If you need plants, by all means, Xfrog IS the way to go. However, there are some tradoffs here. The main Xfrog program will basically open up the plant world to you, but you must recognize that you're talking about creating your own plants. Meaning that you have to learn and master the program, and probably collect photos of leaves and plant parts if you are trying to make realistic plants such as grow in your area. On the other hand, to have new plants, you don't necessarily need to buy the program and go through all this. It may be that you could simply purchasing a disk of existing plants from Xfrog. For example, I purchased the Japanese Trees CD, and used one of the free trial copies of Xfrog to convert all of them to use for Vue. Now, I'm pretty much set for a long time. Or, you can purchase individual plants from people such as ThomasJuulsKrahn or others who are learning Xfrog, and starting to make realistic plants of the species that grow in their area. There are some Xfrog plants that people have made and have posted for free. (I made an accurate Colorado Blue Spruce for myself 4 months ago with Xfrog's trial copy as a test, and its just now dawned on me that I should make it available to everyone. Others are doing the same.) Oh yes, Xfrog offers a free 30 day trial copy of the full program, and you can download the Manuals. I'd recommend doing this as you can experiment with the program - experience its learning curve, and see if its really for you. And finally, its not well publicized, but if you are a student or an educator, you can obtain either the plants or the program for about half price or less at one of the academic discounters on the web. Think I'll go post my Blue Spruce now for anyone that might need it.