This past month I took the plunge and purchased my first smartphone. Given the field I am in, it was a gadget I should have had for awhile now. I decided on the Droid Incredible 2 for many reasons too boring to mention here. Upon arriving home, I immediately began to hunt for gardening apps.

I didn’t really have a specific app in mind, I was more curious as to what was currently being developed. There were plenty of apps that put flower pictures on your phone as wallpaper, changed the phone icons into potted flowers, reminded you to water your plants, or gave information on how to grow medical marijuana. None of those sounded too interesting to me.

I did find a few that are pretty nifty though. One such app is called BeeSmart™ Pollinator Gardener. This app is an ongoing project by Pollinator Partnership and is available free to download on the Android Market. It is also available for iPhone via the App Store. According to their site, Pollinator Partnership hopes to “promote the health of pollinators, critical to food and ecosystems, through conservation, education, and research.”

BeeSmart™ aids a gardener in selecting native plants to attract pollinators to her/his garden. Being a gardener who squees with delight every time a butterfly, hummingbird, or any other pollinator is spotted on the Lot, I immediately downloaded the app. I imagine this to be very helpful when hitting the garden centers this coming Spring.

BeeSmart™ first asked for my zip code to orient my location on the ecoregions map it includes. Then through the plants section, I was able to select some search parameters. What type of pollinators did I want to attract? What color of bloom did I need in the garden? How much sunlight is available in the new bed? What soil type? What type of plant? After making all the selections I wanted, the search then sorts through the plants in the database, native to the Lot’s ecoregion, and returns a list of possible candidates.

When a plant is selected to view further details, the plant’s common name, latin name, photo, pollinators, soils preference, light preference, soil preference, plant type, flowering season, and height are all included. The option is then presented to make a note of this plant for later review.

I would like to see growth (no pun intended) in the plant database. However, this may be just me not being knowledgable yet of the breadth of native plants available to my region. I contacted the developers via email and they were very friendly and responsive. I imagine it would be difficult to improve the app without constructive criticism from it’s users. This is a really neat little app and I can’t wait to see what the developers have in store for future updates.

Anyone have other garden apps I should try?

Our winter has been extremely mild this season. However, just in time for December Bloom Day, we finally had a nice snowfall. It began Friday morning with a rain/sleet mixture which eventually turned to a heavy, wet snow by late afternoon. This weighed down many plant and shrubs in the garden so the branches and stems bowed low toward the ground. During the evening, the snow continued. Saturday morning we awoke to fluffier looking snow, and full day full of lazy, fat snowflakes. Here are the December “blooms” on the Lot.

You can see how the weight of the wet snow collapsed most of the plants like this dappled willow and Autumn Joy sedum. I leave the dried stalks of the sedum throughout the winter because usually the snow on the spent blooms looks really pretty. This kinda looks like the plant went SPLAT. Part of the problem is that Autumn Joy is in dire need of being divided. Ah well, maybe February?

Had some high January Bloom Day hopes for the Maiden Grass as well. I think this shot still turned out quite pretty though. I know this is a very common grass, but boy howdy do I love it… especially in the fall and winter.

I have no idea what this shrub is, but it has some great winter interest with the blue-black berries it grows. You really do not see them well until the shrub grudgingly looses some more leaves in mid-winter.

Can’t wait to see what else is blooming in other gardens over at May Dreams Gardens, the hostess of this Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day! I will try my hardest not to have bloom envy.

This is just silly. It is now January and we have not had more than a couple of snowfalls where snow actually stuck to the ground. Even then, after a few days, it melted away. Temperatures have remained chilly, but above freezing during the day. This has caused a strange type of anxiety in me as my fingers itch to take ahold of the pruning sheers. It’s as if the gardener inside me is being tricked by Mother Nature.

I’m not the only one who is disoriented by this odd winter weather. The plants on the Lot have begun to awaken. No dancing about them, urging them back into the ground, seems to work.

The loosestrife, lenten rose, and sedum are emerging from the ground. Shrubs, including the spirea, rose bush, and dappled willow are beginning to bud. There is new growth on the butterfly bushes and many violas are still happily growing and blooming.

This pincushion flower was just planted against the house on the east side of the Lot. It is still blooming and sending out new buds. The little dragon’s blood sedum below, also planted on the east side of the house, seems to be enjoying the sun and mild temps as well.I just hope that the snow arrives soon to blanket the plants and protect them from the real frigid winter weather and freezes we are bound to yet receive.