feedback on search tutorial here, please

How do I find a vender for box huckleberry?

Do you know the species name and correct botanical listing so you can get to the PlantFiles listing for the plant you want? There shoud be a link on that page that says "find vendors for this plant?". If you don't know how to get to the PlantFiles listing for the plant you're looking for, that's sort of a different question.

I guess what I'm saying is that I don't know anything about the plant you're looking for, but what I do when I'm looking for something particular is I try to find the PlantFiles listing. Maybe I have the name wrong, maybe I'm looking for "shrubs" and I should be looking for "trees," maybe I should be looking for "edible" instead of "ornamental," etc. Maybe even I'm looking for local vendors instead of mail order or the other way around! I don't know...but if you're looking for something specific, I think using PlantFiles to narrow down the focus of what you're looking for is the way to go. Once you verify that you've got all that information correct, if PlantFiles doesn't list a vendor, you could try a general Google search.

Hope that's helpful! ^_^

Gaylussacia brachycera (aka box huckleberry) isn't a common plant in the mail order trade.

However, this Connecticut nursery offers it to walk-in customers: http://davesgarden.com/products/go/view/2186/ and *may* offer it via mail order in the fall. Contact them to determine availability And Esveld (in the Netherlands) offers it: http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/c/3015/

I still can't figure out how to find a species record for a plant that has numerous cultivars...latest example... !ris sibirica...
I have no idea how many pages of cultivars I might have to scroll through (less than the 480 total, I hope) before finding the record for the 'original' Iris sibirica...???
Since I grow only from seed - largely species - this is a real pain for me...

I don't know which method you're using to search, but if you go to the specific search and put in Iris in the genus and sibirica in the species field, then go down to the "cultivar preferences" drop down and choose "show only plants with no cultivar" that will bring up only the straight species.

If you pull up any listing for Iris sibirica, then click on the specific epithet "sibirica" (it's a hyperlink), it should pull up the actual species record first: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/b/Iridaceae/Iris/sibirica/cultivar/0/ - if for some reason it doesn't pull that one to the top, choose from the links to sort by species: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/b/Iridaceae/Iris/sibirica/species/0/

OK, I understand now...
Thanks

I'm a new member and a new subscriber; I signed up mostly to take advantage of the Advanced Search on PlantFiles. I just moved into a new place in zone 7b (or 8a in microclimates) with a large area for food production, and I want to impress my old friends (in zone 6b) with the cool fruits I can grow -- and learn about these myself, too. So, I ask, what edible fruits and nuts I can grow that I may not be familiar with based on prior experience in zone 6b?

So I use advanced search to look that up; the closest I can get is Category: edible fruits and nuts; Hardiness: USDA Zone 8a. That returns over 3,000 results in 79 pages. Daunting, but I try to work through them, figuring I'll just barrel on through and take some notes. But as I do so, I realize this is not really 3,000 distinct results: for instance, there are 3 1/2 pages of hazels alone (same species).

There are a few ways this could be made easier. I've done some database admin myself, so I know some features are easier than others. Could you comment on the potential for implementing any of these any time soon? I'm not asking about implementing all of them -- any one of these would make this search substantially easier for me.

* allow users to choose number of results per page (e.g. 20, 50, 100; ideally include "all" as an option) - this is probably easiest for you to implement, and would still make the process less painful / quicker for me, since I could then quickly scroll through functionally identical results rather than waiting for new pages to load.

* add "green stars" (or yellow flags, or red whatevers) to the set of fields on which we can select. This wouldn't solve the problem entirely, but would reduce the number of functionally duplicate results. I imagine it would also be of interest to many other users.

* allow users to download results - not everything about them (that could endanger your intellectual property and your business model) but just a single piece of info, e.g. the scientific name. Then I could take this and quickly cut out the duplicates, identify the species I'm not familiar with and then use the database and forums to find info on the results of interest (probably only about 15 or 20 distinct species).

* allow users to specify "hardy only in Zone 8a" type results, so that I don't get all the results I am already familiar with from experience in colder climes

* allow users to select "show only one result from each species" or "do not show cultivars". This would solve my problem very nicely but may not be of general interest (except for other people who want to use Advanced Search in the way that I do).

It appears that no one else has posted Qs like this but I happen to know a number of likeminded gardeners who would find functionality like this quite useful if it were available. So, thanks for considering these suggestions!

One final question; this is not related to the above problem, but also relates to database interface. It would be great to turn the "other details" search box into a multi-select box rather than a single-select box -- in case I want to find an edible fruit/nut tree that is hardy in zone 8a and also is (eg) BOTH deer-resistant AND provides winter interest.

Thanks,
Rob

Edit: Hmm, just realized I put this on the "comments on tutorial" rather than the general forum. Let me know if you'd like me to move it.

This message was edited Jul 17, 2014 10:04 AM

Great questions. I'd love to say it would be a breeze to implement, but I am not a programmer. I will talk to our techs and see what we can do. Database structure has come a long ways since we created PlantFiles, but I have no idea what we can do within the existing architecture, or what it would take to move the data to a new platform.