PlantMaster is designed to make it easy to add your own photography but it still might prove a daunting task to put it all together.  Here are some tips on how to expedite the process.

1.       Go to a number of past projects during the spring or summer and extensively photograph the plants you have used in these projects.  Take close-ups as well as field shots of the plants.  If you own GardenWorks please remember to photograph the garden in general, plant combinations and hardscape components as well.

2.       Label the plant pictures with the botanical names, contact GardenSoft, and mail them out to us. (If you have a digital camera make a document that identifies the plants and the pictures.)  We will scan them and touch them up in Photoshop, connect them to the software and return them to you with disks with your photos included. (Free of charge if you are willing to share these images with the entire user group. Burn a CD or copy them onto a Zip disk if you took digital pictures or if you had them processed this way.)

3.       Bring up your garden idea and portfolio pictures in GardenWorks and Hot Link them to your plant images stored in PlantMaster. Now you have the basic ingredients for wonderful presentations for future clients.

The main idea is to have photography for each and every plant you typically use in the software. Nobody has all the pictures of all the plants you use. It is imperative you put just a little effort into this.  By photographing a few of your past jobs, and by adding these images to our existing and rapidly growing library, you will cover your plants quicker than if you sit back and wait for others to do it for you.  Every designer’s plant palette is unique.  To cover those plants universally will require a collaborative effort between you, GardenSoft and our rapidly expanding User Group.

Another tip for quickly gathering photography for PlantMaster is to go to one or two of your favorite nursery suppliers with a camera and photographing the plants you like to use.  Larger plants are difficult to photograph at a nursery but you can always shoot close-ups of flowers or foliage.  At a later date, or perhaps through the User Group, you will acquire field shots of these plants.  Smaller plants can be bunched together and you can shoot over the top of the pots or containers for maximum effect. Remember PlantMaster has room for up to 30 images for any plant record so the more the merrier.

Building a Custom Database in PlantMaster

For PlantMaster to be of maximum benefit to you it must be customized.  We have made it easy to add and edit PlantMaster but here are a few steps, which if taken, will dramatically enhance the value of the software to your business. The following are some steps to create a Master List of Plants you like to use and subdividing them into pick lists that you can use to rapidly pull plants into projects.

1. Go to Plant Search and Select “ Search by Name”. Click on View All.  Highlight any plant in the list and click on Edit Plant. This will open the dictionary to this particular plant.  Open the Custom Tab.  Click and drag over the name  “Custom 1” field and rename it to your company name or personal name.  Sample: Custom 1 change to  “Viking Master List” This effectively makes a new field in the database.  Now the trick is to mark the plants in the system as Viking Master List plants.  Before you do this Right click on the box next to your new Viking Master List field.  A window will pop up and ask you:

Change All True

Change All False

Cancel

Choose Change All False.  This will clear out the field and make it ready for you to earmark you Master List Plants.

2. Now go to the project section and create a Project list called Viking Master List Holding, use your company name instead of Viking.  Viking is just an example.
3. Go to the Plant Search Menu in the Main Menu and select Search by Name.  Then click on the large View All button.  Go through the Master list of plants in the system and highlight the ones you like to use and click Add to Project.  You will be assembling a large list of plants in your Viking Project this way.  Use a nursery catalog of one or two of your main suppliers as a guide.  Look at past project lists.  This is the hardest part of  the  job. 
4. Go back to your project list for Viking Master List Holding, or whatever you named it and open the second tab called Plant List.  The plants you have selected are listed there.  Click on one of the names of the plants in this list and click Edit Plant from the bottom of the window.  This will open the dictionary to this particular plant. Go to the Custom Tab and find your new “Viking Master List” field.  Right click on the box in front of it and select Change All True.  This will take all the plants from your project list and mark them as true for this field. Now you will be able to use Viking Master List as a Searchable field. (You can always mark plants as Viking Master List plants at a later date if you wish. And take these steps over again swiftly.)
5. Return to the Main menu.  Select Plant Search and select Full Selection.  Go to the Misc. menu and select the submenu Custom 1-12.  Your new Viking Field will be listed there.  Select it to use as a search parameter. And click Search.
6. All the plants you have earmarked as Viking plants will come up. At the bottom of the screen select the Save List button.  Call this list “Viking” Master List Plants.
7. Perform a new search, but this time, add Tree to your search query.  So you should be searching using Viking Master List and Tree at the same time.  After the search is completed choose Save List from the button bar at the bottom as before.  Call this List Viking Trees.
8. Perform another search.  This time right click on Tree in your position 2 and it will be removed and select Shrub.  Search on Viking Master list and Shrub.  After the search is completed save the list as before.
9. Perform search after search using the criteria that is the most reasonable and useful to you as a designer or horticulturist. You have over 500 searchable fields in the database so be creative. (Viking Master list, perennials, blue flowers, deep shade)  At the conclusion of each search save the list to your Custom List File.
10. Go to the Plant Search Menu again but this time select Custom Lists.  The lists you have been making are stored there.  Now you will have numerous pick lists to pull plants off into projects that are narrowed down to the plants you trust and know.

Although this is a convoluted set up steps, any professional going through them in their copy of PlantMaster will be richly rewarded with a much more efficient and powerful database tool for plants.  Believe me, it will be worth every second in the future.  If you get stuck at any point along the way simply email or call us.