About Central Florida Gardener

Welcome and thank you for visiting Central Florida Gardener. Florida is a unique state in which to garden. It can be frustrating but also rewarding for gardeners who persevere. This blog was created as a resource for Florida gardeners, both new and experienced, in search of information specifically for Florida gardens.

You are invited to participate by leaving your comments, suggestions, tips and recommendations relevant to Florida gardening - don't be shy! Thank you for dropping by to learn more about gardening in the Sunshine state. I look forward to hearing from you! Susan

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Floridata -- Photographic Plant Encyclopedia


Floridata is an online photographic plant encyclopedia created for Florida gardeners by Jack Scheper 10 years ago. Along with 10 gardening friends/contributors he maintains a database of 730 plus Plant Profiles/Lists from annuals to vines, and everything in between. It’s a great resource for researching potential plants for your garden.


Jack has created an invaluable resource for Florida gardeners. Floridata gets my vote as one of the top resource sites for Florida gardeners. If you’ll remember, Jack was generous enough to let me link our cold-hardy plants list to his plant profiles.

Here’s what you’ll find at Floridata:

Plant Profiles/Lists

* Plants are listed alphabetically by botanical name.

* Plants are categorized by Plant Tag Lists - 9 types of plant categories: annuals, grasses, palms, perennials, shrubs, trees, water plants and cactus/succulent.

* The lists organize plants by some special feature or characteristic (such as edible, fragrant, drought, tolerant, etc.).

Note: One of my favorite resources on the homepage are links to these “special feature” lists. It’s easy to click on “Fragrant Plants” or “Shade Plants” and find a list of plants with these features.

In addition to Plant Profiles, Floridata features articles and other resources.

* Photo galleries: azalea, butterfly, camellia, pepper, Florida scrub plant, Florida scrub endangered plants, animals of the Florida scrub.

* Butterfly Resources - life cycle, photo gallery of 45 species, plants that attract butterflies.

* “How to” Articles written by Florida garden experts.

Member Profile & Forums provide a way to connect with other Florida gardeners.

* As a gardener, you can create a Profile Page that includes information on your garden. Create your own plant lists, and include a link to your blog,

* Forums and discussion groups are available for members to participate in.

When not working on Floridata, Jack maintains his own online garden journal - Jack’s Gardener’s Journal - where he writes about his experiences in his garden - Floridune near Tallahassee.

5 comments:

Meems said...

Susan,
This is a great post about a most useful resource. Floridata is an invaluable source of information for the Florida gardener. I use it all the time.
Meems

Steve Asbell said...

This is a great resource, and I return to it whenever I need info on a plant... which is to say everyday.

Terra Mirabilis said...

Great post! I was looking at Floridata earlier looking for info.

Jean Campbell said...

Floridata is a great resource. So is the Florida Native Plant Society. (My area of Georgia was given over to Florida because many of our wildflowers are different to those found around Atlanta, more like Florida.

You asked on my blog where to find Native Azaleas. They were commonly found at tiny independent nurseries like the one Mr. Varnadoe used to have in Colquitt, GA and one in Cairo, GA owned some years ago by Mr. Smith before native plants became fashionable.

Native Nurseries in Tallahassee has them. There are some online nurseries that carry them.

Deborah Verhoeven said...

Yes, I do love Floridata! It's nice to know who is behind that site.