Flower 2008--it's GREAT

Here is a link.... http://www.plantstep.com/

Julia,

I have always used simple spreadsheets to track all of my flowers as it lets me access it on any computer and copy/paste from other people. Excell is wonderful and easy to work with, AND as a bonus, if you are a paid member of Tinkers, you can make your daylily list there and then export it into Excell, complete with bloom times, height, parantage, hybridizer, etc. If nothing else, I feel this is a must for anyone with a large quantity of daylilies. (downside is that with numbered rows, you can never let yourself be in denial of exactly how many plants or seedlings you have :) )

Julie

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm not looking to spend any $$ on software packages as I'd rather spend it on more DL's. : -).
I think the excel spreadsheet will be the way to go. I'm now trying to figure out how to load the parentage so if I'm doing crosses, I'd have a bit of history on each.

I'm at that point where I need to start tracking what I have.

Julia

I understand about wanting to spend your money on daylilies--me too. BUT you should really check out the Flower 2008 software. It is only $30 and it will save you more time than you can ever imagine. It has a "find" button where you punch in the daylily name and it fills in all the info -including parentage info if it is available. It also will keep track of your crosses. It does all kinds of stuff--plus you get free updates and the guy that sells it, Ken, is GREAT to work with. Really worth checking out!

I am a paid member of Tinker's and have a list of my daylilies there plus I also have Flowers 2008. Flowers is a great program you can add pictures that you took in your garden plus it has many other helpful features at a very reasonable price not to mention that upgrades do not cost extra. Take a look at it you may want to get it in the future I highly recommend the program.

Here is a link that might be useful: Flowers 2008

I was on the Tinkers site and can't figure out how to become a paid member to make a list of my DLs. Can anyone help me out here?
Also, thanks to this post, I did an excel spreadsheet and found out I have way more DLs than I thought I had. (48 in this summer alone).
It took a bit of time to type everything in. I saw the Flowers 2008 demo and it looks very good, but I don't need anything so fancy.

I did the excel spreadsheet and filled it with most everything I need. I used a template from different sellers listings on the web to come up with information I will need stored. I've also put in a hyperlink for each of the daylilies to my picture I've taken this year which is stored on the computer. I'll see if I can shrink the pic enough to have it show right on the spreadsheet without a hyperlink.Winter project :-).

I'm sure Flowers 2008 is a great software but I'll stick to no cost and spend on the DL's for now. $30.00 can buy me some real nice ones.

njmomma: I didn't see anything on Tinkers for paying membership so not sure. Just email them and I'm sure they'll gladly take your $$'s. :-).

Julia

I use Excel!

Thanks for the info about Flowers software, i have just purchased it, will make it easier for me to track my growing collection of DLs and other plants too.

Congratulations purplefairylady! You will LOVE it. People that don't have it just don't know what they are missing--Excel doesn't even compare!

Julia - How do you do a hyperlink to a picture on Excel?
Thanks!

njmomma: With your worksheet open and the column selected you want to have the hyperlink in , click on "INSERT" on the tool bar, when it opens, scroll down till you find "HYPERLINK" and click on it, a window will pop-up. Far left will have "LINK TO" be sure "EXISTING FILE OR WEB PAGE" is highlighted,then where it says "LOOK IN" select the folder where you stored your photos,find/select the pic you want to link to then hit OK.
It will then show the link in your worksheet to that DL.

You can also insert the picture directly into the worksheet column but I need to work on how to adjust the picture size. Simply select "INSERT" scroll down to find "PICTURE" and find the file and hit okay.
Hope I explained this okay. If you have questions you can send email to me at juliadlf at hotmail.com and I'll try to help.

With the money I saved on not buying the software I was able to pick up a couple more DL's for the garden today. Hmmm, life is good.

Julia

Julia, thanks, I actually just inserted a mini pic right into the spreadsheet. The picture is 3 rows high so I just put 3 pictures next to each other to show what they look like. Like, if 3 rows are
Happy Returns
Joan Senior
Prairie Blue Eyes
I insert a pic after all their info and the pic uses up all 3 rows, but I put them in order HP first, then JS, then PBE.
This is how you get the picture the right size. Insert the picture, it will probably come out huge, then click on the Format tab on top. Then click on Picture, then click on the second tab Size,under Scale make sure both squares are checked for Lock aspect ratio and relative to original picture size. Then, still under Scale, put the height to only 2%. This should change the other sizes as well automatically. Press OK and you're set!
Thanks for giving me this idea!
Now, how can I get other people's pics to show there? Most of my DLs are new and won't bloom till next year but it would be nice to have a pic there to see the range of colors I ordered. (all 50!)
Let me know if you know.

Aye Janie i do love the software, it just saves so much work and i have learnt a bit from footering around with the program. Will keep me occupied on rainy days.

njmomma wrote I was on the Tinkers site and can't figure out how to become a paid member to make a list of my DLs. Can anyone help me out here?
Did you use the 30 day free trial? I think when the time is up you will get an option to become a member. I can give you more information if you need it send me an email.

njmomma: you have to save a copy of the pic on your computer.I'm sure you know this but here's how to do it: find the website pic you want to use, right click on your mouse, click on "save picture as" and then save it to whatever folder you created to hold these types of photos.

Thanks for the info on reducing the pic size.

Julia

Julia, yeh, I figured it out too. Except, I have an iMac and there is no left or right click so I just click and move it onto my desktop then insert it into my spreadsheet. Boy, this "hobby" is very time consuming, but that's what I like about it.

This says it "Runs under Windows XP and Vista only". (Sniff!) So far, Windows 98 has been good enough for me.

I use Excel also and when I copy and paste a picture to it, some of the pictures have hyperlinks, which was frustrating when I wanted to move the picture around. To get rid of the hyperlink: select the picture, right click and choose "remove hyperlink".

I use separate worksheets within the same spreadsheet to keep records of the various things I want to track. I haven't done it yet, but I need to create a map of where all my daylilies are and with Excel the graph is your columns and rows.

Of course, I only have about 100 daylilies, so it's not difficult for me to track them. Some people would probably need something like Flowers 2008.

Vickie

I also use Excel - inventory is down from 1000 to around 875. On a seperate sheet, I have a hybridizer sorted list, on another a sales list, a list of new additions and how they are doing, etc. Almost bought the Flower software at this year's convention but just don't think I'd have the time to put all of the pictures in. So Excel does fine for my purposes.

I also use Excel. I have a spreadsheet with all my registered cultivars. Then I have a seperate spreadsheet with all my seedlings so I can monitor their progress. I can sort my lists alhabetically, by height, by bloom time. It works great for me. But, then again I don't have thousands of daylilies or seedlings.

Love Flowers 2008. I don't know how they can do all that work and give updates free, but it does make tracking so simple. I would rathere spend time in the garden than on the computer. I do't know who posted on here that led me to it, but whoever you are, thank you!
kay

I recently got the Flowers software from Plantstep, I have been messing with computers since the 80's and this without a doubt is the one nicest programs I have ever bought at any price. Anyone should look at getting it whether you use it for crosses or not, as it has so many other features and is constantly updated FREE. I use it for all my plants and am in the process of loading pictures in which is very easy. The to do and diary features are handy as well. There are a lot of features I haven't even explored yet. I can't imagine trying to use Excel when there is something like this out there for 29.95 I have never been happier with a purchase EVER! And in case you wonder I am not affliated with it in any way,I just like to speak up when I find a Great product as it seems to be harder to do anymore.

Now I'm looking for software that produces a parentage mapping(ie parents, grandparents, siblings,etc) on each registered dl. I'm not sure Flowers can do that. Can it?
I know that Bill Maryott is working on something so perhaps soon he will be marketing his own software line too.;-).

Even if the Flowers software fills in the information, I still have to take the time to review what was filled in. I'm spending the same amount of time checking to be sure the data is correct.

Vickie: How did you do your garden map? I just have paper and pen, drawn the garden bed and where each one was planted within that bed and given each bed location a number which I input into my excel sheet. If you found a way to do it in excel (map a garden) I would love to see it.

Thanks
Julia

Julia, you got me to thinking. I wonder if a geneology program for making family trees, would work for dl's. I do a lot of family research but have never purchased the geneology software so I'm not sure how it works exactly. You might check on some free trial software for family tree maker and see if it may fit your needs.

There is also landscaping software that allow you to draw your yard and place plants where you want them. Gives you an idea of what your yard would look like before you plant. I had one years and years ago before my dl's. It was cheap and pretty generic. But, I'm sure they have improved them since then.

Just some ideas hope they help.
Andrea

Thanks Andrea for the suggestions.
I guess I'll hunt around next week for software. Looks like we have alot of rain heading our way again so limited time in the garden.

Julia

This is an old post but I want to follow up on a question that Juliany asked a few posts up.
Quote 'I'm looking for software that produces a parentage mapping(ie parents, grandparents, siblings,etc) on each registered dl. I'm not sure Flowers can do that. Can it?'

Sense the latest update, the Plantstep Flowers program now has this feature.
Anyone who doesn't have this program yet really should check it out.

BTW, I have no association in any way to this business. I'm just very happy with my purchase of this incredible software and want to spread the news. It just keeps getting better and better with each update.

Joy