Tablet time

Winter is the perfect time to start planning for your spring and summer seasons and explore new ways to improve your execution. If you’re a grower, you can brush up on production techniques and requirements for your crops. Retailers can finalize their plant inventory purchases and explore new ways to engage consumers.
Quiet times are also great for training your staff to increase their plant knowledge before the season hits. It’s also an opportunity for landscapers to become acquainted with varieties that are available and will perform in cool or hot conditions.
Suntory Flowers has developed a series of fun, interactive apps for the horticultural trade and gardening public.

Combo Designer
Explore planting combinations before you buy plants! The new and improved version of Suntory Flowers’ Combo Designer offers more fun and functionality. It is now easier to see each variety brand series and flower colors, as well as full plant habits. Choose from an assortment of containers to plant in and then drag and drop the plants into three circles with your finger. Press submit and then, voila! Your combination grows before your very eyes. You also get fun feedback from cartoon characters – Suntory’s mascot dog and video star Liz Elan. Once you make the combination you can save it, share it and even convert it to a jingo puzzle game. This app is perfect to engage your staff and customers in making combinations and dreaming up new ideas. It is available for iPads and Android devices.

Easy Gardening Tips
Easy Gardening Tips is a multimedia digital publication that inspires consumers to freshen their outdoor living spaces while providing a wealth of solid gardening advice. The app includes two editions – early spring and summer – with timely seasonal content. Interactive features allow you to choose plants by color. See what it’s like to create three different looks in the same space by transforming a basic wooden deck with a dining area. Links to videos enhance the experience. Search all the Suntory varieties by desired trait in the Flower Finder. A geolocator directs you to local garden centers. This app is available for iPads only.

Grower's GuideGrower’s Guide
The Grower’s Guide app is the very first greenhouse production app developed by a flower breeder and has been updated to include 2014 varieties. Designed for iPad tablets, the fully integrated tool provides complete cultural information for the entire Suntory catalog of varieties. Portable and user-friendly, growers can sort crops by temperature, light and fertility requirements, and view crop times at a glance. In-depth cultural information is provided for each crop. It’s easy to see how many plants per pot are recommended for 4-inch and 6-inch pots and hanging baskets, along with number of weeks to finish. Growers can customize their Grower’s Guide by selecting the varieties they plan to grow and sell. Award ribbons indicate which varieties have been recognized for landscape performance at leading university trials.

Once the Grower’s Guide app is downloaded, all of this vital information is available without access to the Internet. But even more is readily accessible with a Wi-Fi connection, including a full library of videos and links to all of Suntory’s digital YESS! tools – Your Easy Suntory Solution.

The YESS! toolkit includes: programs to create bench cards and posters, a complete photo library, video channels and mobile sites, plus links to download the Combo Designer and Easy Gardening Tips apps. The richness of the content and resources is unmatched in the greenhouse floriculture industry.

Click here to read more.