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Many members have asked us for some how-to advice on searching within PlantFiles. Hopefully this will help all members become more comfortable using our search engine to find the plant they're seeking.
If you only know its common name, that's okay! Just fill in the common name field with all or part of the plant's name. See the picture below to locate the field you can fill in with what you know.
Now let's say you want to look up 'Mr. Lincoln' rose. There are over 3,000 roses listed in the database, so if you just type "Rose" in the common name field, you're going to be searching through your results for a long time.
There are three ways to look for a particular rose - two types of searches, and a browse.
We'll start with a search similar to the one we just did, but filling in the common name and cultivar name fields.
Not sure whether it's 'Mister Lincoln' or 'Mr Lincoln' or 'Mr. Lincoln'?
Punctuation and spelling are crucial, as the search engine is looking for an exact match to your search criteria.
If you're not finding the results you think you should, try leaving out the questionable punctuation or spell just the part of the word you know is correct. In this case, - in this case, a search just for "rose" and "Lincoln" will lead you to just a couple results to view and compare: http://davesgarden.com/pf/adv_search.php?searcher[common]=ro...
In this area, you'll find a link to each letter of the alphabet (see picture below.) Click on the first letter of the cultivar name to start browsing. (Using our example, click on "M" to look for Mr. Lincoln.).
Note: on this page, you'll also find the top ten roses in our database (based on comments submitted); the ten most photographed roses in PlantFiles, and the most recently added images. You can help influence these "top ten" lists by submitting photos and comments for your favorite cultivars!
As you begin your advanced search, you can either look for ANY plant that meets your criteria, or you can narrow your search down to a particular group of plants.
To finish our example, we'll first search for a particular rose by its attributes.
The series of checkboxes are all the different criteria you can specify. You can choose as few or as many criteria as you want - the more you choose, the fewer results you'll have; and the fewer criteria you stipulate, the more plants will be included in your results.
For this example, I chose to limit my search to:
Type (Hybrid Tea)
Hardiness (to zone 7a)
Bloom color (Dark red)
If your advanced search is for a plant not listed (or you're not sure exactly what kind of plant you're looking for), the Advanced Search can help you narrow down your possible choices.
Click on the first link to show you all plants within your specifications. (See photo below.)
And finally - the catch-all generalized search If you just know a part of the plant's name, and you aren't sure if it's the common name, botanical name, cultivar, or maybe the hybridizer's last name, don't despair! You may still be able to track it down with the generalized search.
First click on the green search button in the upper right hand corner (see photo below)
This quick tutorial is designed to cover the most common PlantFiles search-related questions. If you have suggestions or feedback regarding this tutorial, or have more questions, please post them here: http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/608667/
