Horticulture

from the Mira Dock Forestry Lantern Slide Collection
Maple Leafed Viburnum

Gardening is one of the major leisure activities of American adults and each spring millions enjoy the beauty of growing flowers, fruits, herbs, and vegetables. The term, horticulture, is derived from two Latin words, hortus, which means garden plant, and cultura, which means culture.

Horticultural information abounds on the Web, and these are just a few sites that provide information on many aspects of gardening.

The Consumer Horticulture Center from Penn State’s Department of Horticulture provides access to many publications, fact sheets, and other information on planting, growing, and maintaining plants in the garden, home, and landscape.

AgNIC Horticulture provides links to many horticultural sites throughout the United States and focuses on home gardening and the production of flowers, vegetables, ornamentals, herbs, and fruits for home use.

"Man - despite his artistic pretentions, his sophistication and his many accomplishments owes his existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact it rains." -- Anonymous

Plant Information Online from the University of Minnesota helps you locate sources of difficult to find plants and seeds for over 100,000 plants from over 900 North American firms. Links to expert-selected Web sites on growing plants in all regions of the United States and Canada are also included.

from the Mira Dock Forestry
Lantern Slide Collection
Pink Lady Slipper Orchid

GardenWeb is one of the oldest horticultural sites on the Web. Several hundred community forums help gardeners communicate about many types of plants and gardens. The information presented is not always scientifically verifiable, but many interesting ideas are presented on many gardening challenges. The Hortiplex provides images and information to over 50,000 plants with over 100,000 records.

Every gardener knows that under the cloak of winter lies a miracle - a seed waiting to sprout, a bulb opening to the light, a bud straining to unfurl. And the anticipation nurtures our dreams.' ~ Barbara Winkler

National Gardening includes many articles on flowers, fruits, vegetables, herbs, and ornamentals. Highlighted are home gardening, kids gardening, urban gardening, edible landscaping and celebrating the seasons

Bulb.com has everything about bulbs and growing bulbs, and includes photographs, planting information, spring and summer bulbs, and sources of bulbs.

Whoever said do something right the first time and you won't have to do it again, never weeded a garden."

The Spirit of Gardening has entertaining gardening information such as poems, quotations, and a timeline of the history of gardening.

Perry's Perennial Pages provides links, articles, and images of herbaceous perennials.

"No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth and no culture comparable to that of the garden." Thomas Jefferson - 1811

from the Mira Dock Forestry
Lantern Slide Collection
Coming of Spring

Tree Care Information Brochures from the International Society of Arboriculture supplies information ranging from selecting new trees to caring for them properly throughout their long lives.

OrganicGardening offers many articles on how to grow plants without using synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

If you would like more help on finding horticultural information, contact Kathy Fescemyer at kaf12@psu.edu. Kathy is the Life Sciences Librarian at the Life Sciences Library, University Park, and is the plant sciences librarian specialist.