Customers can become landscape designers with Plant By Number garden maps

When Alexander Betz started in landscaping about 15 years ago, he admits he bought a “landscaping and gardening for dummies” book. 

As he learned more and gained more experience — and customers began to ask for more complex designs — he would contract with freelance designers, who would provide scaled CAD layouts or PDFs of garden designs. At the installations, he noted how confusing it could be for crews to read those layouts and install the plants where they were supposed to be. 

That’s how the idea for his business, Plant By Number, was born. And now it's useful for more than just landscape professionals. Anyone who’s planting a garden can use it.. 

The company produces printed-to-scale garden maps on weed-blocking fabric or biodegradable paper that are available as both PDF digital layouts and in-store grab-and-go kits. 

Printed on the maps are the precise locations different plants should go to create a perfect garden. The map also includes locations for solar lights and marks where drip line irrigation should be placed for sustainability. 

“We were already using landscape fabric for a lot of our projects to help suppress weeds,” Betz says. “If I just had the locations for these printed directly on the landscape fabric, I could give the guys the plants and the fabric...showing them where to plant everything.” 

With the Plant By Number garden maps, Betz estimates installations are done about 40% faster. 

“It's amazing how many measurements you need to take in between plants for a proper garden,” he says. “By eliminating that more burdensome part of the installation, the guys were actually able to install the designs quite a bit quicker.”

Plant By Number launches direct to consumers

The company went direct to consumer with a soft launch in 2023, selling 300 to 400 designs in the first year. Betz notes the company’s launch was quiet and low-key, allowing them to follow up with every customer to get feedback. Many called it “the product they didn’t know they needed.” 

In the spring of 2024, the company sold 500 to 700 designs. 

“Landscape design can be very difficult to do. It's basically a living picture, and a lot of that really comes from the base layout and spacing the plants properly,” he says. “It's very easy to buy a bunch of 1-gallon perennials and plant them 1 foot apart, not realizing they’re going to really actually mature to about 3 to 4 feet wide, and at that point, you're kind of redoing your landscaping. So, having the actual layout printed on the fabric with circles kind of showing the mature diameter of the plant kind of gives the consumer confidence in knowing what they're planting is going to turn into a thing of beauty.” 

Plant By Number offers a variety of predesigned plans, created by landscape designers and master gardeners and tailored to themes like sun, shade or deer resistant. But the layouts themselves are very flexible, as customers can switch out the preassigned plants.

Plant By Number is also in the early stages of offering custom designs. 

Customers can purchase just the design files; purchase the designs printed on landscape fabric (called garden maps) and purchase the plants themselves; or purchase the fabric with all the plants in the design directly through Plant By Number. 

The company has partnerships with Green Promise Farms and Prides Corner Farms, with access to more than 5,000 plant varieties, with up to 3-gallon plants around 4 feet tall. Plants can be shipped directly to customers’ homes anywhere in the continental U.S., with plants usually shipping out within two days.

Plant By Number in garden centers

Betz wanted to launch the product in garden centers in 2020, but the COVID pandemic halted the plans. But four years on, he’s revived the plans to connect with IGCs. Garden centers can now purchase wholesale on the Plant By Number website through PBN Retail. 

“A lot of people do like to take the product in the store, and garden centers are a lot of people’s happy place, where they can actually feel and see, the plants, and we give them all the tools they need to find the perfect plant to fit that garden map,” he says. 

Plant By Number is also working with Plant Development Services, Inc. on a series of customizable workshops using "Garden Design Placemats," which utilize a “paint-by-number" concept to help garden centers expand winter workshop offerings and increase spring sales. 

Plant By Number partnered with PDSI to feature varieties from Southern Living Plant Collection, Encore Azalea, BetterBoxwood and Butterfly Candy on the garden maps. 

During a winter workshop, which can be hosted virtually or in-person, attendees fill out the placemats with their selections using pre-populated designs and a “palette” of plants as they’re guided through design principles like color, bloom time, height and function. 

The placemats — which are organized around popular themes like native gardens, “Pollinator Paradise,” moon gardens, and sun and shade gardens — include easy-to-follow instructions and plant descriptions and care tips.

The garden maps created from the placemat designs are shipped to IGCs in the spring, ensuring customers return to purchase the plants in the map design at the IGC. 

The company also offers garden centers email templates, shopping guides and registration QR codes. There’s a minimum order of five packs, and plants can be customized to suit zones and garden center assortment. 

Betz says the product can help busy garden center employees. 

“It's a really great product to have in store because it really kind of takes some of the front-end questions and some of the burden off of the staff at the garden center,” he says. 

But Betz emphasizes the product is not replacing garden center employees — especially on-staff designers. The company can even print designs created by garden center designers. 

“Some customers are more interested in small area landscape design — areas between 50 and 120 square feet — where a lot of design centers want to do a front yard or backyard or a much larger area,” he explains. “So, it kind of fills a little bit of a gap that we found was a little bit underserved: people that want to start with one smaller area and kind of build their landscaping over time.”

Plant By Number for landscaping companies

Because the company’s pre-designed layouts can be reused, Betz says the cost to consumers is less than for typical landscaping projects. 

Between the design size and price points, it’s meant to be something that can be built on each year. 

“You don't need to redesign your entire yard at once,” Betz says. “You can start with a small area and still experience the enjoyment of that and set your budget for every year, adding a new piece of landscaping and really making your home a home.” 

The company also launched a pilot program called PBN Pro for landscaping companies to allow them to accomplish small area landscape design more efficiently. The full program is expected to launch in 2025. 

Plant By Number provides catalogs of designs the landscaping companies can provide to their customers, as well as selling the garden maps directly to the companies — creating an additional revenue stream and reducing labor costs.

The company also plans to continue its direct-to-consumer sales. 

For one of the company’s first prototypes, Betz and his 3-year-old daughter made a garden around their mailbox. 

It was a great opportunity for them to connect about plants, butterflies and nature. 

“She had a great time putting the plants where the numbers needed to go, and she knocked them over 100 times, too. And if I had to spend the whole time remeasuring where each of those plants go, it would be a little bit more frustrating,” he says. “So, it really turns a weekend project into a fun-filled afternoon that the whole family can engage in.” 

Emily Mills is digital editor of Garden Center magazine. Contact her at emills@gie.net.