The words of interior plant care, explained.

The design, installation and ongoing care of plants inside buildings — offices, hotels, shops and lobbies — by a plant service company, usually under a maintenance contract with the client.

Also called interior plantscaping, interiorscaping, commercial plant services

In FolioGreen, one planting at a client’s site — a reception planter, a row of planters, a green wall — recorded with its plants and its own care history.

See the plant portfolio

In FolioGreen, a single plant tracked like an asset: its species, pot size and place, its health over time, and every care action, rotation and replacement it has been through.

See the plant portfolio

A single large plant chosen as a feature — a tall palm by reception, a sculpted ficus in an atrium. Often the most valuable plant on a site and the hardest to replace like for like.

Small plants on counters, desks and shelves. There are usually more of them than anything else on a site, and they are the easiest to lose track of when people move them.

Living plants growing in panels or pockets fixed to a wall, usually with their own irrigation. FolioGreen keeps the record of the plants on it: a wall is a display — or one display per section on a large wall.

Also called living wall, vertical garden

See green walls

A wall panel of preserved moss. It is no longer living, needs no watering or light, and is cared for by keeping it clean and away from very dry or very humid air.

Also called preserved moss wall

Flowering plants — orchids, bromeliads, poinsettias — placed for a season or a few weeks and swapped on a schedule, so a display always has something in bloom.

Also called color program

See rotations and color programs

Seasonal decorating — trees, garlands, poinsettias — installed before the holidays and taken down after. Many interior landscaping companies offer it as a seasonal service alongside the maintenance contract.

The outer container chosen for the interior. Many have no drainage hole, so the plant grows inside it in a grow pot or a liner rather than straight in the container.

Also called planter, cachepot

The plain plastic pot the plant was grown in. In a drop-in planting it stays on and stands inside the decorative container.

Also called nursery pot

Setting the plant, still in its grow pot, inside the decorative container. It is quick to rotate or replace without disturbing the roots; any excess water collects below, so the technician checks it.

Planting straight into a lined container filled with grow medium. It can look fuller, but every rotation or replacement means lifting the roots.

Blocks, foam or an upturned pot under the grow pot, lifting it so the plant sits at the right height in the planter.

Also called filler, spacer

A waterproof inner layer or insert that protects the decorative container — and the floor beneath it — from water.

A planter with a water reservoir below the grow medium. Water rises into the root zone through a wick or a column of soil, so plants can go longer between waterings.

Also called self-watering planter

A float in a tube that shows how much water is left in a sub-irrigated planter’s reservoir, so it is read at each visit rather than guessed.

The tube used to refill a reservoir without wetting the surface of the grow medium.

What the roots grow in: a soil-based or soilless mix, often with bark or perlite for air and drainage. Some interiors use semi-hydroponic media such as expanded clay.

Also called potting mix

Moss, bark, pebbles or stone over the surface of the grow medium. It finishes the look and hides the grow pot — and is lifted to check the moisture underneath.

One scheduled visit to a site to look after its displays — water, clean, prune, check health, rotate or replace — recorded display by display.

See a care visit

How often a plant needs water where it stands, set by its species, pot size, light and the season. Overwatering is one of the most common ways interior plants are lost.

Checking the root zone with a probe or by hand before watering, so water goes where it is needed rather than by the calendar.

Also called soil moisture probe

How much usable light a plant gets where it stands, measured with a light meter. Most interiors are far darker than outdoors, so each species is chosen for its spot.

A plant grown or held under shade before it is installed, so it has adapted to indoor light. It drops fewer leaves after delivery than one moved straight from full sun.

In FolioGreen, a plant’s condition on a simple scale, recorded at each care visit and rolled up for each display and site. The labels shown — Thriving, Healthy, Needs attention, Critical — are still being finalised.

See health scores

Dusting and wiping leaves so the plant looks fresh and takes in the light it gets. Part of almost every care visit.

Removing yellowing, damaged or leggy growth to keep a plant healthy and the right shape and size for its spot.

A plant shedding leaves — often after a move, a change in light, a draft from a door or air-conditioning, or too much or too little water. A signal to record and watch.

Keeping mealybugs, scale insects, spider mites and fungus gnats in check by inspecting, cleaning, isolating affected plants and treating only where needed.

Also called integrated pest management, IPM

Taking a plant out of a display — for a season, to recover or for an event — and putting another in its place. FolioGreen is built to record it against the plant, with the reason and the date it is due back.

Plant care for hotels

Taking a struggling plant back to the greenhouse to recover, with a stand-in placed meanwhile, then returning it once it is healthy again.

Swapping a plant that has declined for a new one. Many maintenance contracts include replacements, so each one has a cost to the plant care company and a reason worth recording.

A maintenance contract in which the plant care company replaces any plant that declines, at no extra charge to the client.

Also called full-service contract

Placing plants at a client’s site for a monthly fee that usually covers their care and replacements, instead of selling them outright. In offices it is often sold as office plant rental and maintenance.

Also called plant leasing; office plant rental and maintenance

Plants placed for a wedding, a launch or a conference for a few days, then collected — recorded as a rotation with a return date.

What a display or site should hold under the contract, against what is really there and healthy. A plant missing or failing shows the gap.

Also called specification

Plant care for offices

In FolioGreen, the monthly or seasonal report a client keeps: how many care visits, how the plants are doing, what was rotated or replaced, photos from before and after, and an opening summary you review and adjust before sending.

See the Plant Care Report

In FolioGreen, a job’s own account — the steps your technician logged, photos from before and after, how long the team was there. It is filed with the display’s history and reaches the client only if you decide to share it.

See the Work Record