IRIS: Garden Companion

I found Iris through the Crocus Gardening website, I expected it to be like some of the other gardening apps I’d previously downloaded and subsequently deleted, it’s not. Iris is a platform for anyone with an interest in plants or gardening. It’s inclusive, simple to use and holds a wealth of information in addition to the most friendly community. The user can be as active as they wish within the community but trust me, you’re missing out if you don’t get involved! You’ll receive a warm welcome alongside praise, tricks and tips from others passionate about their plants. Iris has built in plant identification software, perfect for helping you work out what’s what and you can build a library of all the plants you own and receive care tips to ensure your collection continues to thrive. The app is packed full of articles about every kind of plant or flower you could imagine and this cleverly links through to the Crocus Gardening website if you decide you want to boost your collection, but this does not feel forced or like a ‘sales pitch’ in any way. It’s like a gardening magazine subscription, except it’s free! It’s abundantly clear that a huge of amount of thought and effort has been put into developing and maintaining this app and it is a much welcomed alternative to social media. Finally a positive and productive use of my phone. Keep up the great work guys!

I’ve been looking for an app for a while that can provide personalised gardening care guides and it’s great to see Crocus providing this for free. The advice seems sound and the pictures of each plant you’ve saved are really useful. I do find the search function a little clunky though, a search for ‘bluebells’ brings up nothing; you have to go off and find the Latin name to search. If there’s the slightest typo in any of these Latin names (easily done when trying to type on a phone) the search draws a blank, rather than making a best guess. I’m sure these things will improve in time, and it’s not to take away from the huge endeavour of converting all this knowledge into a really useful app, but with some tweaks this app could be amazing.

Great app but we need lot more… Connect search with multiple databases not just Crocus, use better search engine which can predict/ suggest alternatives in case of a spelling error, interface could be significantly more intuitive and clearer with better hierarchy, allow future expansion capabilities to add Lidar scans, garden orientations and almost be able to geolocate plants. People will fill your data base with loads of information from buying capacities to preferences…data is value! Fantastic start, brilliant idea but lot to be desired!