gardenpilot

Every year, I finding myself asking, “What's that beautiful plant? Can I grow it in my garden? And where in my area can I buy the thing?"

So I was pretty excited when I heard that a number of commercial horticulture companies – Tesselaar Plants included – are helping to provide immediate answers to these questions by listing their plants on GardenPilot (screen shot at right). On the web and iPhone, this new garden research tool offers more than 12,000 illustrated plant information pages, along with helpful tips, articles and advice from renowned gardening experts and plant breeders. Users can search for plants by category, branded collection or relevant characteristics. 

So I took a look at the video demo of GardenPilot on the iPhone and hey – it looks pretty easy to use! And the full-screen photos look like they can be very helpful when you're in the garden center next to a not-yet-blooming plant and wondering what it'll look like in June … or July …

GardenPilot creator Steve Cissel glides like a breeze through the app, choosing "bulbs" from a list of 14 plant types and scrolls through images four at a time till he finds something he likes. "Ah, there's an agapanthus," he says. "Let's look at the full image and click on the iTag icon to read the description."

Then he searches for "crocus," going back to the "bulbs" page and clicks the A-Z button to find all bulbs listed alphabetically. He scolls up till he finds "C" for crocus and clicks … The page refreshes with the crocus and he can scroll through the images till he finds one he likes.

"At this time, I wanna search for 'annuals,' but I want to apply a filter, so I search for a branded collection," he says, clicking on the "app badge" for Proven Winners. "I apply the filter, and it shows me there are 243 plants in this collection … I go ahead and apply (pressing the "Filter" button) and I come up with all the plants. Now I can scroll through the collection …"

He picks a plant he likes - Angelface Blue Angelonia. "Notice that button that says 'Buy Local?'" he asks, clicking on it. "Yes, I can buy it locally … The phone knows where it is and identifies a certain retailer as selling it in my area … here’s that retailer’s info, and I can press a button to give them a call."

Wow! Except I don't have an iPhone … I hoped the GardenPilot Web page could tell me where to buy plants locally. But when I looked for Tesselaar's Flower Carpet^® Amber (above, right) and entered my ZIP code and clicked on "Find This Plant Near You!" I either got the message "Coming Soon!" or "No companies were listed as having this specific plant variety. Consider contacting a company from the list below to see if they carry the plant or can recommend something similar."

As is the case with most smart phones, I learned, I was able to access GardenPilot's web page from my husband's BlackBerry by visiting http://m.gardenpilot.com. But when it came to finding out where to buy the plants, I got more "Coming Soon!" signs. I was also able to buy the GardenPilot iPhone app ($2.99 through the App Store) on Hubby's iPod Touch, but there wasn't even an option to find plants locally, much less any "Coming Soon" signs.

Further, some gardening friends who used the GardenPilot iPhone app also hit the "call your local retailer" wall in plenty of instances.

So I decided to give GardenPilot creator Steve Cissel (at right) a call and find out if anyone else besides iPhone users can find out where to buy plants locally and if iPhone users will have more information available to them soon.

"We have every intention of it being available on every mobile application possible," said Cissel, CEO of 10-20 Media, the Maryland-based developer of the device. 

10-20 Media, he added, is about ready to launch a program that allows retailers to sign up for a 10-20 Media account for free. That should make it much easier for retailers to not only quickly submit, but update, information on what brands they sell.

Maybe I should just give this poor little application more time. It was only launched last month, after all. But like many gardeners, I really hope it grows and gets off the ground – SOON!