Why a collection register beats memory
Every collector reaches the point where the shelf outgrows their memory. Was the Anthurium clarinervium repotted last spring or the one before? Is the variegated Alocasia still in the 12cm pot it arrived in, and which mix did it go into? Without a record, repotting happens in a panic when a plant looks unhappy, rather than on a calm spring weekend with the right bag of substrate already open. A simple register fixes that. It is the same ledger we keep for every mother plant on our York benches, reduced to the columns that actually change what you do.
Give every plant a tag number
Start with an ID. A short number written on the pot tag (#01, #02) ties the plant to its row on the sheet even when two specimens of the same species sit side by side, and it survives a change of label or a move to another room. Pair it with our printable pot tags if you want the number, the binomial and the care figures on one card.
Record the botanical name properly
Write the genus and species, then the cultivar in single quotes: Monstera deliciosa 'Thai Constellation', Alocasia micholitziana 'Frydek Variegata'. The sheet italicises the Latin automatically. Trade names change and common names overlap ("Queen Anthurium" means different plants to different sellers), but a binomial points to one care sheet. If the plant arrived with a UK Plant Passport, Part A on that label is the name the nursery used.
Current pot and next step-up
Log the diameter of the pot the plant is in now and the size it should move into next. For most aroids that step is 2–3cm: 9cm to 12cm, 12cm to 14cm or 15cm, 15cm to 17cm. Jumping several sizes surrounds a small root ball with a large volume of substrate the roots cannot reach, which stays wet and invites rot. The sheet flags any plant whose next pot is larger than its current one, or whose root status says it is pot-bound or needs a bare-root reset, and counts them in the summary box at the top right. That count is your spring repotting list.
Write down the blend and its air-filled porosity
Two plants in the same size pot can need very different substrates. Air-filled porosity (AFP) is the share of the pot that stays as air after watering and draining. Velvet Anthurium roots want about 44% AFP in our Anthurium Epiphytic Mix; Monstera and climbing Philodendron sit around 38% in the chunky aroid mix; moisture-loving Alocasia corms and Calathea prefer 22–26%. Logging the blend tells you what to reorder and stops you reaching for whatever bag is open. The summary counts how many different blends the flagged plants need, so you buy one bag of each rather than a cupboard full. Read our AFP guide for how those figures are measured.
Last repot date and root status
A date in the last repot column is worth more than any rule of thumb. Bark-based mixes slowly break down, losing air space, and most aroids want fresh substrate every 12–24 months even if they have not outgrown the pot. The root status column records what you saw: healthy white roots or velamen against a clear pot wall, roots circling the base and ready for a step-up, or brown, mushy roots that call for a bare-root reset and a root rot rescue. Clear slotted pots make this column honest because you can read it without unpotting.
Water and feeding notes
The header carries two notes that apply to the whole collection. Water quality matters in much of England, where hard tap water above 200 mg/L calcium carbonate leaves white crust on bark and browns the tips of Calathea and Anthurium. Note the hardness and which plants get rainwater. The feed note records the season's regime, typically a quarter-strength balanced feed every second watering from March to October and little or none in the short days of a British winter.
Keep it on paper, keep it current
Print the sheet landscape and keep it in a binder or clipped inside the cabinet door. The blank lined rows at the foot, ticked by default, are for the plant you bring home next week. When a page is full of pen notes, come back, type the changes in and print a fresh copy. Before you repot, run the flagged list through the repotting calculator to get exact litres per blend and the cheapest bag sizes, or press the button above to send the list straight to the nursery for a custom bundle.