How To be Sherlock Holmes in the Landscape
I receive more than 5000 emails a year asking my advice on solving landscape problems.
I can’t keep all that information in my head so I depend on several websites to give me the first clues to identify the problem and figure out what’s going on.
I sometimes feel as if I’m working as Sherlock Holmes in the landscape……and sometimes as a detective among the millions of possible websites. But my motto always remains:
“The truth is out there – – if you just know where to look.”
Here are some of the sites I use:
PLANT IDENTIFICATION
Floridata
Trees of Alabama and the Southeast
Florida Plants Online Guide to Florida Plant Life
Oregon State University Landscape Plants
Wildflower, Herb, and wild medicinal plant picture gallery
Brigham Young University – Flower Images (Broken Link)
Brigham Young University – Vegetable Images (Broken Link)
Brigham Young University – Plant Images (Broken Link)
Foliage Houseplant Images (Broken Link)
DISEASES
Diseases of Leyland Cypress in the Landscape
Vegetable Diseases Fact Sheets listed by Crop
Ohio Plant Disease Fact Sheet Index
Texas A&M Tomato Problem Solver
Missouri Disorders of Vegetables (Broken Link)
INSECTS
Iowa State University Entomology Image Gallery
North Carolina Insects of Ornamentals and Turf (Broken Link)
Clemson Beneficial Insect Images
Auburn University Department of Entomology Publications
Clemson Vegetable Insect Factsheets (Broken Link)
A Guide to Missouri Spiders (Broken Link)
Auburn Guide to Recognition of Stinging Caterpillars
Beetles from A – Z (Broken Link)
Caterpillars of Eastern Forests (Broken Links)
ANIMALS
Audubon Society Creature I.D. Guides (Broken Link)
U.S. Geological Survey Creature I.D. Guides (Broken Link)
Wildlife Damage Identification (Broken Link)
Univ of Illinois Herpetology Pictures (Broken Link)
Online Guide to the Snakes of Florida
FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
Virginia Tech Fruits & Vegetables
California Rare Fruit Growers – Unusual Fruit
Auburn Citrus for Southern and Coastal Alabama (Broken Link)
Southeastern Palm and Exotic Plant Society Hardy Citrus (Broken Link)