My daylily database is on Excel. I've used it for years and each year it gets "upgraded". Excel works because I can easily change format, including adding picture if that looks good. I also keep a low tech photo album--picture on top with 4x6" index card that gives description, fan production numbers, bloom characteristics, etc. below the picture. People tell me I'm anal, but this information is valuable to me. I don't hybridize--the database is my primary tool.

beachlily - I too use Excel for most of my record keeping. On my daylily inventory list - I list the name, hybridizer, price paid, location in my garden, a brief description, plant habits and who I bought it from. All new purchases are in red for one year so I can keep a close watch on them for survival and rust. After one growing season - they go black - LIKE THE GEORGIA BULLDOG BLACKOUT FOR THE SUGAR BOWL--ooppss sorry there.. got a little carried away..lol

I also have a spring arrival 2008 list in excel by seller - I mark each when paid - has come in handy on more occassions than you would think when I can say - "no, I paid for that with check # bla bla on bla bla date and the check has cleared" I also note condition of the plants, if there was a bonus, and ease of transaction/communication with the seller. I have kept my lists from the past 4 years just to see who I do the majority of my buying from... and who I have blacklisted - JUST LIKE THE BLACK JERSEY I WILL WEAR WHILE WATCHING THE SUGAR BOWL... ooppsss.. sorry!

I do like your idea of the photo album - with the information

My non-tech tool is a basic map of each bed- listing location of each daylily within that bed.

Shelly

Oh, You are not anal at all--LOL--I'm an electronics engineer by trade and software engineering manager in practice. That makes me really, really anal about data.

Many fields in my db are drop-down or checkbox type. When I upgrade to the next version of base db software it will also handle attaching photos and export to HTML web page. Like Excel, it is very easy to add/subtract fields with this program and easy to sort on any field.

Here are the fields my db has for each cultivar:

1. drop down for: want/really want/no thanks/have/ordered/auction bid/auction won
2. variety name
3. hybridizer
4. year registered
5. scape height
6. bloom size
7. foliage type
8. bloom season
9. bloom description

10. bloom form
11. nocturnal
12. rebloom
13. extended
14. fragrant
15. awards
16. tet/diploid
17. pollen fertile
18. pod fertile
19. 1st yr grown
20. source
21. property where grown (I've moved and not all plants I've grown came with me but still want to track my experience with them)
22. landscape location (drop down that can be easily customized)
23. additional notes (degree of info here varies by my interest/use of the plant. It might include: parentage, offspring, $ paid, when I expect order to arrive, etc)

I'm trying to see if there is a way to link db's with this program so that I could use this initial data as the base for a hybridizer's tool that would link seedlings listed to the parents in the original list.

It exports in a standard format so I was thinking about making my data available in exchange for DL trades sometime in the future as I get more of the data verified and/or importing data from other's Excel files to customize a db for them in exchange for DL trades if they were interested in purchasing the base program from Illium (I use the db tool for a lot more than DL too. I use it to keep all my shopping lists, recipes, inventories (books, reading lists, movies, collectibles, etc), to do lists, medical and perscription histories for my family, household/auto maintenance, special quotes, and much more- just about anything you want to organize in a list or small db format and carry with you on your pda. You can password protect any sensitive lists. So its a handy tool anyway. In fact I was already using it for all this other stuff before I decided to use it for DL & plants.

LOL- adding plants was just another extension of my already over the top data obsessions...

Shelly, I keep my maps on the computer too in Excel. Easy to change! I move stuff or replace about every two to three years. This year I gave about 40 cultivars to friends and club members (we had a grab bag at the Christmas meeting and everyone took home 4-5 plants--three of us donated a great selection from old to fairly new). Anyway, I'm finishing up the weeding and planting.

Last year a friend gave me 20 single fans from his most recent shipment from Jack Carpenter. Those have been in pots for the past year. I knew I needed to do a wholesale removal to make room for those beauties plus others I had accumulated through the fall. Thank heavens its getting a little cooler down here! Talk about being filty, dirty and happy!

beachlily - would love to see a copy of one of your maps as my feeble mind can't wrap around it.. : )
teachingurchild@aol.com is e-mail
Shelly

Shelly, I've sent you an email!

Beachlily you have mail.

Love the idea of keeping visual maps in the same program as you keep the inventory list. That's definitely a plus for using the MS Office programs. They take graphics really easily.

I wonder if there are any garden programs out there already that have all these features integrated. I have not found one yet. Some do well for mapping & design layout but not for detailed inventory on particular plant types with specific field requirements like dl.

Any db program will work well for creating & managing an inventory but most are not designed to be flexible with graphics. Some will let you attach photos but I don't know of any with drawing capabilities to redraw a map when you make changes to the inventory or vice versa to update the inventory when you change the map.

The PDA version of Excel is very limitted so that's why I have gone to a db designed to work on pdas.

Wouldn't it be nice to have one application that will do it all?