About

What FlowerNana is

FlowerNana is a catalog of named ornamental flower varieties for gardeners in the United States: dahlias, tulips, zinnias, peonies, hostas and the other genera listed in the menu. For each variety it puts the facts you would otherwise collect from several catalogs side by side: flower form and color, bloom diameter, height and spread, when it blooms, hardiness zones, whether it goes in as seed, bulb, tuber or plant, and how deer treat it.

Each flower has its own hub where the whole genus can be filtered, and the most asked-for groups, such as dinnerplate dahlias or fringed tulips, have their own pages with a short explanation of what sets them apart.

Where the numbers come from

Most figures come from the catalogs of the growers and shops that sell the variety, read one by one, and from university extension services where they publish on a genus. Each record lists what it was built from in its Sources section, with the date the source was read.

Deer resistance is not a per-variety figure. It is the Rutgers NJAES rating for the whole genus, repeated on every record of that genus, because no source rates individual cultivars consistently.

Bloom time is often given by sellers as a month or a season rather than a date. Where a field is our reading of such a description rather than a stated figure, it is marked as an estimate.

How sure each record is

Every record carries one of three labels. Cross-referenced means the record cites more than one source and its values were checked against each other, and the badge says how many sources. Nobody on our side has grown these plants in a trial; the label describes the sources, not a test. Single source means one catalog supports the record, which is common for newer dahlia and zinnia introductions. AI estimated means the record has not yet been checked against a source; those pages stay out of search results until it has.

A blank field means nobody we read gives that figure. Heights and bloom sizes are what the breeder or seller reports, and a dahlia grown in poor soil or without disbudding will usually come in smaller.

Corrections and shops

If you grow a variety and our record disagrees with what you see, or with a catalog you trust, write to us through the contact page with the variety and the source. The record changes when the source holds up, and the citation shows where the change came from.

FlowerNana sells nothing. Links to shops lead to the seller, who handles the order. Growers and shops who want more than a row in the list of sellers can partner with us.