washington State. The checklist currently contains 3775 unique taxa."

Northwest Native Plant Landscape Guide
King County's Natural Resources and Parks department has made it easy for gardeners to include native plants in their gardens. The site includes garden design plans for sun or shade, dry or wet sites; detailed plant profiles that may be searched by name or browsed by photos; and a collection of short articles on topics such as proper site preparation. The most useful feature is the ability to create customized plant lists that can be printed, emailed or even saved for a later visit.

USDA's Celebrating Wildflowers, NW Region
" ...dedicated to the enjoyment of the thousands of wildflowers growing on our national forests and grasslands, and to educating the public about the many values of native plants."

WNPS's Photogallery
A gallery of digital photographs of Washington native plants.  Part of the Washington Native Plant Society’s webpage.

University of Washington's Plants of Western Washington Image Database
A database of nearly 600 images of plants commonly found in Western Washington which also provides ecological information about the plants featured.

Washington Trail Association Flora of the Northwest
A color sorted guide to wildflowers and other common flora found near hiking trails.

Oregon State University: Landscape Plants
The site features images and information on over 900 landscape plants (mostly woody) listed in alphabetical order by genus.

Oregon State University: Trees of the Pacific Northwest
This site provides assistance with identifying common conifers in the Pacific Northwest. It includes information about specific genera, “user-friendly dichotomous keys,” and a “mystery tree” section where you can test your knowledge.

Oregon Flora Project includes a plant distribution mapping program.

CalFlora (registration required)
An online database providing occurrence data about native and introduced plants in California.

CalPhotos
An online database of plant photos compiled by individuals and organizations.  Each contributor has designated his/her own copyright restrictions for his/her photos.

Native Plants for California Database
Database providing native plant recommendations for California gardens.  Currently, the database relies on zip codes to determine plant lists and only includes California zip codes.

E-Flora BC
An "electronic atlas of the plants of British Columbia" that provides detailed biogeographical, ecological and taxonomic information on vascular and eventually non-vascular plants of the province.

University of Puget Sound's Western Washington Flora
A database of Western Washington plant species featuring photographs, Latin and common names, and species notes. The featured searches are particularly useful, listing plants found in common habitats, ranges, and elevations.

PNW Native Plant Societies

Generally, Native Plant Societies conserve, advocate for, photograph, research and educate the public about the native plants in their geographic region.  All welcome new members and volunteers.  Unless otherwise noted, the Societies listed below cover an entire state or province.

• Washington Native Plant Society
• Native plant Society of Oregon
• Native Plant Society of British Columbia
• Idaho Native Plant Society
• Alaska Native Plant Society
• North Coast Chapter of California Native Plant Society
  Covers only the northern-most part of California

General Gardening Sites

Daniel J. Hinkley, Plantsman
Internationally renown plant explorer and writer, Dan Hinkley's speaking calendar is available as well as a growing collection of essays.

Gardening in Western Washington
Fact sheets, calendar of monthly tips, and Master Gardener information for west of the mountains.

Gardening with Ciscoe
The gregarious radio personality and former longtime Manager for Grounds and Landscaping at Seattle University developed a fun web page that highlights gardening in Seattle. Ciscoe's sense of humor is evident in the page of recipes devoted to the maligned brussel sprout. Serious topics are also included such as lawn care information for the Northwest and features on interesting plants and destructive bugs.

Gardening with Ed Hume - Gardening information archive.

Great Plant Picks for the Northwest
The Great Plant Picks program is a new plant awards program designed to help the home gardener identify foolproof plants for their Pacific Northwest garden.The program is targeted at gardeners in the maritime Pacific Northwest. This includes gardens north of Eugene, Oregon; southern British Columbia; and west of the Cascade Mountains.

In the Garden with Marty Wingate
This local Seattle garden writer leads tours to British gardens every spring.

John Davidson — The Legacy of a Canadian Botanist
A Canadian botanist, educator and conservationist active in the Northwest, Davidson's legacy is collected in this extensive digitized archive. Interactive activities include "hand" tinting glass slides and a virtual shopping trip for a 1926 expedition.

Northwest Garden History Homepage
Two-Hundred Years of People, Plants, and Gardens in British Columbia, Oregon, and Washington. Now includes the new Heritage Plants page.

Oregon State University Extension's Gardening Encyclopedia
A collection of text and audio resources including a detailed garden maintenance calendar, short radio clips, news articles and in-depth manuals on such topics as lawn renovation or growing blueberries.

Paghat's Garden
An extensive commentary of the life of the garden and grounds of an old estate where two eccentric women, Granny Artemis & Paghat the Ratgirl, live and work in the garden. As useful a reference as entertainment!

Slugs and Salal: Gardening Pacific Northwest
Published in British Columbia, this online magazine features light articles that will be of interest to all Pacific Northwest gardeners. The site includes a useful calendar of gardening events for each of the major Northwest regions, including the Seattle area.

Two Rainy Side Gardeners
This site features a collection of articles about gardening in the Northwest. Also included here are gardening forums, links to e-mail discussion lists, and online gardening resources.

UBC Botanical Garden Forums
An on-line extension service based in Vancouver, this site also allows posts of photographs, scientific discussions and details from University of British Columbia research.

More web site lists:

Select... Arboreta, Gardens and Herbaria Botany and Ecology Horticultual Bookstores and Publishers Libraries Organizations and Plant Societies Pacific Northwest Gardening Connections Periodicals Plant Care and Problem Solving Plant Identification and Selection The Traveling Gardener - Sales, Shows and Travel University of Washington Sites Other Horticulture-Related Sites

Last modified:
Wednesday, 16-Jul-2008 14:11:18 PDT