Bellevue Botanical Garden: Plant Database & Virtual Tour

Client

Bellevue Botanical Garden

Industry

Botanical gardens

Technologies

ASP.NET, SQL Server, Access

Overview

Project highlights

Search your wayBy plant name, from drop-down lists, or by hundreds of characteristics.
Clickable garden mapsClick an area of the garden to see what's growing there.
Know where to find itResults show every location in the garden where a plant grows.
More than plantsArt work, sculptures, and tribute installations are part of the collection too.

Before

The challenge

Bellevue Botanical Garden wanted a dynamic website so anyone, from botanists to casual enthusiasts, could take a virtual tour of the garden, search for plants by a variety of characteristics, and view beautiful high-resolution photos online.

The collection includes not just plants but also the garden's art work, sculptures, and tribute installations.

After

What we built

J Street built a dynamic, database-driven website that lets visitors explore the garden and search its plant collection from home.

Visitors can type a simple plant name, choose from drop-down lists, or search by hundreds of characteristics. Clickable maps show what's growing in each area of the garden, and a detailed plant search lets botanists and enthusiasts look plants up by their Latin names.

Search results show a photo of each plant, its official name, and every location in the garden where it can be found. Each plant page lists all of its characteristics, with more photos that open as high-resolution images.

Inside the system

A closer look

Many ways to search

Visitors have lots of ways to search. A simple plant name will work - just type what you know. You can search for plants using drop-down lists of names, or by hundreds of characteristics. There's even a collection of art work, sculptures and tribute installations to explore.

Explore the garden by map

Visitors can explore the garden by clicking on maps to see what plants are growing there.

Search by characteristics

Searching by characteristics allows the visitor to find plants that meet many different criteria, including color, soil, sunlight and water requirements, and many more.

Detailed plant search

For the botanist or enthusiast, there's a detailed plant search where you can get your Latin into gear.

Results with every location

The search results show not only a photo of the each plant, but also the official name and all the locations in the garden where it can be found.

Detailed plant pages

Your search is rewarded with a detailed plant page, with all characteristics and more photos. Each of the photos may be clicked for a gorgeous high-resolution image.

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The outcome

How it turned out

Anyone, from casual enthusiasts to botanists, can take a virtual tour of the garden from home.
The site is used by thousands of people to learn about the garden.
It grew the Garden's user base, reaching even local schools and colleges.
The site is still in use today.

See more of our work for botanical gardens.