1. In an online garden platform for design, creation, maintenance, and information sharing of gardens by users of the online platform, a method comprising: generating a user interface for receiving information from the users of the online garden platform relating to gardens of the users; generating, in response to the information received by the user interface from the users of the online garden platform, a selection of plant varieties based on geographic and environmental information; providing at least one centralized plant database of user created garden knowledge containing the information received by the user interface from the users of the online garden platform, including the generated selection of plant varieties, the at least one centralized plant database being dynamically maintained and accessible by all of the users of the online garden platform; and performing plant identification searches by using geometry-based botanical properties in a visual search comprising multiple questions each containing text and at least two visual images grouped by a similarity range, the multiple questions being presented in an order according to a specificity ranking.