Plant Search Question

Why is it that when I search for a specific plant, I get so many listings?
I just did a search for 'wax myrtle' and in got all the crape myrtles also!
What am I doing wrong? This is costing me lots of time when I should be outside planting/weeding.

Help?

Instead of using the "search plants" button on the top right, try the button on the left side, a few inches down, that says "click here to search for plants". It will bring up only exactly what you type in the blanks.


http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/adv_search.php?Search=Click+here+to+search+for+plants

I don't know the inner workings of the general search but I get the same result you did so you're definitely not doing anything wrong. If you use the specific search instead and put wax myrtle in the common name field, it only comes up with 3 entries. I've had much better luck with the specific search so that's the one I always use. The only trouble with it is you have to know whether the name you have is the common name, genus, species, cultivar, etc so you know which field to put it in. Wax myrtle is pretty obvious but others may be a little trickier. And don't be scared by all the fields for the scientific names (family, genus, species, etc) you don't need to know those. As long as you know something to put in one of the fields, you just fill in that field and search, you don't need to know the rest.

Some PF searching help: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/608659/

Ditto the encouragement to try the field-by-field search. But if you are using the generalized search and using a multiple word phrase, try putting it in double quote marks: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/search.php?q=%22wax+myrtle%22&Search=Search+PlantFiles

I am trying to find the name of this flower...it is a spring bulb.
Thanks for any information in advance.

Your best bet is to start a new thread in the plants ID forum here: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/plantid/all/