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Elisabeth C. Miller Library

Archives: Recommended Websites

PlantScout

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.

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.

Idaho Landscapes and Gardens

Published by the University of Idaho Extension, this well organized site contains articles on a wide variety of gardening topics such as fertilizing, transplanting trees, growing berries and growing Idaho native plants. Also included are links to contact the Master Gardeners or the Idaho Nursery and Landscape Association.

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.

Plant Disease Control

Oregon State University presents their online version of a guide to plant diseases. Search by the common name of either the plant or the disease. Each record describes the cause, symptoms and control for the particular disease, and most have a picture. The site also gives detailed instruction on how to submit a diseased plant sample to the Oregon State University clinics as well as addresses for the many official County Extension clinics in the Pacific Northwest.