USER GUIDE
Flower Genie
® - Software for Amateur Gardeners
by Ideas for Gardens.com

Last updated: 7th August 2017


This User Guide is for users of Flower Genie - Software for Amateur Gardeners
    Visit the Flower Genie Web Site

Index to User Guide   Introduction   Session 1  Session 2   Session 3   Session 4   Session 5   Session 6
   Session 7   Session 8   Session 9   Session 10   Session 11   Session 12   Session 13   Session 14   General Information
 

 

 

 

 

User Guide - Session 10

 

 

The Master Database - 1000’s of plants on DVD
In this lesson you will learn how to:

 

 

  • Use the Master Database of Plants and Gardens on DVD

 

 

Flower Genie comes with an empty database.
Its for you to personalise, by adding only the plants you grow, plan to buy, grow from seed etc.

To help you build up your own personal database, we have merged the 1000’s of plants grown by users of our software to produce The Master Database.
Lots of plants, lots of Garden Photos, organised in a logical structure.
You can save time by browsing the Master Database using Flower Genie, and copying plants which take your fancy to your own database.

At time of preparation of this document, there are more than 36,000 plants in the database.
The plants are from members in the UK, Belgium and USA (mostly WA), and suitable for a range of Hardiness Zones.

The database is  meant to be a resource to be shared by users of our software.

The Master Database is also a Plant Finder. Plants can be linked to participating Nurseries and Seed Suppliers, You’ll click a link to go directly to the BUY page on the appropriate web site.

When you see a plant you like, you can copy it from the DVD, into your personal Flower Genie database on your computer. If the plant has a photo, that is also copied for you AND it is automatically linked to what has now become your new plant.

Heres a few tips on how to get the most from this resource.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Put the Master DVD in the drive
  2. Start Flower Genie
  3. Click the File tab on the menu and use the program Open another database-FG026
    FG026S01 appears.
    Click the Find a New database button
    Screenshot
    FG026S03 appears.
    Click the Get a folder button
    In the Windows dialog box which appears, navigate and select the folder Master-FG4-Full
    Screenshot
    After clicking OK,you are returned to screen FG026S03.
    Fill out any empty fields as shown in this screenshot then click the Add button.
    Back in screen FG026S01, check that the correct database folder has been selected and
    click the Step 2 - Open button
    Screenshot
    This closes your Flower Genie database (on disc) and opens the Master Database on DVD
  4. Start Program: My Plants and Gardens - FG037

    Things you can do:

    In PLANTS mode (you are in PLANTS mode when you start this program)

 

 

  • In screen FG037S01 - Use the A-Z buttons to explore the plants and photos on the DVD
  • Select a plant. Click the Edit button. Screen FG100S40 appears showing the Plant Profile
    In FG100S40 you can click the Google button to do an on line search for more information about the plant.
  • In screen FG037S01 - Click on the image
    Screen FG100S07 appears,  showing a Full Size display of the photo
    Click anywhere in FG100S07 to return to FG037S01
    Remember Click-Click
  • In screen FG037S01 - RIGHT click on the image
    Screen FG100S20 appears,  showing the Title and notes about the Photo
    RIGHT Click anywhere in FG100S20 to return to FG037S01
    Remember Right-Click - Right-Click
  • In screen FG037S01 - RIGHT Click in the Plant Data text box (lower right of screen)
    Screen FG100S09 appears, showing the Plant Data as a document in a large Text box.
    In this screen you can use the Web Address button to highlight any URL’s in the document
    When a URL is highlighted, click the Go to Web Page button
    Flower Genie opens your Web Browser. The internet web page is displayed.
  • In screen FG037S01 - Under <-AUTO->, (bottom of screen) Click the Go button
    This runs a slide show of the plants in the current display list
    When the last plant in the list is reached, the slide show automatically advances to the next Alpha list
    You can set the speed of display by typing a value (seconds) in the field under <-AUTO->
    Hover over these fields for Tool Tip Help Text
    NOTE: When you click the Go button, the caption changes from Go to X>
    Click the X button to stop the slide show.

    COPY A PLANT - From the CD into your Flower Genie database
  • In screen FG037S01 - Select a plant.
    Click the Copy This Plant button Screenshot
    Screen FG100S40 appears  Screenshot
    Edit if you wish.
    Use the Google Search button if you wish
    Use the SurfBoard if you wish
    Click the Add button
    The Plant is added to your personal Flower Genie database on hard disc
    Since photos in the database are originals, good-to-high quality, and contributed by many sources, we have decided to protect owner copyright by embedding the Photos in the Master Database, rather than to supply the photos as image files.
    Thus, photos are NOT copied to your database in the Copy a Plant process..

    In GARDENER mode -
  • In screen GA037S01, click the Gardener button, located to the left of the A-Z buttons
  • A new set of controls (pop-ups and buttons) appear
  • In this mode, you can explore the organisation of the plants in the Master Database
  • Click on the Gardener pop-up and explore the list
    In addition to Gardeners and Public Gardens, you’ll find a number of Nurseries, Awards, and other topics
  • If you select a Gardener, you can explore the Garden Areas and plants grown by that gardener
  • If you select a Public Garden, you’ll find Garden Areas and plants which will be on display in that garden

    Now we show some variations, and illustrate other uses for these pop-ups .
  • If you select Gardener = Master Database, you’ll find we’ve used the Garden Areas pop-up to categorise plants by colour, plants for herbaceous borders, plants for various Sunlight conditions etc.
  • Select Gardener = Top Selections
    In the Garden Area pop-up you’ll find my Top 100 plants, Long Flowering Period Plants

    The possibilities are endless. The Master Database is a continual work in progress.

    Running Garden/Nursery Slide Shows on the Master Database
  • Start the program Gardens Slideshow - FG014
  • Not all Gardens have photos yet, so you’ll have to explore
  • Select a Garden e.g. Ballyrobert Cottage Garden & Nursery - one of the nicest gardens I have had the pleasure to visit - and a first class Nursery.
  • Click the Start the show button
  • The slide show commences
    During the slide show you can click Pause. More buttons appear allowing you to go Previous, view the notes associated with the photo (Photographer, location etc) , and a Go button to click when you wish to resume running the slide show.
  • When you use Ideas Genie or Ideas Genie Pro to run the slide show on the Master Database, plants in photos are lassooed. You can use extra controls to point to plants and reveal their names.
    Lassoing is not available in Flower Genie.
     

 

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