when you add a photo to the data base please..........

fill in all the relevant info. I spent an evening a while back filling in the details for Geraniums and Osteospermums.

as for the temperature all that needs to be ticked is the lowest temp the plant can take not all the possibilities as far as the lowest.

Mark

This message was edited Monday, May 27th 3:29 AM

Mark, I think that's why Dave made it so other people could fill in the details of a plant already listed. I know I was hesitant to add plants that I didn't know everything about, so I just didn't do it. Now, I can put in as much as I know and leave it at that. Of course, a little Googling gives me family names and other things I wouldn't have known, but it's still hard to find EVERYthing.

what I mean is if a person is growing a plant they must know all the details already

LOLOL

Phil, I second that LOL! I can't count how many times I've had to move something once it gets going because I didn't know how big it was going to get. Even some things I researched ~ my research told me that lantana would get up to 6 feet wide, not 8! Of course now I know from experience, so that's your point, right, Mark? Fill in all you know? I agree completely with that. It kind of sounded like you were urging everyone to fill in absolutely everything and I just wanted to let you know sometimes it's not known. But I do agree wholeheartedly that everyone should fill in all they can.

Mark, I hate to be another downer, but I think it's good to put in all the zones as there are some things that will do fine in zones three through seven, but not my zone 8b-almost 9. Some examples: Lily-of-the-Valley, columbine (except one yellow var.) and Frasier fir trees. :-)

The reason for checking all the possible zones is two-fold:

The first one, as Wingnut has mentioned, has to do with the fact that those in warmer zones encounter plants that simply won't grow well in their area (I'm thinking of peonies and lilacs, to name two common examples.)

And the second reason is a more technical one. By checking all the zones in the range, it allows someone in (for example) zone 6 to search for plants hardy in their specific zone. The system will then include a plant that has all the checkboxes for zones 3-8 (for example) checked. If you checked only zone 3, the system can't deduce that it's also hardy in zone 6 or warmer.

I absolutely agree that if you are adding an entry, PLEASE add all that you can about the plant, and if you don't know a particular attribute, leave it blank. Someone else can then come along and add the missing information.

If you're adding a photo, we really need you to do two things: one, pay close attention to the wording next to that checkbox, and follow those instructions CLOSELY - copyright is a very serious issue. And two, add a caption - cultivar name if applicable, when/where the photo was taken if it is of the plant in bloom, or other description that would help someone understand the photo and the plant a little better.

So if you grow it you must automatically be an expert? LOL!! Sorry, but it doesn't work that way in the real world. I have put a couple of plants in the PDB, but I know nothing about their Latin names, or whether or not they will grow anywhere but where I am. Why would I? I don't live anywhere but here. I suppose I could use my gardening time to look up all these details so that I could then post them. But frankly that seems counter productive to me this time of year. I'd rather be gardening with plants than writing about them right now. Mostly I buy/grow plants for their color, form and beauty, or simply because I have never seen one before. Then if I think it is worthy or unusual, I add it to the forum. I have not entered any photos that were not my own, on the PDB or the forums, and I wouldn't. But I have seen a lot of PDB entries with no picture at all. Occasionally I have the plant that is described, but I think perhaps it would be best if I post it in Photos and let someone else take it from there.
I guess I misunderstood the option of being able to add information to the PDB. I mistakenly thought that was what it was for, so that if I had a photo of something that was not yet in the PDB, and knew only the common name, then I could post it with its common name and hope someone would come along and fill in the rest.
For instance, say that member X has a plant that grows well in Canada, and has always lived in Canada. But Member Y in Mississippi also grows this plant. When X enters it, she puts her zone in, not knowing that Y also grows it well in in his area.
Maybe it would be best to let those of us who aren't experts then, to not post at all to the PDB? I sure don't want to make extra work for anyone!! That is a bummer and if I'm guilty, a thousand lashes with a clod of crab grass to me! If those of you more fluent in Latin and Botony are missing a photo then a request to us "know nothings" could be made to see if we might accidently have it growing in our gardens. ;*) As long as the plant is described with a "common name" I'm sure I could figure it out.....eventually.

I'm new to this as well Penny, so I've just put into any plants which I have added, a wee bit of information pertaining to my own situation. For example, I wrote that Cranesbill Spessart, grew for me in ground which was oil soaked. It might not work everywhere, but it did for me :-)
I think it's ok just to put in a photo if you don't know any other information about the plant, since there will always be someone else with this plant, and will fill out the relevant stuff.
There are lots of us sitting in the same boat.

Still learning ;-)

Wintermoor

ROFLMAO, Wintermoor! Oil, huh? I won't ask.... hee hee. Now that is a new idea in mulch! The Dept. of Environemntal Quality would NOT be amused, I'm sure. But I am!

Yes, it's strange but true. I dug my first flower-bed out of an old 2nd world war bomb site, and it had been used since then as a car park. Thus the oil, plus old bits of rusty iron, lead-piping, bits of copper etc. Just what's required to make an excellent soil;-)

Exxon Wintermoor

penny4, anyone is welcome to add photos to the database, even if all you know is the common name. Our motto is for and by gardeners, and that means that all of us have something to contribute :)

I WOULD ask everyone to take one (or possibly two) quick step(s) before you create a new entry for a photo:

1. Search the plants database, using the common name, to determine if an entry already exists - then you can simply add your photo to the existing entry.

2. If it isn't in our database, it's very easy to find the botanical name if you simply search the web (I like Google; other use Lycos, Excite, Ask Jeeves, etc.) using the common name and the term "botanical name". So for example, a search for "Johnny Jump Ups botanical name" (no quotes) would tell me in a nano-second that its genus is Viola, and the species is probably tricolor, and the family is Violaceae.

Adding just that information will help those who follow you to know which plant you've added, and they can confidently fill in information like height, spacing, hardiness, etc. (And even those characteristics are quickly found in most websearches, if you have a few extra minutes to look them up.)

I agree with penny. Not every grower is an "expert", and I think it'll only make more to argue about if everybody who adds their growing conditions are the "best" way to grow each plant.

One other point I forgot to make above:

"...Occasionally I have the plant that is described, but I think perhaps it would be best if I post it in Photos and let someone else take it from there."

Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way - we don't copy photos from a forum to the Plants Database (PDB). Now that Dave has added the "PDB forum", it's easy to add photos to the PDB, then discuss them - just as though they were posted to a forum to begin with.

I sure hope this thread helps take some of the mystery out of the PDB - and gives more DG members the confidence to contribute some of those wonderful photos :)

Go_vols, you make a good point. But unfortunately I studied Journalism, not Botany, and I'm only slightly red-faced to confess that I don't know, when given the botanical name all at one time, which one is the genus, which the family, which word is the species, etc., and I am afraid that I may have already put the wrong word in the wrong slot, so to speak. So, if I only know the common name, and post a photo with that alone, then I am not really helping anyone at all, I guess. :-( I will make a point to at least try to add the correct botanical name, but even that, as we know from past experience, can be argued without a good photo. So far I think the only items I have added were not listed at all in the PDB. I'll have to check. But it is still OK to add a photo if one is missing, right?

I MUST decide to learn these botanical names, I suppose. But to me it takes away a bit of the lovely mystery and folklore of plants and flowers. Skunk Cabbage just says more to me than symplocarpus foetidus ;*)

None of this solves the problem Mark brought up about the zonal needs, and wanting the absolute lowest temps the plant can abide. Again, if I have a plant and have grown it with success only in zone 8 in my state, then I have no idea, without further research and comparing notes with other gardeners, of what it will do in zone 4 in Maine. That was why I thought it so nice to be able to add details to PDB descriptions; from the horses mouth, so to speak. It may be a perennial for me but very much an annual in Maine or Alaska. So, if I place it in the PDB as a perennial,like some snap dragons are for me, then someone else can come along and say "Not where I live!!" and that is good, I think. Does that make sense at all, or am I missing the point completely?

Sorry it took so long for me to answer back. I went to a wonderful nursery today, on Bainbridge Island, about 15 miles from me (normally one I intentionally stay away from $$$). They have some rare and unusual plants and almost everything is grown organically. I spent WAAAY too much money, but boy am I happy about it! LOL! And I can't wait to look up a few of them in the PDB to see what is needed to keep a couple of them happy. I'll post some shots when it stops raining - IF it stops raining...at least I don't have to water today!

I will be good, I promise, and I will consider carefully before submitting in future, and I'll keep my old copy of Rodale's Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening right next to my keyboard, and Google on my Favorites.
Blessings on this Memorial Day to all. Penny

The problem I have with looking up the zones that plants are hardy for is I can look at several different sites and books, and get different zone information for the same plant at every site.

penny4, it sounds like you had a wonderful time - good for you! Those indulgences are sure a lot of fun!

A quick point on the botanical names, and then I'll let it rest. You can also search for "common name genus", "common name species" and "common name family" - that way you know which is which for sure. As to the mystery and lore around plant names, look up a few plants in the PDB, and click on the "more info" next to the genus and species names - you may discover (as I did) that the botanical names are nearly as (or in some cases, more) interesting than the common.

Annuals vs. perennials - plants ARE truly one or the other, but that IS a field you can leave blank if you're not sure, and someone else can fill in.

Zones are much more subjective; as Joan has discovered, if you find five sites with zone information, you might find five different answers. Here's my suggestion for those of you in the more extreme regions (hot or cold): if you have had consistent success growing a plant in a zone colder (or warmer) than what we have listed for a plant, include that in your comments and/or email me, and we'll change the zone information. That kind of real-life experience is what makes the PDB different from any other database out there.

this is what I mean. it would be sufficient to say it is hardy to -39 but I would doubt it.http://plantsdatabase.com/go/154/

Mark

So a search for zone 5, let's say, would bring up all plants hardy down to, but not below, zone 5?

Zone <= 5?

This is a good point about the various plants...Zone 8 varies tremendously in climate across the US, despite having a similar lowest temp, for instance.

Kim what you're suggesting is a programming issue for Dave.

Checking only a single point on the zones still doesn't address the issue that if I am lucky (or unlucky) enough to live in zone 9, and a lilac is only rated for its cold-hardiness, it would still come up as a plant suitable for my zone. Which it probably isn't.

I should think a major problem with this categorisation into zones is that, as you were saying gw, zones don't bare much relation to an area's actual climatic conditions. Should think it would be more useful to put in the min temp, but then also comment about heat tolerance (or lack of it) and water requirements (as is already programmed), rather than trying to work out upper limits which can be so variable and depend on a number of factors other than min temp.