my new site is now online

it's aimed at snowdrop growers and those just getting hooked by them. I will be writing answers for all the FAQ and expanding on the intro page as I get time.

the site is found here http://www.snowdropinfo.com

if you have difficulty reading any text you will have to highlight it using the curser. One of the main problems is where the white text goes across the white of the petals. We have tried all sorts to rememdy this but it would suit some but not others. my web master is working on a program that will automatically change white text to black when it goes over white.

Mark

This message was edited Monday, Mar 25th 6:47 PM

Mark,

What beautiful little plants! I can just picture them in a mass planting! Thanks for sharing them and your site with us.

Since you asked, there are a few things I can think of that would improve the site's functionality, but knowing that it takes a lot of time to construct a site, and not knowing all the ins and outs, I don't know if my suggestions would be workable or efficient.

The first thing I noticed upon arrival was the emptyness of the page. Perhaps one of the pictures would enjoy being placed on that opening page.

Then I found it cumbersome to keep going back to the beginning page to go to another section. If it's not too hard to do, the addition of the section buttons to each page would be nice.

And lastly, the pictures take a while to load. Maybe each section could be on a separate page so that the images could load faster.

This is just from the point of view of a surfer and not to be taken as criticisim. I really enjoyed the site and have bookmarked it in hopes that someday I will be able to explore the snowdrops more thoroughly. Thanks again.
Rose

Roshana

one of the problems is the background of the home page is missing. The photos will be sorted also as I've recently found apart of my photo software that reduces the size of an image without loss of quality.surely hitting the back button cant be cumbersome?

I will pass the points to my web master

Mark

Mark,

With regard to your images page, you (or your webmaster) need to create two separate images for each picture.

One image is small, 120x160 or something, that is used as the thumbnail. Then, when someone clicks on that, they get the other image, the fullsize one.

This is why it takes an eternity to load your images.html page.

Was that your webmaster's idea? Do you mind my asking ... are you paying him much for putting this site together for you?

Dave

Hi Mark :)

The yellow text over the white portion of the snowdrop is difficult to read (although I love the background picture). I have a high speed internet connection and it took quite a while (almost a minute) to load your first images page. I am concerned this will take a REALLY long time on a dial up. You will probably not get the views of your images that you would like.

Thumbnails might be a good idea - then if you want to see the picture up close you can just click on it. Also, the yellow text over a green background makes my eyes hurt.

Front page needs a picture or something.

The information is all there tho - great start!

RiseAnn I worked until 3.30am this morning resizing images to make them download faster. I will hopefully have these changed tomorrow evening. I kinow the images are too big which is the problem. problems like this cant be seen until the site is online which is one of the reasons I shouldnt have promoted it until everything was OK.

as far as the background images and text text goes we experimented with lots of colors over the photograph and they all had problems due to the greens and white of the plant. The background image is my idea as it makes the page far more exciting than a plain white or colored background.

Mark

Dave
we do have 2 different sized images on their own page. the thumbnail is 160 pixels wide and the main image in time will be only 500 wide. the images on the images thumbnail page take a while because I only recently found that my photo software can reduce an images without altering the quality.

the webmaster is a 14 year old, who I met because he found a bat, and very talented. I'm not allowed to pay him as his parents say it will give him experience. I do sneak him $75 every month.

Mark

Mark,

Indeed, you do -not- have two different sized images on your site. You are using the same image for both the thumbnail and the full size picture.

You should have a thumbnail called "1_tn.jpg" or something, that then links to 1.jpg. The 1_tn.jpg should be 160xwhatever.

Dave

I understand now and by coicidence that is what I have been working on. I have been reducing an image to 500 x whatever pixels, saving it and repeating the process and resaving the thumbnail at 160 pixels x whatever.

Once this is done I will be resizing all of the images on Marksgardenplants as it has the same problem.

Mark

when I clicked on More images, they were not found on my server, but. the first page of images was...which were lovely. I just got the highspeed hookup and they fly onto the page. I am so glad I went with that. ! There are always little quirts to iron out. Makes me want to find more snowdrops! Lovethem. they disappeared fro my garden. Chippies must of got them

when I clicked on More images, they were not found on my server, but. the first page of images was...which were lovely. I just got the highspeed hookup and they fly onto the page. I am so glad I went with that. ! There are always little quirts to iron out. Makes me want to find more snowdrops! Lovethem. they disappeared fro my garden. Chippies must of got them.....It says....NOT FOUND THE REQUESTED URL /IMAGES2.HTML WAS NOT FOUND ADDITIONALLY, A 404 NOT FOUND ERROR WAS ENCOUNTERED WHILE TRYING TO USE AND ERROR DOCUMONT TO HANDLE THE REQUEST .APACHE/1.3.20/SERVER AT WWW.SNOWDROPSINFO.COM PORT 80......If that helps.

We looked at all your snow drop photos as we have snowdrops here but not flowering yet. Your photos were really nice.
A very good cross selection I thought.

I actually have 185 different snowdrops which will all be shown next spring.

Mark

Mark, that's seriously A LOT!! Are you going to plant them direct into your raised beds or are you going to plunge them in pots to keep them separate?
What kind of labels do you use? I find it's so hard to find something that stands the test of time (and the birds, lol!!)

Good morning

What ever happened to Sunday lie-ins? I was working on the site until 2am or so then get a call at 8am from someone who sent me snowdrops. So now I'm working on the site again.

The raised beds, 2 x 35 feet one of which will increase by another 35 feet later this year, are being built especially for the collection. They will be knee height and 3 feet wide. Snowdrops are OK in pots but not for too long so they cant be grown in sunken pots. What I will be doing is planting each one I have 1.5 feet from the next and 5 for every 3 feet square.

They wont be labelled as such and will be allocated a number only. One label will be buried among the bulbs and one will be shown. The label that will be seen will most likely be clear plastic so the plave doesnt look like a white label graveyard.

The snowdrops will be planted in alphbetical order on one side and the cultivars will be planted the same on the other. another raised bed half the height will be made in front of one of the bigger ones to hold all the nivalis cultivars I have.

I'll email you my list.

Mark

Yeh poor ole you - DIY last sunday, snowdrop chat this. When're you gonna catch up on your beauty sleep?

Seriously ;) thanks for the list that's some collection! And where are the celandines and geraniums going? How many have you got of those?

Lovely pics, Mark. Just reading your and Dave's comments makes me realize it is how arduous and frustrating it can be to put something like this together. It makes your efforts to share your pics and info with all of us even more generous.

if y'all check back you will see we have made some major changes today but it's not without problems again

I added a better background to each page which I photographed yesterday. it's so clear you can almost touch the flower.

the problem with the text now depends on the size of the viewers monitor. we were working on a 19 inch monitor today and fixed the text to be white and where it crosses over the white of the snowdrop petal we changed it to black. now that I've called to work where we have a 15 inch monitor the text color doesnt match the 19 inch one and now it looks worse than when it was yellow. so .............. it is now has ta get changed again to be one color all over again.

the images are no gone for the time being and should be uploaded by tomorrow afternoon. download time should now be halved.

and when I'm happy with snowdropinfo.com I'm gonna redo every album in marksgardenplants

c ya

Mark

Hey Mark - looking good! I like the new background picture :)

I did a business web site for a friend 2 years ago, and it was soooooooo much work. I worked non-stop, of course learning all the way. My best to your friend Mark, and of course it will be great in the end.

maybe i'm not as alert as everyone else,and I probably went to the site after you re-did it but,I thought it was very informative. makes me want to try them,even though I think the hot "drought" days here in texas, would dry them like a prune. If I had a pond I would plant them around it.

Mark,
I'm falling in love with snowdrops!! The opening page is wonderful and looks fine on my laptop which has a 13 inch screen. I just adore that background picture. Good luck with the rest. I am looking forward to viewing the photos once they are up. Have you ever thought of adding photos of landscape shots of where you grow them? That would be interesting too.
Rose