Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Horticulture and Gardening

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[edit] New Project

I'm starting this project because the horticultural categories are rather disorganised. I'm fairly new to wiki, but not to horticulture. (Please help set up the project page!) As well as looking for experienced wikipedians, I'm also recruiting from web forums, where there are some people with great expertise and knowledge on gardening subjects. SB Johnny 14:10, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Is it proper form to simply delete a bunch of the boilerplate that's not being used? It's rather ungraceful at the moment... I suppose things could just be added back in later. SB Johnny 14:35, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Adding Category Tags

In the Organic Garden category, many pages are linked from the main article page, but do not have the category tag. Should they be added? SB Johnny 13:59, 14 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cleaning up Organic link pages

(Moved from the main project page)

Clean up Category:Organic_gardening. There is also a page linked on the Organic_gardening page of related pages, which should probably go on the category page. That page is here: List_of_organic_gardening_and_farming_topics.

I disagree as the 'list of' page (albeit created by myself, in the days before we had wikipedia categories) is organised much more systematically than a category page, which is purely alphabetical, for further discussion see Talk:List_of_organic_gardening_and_farming_topics
I also think the list is very useful, and should be actively maintained. Future WP features, along the lines of Categories, may eventually make this type of organized page redundant, but at present, with so much spawning of "subarticles" and also proposals to merge, this gives a great overview of the broad topic that helps both in locating info (readers) and planning (editors). --Tsavage 18:03, 14 January 2006 (UTC)
Maybe a good approach would be to put the category tags on the bottom of those pages as well? This would allow a nice redundancy.SB Johnny 11:55, 18 January 2006 (UTC)
Just to add the "official" sentiments: Wikipedia:Categories,_lists,_and_series_boxes. SB Johnny 16:20, 18 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Subcategory for garden pests?

Might be good to have one... I've started putting some tags for garden pests to the Horticulture category. SB Johnny 16:02, 3 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wikibooks

I've seen several discussion pages regarding the "how-to" quality of some horticulture and gardening articles. Perhaps cleaning some of these up to me more encyclopedic would be a good idea, with links to wikibooks that can go into greater detail about how-to information? SB Johnny 10:30, 16 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Articles for the Wikipedia 1.0 project

Hi, I'm a member of the Wikipedia:Version_1.0_Editorial_Team, which is looking to identify quality articles in Wikipedia for future publication on CD or paper. We recently began assessing using these criteria, and we are looking for A-class, B-class, and Good articles, with no POV or copyright problems. Can you recommend any suitable articles? Please post your suggestions here. Cheers, Shanel 20:48, 9 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Merge proposal

I though members of this project could pitch in at Talk:Pruning about the proposal to merge Pruning fruit trees into that article. Circeus 22:18, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] New wikibook (to ease transwiking)

I've created a new wikibook called b:A Wikimanual of Gardening on our sister site, in the hopes of clearing up the "how-to" problems involved with many of the plant and garden pages. I will watch this book and try to keep on top of it, but help would be greatly appreciated. For information on transwiking to this book, please see the chapter b:A_Wikimanual_of_Gardening/How_to_Transwiki_Information_to_this_Book

I'm cross-posting this on the Plants project as well. SB Johnny 17:22, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Native Gardening Societies...

OK, shall we list native gardening soiceties on the native gardening page or is there a list elsewhere (tried a wikisearch..) cheers Cas Liber 05:05, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

Looks like a couple are there at the bottom as external links. Might be a list somewhere without a category tag, but if not, might be nice to have a separate page. SB Johnny 13:49, 4 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "Hortibox" template?

I've been thinking for a while now that some sort of box (like the taxobox) might be good to have for garden plants. Maybe the following fields:

  • Hardiness zones (and other zones)
  • Sunlight requirements (sun/shade/etc.)
  • Soil requirements (would be good to come up with some sort of standard notation, might need more than one field on this including drainage, fertility, pH, etc.)
  • Water requirements (some range between xeric and wetland)
  • Growing season (especially for food crops)
  • Chilling period
  • Propagation methods (seed, cutting, division, etc... again, good to have some standard notation)

Sound good? Am I leaving something out? Anyone know how to make templates? SB Johnny 17:02, 21 June 2006 (UTC)

  • heh heh, I just responded on your Talkpage but I'll add the relevant comments here:
MPF has brought up some points about Hardiness zones that I think we should consider. For his specific comments see my Talkpage and the Hardiness zones article. In short, it might be best to list temp. ranges rather than HZ ratings.
I'm wondering if we should include specifics about Growth Rate and Life Expectancy?
All the other info you proposed looks excellent. I'm excited about this idea and I think it could add a lot of useful info and some much-needed consistency :)
Aw dang, I was hoping you knew how to make tamplates! Any idea who we might turn to? MPF seems to have some experience...Doc Tropics 17:34, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
Managed to cobble something together. See it here.
I'm afraid I don't know much about designing infobox templates, but I was thinking it would good if the proposed hortbox were complimentary to the existing taxobox; ideally appended directly as a supplement to the taxobox. Is this possible? Strobilus 01:10, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] User Box

Hi, I have made a User Box feel tree to use it Template:User WikiProject Horticulture and Gardening

Any objections to me putting it on the project page? (Unsigned comment by user:Lynnathon)

None here... nice box!SB Johnny 10:41, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
I like it, looks great HelloMojo 10:15, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Lawn article

Hi there, I just had a quick scan through the lawn article and it requires quite abit of work. It needs to be globalised as at the moment it mainly focuses on United States lawns. Have a look and see what you think, I have put this on my to do list but would welcome any help...... many thanks Lynnathon 21:27, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Book category?

Hi folks! I wandered over while sorting out non-fiction books. I don't know what gardening-book articles may be lurking out there, but do you think there are enough books about botany/horticulture/gardening etc. to merit a sub-cat? Currently we have Cat:Agriculture books, but it's very underpopulated. ♥ Her Pegship♥ 15:15, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Categories for deletion

Do the project members here have any constructive advice with regard to the following category that is up for deletion: Freshwater aquarium plants? David D. (Talk) 23:04, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Proposed merger of Native gardening and Wildflower garden articles

Hye guys, much of these two articles are the same and I think a bigger article encompassing the ideals of both is a great idea, there is a vote on on the discussion page of Native gardening. cheers. Cas Liber 23:22, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wikibooks project started

Hi all,

Just in case anyone's been wondering, my horticultural writing has been mostly on wikibooks these days, as it's just a lot easier to write on gardening topics in a "how-to-friendly environment". If anyone wants to work on this, there's plenty to do in A Wikimanual of Gardening.

I'm mostly working on pages about weeds, sometimes transwikiing wp articles and modifying them (e.g.:A Wikimanual of Gardening/Trifolium repens), other times starting from scratch (e.g.:A Wikimanual of Gardening/Hydrocotyle sibthorpioides).

The "hortibox" template -- which ran into resistance here from the tree of life people -- is now in use by some chapters over there, e.g. A Wikimanual of Gardening/Iris sibirica. There are also templates for weeds, trees, and weedcontrol, more are in the works. --SB_Johnny|talk|books 11:34, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Project directory

Hello. The WikiProject Council has recently updated the Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory. This new directory includes a variety of categories and subcategories which will, with luck, potentially draw new members to the projects who are interested in those specific subjects. Please review the directory and make any changes to the entries for your project that you see fit. There is also a directory of portals, at User:B2T2/Portal, listing all the existing portals. Feel free to add any of them to the portals or comments section of your entries in the directory. The three columns regarding assessment, peer review, and collaboration are included in the directory for both the use of the projects themselves and for that of others. Having such departments will allow a project to more quickly and easily identify its most important articles and its articles in greatest need of improvement. If you have not already done so, please consider whether your project would benefit from having departments which deal in these matters. It is my hope that all the changes to the directory can be finished by the first of next month. Please feel free to make any changes you see fit to the entries for your project before then. If you should have any questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you. B2T2 23:39, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Stablepedia

Beginning cross-post.

See Wikipedia talk:Version 1.0 Editorial Team#Stablepedia. If you wish to comment, please comment there. ★TWO YEARS OF MESSEDROCKER★ 03:49, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

End cross-post. Please do not comment more in this section.

[edit] Proposed merger of Native gardening and Natural landscaping articles

Hey guys, much of these two articles are the same and I think a bigger article encompassing the ideals of both is a great idea, there is a vote on on the discussion page of Native gardening. Natural landscaping is probably the broader term though I have not heard it used as such in Australia.Cas Liber 10:11, 30 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia Day Awards

Hello, all. It was initially my hope to try to have this done as part of Esperanza's proposal for an appreciation week to end on Wikipedia Day, January 15. However, several people have once again proposed the entirety of Esperanza for deletion, so that might not work. It was the intention of the Appreciation Week proposal to set aside a given time when the various individuals who have made significant, valuable contributions to the encyclopedia would be recognized and honored. I believe that, with some effort, this could still be done. My proposal is to, with luck, try to organize the various WikiProjects and other entities of wikipedia to take part in a larger celebrartion of its contributors to take place in January, probably beginning January 15, 2007. I have created yet another new subpage for myself (a weakness of mine, I'm afraid) at User talk:Badbilltucker/Appreciation Week where I would greatly appreciate any indications from the members of this project as to whether and how they might be willing and/or able to assist in recognizing the contributions of our editors. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 17:09, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] A very small stub

I would like to put foward the following stub, indoor plant culture, which at the moment is (not even) a stub and is not written in a formal style so if anyone would like to have a go at it. I have been thinking in nominating it for deletion because it does not give any relevant information. It has also been tagged for it to be transwikified to wictionary. I would like to know if anyone can improve this article or shall we just nominate it for deletion? Francisco Valverde 15:39, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] New Plant/Garden wiki

I've just set up a wiki just for plants and gardens. The articles on Wikipedia are by rule encyclopedic, and I want to create a plant encyclopedia and garden wiki with much more gardener friendly information, presentation. I am currently working on adding base material from Wikipedia itself, and then adding things like USDA plant zones, Sunset zones, propogation, common pests and diseases, and all the other types of things a gardener would want to know about a plant... so hopefully the sites will compliment each other with time. --RaffiKojian 15:06, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

Have you thought about doing this on Wikibooks? b:A Wikimanual of Gardening has several hundred entries already (but needs a table of contents... use the categories to see what's actually there). --SB_Johnny|talk|books 12:08, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Botanical Gardens

Anybody here know if there is a infobox for botanical gardens/arboretuims etc.? I've look a bit but could not find one. Thanks. Aboutmovies 20:00, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

None that I know of, but we could certainly make one, just a question of what sorts of fields we want (location, founding date, acreage, etc.). I've designed a lot of infoboxes on Wikibooks, so I'll give it a shot. --SB_Johnny|talk|books 12:17, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Project banner question

I have recently created a banner for Wikipedia:WikiProject Biology which has assessment parameters. I notice that your existing banner does not. Given the amount of overlap in the biology sector, and the concerns expressed elsewhere about the proliferation of project banners, I was wondering whether the members of this project would be interested in perhaps utilizing the Biology banner, with a "drop down tab" for this project, perhaps similar to the {{WPMILHIST}} banner. Doing so would permit for individual assessment for each project, as that is something the Military History banner does, while at the same time reducing the amount of banner "clutter" on talk pages. If you would be interested in such an arrangement, please let me know and I will work to revise the Biology banner to include the "drop-down" tab and make the other arrangements required for your project, as well as theirs, to have assessment data available. Thank you. John Carter 21:03, 27 April 2007 (UTC)

We have a banner? As a general rule, I don't see anything wrong with having several banners on talk pages (they're work spaces, and banners (at least in theory) help the work along. Could you provide an example of how this would work? --SB_Johnny|talk|books 12:17, 28 April 2007 (UTC)
I actually didn't see a banner, but wasn't sure if there was one somewhere else. I thought I would look stupid if I said "your banner isn't..." and then was shown one that proved me wrong. A question recently at Wikipedia:WikiProject reform among other places is that some articles have as many as 10 banners on them, which kinda clogs up much of the space on the talk page. That was one of the reasons that page was created. But there are several projects, WP:MILHIST and WP:AUSTRALIA among them, which use one banner which provides data for multiple projects. If you were to look at the Talk:Sydney page for instance, you'd see the one Australia banner includes a "tab" for WikiProject Sydney in addition to the main "body" for Australia, and categorizes the article by quality and importance for both the Australia and Sydney projects. Other articles might have more than one "tab" made visible, depending on how many other projects were involved. I think I could get the same thing done with the Biology banner, if some of the other projects were interested in working with it. John Carter 17:07, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Flowering date categories

As gardeners are often interested in the period when flowers are in bloom, I suggest categories be created with which to mark the estimated flowering period of plants. Proposal is at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject Plants#Proposal for flowering date categories. I haven't found a Wikipedia article about flower garden design which considers blossoming time. I also think the Growing season article could use some expansion to help gardeners. (SEWilco 18:36, 1 May 2007 (UTC))

Categories for when plants are in flower
Meteorology Months
(North/South)		 Category
Winter Jan/Jul Category:Mid winter flowers
Feb/Aug Category:Late winter flowers
Spring Mar/Sep Category:Early spring flowers
Apr/Oct Category:Mid spring flowers
May/Nov Category:Late spring flowers
Summer Jun/Dec Category:Early summer flowers
Jul/Jan Category:Mid summer flowers
Aug/Feb Category:Late summer flowers
Autumn Sep/Mar Category:Early autumn flowers
Oct/Apr Category:Mid autumn flowers
Nov/May Category:Late autumn flowers
Winter Dec/Jun Category:Early winter flowers
These categories are being voted on at Categories for discussion, with most comments apparently by people who didn't look at the linked discussions or are not flower gardeners. (SEWilco 02:09, 20 May 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Date cultivation in Dar al-Manasir

I ran into this page, and it's listed in the peer review, and so I thought I'd list it here, in case some more edjudificated people could look at it. Thanks for any help. Rhetth 01:35, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] May 2007: Category:Flowers

Rearrangement of Category:Flowers is being discussed in Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Plants#Category:Flowers. As some gardeners are interested in the flowering part of the plant, perhaps some here would have something to contribute. (SEWilco 03:27, 22 May 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Wikipedia:WikiProject Beekeeping

I point out the existence of Wikipedia:WikiProject Beekeeping for consideration whether it is of sufficient interest to horticulture to mention it. (SEWilco 17:16, 28 May 2007 (UTC))

[edit] WP:TOL template

I'm working on a proposal to subsume all the WP:TOL project banners into a single one. Please see Wikipedia:WikiProject Tree of Life/Template union proposal and its talk page. Circeus 19:22, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

                             Saving a Hibiscus


Hi my name is Rene and I live in northern KY. I recently rescued a very dried out Hibiscus from a lccal store for $5.00 dollars. I brought it home and nurtured it and it was flowering and growing very well. Then a squirel dug it up and exposed the roots and it the plant layed on top of the soil for a day before I found it. I tried everything I could think of to revive it to no avile. Is there anybody that could make any suggestions to help me out? I would be very thankful as i hate to lose such a beautiful plant. Please email me Mr_abstract@insightbb.com

[edit] Project Banner

Can you reformat the project banner? It's fully over 4X the height of the plants banner on the Weed article and is not very tidy looking. KP Botany 19:03, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Plus you miss your notice of the COM, and you can't see that it's a talk page with the height of the banner. KP Botany 19:07, 4 August 2007 (UTC)
Looks like User:Wassupwestcoast created the template, but I spruced it up. I'm not sure how many of those parameters/functions will be used for this WikiProject, but I left everything else the same except the size of the photo. Do the members of this WikiProject want User:BotanyBot to populate the hort and gardening article talk pages with the project banner? I can also create the required categories and assessment page if needed. Oh, and what are your thoughts regarding template nesting (e.g. what we do with {{Carnivorous Plants}})? Are all of the hort and garden-related articles a subset of WikiProject Plants or are a lot of them non-WP:PLANTS related? Cheers, --Rkitko (talk) 13:33, 5 August 2007 (UTC)
They're technically a subset but there are certainly plants and that are primarily or more the focus of this project than of plants in general, like all of the cultivars (I don't know if there is a WP cultivars, though). Where is an article that shows Carnivorous Plants nested, as I'm not sure I know what this means? One useful thing about the templates, is it gives editors a place to ask a question, and, imo, it's more useful that editors be sent to the most specific place to ask a question, meaning carnivorous plants, not plants for carnivores, and hort and gardening for hybrid roses, not general plants. KP Botany 18:25, 5 August 2007 (UTC)
See Drosera capensis for a nested template. WP:BANKSIA is nested twice. Indeed, what nesting does is it allows for a smaller project to maintain their project banner but reduce the clutter from higher up projects without removing any assessment details from those larger projects. I see you've also commented on the derailed TOL template proposal. I think I'm going to try and bring that back, but I need to create the terribly large template before I go back to convince people it would be easier. Cheers, --Rkitko (talk) 21:42, 5 August 2007 (UTC)
I see the nesting. I like the ToL template, the second one proposed, that actually lists the overarching project, in the case of plants, better though, although this one would be fine, probably, if WikiProjectPlants were bolded. KP Botany 21:47, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Help requested (Commons)

I recently added 17 images, constituting Commons:Category:Butterflies & Blooms (about an exhibit at the Woodland Park Zoo). There are some good pictures, but I am no good at all on names of plants. Many of these feature particular flowering plants and could use species-specific descriptions and categories, and I'm not the one to do it competently. - Jmabel | Talk 03:25, 9 August 2007 (UTC)

Some plants are pretty hard to identify from just a photo. I'm reluctant to make an identification based just on that. Kingdon 19:04, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Aeroponics

The Aeroponics article is a reasonably informative one which covers many aspects of the subject. On the minus side, it reads like a promotional brochure (especially in places). There has been some sparring over this (over neutrality tags, or little edits here or there), but nothing too big yet. I'm not really posting here as a battle cry (at least, not a battle I plan on leading), but sooner or later I expect this to boil over one way or another. I added the article to this wikiproject, and am mentioning it here, but don't plan on doing anything else. Kingdon 19:04, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Plant ID help

If someone has time, could I get help identifying the tree and plant in Image:Cattail.jpg, Image:TreeFruit1.jpg, Image:TreeFruit2.jpg? I put what I think they are, but I'd like a proper plain and scientific name for them if I can get help. I made them PD at WikiCommons and they are high resolution. Thanks. — Rlevse • Talk • 21:18, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

Identifying to a species can be hard, especially from photos, but I'll offer what I know. The Image:Cattail.jpg one looks like a grass. As far as I know, every cattail has an inflorescence which is a sausagelike head of densely packed flowers, not a looser inflorescence as in this picture. As for the tree, I don't think I can distinguish between Bumelia, holly, Rhamnus, Aronia, and probably others (and that's Eastern North America alone; more if cultivated or elsewhere). I'm sure someone more expert could narrow it down more than that, but there are a fair number of trees and shrubs with small round fruits on stalks and which have simple untoothed leaves. Kingdon 13:36, 5 November 2007 (UTC)
How about hackberry? Someone thinks it's hackberry. — Rlevse • Talk • 14:13, 5 November 2007 (UTC)
Yup, the cattail photo is deninitely not a cattail. The tree is Pyrus calleryana, the callery pear. --SB_Johnny | talk 14:19, 5 November 2007 (UTC)
I won't disagree with callery pear (it was one of my first thoughts when I saw the leaves, but I wasn't so sure about the fruit). Kingdon 15:54, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

"Phragmites Australis" is what someone told me the grass is and that it's of European origin, not native to the area I found it in Virginia. "Callery Pear"-I went back there today and look closer at the fruit. The skin is just like what we called "Asian Pears" when I lived in Japan, so I'm going with these IDs unless someone has a better ID. I'll upload another photo and change the old photos names in a bit. — Rlevse • Talk • 21:07, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

Here are the new image names on commons, with a close up of the fruit. THANKS TO ALL WHO HELPED! If you need help, let me know, I'm an admin....Image:CalleryPearA.jpg, Image:CalleryPearB.jpg, Image:CalleryPearC.JPG, and Image:‎Phragmites Australis.jpg‎ . These are on commons as PD. Does anyone think they have Featured Picture potential? — Rlevse • Talk • 21:36, 5 November 2007 (UTC)
I don't look at enough feature picture candidates to say, but A is so-so (with parts out of focus), B is out of focus, C is the best of the lot, and Phragmites doesn't stand out from the background enough. Kingdon 00:53, 6 November 2007 (UTC)
That was my view too. I think C is pretty good actually, not sure if FP worthy though. What I like about A/B/C is that they're up close, a lot of plant pics are from far away and you can't see the detail. I may go back there and try for better pics. For some reason I really like this tree-;) — Rlevse • Talk • 00:57, 6 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Greenspun illustration project: requests now open

Dear Wikimedians,

This is a (belated) announcement that requests are now being taken for illustrations to be created for the Philip Greenspun illustration project (PGIP).

The aim of the project is to create and improve illustrations on Wikimedia projects. You can help by identifying which important articles or concepts are missing illustrations (diagrams) that could make them a lot easier to understand. Requests should be made on this page: Philip_Greenspun_illustration_project/Requests

If there's a topic area you know a lot about or are involved with as a Wikiproject, why not conduct a review to see which illustrations are missing and needed for that topic? Existing content can be checked by using Mayflower to search Wikimedia Commons, or use the Free Image Search Tool to quickly check for images of a given topic in other-language projects.

The community suggestions will be used to shape the final list, which will be finalised to 50 specific requests for Round 1, due to start in January. People will be able to make suggestions for the duration of the project, not just in the lead-up to Round 1.

thanks, pfctdayelise (talk) 13:04, 13 December 2007 (UTC) (Project coordinator)

[edit] Project banner assessment

Hi all! Couple questions for you. I was wondering if anyone on this project intends to use the /Comments function of the project banner or the /To-do list. As far as I can tell, neither are currently used and clutter up the template. I can remove them if everyone agrees, to be added back later when the project expands. Also, I monitor the User:AlexNewArtBot/PlantsSearchResult and see quite a few botanical gardens fly past my eyes. I haven't added them to WP:PLANTS in the past and User:Kingdon suggested this project might want me to tag those botanical gardens with your project assessment banner. Is that something that's within your scope? Thanks! --Rkitko (talk) 15:33, 14 December 2007 (UTC)

Well, without any comments from users here, I'm going to be bold and make the changes I proposed and start assessing gardens for your project. Cheers, Rkitko (talk) 15:11, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Agriculture in Canada

Would this article be a part of this wikiproject? SriMesh | talk 03:54, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

There's a small overlap with this project's scope, but I think it would be best covered by Wikipedia:WikiProject Agriculture. Nice article by the way! --Melburnian (talk) 04:24, 19 January 2008 (UTC)