Juli, I have it sorting alphabetically now.
As for the rest of your proposed enhancements, they will have to wait until I can dig back in there and do this. It's very complicated to make a search engine that does what you're asking it to do.
Lynn, I searched for sempervivum and was taken directly to the Sempervivum Database front page. To find the parent plant, open any sempervivum entry in the database, scroll to the bottom and click on "See the general plant entry for Hen and Chicks (Sempervivum)".