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)

Tropical Plants

DISEASES

Diseases of Leyland Cypress in the Landscape

Turfgrass Diseases in Georgia

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

BugGuide.Net

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

Butterflies of North America

The Butterfly Web Site

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

Snakes of North America

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)