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Wednesday - March 28, 2007
From: Austin, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Wildflower Center
Title: How to search the Wildflower Center website
Answered by: Damon Waitt
QUESTION:
How the heck do I find a list of local native low-growing plants that are shade tolerant on this web site? The search functions don't seem to be specific enough. I searched specifying Texas, subshrub (it only lets you select one, a bad design), perennial, shade, and it said it couldn't find ANYTHING. !!?? I thought I remembered this thing being MUCH easier to find things on last year. Whatup?ANSWER:
You could try a couple of different things to improve your search results. Firstly, back off of full shade. Few plants can tolerate less than 2 hours of sun per day. Part shade is a much more common condition. Secondly, try searching for shrubs. they are more common than subshrubs which are defined as perennials with a woody base only. When Smarty plants searched for Texas perennial shrubs in part shade, the database yielded 135 species. You can also limit your search to Hill Country species by selecting the Hill Country Horticulture collection and then performing a combination search within those results.
We appreciate your comments as we work to improve the functionality and usability of the Native Plant Information Network.
Best regards,
Mr. Smarty Plants
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