Flynn, you told me how to create a custom post and page template. I did make a custom PAGE template, and it worked fine. But it didn't work for the POST template. I did as you said, exactly, but the new template does not show up in the drop-down template box in the new/edit POST area. It does show up in the drop-down template box to the right of the PAGE editing area, but that isn't helpful when doing a POST.

I put this at the top of the new template:

<?php
/*
Template Name: My Garden Template
*/
?>

And I named it my-garden-template.php and uploaded it to the theme directory. I used the index.php as the base.

What am I doing wrong?

AFAIK posts cannot have Page Templates, page templates are for "Page" pages only.

I found out how to do it.

I copied index.php and customized as needed, then at the top, I put:

<?php
/*
Template Name Posts: My Garden Template
*/
?>

The word "Posts" is required. I also installed the custom-post template plugin, which creates a drop-down menu of custom templates, below the post editing box. This all works really well.

And I named the file my-garden-template.php.

Good to know. Thanks for posting your solution