What do you want it to do?

create 2D designs, access to plant pix, upload photos, use geo maps

If you're looking for something pro, Dynascape and Land F/X for AutoCAD are kind of the industry standard, especially if you want to start with a bunch of landscape specific tools and blocks on day one. We use AutoCAD LT because it's way less costly and I can still share .dwg files with engineers and architects. I also like it because it is almost complete stupid. It doesn't know that I'm drawing a Mary Nell holly and it doesn't know what size it "should" be drawn. It knows I'm drawing a circle. Essentially it's nothing more than an electronic version of the drafting table at the other end of my office.

I really haven't been impressed by any of the other offerings. A lot of them seem to be aimed at the lawn guy who wants to dip a toe into installs, not pro designers.

It's the same as with any software - go with what fits where you see your company in 3-5 years, not what's just good enough today. Learning a whole new design program from what you're using is harder than starting from scratch, you have file compatibility issues if old clients want new work done, etc.

Also as with any software, the learning curve is going to SUCK. The only way out is through - force yourself to do every drawing in CAD no matter how much quicker you could knock it out by hand. Good luck!

it is a never-ending issue,

the really good CAD-stuff is horribly expensive and complicated,

I don't know any with a picture data-base...

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ages ago, my dad got me some "design software",

it even had a "time-function"

but some fundamental flaws: you could drop trees into a building

and if you did the "time-function"-thingy, the tulip would grow and flower in the same time span as a tree that grew to its mature hight ;-)

so, I just did a quick search

for demo-stuff on youtube

about this one they said it has a plant data-base, and a young design dude did some demonstrations on another channel, personally I think it is somewhat too colorful

and in this channel someone reviews several programs/ softwares