Review: Review - Growing Plants Deluxe
Don Bradbury delves into Romany Software's interactive DVD-based plant encyclopaedia
| Product | Growing Plants Deluxe |
|---|---|
| Company | Avanquest |
| Web | www.avanquest.co.uk |
| Price | £29.99 |
| We like | Comprehensive facilities; user expandable database; undemanding of PC |
| We don't like | No printed manual; minor bugs. |
| Rating | 8/10 |
| Requirements |
Coming on a single DVD, which remains in the drive for access while running, this program is a brave attempt to bring together a bigger assembly of horticultural data than most gardening books could aspire to. It offers information on practically every plant type, including ornamentals, trees, shrubs, herbs, climbers, palms, cacti, mosses, vegetables, hedging and house plants.
There is much information on the flower and leaf angle, and in the case of vegetables, general comment on the fruit and its properties. But if the user wants much commentary on, say, the different flavours of beetroot varieties, or the comparative stringiness of runner bean sub-species, he'd generally have to add that himself. It's not that such comment is totally absent, but comparisons between varieties are not generally made. Fortunately, that's easy for the user to add to the database as each information field is editable, and therein lies the power of this program.
Recommended for first attention by the newcomer is the assembly of eighteen voice clips which front-end the program, as they explain operations splendidly. Spend some time running these and the new user will understand the way the system works quicker than reading through a manual, and it keeps the price down, too.
Some operations are left to the user to discover, such as data cells that overflow the space provided; there's no scroll bar on view until you click on the particular field in these cases, for example.
A "vital resource for gardeners, professionals and students, with its incredible depth of information on wild and cultivated plants" is what's claimed on the back of the pack. And we have to agree that there is a huge amount of data to juggle with for the dedicated plant man, including comment on hardiness, seasonal colours, preferred soil types, shape, size and much more.
Installation
This ran smoothly, and we were please to note that the program supports virtually every Windows OS under the sun, including Vista. Well, in the latter case some minor tweaks by the publisher were necessary because Vista wasn't found to conform to the norm in that the default location in a Program Files sub-folder could not be accommodated with confidence and wasn't recommended; a special was adopted that puts the Avanquest folder directly under the root folder of the install drive by default.
No matter, we were finally offered a help system that included comprehensive script as well as those voice recordings, all tastefully presented, and then the actual program launch was via a Toolbox.
This offered a neatly presented menu of options, from general tools featuring plant details and selection under sundry criteria such as health, cultivation, main plant details, a seasonal planner, and all complete with a lead-in to a huge database of graphics. Powerfully, this collection of images, as well as the plant information itself, can be added to by the user, as already mentioned in the latter case. You can add notes on sundry subjects using the Edit and Update keys, so it offers a diary and calendar as well as giving you the help, planner, and plant selection facilities.
Plant selection - in order to set up buying lists, for example - was a principal and hugely detailed feature. Access via the Toolbox was easy, and manipulation of the lists similarly, but with colour, season, shape, growth, and 'all selections' categories to start with, it was very detailed. We did note, while using this feature, that the Windows egg timer 'wait' indicator could sometimes hang while the DVD was being accessed. We had to click on an adjacent field to clear this and then click on our intended field; so a minor bug there.
The display
Programmed specifically for a 1024 x 768 display, we nevertheless noted that a record progression tool, which was located at the bottom of some of the screens, was hidden. We had to scroll down slightly to discover it when screens filled the dedicated space. Where screens were suitably smaller, the progression tool was on view without having to scroll. Screen real estate was clearly at something of a premium with this big program.
This record progression tool provided single step movement through the database, or a jump-to-the-end option. If you wanted to move to a particular genus, species and variety, it was, of course, better to enter the required information into the data fields provided. The progression tool was mainly useful to traverse the different types within a plant genus once the main body of data for it had been located.
Accessing data from a DVD might be found just a trifle slow by those more used to hard disk access, but that was perhaps preferable to all 6GB of information on the DVD being loaded onto the hard disk. The DVD drive is automatically located as the source of the program's detailed information during installation, but you can point the program to other DVD drive locations later if you modify the configuration. A thoughtful addition.
Plant selection could be by common or Latin name, colour of leaf, flower, or fruit, with a pick list based on shape, growth and cultivation, and with diagrams of flower, leaf, and growth habit, all complemented by detail maps of hardiness zones, giving the feeling that a lot of time and effort had been put into the programming of selection criteria.
With 15,000 colour photographs, displayed in anything from thumbnail up to full screen (just click on the image to access the graphic reduction button), with zoom and resolution options, the show was certainly colourful. 12,000 plant name voice-recorded pronunciations with explanations were helpful for the student, as were details of plant diseases, pests, and treatments. Topical tips, cultivation advice, complete with keyword and phrase search facilities, all combined to make Growing Plants Deluxe worth spending some time with.
Plant Classification
A detailed 'classification of plants' menu showed kingdoms, divisions, classes, orders, families, genera, species and varieties. With comprehensive help available, this part of the program should prove invaluable to any present or would-be horticulturalist. It's the sort of detailed information that would be difficult to present in a book; computer access is ideal.
Glossary of Terms
The Glossary of terms appeared comprehensive, and while we'd have liked to see some Windows' style 'close' and 'back' buttons on some of these pages, progression to the next stage of an investigation otherwise seemed pretty sound after a little familiarisation.
In conclusion
With the facility for digital photographers to add their own images to the database of plants, as well as adding and editing new or existing plant descriptions themselves, and with the option to print plant thumbnail or larger images, Growing Plants Deluxe should be a worthy addition to the gardening 'bookcase' for computer users.
Bringing image slide shows, print your own plant labels, each with suitable print options, and a host of other facilities too many to mention here, the user is unlikely to be disappointed. And there are even a few specially written WAV music files on the DVD to entertain you while you delve.
At the asking price, this program might be considered something of a steal, especially as it's so undemanding in terms of hardware and free disk space. A Pentium III 800MHz, 256MB of RAM, 16-bit colour, DVD drive as minima, and that's about it.
David Bellamy declares of this program, "blooming marvellous - a boon to botanists, gardeners, and students alike". We wouldn't disagree, but the dedicated gardener will discover that there's still a place for a few selected books on the subject on his bookshelf in addition. For the humble gardener, not yet a horticultural specialist, navigation around the many facets of Growing Plants Deluxe will be the labour of an hour or two.
Also available is a Standard Edition of the program that has 12,000 garden plants, 12,000 images, plus thousands of spoken pronunciations. Again including search engine facilities and the gardening journal, this version retails for an even more attractive £19.99, though we haven't tested it.
