'quokka70' comments & questions

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quokka70

My HMF:

Website Use Questions most recent 2 APR 10 HIDE POSTS

Initial post 1 APR 10 by HMF supporting member

quokka70

Hi,

I'm new to roses and new to this great site.

I have some questions about zone information and how it is interpreted in searches.

One of the several roses called 'Gloire de France' is listed as being hardy in zones 2a through 3b. (http://helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.1828) I presume that such a plant would be happy in any warmer zone, too, at least so far as winter hardiness is concerned.

However, this rose doesn't show up if I search for plants hardy in, say, zone 5b. Apparently the search feature treats the data "2a through 3b" as meaning the plant is hardy *only* those zones, rather than those zones as a minimum.

So my questions are:

1) Are roses like this really only happy in these zones (perhaps because they somehow need that level of cold to trigger flowering the next spring)?
2) If not, shouldn't the hardiness data be "2a through 11", or something similar?
3) If so, how is plant data updated?

Cheers,
Rory

Reply #1 of 4 posted 2 APR 10 by HMF supporting member

HMF Admin

The hardiness zone should be an estimate of the complete range so the zones for 'Gloire de France' are an error. You assumptions are correct. Will we have to correct this rose.

HMF draws from many, many resources and we count on our site guest to point out our recording errors and mistakes from references used. The beauty of HMF is it is a mutable resource that is forever growing and improving.

Thanks for taking the time to report this error.

Reply #2 of 4 posted 2 APR 10 by HMF supporting member

quokka70

Thanks for the quick response!

Have you considered opening up plant data to editing by members (i.e., "crowdsourcing")? There's a huge amount of information on the site and it must be hard to stay on top of it all.

The model that I'm thinking of is librarything.org, which lets people keep track of and discuss their books. All the book data is member contributed.

I realize that this would be a very big change in how the site is built and a huge change in site philosophy.

Thanks again for such a great resource!

Cheers,
Rory

Reply #3 of 4 posted 2 APR 10 by HMF supporting member

HMF Admin

Actually, that is how it works. HMF has many very dedicated and knowledgeable volunteers that keep improving and expanding the site.

For a short period we did open the site up to most anyone to add updates directly but that didn't work out too well. Many people added inaccurate or commercially self-serving information and our administrators spent most all their time making corrections. Our approach is more of a hybrid; everyone is invited to participate using the ubiquitous Comments buttons and we merge that information into the database as appropriate.

The fact that member comments are associated with a particular entity (plant,nursery, author, etc.) is the first step in organizing the member contributed insight and experience in a useful form.

Reply #4 of 4 posted 2 APR 10 by HMF supporting member

quokka70

Oh, that makes sense. I completely missed the ability to add comments to a particular plant, and so posted instead to this corner of the forums. Attaching comments to plants is a great idea. Cheers, Rory	REPLY

*Other most recent 2 APR 10 HIDE POSTS

Initial post 2 APR 10 by HMF supporting member

quokka70

The White Lady Banks rose is listed as 6b through 9b. It is fine in warmer zones too, so this should be "6b or warmer".

http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/l.php?l=2.5264.3

Cheers,
Rory

P.S. The "Topic" pulldown doesn't list "HMF Plant Listing", which I think is the right topic for this post. It also lists "Identify the attached picture" and "Picotree tree peonies" which don't appear at topics in the HelpMeFind Site Use category page.