The NOS is a group of professional horticulturalists, taxonomists, students, researchers, nursery professionals, curators, plant breeders, garden writers, and landscape designers interested in the best and the newest ornamental landscape plants. Through our online documents and published books were seek to be the largest worldwide clearinghouse or abstracting service for information on new garden plants and where to buy them.

The New Ornamentals Society will collect, evaluate, and distribute information on origins, history, characteristics, nomenclature, sources for, and identification of ornamental landscape plants that are rare or of relatively recent origin. Information will be communicated using appropriate modern technology to a worldwide readership of amateurs and professionals on a frequent basis, providing the largest quantity of accurate and original data at the least possible cost.

Goals for 2008:

• More cultivars
• More detail
• Better photos
• Portable data access

The main benefit to joining our major way of sharing information is the New Ornamentals Database (NOD) which think is "The World's Finest Database of New and Rare Plants".  The database comes in both PDF (portable) and HTML (online form) - you can use either or both. Printed paperback and hardback books are also available to members. The NOD includes over 12,000 different plants (both new and historical) and some 3600 high quality digital photos.

How do I access the database?

Anywhere you have an internet connection, our HTML and JPEG files are available online, optimized with quick downloading. All you need is your custom URL password, a simple page name not available to the general public. If you have a portable device or computer (laptop, PALM®, BLACKBERRY®, iPhone®, PDF book reader, or other portable reader) you can access our datafiles that you've previously downloaded onto your device - all with photos and links included.

Imagine having thousands of plant descriptions available anywhere you walk in a garden, nursery, client's property, greenhouse, library, or at home! The future is now. 

In short, the NOD has more cultivars, more detailed data, leading world experts in our membership to guide us, and better pictures. Hundreds of plant and design experts input data to other experts for proofing and checking. This is the best way to compose a plant reference because it includes hundreds of contributors yet it is edited to a single scientific standard. And because we devote 80% of our dues to real research (purchasing books, journals, photocopies, photographic travel, new technologies, literature translation, etc.) we find plant information and solve research problems that are hard for others to obtain.

Check our NewPlantPage.com to see what we mean. 

No other reference has 971 kinds of maples (each described), 657 different junipers, 149 Ginkgo, 900 Hosta, 481 Chamaecyparis, or 315 kinds of Phlox. Typically, we have 2-10 times the number of cultivars in your favorite, familiar references. Many new members used to outdated printed books and CD-ROMS respond "I never knew what I was missing". 

Unlike some big, popular garden forum websites, we seek to pool our knowledge not our ignorance. A highly trained and educated staff of experts reviews all our files for technical , nomenclatural, and horticultural accuracy. YOU NEVER GET UNFILTERED, AMATEURISH, UNEDITED INFORMATION WITH THE NEW ORNAMENTALS SOCIETY. Not a single plant record is posted unless reviewed by a horticultural taxonomist or botanist. That's why dozens of leading botanical gardens and arboreta now use the NOD as one of the main nomenclatural sources in verifying plant names before they label their collections and publish their inventories. In some cases, the NOD is the only reference they could find with historical information on the cultivar in question. 

Our pictures are standardized to 1050 pixels wide or long - and all taken with high quality Fuji and Nikon digital cameras at 6.5 to 12 megapixels - no tiny, fuzzy thumbnails here.

1. Support of the society's active research programs that include cultivar history, documentation technologies, and archiving on internet nursery catalogs for researchers in the future.
2. Free society logo graphics to add to your website. Customers always appreciate and trust firms who support societies like the NOS.
3. Corporate Members receive nursery source links from our website after submitted plants which meet our new or rare plant criteria.
4. Discounts on selected merchandise including NOS Postcards of new plants, printed books, and the forthcoming NEW ORNAMENTALS RESEARCH LIBRARY.

1. Individual ($45.00 US a year)
2. Corporate Library ($89.00 US a year)
3. Educational ($200.00 a year)
4. New Ornamentals Reference Library ($275.00 a year) - adds all horticultural and botanical ebook titles from tcrpress.com to the NOS membership, offering substantial savings over separate purchase of these titles. Available later in 2008.

• The database will have just one user at any one time (one user, one or more computers or devices)
• We need to our nursery's plants listed as clickable sources........Corporate Level
• We do not need any source listings.............................................Individual Level

• We need 2 or more users 
• 20 or more people will be downloading the PDF files for portable use......................Educational Level
• 2-19 people will be downloading the PDF or using other files...................................Corporate Library Level

This level is designed mainly for professional firms, corporations, institutions who need more than one employee (based on a single building headquarters) to use the the database. It also comes with 20 free clickable source links for new and rare plants. Send the list of plant names to our corporate office and they will be added the next time the matching file is updated. 

The NOD covers up to 155 datafields or categories about all aspects of the new and rare landscape plants, especially the following:

1. Retail and wholesale nursery sources with clickable web links or 800 numbers. We have spent hundreds of hours researching nursery websites and catalogs to provide the finest listings. Our sources are also international in scope unlike the majority of popular "plant finders".

2. Hundreds of links to specialty interest, plant society, and collector sites about specific rare plants - many of them unindexed and not reported elsewhere.

3. Precise taxonomic quality descriptions when available. Precise measurements and color chart values are provided when available.

4. Formal literature citations and bibliographies to genera. Researchers often find little known papers and theses on our files.

5. History and origins of plants and their names. We cover all the who, what, when, where, how, and why facts that can be found.

6. Nomenclature and identification topics including comparisons to similar cultivars and reasons for recent name changes.

7. Trademark and patent data. Trademark vs. cultivar names are carefully indexed.

8. Selected recommendations for landscape use such as to which cultivar it can replace and how it may be improved over it.

9. Exclusive facts and original data not available elsewhere.

10. Member surveys that really get read and implimented. When did a plant book author ask you how to improve his book and make changes in weeks or months, and without charging you more money?

What is the society privacy and data-sharing policy?

1. Under no circumstances will the NOS or our staff disclose the email address or any provided information including names or addresses concerning our members to any party. We do not sell, trade, or "wink, wink, nod, nod" share information with other societies, organizations, or companies. 
2. The society has a "no spam - respond only" policy for general mailings, meaning you will not receive offers and annoying announcements. The member's webpage is our source of news and new offerings. 
3. We do not send password or URL update notices until or unless the member requests one by email. Many locales have a "response only" policy concerning organizations and societies, prohibiting us from sending out mass mailings of any kind. There are very severe fines for violating the "response only" policy of many local regions and we will not be putting the society are risk of such suits.
4. At the discretion of the society officers, we will contact a very limited, selected number of members by email if we believe they can provide expertise in an ongoing society research project. Members may ask not to be contacted but since our community is based on freely sharing data, we hope most members will be willing to share information when asked.
   
5. We do publish the nursery website links of Corporate Level members who request and pay for this and will discontinue such anytime upon request. 

How can I promote my company, new plant, or plant-related book?

• Plants: Members at the Corporate Level can ask for 20 source links for their new and rare plants. This is not available at the Individual Level. Additional links at the discretion of the plant file's editors and may be available at no extra expense.
• Company: Advertisements in the form of clickable logos (linking to a website) will be available this fall from the main member's page. Contact ornamentals@lycos.com and ask for our advertising rates. The society reserves the right to refuse all ads or topics we do not believe will interest or members or may result in offense or other negative experiences. 
• Books: If your plant-related book is available in PDF ebook form (or can be converted from your files), you can request it be offered as part of the New Ornamentals Reference Library or NORL. Most authors are paid a flat rate of $4-7 per copy distributed via this system. IF YOU HAVE YOUR BOOK PRINTED BY A TRADITONAL PUBLISHER, REMEMBER TO RETAIN THE ELECTRONIC OR EBOOK RIGHTS FOR YOURSELF. We cannot distribute your ebook in most cases if a "middle man" is demanding their cut of the title, rendering it impossible to share divid proceeds with other authors and the society.