Round Up at the Garden App Corral

Jean Ann Van Krevelen

The little fillies of

the app world (Burpee Garden Coach, Bloom IQ, Grow and Go) make first time growing a breeze. The bucking broncos (Botanical Terms, Landscaper’s Companion, idMushroom Browser) require a little skill to master, but are great resources. Plus, there’s a whole passel of applications that appeal to a wide variety of city slickers in need of a little hort support.

Bloom IQ
In August of this year, The John Henry Company launched BloomIQ.com. In addition to standard plant information, Bloom IQ includes a series of collections to help gardeners create beautiful, condition-appropriate designs. Free to consumers.

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Printable or digital shopping lists for each of the collections that make it super-easy for gardeners to replicate designs.
Merchandising program that includes branded tags and a 2D barcode that link the tag to the BloomIQ.com website.

Burpee Garden Coach
Burpee Home Gardens is in the testing phase for a new mobile website called the Garden Coach. Users can customize their profiles with the “My Garden” feature, read detailed plant descriptions, search for recipes and check local weather. Free.

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Receive regular text messages from the Garden Coach with handy veggie-growing information and gardening tips.
Consumers can snap “smart tags” on a wide variety of plants and have information sent directly to their mobile devices.

Garden Pilot
The Garden Pilot iPhone app contains information on more than 14,000 edible and ornamental plants. Users can search by both common and botanical names, as well as by plant attributes, making this a handy reference for gardeners of all levels. $2.99

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Educational articles on a broad range of subjects.
Aggregates and connects to gardening videos from experts such as Joe Lamp’l and Paul James.

Grow and Go Together
P. Allen Smith and Bonnie Plants partnered to create the Grow and Go Together mobile site. The easy-to-use app offers both planting and growing information, as well as dozens of veggie-friendly recipes. Free.

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Some standard recipes are included, as well as some unusual offerings, such as citrus ginger broccoli and strawberry pizza.
The site offers a series of home gardening projects, like building cold frames and starting compost bins.

Botanical Terms
This professional-level botanical glossary is a handy tool when guessing won’t cut it. The database contains hundreds of terms related to plant growth, structure, reproduction and metabolism, as well as algae, fungi and other botanical terms. $1.99

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Anyone who has ever attended a horticulture lecture and left with zero understanding will know why this app is cool.
It’s a super-simple way to access information right when you need it.

Landscaper’s Companion
Landscaper’s Companion is likely one of the most comprehensive plant apps on the market. It contains more than 1,400 plants and 5,700 images of everything from annuals to conifers and ornamental grasses to water plants. Users can search by common name, scientific name, sun exposure, Zone and water requirements. $4.99

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It has a function that allows users to keep field notes on plants.
Its massive amounts of information means finding solutions for challenging conditions will be a breeze.

FlowerPedia
For those of us who love flowers, this app is like being in a candy store. FlowerPedia (the full version) contains more than 1,500 gorgeous photos, flower genus and family name, identifying features, related species, and photos of the flower’s relatives. $4.99

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Flower Identification Wizard helps users identify flowers by anatomy.
Photos can be used as desktop wallpaper and in e-mails.

Vegetable Gardening Guide
The Vegetable Gardening Guide is a “start-to-finish” application that both teaches and serves as a reference for gardeners of all skill levels. In addition to step-by-step planting and growing instructions, this app contains illustrations, high-quality photos, hyperlinks to additional information, and a glossary of terms. $2.99

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Nutritional information and recipes are given for each vegetable.
Growing season information for the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Botany Buddy
This tree and shrub app catalogs more than 2,000 unique native and ornamental varieties with 9,500-plus color photographs. Gardeners can search by both common and botanical name, or scroll the library alphabetically. Plants can be identified or chosen by leaf, seed, flower color and time, fall color, sun exposure, Zone, form, habit, height and width. $9.99

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Add personal photos from your handheld device to various plant profiles.
Personalize libraries, document hikes or trips and create your own collections.

idMushroom Browser
This professional mushroom pictorial guide serves as a good reference for beginning mushroom lovers to expert mycologists. idMushroom contains photos and descriptions for 236 of the most common mushrooms found in North America. $6.99

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Descriptions are written in layman’s terms, along with an indicator of edibility.
Photos of each mushroom make this a handy digital field guide. GP