Dave’s Garden’s PlantScout searches listings from 77 vendors (as of July 2018). Searching for a plant will generate a list of linked nurseries that report selling it. From the results page, the plant name link goes to the Plant Files database; “purchase” goes to the nursery’s web site; while the nursery name link goes to a list of all the plants offered by that nursery. The nursery inventory page has a link to the Garden Watchdog customer review page for that nursery. Vendors pay a yearly fee to include their inventory in the database, but it is free to visitors.
Keyword: Database
Garden Watchdog Guide to Gardening by Mail
Dave’s Garden is a long time gardening community site with forums, a plant description database and other features, much of it for free. Garden Watchdog harnesses one of the more potent Internet developments: the customer opinion. Plant hunters should search the Watchdog database for over 86,000 customer ratings of 4,000+ vendors and nurseries before buying.
Garden for Wildlife – Making Wildlife Habitat at Home
By National Wildlife Federation. How to attract birds, insects, and amphibians. How to build houses/nests for bats, bees, and birds. How to create a neighbor and wildlife friendly backyard.
Native Plants Database
The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center site offers a database with information on native plants and related organizations searchable by region, state or city. Included are native plant societies, conservation groups, governmental agencies, botanic gardens and arboreta. Sources for nurseries and seed suppliers are searchable by an alphabetical list, or by state, city, or zip. The “Mr. Smarty Plants” database has questions answered by staff members of the Wildflower Center.
CalFlora
An online database providing occurrence data about native and introduced plants in California.
Bellevue Botanical Garden Plant Database
“This plant information form lets you search the Bellevue Botanical Garden’s plant collection. Based on your criteria, you can locate plant information, photos, and locations in the garden.”
Burke Museum (UW) Herbarium Database
The database system provides access to label information from specimens housed in the WTU herbarium. As one of the largest herbaria in the Pacific Northwest, WTU’s total holdings number around 564,000 specimens. These are divided between collections of vascular plants, mosses, hepatics, fungi, lichens, and algae, with a focus on the Pacific Northwest region.
Dave’s Garden, PlantFiles
Database with information about plants, including comments from gardeners
eFloras.org
Access to a series of flora, tree and moss databases for China, North America, Chile, Nepal, Pakistan, and the Andes of Ecuador.
Cal Poly UFEI SelecTree
A tree selection guide from Cal Poly Urban Forests Ecosystems Institute including trees native to CA and elsewhere. Allows search by characteristics and mentions general root growth tendencies for many trees that grow in the PNW. Although this service is based in California it provides considerable practical information for all regions about many tree species and their suitability in urban environments. A nursery connection map helps locate sources to buy specific trees.