Flower Club

Chrisa | Jan 19, 2009 Entertainment

User rating: (2 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)
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flowerclub_price

 

 

For my first iPhone App Review, I decided I’d try something girlie, since I think women are underrepresented in techie-type review blogs like this one.  Anyway, as a broad myself, I was intrigued by the idea of, as the developer put it, finding the florist within, so I gave Flower Club from Orchard Party a go.  And I found out something about myself – I don’t HAVE an inner florist.  Or, if I do, this app frustrated the crap out of her.

Flower Club does let the user arrange three different types of flowers in one of several vase options, along with greenery and other flotsam and jetsam.  But the flower choices are very limited – red rose, purple tulip, or yellow daisy.  And don’t try and create yourself a dozen red roses – only five flowers per vase allowed, no matter the vase you choose.  That frustrated me the most.  I mean, come on, women want a dozen roses, people, not one in a bud vase!  Getting one rose in a bud vase either means you’re in high school, or the dude who gave it to you lives with his mother.

Once you create an arrangement, you can save it to the gallery.   Then the next bit of frustration kicks in.  When you view your gallery, your arrangements are all there, beautiful and blooming.  Select one and - low and behold – it’s closed buds, waiting to bloom.   If you want to see your arrangement blooming again, you have to “water” it, by clicking the water icon over and over and over and over and over and…you get the picture.  And if you have more than one flower in your arrangement, you have to water each one individually.  They don’t all bloom together.  Finally, if you water them enough (it took me 38 “clicks” to get a three flower arrangement to bloom)to get them to bloom, when you leave the gallery, they bud up.  You have to water them all over again to see them in bloom the next time you visit the gallery. 

Even at $0.99, Flower Club was too pricey a club for me.  If I could have saved images of my arrangements to my iPhone photo gallery so I could email them, I might have liked this app more.  But sticking a rose in a bud vase and incurring carpal tunnel syndrome to get it to bloom just didn’t do it for me.

The menu is pretty.
The menu is pretty.
The directions were to the point and included icons, which I liked.
The directions were to the point and included icons, which I liked.
The default arrangement.
The default arrangement.

That's it for your flower choices. Slim pickens.
That's it for your flower choices. Slim pickens.
Yes - the gallery is always sideways.
Yes - the gallery is always sideways.
WTF? Wasn't this arrangement in bloom?
WTF? Wasn't this arrangement in bloom?

18 clicks later, one flower blooms. Bitchin.
18 clicks later, one flower blooms. Bitchin.
flowerclub_price


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  • Michael (Admin)

    Well that’s a shame… even as a manly man I thought this app looked like it had promise! I’ll be emailing Orchard Party today to tell them about this review and hopefully they’ll be able to address at least some of your gripes in a future update.

  • Chrisa

    Well, maybe it’s too “zen” for me. Like I said – if I could have saved them to my photo gallery, I would have liked it better.

  • http://orchardparty.com Orchard Party

    Thank you for the thorough review. It is very much appreciated.

    We are aware of the watering issue as well as the lack of choices in flowers and limit on number of flowers that can be added to the vase. This is our very first program and we were in a bit of a rush just to get it out there. We are working on an update, which will be free.

    As for saving your arrangements, there is a built-in screen capture function. By pressing the “Home” button and the Sleep/Wake button (on top of the iPhone) at the same time, whatever is on your screen gets saved to your photo album. The iPod/iPhone screen will flash momentarily to indicate that a screenshot has been captured.

    Thanks again.

  • Chrisa

    Hi –

    I’d like to see if again after your next revision, so let me know! Thanks for the info!

  • http://www.backlinkseotool.com/ RoseFan

    …The wild roses includes the species listed above and some of their hybrids…