Gardening

General Information & Reference | Desert Gardening & Landscaping | Specific Plant Types | Zone Maps | Botanical Gardens & Parks

General Information & Reference

Gardener's Dictionary & Plant Name Finder Search for definitions and articles on more than 15,000 terms including plants and their varieties, fruits, herbs, vegetables, botanical terms, pests, diseases, pesticides, fertilizers, soils, tools and materials, and techniques.

Gardening Launch Pad A starting point for exploring the wide range of gardening resources available online. Includes links to mostly non-commercial sites on everything from alpine gardens to xeriscaping.

Desert Gardening & Landscaping

Desert Wildflower Watch Keep track of Arizona Wildflowers with this web log.

Lush and Efficient Desert Plants This California-based resource is one of the most detailed sites on desert landscaping around.

Maricopa County Home Horticulture Information on gardening in the Valley. Includes month-by-month to-do lists, local weather information, book recommendations, news about events, and a list of local gardening clubs. Be sure to check out their online version of the Arizona Master Gardener Manual (listed under "Publications").

Specific Plant Types

Arid Zone Trees A wealth of information on trees for the Desert Southwest. Features an extensive selection of articles on desert trees from the Arid Zone Times and a picture gallery that includes growing information.

Arizona Native Plant Society Learn about the society and access wildflower viewing alerts, plant salvage information, and a list of links to native plant resources in Arizona and beyond.

Mesa-East Valley Rose Society Includes a calendar of events and meetings, rose care, and photographs.

Succulent Plant Page Covers both cactus and succulents with detailed articles about selection and cultivation. Includes lots of pictures, links, and even recipes.

The PLANTS Database The PLANTS Database, sponsored by the USDA, provides standardized information about the vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the U.S. and its territories. It includes names, plant symbols, checklists, distributional data, species abstracts, characteristics, images, crop information, automated tools, onward Web links, and references.

Zone Maps

American Horticultural Society Plant Heat-Zone Map The zones of this map indicate the average number of days each year that a given region experiences "heat days"—temperatures over 86 degrees. That is the point at which plants begin suffering physiological damage from heat.

USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map Use the National Arboretum’s clickable map to find plant hardiness zone information for any area of the United States.

Botanical Gardens & Parks

Desert Botanical Garden Includes detailed information about the garden as well as resources for the home gardener. Their "Good Gardening Guides" have Valley-specific tips on everything from growing cactus to composting and their searchable database of plants in Living Collection allows you to find out if and where a certain plant is being grown at the garden.

Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park Take an extensive virtual tour of the Southwest’s oldest arboretum and read plant care tips from the garden’s curator.