Ideas Genie – A quick overview

Some Features:-
Supplied with a mini database consisting of what we consider to be CHOICE plants.
Thereafter,populate the database with information and photographs of YOUR plants in YOUR garden and plants you are considering purchasing, propagating or growing from seed.
NEW FEATURE:- Your own database plus multiple other databases which can either be on local drive or CD.
Swap databases (data and photos) with other Ideas Genie users. You may specialise in Roses. Swap with someone who specialises in the field or in another of your favourite Genera.
OR swap gardens (databases) with other users and exchange plant combination ideas , foliage combinations etc. Then point to the database you wish to use, yours or your friends. Simple!

Designed to allow you to catalogue your plants in each of your garden areas

Plant information may be keyed in, copied and pasted in from internet articles or linked to Word documents. Accepts scanned documents, cross-references to magazines, books and internet site articles. Cross-references can have a title and abbreviated description. A Hyperlink Button takes you back to the exact PAGE in the site used as a data source. This may sound technical, but is VERY easy and extremely powerful.

Use your own digital Photos or photos downloaded from the internet*, e.g. from our garden photos section of our web site http://www.ideasforgardens.com

You can define each plant in its full botanical structure, Genus, Species, Sub Species and Cultivar. If that seems too heavy, the software allows entry by Common Name. (In fact, either or both)

The normal properties and cultivation requirements can be entered, Colour, Height, Spread, Shade Tolerance, Aspect, Soil etc.
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The fun bit.
Six unlimited fields for you to fill with all that sturf (surf stuff) you find on the net. Genus Data, Species Data, Propagation Notes, Cultivation Notes, Pest and Diseases Notes and, since there is a record for every plant, Cultivar Notes. The same Genus Notes, Propagation Notes, Cultivation and P&D notes are inherited by every plant you raise in the same genus, the same species data is inherited if you raise a new plant in a similar Species, so disk space is conserved.

If that sounds too complicated and you ’re happy to keep it flat and simple, fire it all into Cultivar notes with a Common Name record for every plant.
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The wonderful bit.
You don’t need to key it up (although you can if you want!).

You copy data* from a web page in your browser and paste it there and then into your record for that plant (you can simultaneously create records for any new plants you find as you browse). Paste it into one of the unlimited fields described above. You find some more data. Merge it in as well. You can edit the end result off- line.

The Personal Bit
You can use your own digital photos.

You’ve spent the money on that digital camera, now make it work! Full instructions on how to get your own snaps associated with your plant into your computer.
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The amazing bit.
You can copy and paste photos* from the internet as well!

Library books are great, but you get one or two pictures per plant. No limitation with this software, the only restriction being your disk space! Each photo is embedded (bedding plants??) into a record for that specific plant. You can give each photo a Title and a Description, and collect as many photos as you like, per plant! You’ll want close ups, from a distance to show form and habit etc, and of course, pictures of the plant in association with others in all kinds of settings. The software even allows you to nudge the list of photographs for each plant into your preferred arrangement. (oh dear, another pun)

 * Warning:- You must NOT download copyright material from the internet.
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The Gimmicky bits
There’s so many flip albums around that we just had to throw this in as well. Pick a garden (or all) , enter a value for a delay, grab a cup of coffee, click a button, and sit back. Your whole photo collection passes by, at the delay rate. If you have a herbacious area, its great for watching how your garden changes over the seasons, and to remind you of some plants which looked great last year but perished over the winter. Each photo is full screen, with title and description at the bottom. You can pause, continue, stop, reverse, forward etc. You’ll love it!! Actually, you’ll be very proud of yourself, and it makes all the weeding worth while.
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Videos
With photos, you can take a shot of one part of the garden when it looks good. Have you risked a video yet to sweep round and include the bits you have’nt cleaned up yet?. Another of our exciting developments is a program to allow you to organise your MPG files. By garden, by garden area of course. The ultimate movie picture show. In the dead of winter you can turn up the sound and walk around your garden as it was in Summer!. The program allows you to select one from a list, or chain them together for a matinee (shuffle them into order) as for the slide show above. We even have one for MP3’s so you can organise and play your recordings of bird’s singing, bees a beeing, Beethoven, breaking stones or The Rolling Stones.
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