Every plant, decoded.

Search 434,570 plant species by botanical or common name, see what they look like, and learn how to grow them well.

Popular: Lavandula Rosa Helleborus Tulipa Salvia Acer
434,570
Accepted species
1,048,358
Synonyms indexed
734
Plant families
220
Growing guides

Guides worth reading

Digitalis purpurea
Digitalis purpurea
Common Foxglove
Taxus baccata
Taxus baccata
Common Yew
Quercus robur
Quercus robur
Common Oak
Rosa canina
Rosa canina
Common Briar
Eriocapitella hupehensis
Eriocapitella hupehensis
Japanese anemone
Lavandula angustifolia
Lavandula angustifolia
Common Lavender
Rosa gallica
Rosa gallica
Apothecary Rose
Helleborus niger
Helleborus niger
Black Helleborus

Gardening know-how

Practical guides written for UK gardens — researched, reviewed and dated. See all articles.

Soil & site

How to assess sunlight in your garden

What full sun, part shade and full shade actually mean, how aspect works in the UK, and how to map the light you really have before buying plants.

Soil & site

Understanding soil pH — and how to change it

Why pH decides which nutrients your plants can reach, how to test it properly, and the honest limits of trying to change it.

Soil & site

Choosing plants for clay soil

Clay is fertile but unforgiving. How to improve its structure without making it worse, and the shrubs, perennials and trees that genuinely thrive in it.

Soil & site

Gardening on sandy soil: how to improve it and what to grow

Free-draining and hungry — how to build sandy soil up with organic matter, water it sensibly, and choose plants that prefer it that way.

Soil & site

How to improve lawn drainage

Diagnosing why a lawn stays wet — compaction, thatch or water table — and fixing it with aeration, top-dressing and timing, before resorting to drains.

Soil & site

Understanding UK hardiness ratings (RHS H1–H7)

What the H1–H7 scale means in real temperatures, how it differs from USDA zones, and why winter wet and pots change the answer.

How GardenDecoded works

Search any name

Botanical name, common name, or an old synonym — plant names change, so we index nearly a million of them and take you to the currently accepted species.

See the plant

Photographs come from GBIF contributors. We only use openly licensed images, and every one is credited to the photographer who took it.

Learn to grow it

Sunlight, watering, soil, hardiness and pruning — written by us, because botanical databases record what a plant is, not how to keep it alive.