ONLINE PLANT DATABASES

People often ask where I search out new plants for my designs. Besides books (which I'll talk about in another post), I enjoy perusing online plant databases. These are great for narrowing down choices by picking key plant characteristics. For instance I can search for a 24" tall perennial that likes sun, has purple flowers, thrives in zone five, plus has an upright form. A great way to narrow down thousands of plants to two or three.  Note that none of these are inclusive, so you'll have to use a combination of sites to find a good selection of plants.

Here are some of my favorites:

Missouri Botanical Garden Plant Finder

Midwest Groundcovers Advanced Plant Search

Monrovia Plant Catalog 

Perennial Resource Perennial Encyclopedia

UPDATE:

Here are some additional database suggestions via those on my Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ streams:

Bluestone Perennials Plant Finder

Dave's Garden PlantFiles

Fine Gardening Plant Guide

Great Plant Picks (Pacific Northwest)

Jim Melka Plant Finder

LBJ Wildflower Center Native Plant Database

Online Plant Guide

Plant Lust

Shoot Plant Search

USDA Plant Finder

Waterwise Database (zones 8-11)

The database below actually helps you ID plants.  Love it!

New England Wild Flower Society Simple ID Key

Do you have a favorite online plant database not included above? Happy plant hunting!

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