Professional Online Plant Finder

Hi guys I came across this tonight (I'm not involved in anyway btw) and thought it might be of some interest to some of you:"It speeds up the process of choosing plants for your Landscape Projects.The site has been developed to help professionals in the industry search for and select plants based on their suitability for the conditions or situation required by their Landscape Project, whether that be design considerations (plant size, flower colour, leaf type) or site conditions such as soil structure, pH, location (coastal or urban) etc. Landscape Architects or Garden Designers might want to search for Evergreen ferns for Partial Shade and chalk soil, for instance. A few clicks, and you have a selection of images, together with detailed information including relevant trade nurseries, that supply the plants.Ilex has been designed to save you time, and to put you in touch with plants you might otherwise not come across, or realise you could use in that particular situation."http://www.ilexplants.co.uk/It offers a 30 day free trial so worth a pop - it may certainly speed things up and become a popular service.Let me knowNicky Patterson GardenImprovements.com

Thanks for your comments, I can understand that you might have been expecting to see more nurseries listed. It is the intention, and we are working on it. There are more features coming including regular articles by top UK designers and directories of landscape contractors. The first article will be up within 10 days. Being able to choose plants by selecting the criteria that you need, and being able to check that they are available should speed up the process of creating planting plans, and also bring you into contact with plants that perhaps you weren't aware could be used in those situations. Students have one year free membership, and there are special offers going out in the press regularly. I would be interested in any more comments you may have.

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Comments

Nicky @ GardenImprovements.com January 31, 2009 at 6:08pm

I understand your sentiments but I believe this is a really new service(?) so perhaps they might be extending the supplier list in time - but what do you think about the service offer of speeding up the plant selection process?

I checked out your wholesaler site and am looking forward to the stock photos and descriptions but I think Guildford might be too far from Glasgow for us to forge a business connection!!

Cheers

Nicky Patterson
GardenImprovements.com
Nick February 5, 2009 at 12:42pm

Thanks for your comments, I can understand that you might have been expecting to see more nurseries listed. It is the intention, and we are working on it. There are more features coming including regular articles by top UK designers and directories of landscape contractors. The first article will be up within 10 days. Being able to choose plants by selecting the criteria that you need, and being able to check that they are available should speed up the process of creating planting plans, and also bring you into contact with plants that perhaps you weren't aware could be used in those situations. Students have one year free membership, and there are special offers going out in the press regularly. I would be interested in any more comments you may have.
Nick February 5, 2009 at 12:43pm

Just so your aware I created the ILEX site!
Nicky @ GardenImprovements.com February 7, 2009 at 6:44pm

Nick I have used it for the last design I produced and I was impressed with how much it made choosing plants more efficient - it certainly saved time rooting through the RHS Encyclopedia's I have here and I reckon it's a good aid to this end. I'm certainly considering a subscription for these purposes (but will of course be on the look out for special offers!) but perhaps this will be more worthwhile once some more suppliers are added since neither of our 2 main local wholesalers are in the list; McLaren's and Craigmarloch.

Cheers

Nicky Patterson
GardenImprovements.com
Nick February 7, 2009 at 7:31pm

Thanks for your comments Nicky, I am now putting out ads for nurseries to contact me to get their plant range on the site for FREE. I want to try try to avoid the site becoming overrun with ads and keep it clean and easy to use, so I opted to charge the user. If I find an alternative I'll let you know! I have contacted your local nurseries to ask for their plant range and I will give you a Year Free Subscription for your helpful comments, which I am acting on. Many thanks, Nick
Nicky @ GardenImprovements.com February 8, 2009 at 5:22pm

A year's free sounds great to me Nick thank you!

I understand the concept of keeping advertising to a minimum and I don't think that £60 is too high a premium to charge for this service. I will recomend it to whomever I think may benefit from it.

Cheers

Nicky