It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than That!

Over the past weekend we were invited to be a part of Chalet Nursery’s Garden Faire event in Wilmette, Illinois. The first weekend in May is the grand opening of spring in the Midwest. When we showed up to the garden center, it was about a quarter to eight in the morning and there was already a line of people waiting to get inside! It’s clear that people had enough of Old Man Winter and wanted to get some plants in the ground.

We couldn’t have asked for a better weekend. It was 70 degrees and sunny for the most part. Also, we were able to camp out next to the popcorn guy so that wasn’t bad either!

Plants looked great as well, and the selection was fantastic. Even though some of the more prominent summer annuals weren’t available yet, the wallflowers looked fantastic and so did the lobelia baskets.

We held a raffle as well! Four lucky people are set to win $25 gift certificates to Chalet Nursery and four luckier people are set to win GrowIt! t-shirts. We also had an AMAZING run-in with one of our GrowIt! fans this weekend as well!

Google Maps, Facebook, Twitter, Pandora, Youtube.

Those are all examples of mobile apps that are the first thing downloaded when someone gets a new phone. This past weekend, we learned that you can now add GrowIt! to that list!

Last summer while we were doing events in the Chicagoland area we had the chance to talk to a lot of people about what we are doing with GrowIt! Because we are currently only a mobile platform some people couldn’t use GrowIt! from the beginning because they didn’t have a smartphone. Turns out that we left an impression on those folks too!

We actually had one fan stop by – in a GrowIt! t-shirt no less – and tell us that last summer she was unable to use the app because she did not have a smartphone. However, she said that back in December she finally upgraded to an iPhone. Can you guess what the first app she downloaded was? Yep! It was GrowIt! We honestly, thought she was kidding at first but she assured us that she downloaded it right at the Apple Store! How cool is that?

She now uses the GrowIt! app as username “booter13”, and really enjoys helping people identify plants that they have questions about. She said that it’s a lot of fun and that she enjoys spreading her passion for gardening.

At the end of the day that’s what GrowIt! is all about: Spreading a passion for plants. We’re just glad we can make people smile while doing it. It truly was a great weekend capped by an AWESOME interaction with one of our users.

Chicago Flower & Garden Show!

Spring is almost here….We promise!

Just in time for spring we have some exciting news and developments with GrowIt! to share with you!

Chicago Flower & Garden Show!

We are excited to be taking part in this year’s Chicago Flower & Garden Show! We will be setting up shop in booth number 627. If you get a chance, stop by and say hello. We’ll be showing off the app and helping people find plants that will work for them. Also… if you come by at just the right time, we might have a cool gift if you show us that you’ve downloaded the app!

The show runs from Saturday, March 14^th to Sunday March 22^nd on Navy Pier in Chicago. We’ll be there EVERY DAY. However, if you have the luxury to pick a time to come to the show, you should definitely come down on Friday afternoon. On Friday, March 20^th at 5pm we will be speaking about the future of “gardening” in our presentation: It’s a Garden Revolution.

If you happen to be one of the Garden Writers attending the Region 3 Regional Meeting at the show on Saturday, March 14^th, you’ll also get yet another chance to see us! At 11:15am we will be talking about technology in the garden. This presentation is called GrowIt! – The Garden-Tech Revolution Starts Now!

Also, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for GrowIt! throughout the show! We are working with a few of the other gardens at the show. If you can’t make it to Navy Pier, just search for these users on the app to see what’s going on as they’ll be posting photos of all the plants in their gardens and booths:

 Serenity in the City – Chicago Flower Show

Proven Winners – Chicago Flower Show

Tiny House, Big “little” Garden! – Chicago Flower Show

Again, the Chicago Flower & Garden Show runs from March 14^th to March 22^nd for more information go to www.chicagoflower.com.

We will be speaking on Friday, March 20^th at 5pm for information on our talk go here: http://www.chicagoflower.com/seminar-info.php?s=75&d=12&t=2

App Updates

What’s new? We’re taking GrowIt! interactions to the next level.

– Help someone out! Now, if someone has a plant picture, but doesn’t know the name, you can help them out by suggesting a name for the plant. Become the plant genius in your area!!! Plants that need suggestions will have a “Help Identify” tag on them.

– Is someone talking about your plants? Now you’ll be able to tell! We’ve added various notifications to the app so that when someone comments on your photo you’ll be notified. We’ll also notify you if your pictures become really popular and when someone has identified plants for you on the app!

Do You Believe in Magic?!

GrowIt! Co-founder Seth Reed recently had the opportunity to go to Disney World with his family. The plants caught his eye for sure. This is what he had to say:

I’m going to take a wild guess that you’ve probably visited Disney at least once in your lifetime.  If you haven’t had the opportunity yet, you have to put it on your list.  If you have kids, wait till they are about 5, and then take them and their faces will light up in ways you could never have imagined! A few weeks ago I took my family including our 4 year old daughter, and we had a blast.

I’m from the Midwest, and the months of November through February just suck.  The weather is cold, the trees have no leaves, and generally speaking the landscape is kind of dismal – unless you’re one of those people that see 3 feet of snow as a winter wonderland.  Disney World on the other hand is in Orlando, Florida. I should have known better, I guess you could say I was expecting warmer temperatures, but the same grey landscapes. Boy was I wrong! I was pleasantly surprised how green and colorful it was for November.  Below I want to share with you a few ways that Disney makes plants magical…

1. Poinsettias in the landscape – I wasn’t expecting this to be a landscape plant, but it worked fantastically and provided Christmas color everywhere. Much better than how we use it in the Midwest. Poinsettias in large plots look way better than the lonely individual poinsettias we’re used to.

2. Amazing Green Topiarys – ok sometimes having just green creations is a bit boring, but when they are shaped as Disney characters, it brings an area to life! Too Cool!

3. Hanging Baskets – Even with limited options they tend do find something creative to show off.

4. Green is everywhere – everywhere I looked there were trees and plants to help set the mood, and transform the setting into the magical world that they want you to experience.

Perhaps Disney is already aware that plants make people calmer, or that plants provide better oxygen, or that the plant life provides a cooler temperature in the region, or that the shade extends the life of the concrete that it encompasses.  Whatever the reason, it appears that plant life is an integral part of the Disney experience, and that is all part of the magical plan.

I would love to hear comments about your own trips and the plants you saw.

-Seth Reed, Co-founder of GrowIt!

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GrowIt! Scholarship Recipients

At GrowIt! we know that the future of our planet lies in the hands of the youth. It’s up to them to plant the gardens of tomorrow! That’s why this Summer/Fall we decided to give away scholarships to Collegiate Students!

We are proud to announce the 2014 GrowIt! Scholarship Recipients! The students below are passionate about plants, and also have a pretty keen eye for a good photo opportunity. Here are their stories (and photos)! Congratulations and Great Job!

Maxwell Mercer

My name is Maxwell Mercer and I’m from Mount Dora, Florida. I’m currently a senior at the University of Florida, and will be graduating this December with a BS in Plant Science, specializing in Landscape and Nursery Horticulture. My parents own a tropical foliage nursery in Apopka. Growing up I would work there whenever we had breaks from school. Throughout my time working there I gained an interest in the company. I plan on taking over the family business and use my knowledge gained during school to grow the company to new heights.

Lindsey Miller

My name is Lindsey Miller. I am a proud Minnesota native who grew up in Brooklyn Park and graduated from Osseo Sr. High School. I am currently enrolled in the Horticultural Science program at the University of Minnesota, and expect to graduate from this program in the spring of 2015. It took me a bit of life experience, and a lot of general courses to realize my hidden passion for environmental science. Upon this realization, it was necessary to choose a more focused area of study: I chose plant science because these organisms were, and continue to be, a key supporter of other forms of life on the planet.

This past summer I was granted a full time internship at the University of Minnesota Display and Trial Garden located on the St. Paul campus. This internship allowed me to observe hundreds of native and locally popular perennial and annual plants throughout the growing season. One of the responsibilities delegated to me was to photograph garden happenings in an effort to draw attention to the garden through use of social media. As I began to do this, I became deeply fascinated by the structure and function of plants in the garden; the ecological interactions that took place before my lens continuously piqued my interest. Thank you to Mason and the GrowIt team for honoring me with this scholarship. I am excited and proud to have my passion for displaying the beauty of plants recognized in this way. I look forward to posting more photos and plant information to the GrowIt! app as the next growing season draws ever closer.

Sarah Swofford

Howdy!  My name is Sarah Swofford and I am a senior Horticulture major at Texas A&M University.  I’m a native Texan – I was born in Houston and grew up in Keller, Texas.  Since I can remember I have been fascinated by nature, especially the plants around me.  I followed this love of nature and it has guided me to a more specialized, detailed, and interesting area of agriculture.  One of the wonderful things about plants is that there’s always something new to learn about them.

I have also discovered that plants are not just beautiful and interesting, but are critical to life.  Realizing how essential plants are to life gives me a passionate desire to find a career involving plant life, sustainability, and the environment.  As I move forward I continually remember the necessity of plants in our everyday lives.

Emma Neigel

Hi my name is Emma Neigel. I am from the small farming community of Athabasca in rural Alberta, Canada. I’m a senior at Mississippi State University (hail state!) and studying Horticulture with a Floriculture concentration. My interest in plants comes from my Mother, who frequently had me help her in the garden. I also worked at a local greenhouse throughout high school and had the opportunity to work at Callaway Gardens in Georgia this past summer. I’m looking into doing the Disney internship this summer in and hope to pursue my Master’s degree in Organic Horticulture in the near future.

David Proven

David Proven is a student at Pennsylvania State University where he studies Landscape Contracting with a concentration in management. He grew up in Perkasie Pennsylvania, a small town about an hour north west of Philadelphia. Living in the suburbs brought David into contact at a young age with many beautiful landscapes ranging from large estates to natural landscapes which are abundant in the area. He always enjoyed seeing how the plants in the landscapes were capable of either enhancing or hindering the house which they surround. He was also introduced to plants at a young age because his grandfather is a certified Pennsylvania Master Gardner and so David was brought up living the green-thumb lifestyle.

Lauren Normandin

My name is Lauren Normandin, I am from Berwick Pennsylvania.  During high school I attended Columbia Montour Area Vocational School in Bloomsburg where I was a student in the Horticulture/ Floriculture program.  My Horticulture teacher Mr. Tim Mauk taught me a lot over those four years but my love for plants began even before that.  As a kid, I spent much of my time with my grandmother in her little greenhouse.  She showed me the miracle of growing beautiful plants from such small seeds.  Because of these two wonderful people I chose to attend the Pennsylvania State University and major in Plant Science Horticulture.  After I graduate I hope to manage a greenhouse or a nursery.

An Update on all of the Updates

We interrupt this program to bring you an update from the GrowIt! studio……

Seriously though, gears have been moving behind the scenes here at the GrowIt! laboratory, and we wanted to take a little time and tell you about a couple big changes that have already happened, or are in the works.

SPEED

If you’ve updated the app recently, you might have noticed a couple things. The most obvious change is that it no longer takes years for plants and images to load! Recently we’ve upgraded our back-end servers (Tech Jargon for “we’ve done some computer coding stuff”) to make your GrowIt! experience much more expedient and enjoyable. Our upgrading process allows your phone to load more pictures at a faster rate than ever before. We understand that your time is valuable, and that nobody wants to spend hours waiting for pictures to load.

QUALITY

This is something that you might not have noticed, but the pictures that GrowIt! captures when you use your camera in the app are better than ever! We’ve upped the resolution of the photos that the app can use. We understand that pictures need to be as clear as possible to show the beauty of the plants you love!

UPCOMING: ANDROID!!!??!?!

The transformation process has begun! Our developers have already shown us multiple screens for an Android version of GrowIt! We’re learning that there can be “translation” difficulties when taking an app from one operating system and formatting it for another; however, we are striving to create an app that offers stellar performance for both iPhone and Android users. Our fingers are crossed (when they aren’t typing furiously) but we’re hoping GrowIt! should be available in the Google Play market in the next few months!

We hope all is well with all of our GrowIt! fans out there. Hopefully the snow hasn’t hit you too hard yet.

Just remember when times get cold; Spring is only a few months away, you can make it, and if you need to see something green to brighten your winter days, GrowIt! has you covered.

– Mason Day, Mustachioed CoFounder of GrowIt!

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New Friends in the Freedom City

Unless you’re a robot, you probably have a soft spot somewhere in your heart for plants.

There may be plants that you don’t like. Posion Ivy, and Stinging Nettles can be a pain.

Mowing the lawn takes precious time out of your day and those gardens won’t plant themselves.

All of that might be true, but we can all agree plants, for the most part, make the world a better place.

However, it seems that today people are less and less interested in planting things. We are too busy waiting in line for the next gadget, or working our weekends away, and our communities are suffering because of it! We must find a way to resurrect the garden, but who will champion this cause?!!?

This past weekend while Seth was in Des Moines, Iowa celebrating the grand opening of the Greater Des Moines Botanic Garden, I was in Philadelphia, The Birthplace of Freedom, for a gathering of minds. I was lucky enough to be invited to the America in Bloom Symposium. America in Bloom is an organization that works with communities to use flowers to improve cities and towns across this great nation.

    

I was representing GrowIt!, and spreading the news of what we are doing to help get more people interested in veggies and flowers. It was fantastic to be able to share passions and talk with people that have the same goal: More plants in the lives of more people!

There were mayors and city planners from hundreds of communities sharing ideas on how to make America a more beautiful place. Though everyone seemed to have the same overarching goal, there were all sorts of ideas and concepts on how to achieve it. Some felt that we had to reach out to the children in education. Others championed the cause for community gardens, and some felt that the best way to get people involved was through ecological restoration processes with native plants.

I got to tell my story and meet so many people. We talked about using GrowIt! to get community members involved in community plantings. We talked about cities having their own profiles to inspire people to branch out and grow something themselves, or as a means to receive feedback on the items that they had planted.

Overall the weekend was a lot of fun, and we left with some great ideas on how to add some flavor to America.

Learn more about America in Bloom Here: http://www.americainbloom.org

~Mason Day – Co-Founder, GrowIt!

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The Plant Explorers!

We have the great opportunity to meet a lot of people from all over the world through the course of creating and promoting GrowIt! It’s the interactions with different people that really show me how GrowIt! Is making a difference.

Since I was young, my favorite thing in the world has been to meet interesting people and learn what makes them tick and what gets them out of bed in the morning.  I had the opportunity this weekend to act out my passion and meet some very interesting people…and to see a friend’s passion in full swing.

This story starts with my friend at the Greater Des Moines Botanical Gardens, Mr. Kelly Norris.  I will sum him up quickly: he is a kickass individual.  After becoming the director of the gardens, he used his passion and drive to acquire over $18 million in funding to renovate the facility and add 7 acres of outdoor garden space.  This is a wonderful opportunity for all of Des Moines because the garden itself is in the heart of the city.

Kelly had the vision beyond what the gardens current state was; he communicated that vision with passion, built the right team, and then used his drive and determination to make it a reality.  You can read more about Kelly and The Greater Des Moines Botanical Gardens by reading the New York Times story HERE.  If you live near Des Moines, make sure to stop by and take a look at it…..and feel free to put up some wonderful plants on GrowIt!.

I was in Des Moines visiting Kelly and his crew over the weekend for their first annual symposium, “plant exploring”.  As I was driving to Des Moines I couldn’t help but envision an Indiana Jones like figure standing on stage with his trowel in one hand and whip in another hand.  He would be excitedly telling us about the time he was in search of a long lost plant that had only been pictured in ancient scrolls.  After hearing 4 wonderful presentations I can assure you that there were no chase scenes depicted in the stories that were told.  However, there did seem to be some amazing similarities in the fact that one speaker, Mark Hachadourian, was in search for plants that had not been seen for over 100 years.  He started his presentation talking about the incredibly exotic plants that explorers from all over the world would bring back to Victorian England.  As time passed on, wars came and went, family fortunes were broken up and massive greenhouse sculptures were lost.  With those lost structures, the plants disappeared as well. The only proof that they ever existed were pictures drawn out by artists.

Mark’s presentation was chalk full of wonderful images of plants that were so exotic you would l think you were looking at a Hollywood set.  But for me, given how much I enjoy people, I found his enthusiasm for unknown plants the most remarkable.  If you enjoy the observing interesting photos of weird and wild plants you might want to check out his book.

I would like to Thank Kelly Norris, Mark Hachadourian and his other speakers: Dan Hinkley, Jim Ault, and Peter Zale for and great day of plant exploration…even if there was no Indiana themed music. Dun dada dun… dun da dun….

Seth Reed – Co-Founder, GrowIt!

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Why GrowIt!?

We’ve covered the “What” and the “Who” of GrowIt!

It only seems logical that the next step would be to talk about the Passion behind GrowIt!

In order to dig into the subject, we have to ask:

As I touched on in the last post, Seth and I both came from jobs in the commercial horticulture industry. Think of it this way: when it comes to gardening we were brokers of the raw materials. We could describe it further but you’d be asleep by the end of this senten…. Sorry dozed off there!

We were working in an industry that makes the world beautiful. However, one thing Seth and I noticed was that younger generations were missing out on the beauty of plants and the benefits they provide. Kids from the Eighties and Nineties didn’t grow up in the garden like previous generations did. Because of this, plants and the concept of “growing” don’t come natural to most younger people.

Rather, than admit defeat and accept the future of a colorless world, Seth and I set out to find a way to get plants in front of more people. Rather than try to bring young people to the garden, we wanted to bring the plants to them. The Average American now spends around 3 hours a day using apps on their phone, so naturally that had to be our platform.

We see GrowIt! as a way to introduce people to plants and other gardeners. It’s a community where the experienced gardener can share their expertise and knowledge, but also a place where plant rookies can obtain the most basic plant information. It’s our job to connect people of every growing level.

If you want to see how plants are important to you and society, all you have to do is Google “benefits of plants” to see what I’m talking about. We’re discovering new benefits every day. That’s where the real passion behind GrowIt! is. Sure, it’s a fun app to share your photos and brag about your garden, but at the end of the day the goal is to inspire people to get growing. Plants are amazing, and we want to make sure more people know that.

– Mason Day, Co-founder of GrowIt!

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