Running office plants like any other building asset
Most workplaces treat plants as decoration until they die. A facilities manager would never accept "someone waters it when they remember" for a boiler or a fire door, yet that is how most office planting is looked after. This sheet borrows the language and structure of planned preventive maintenance (PPM): an asset register, a fixed visit frequency, a standard checklist and a signature at the end of each visit. Fill it in once with every planter and display in the building, then print a fresh copy for each round.
Build the asset register by zone
Give each planter or cluster an ID tied to a location people already use: Z-01 Reception trough, Z-02 Desk cluster A, Z-03 Boardroom specimen. Record the display type, the species by botanical name, the planting system and the quantity. Botanical names matter. "The big green one by the lift" could be a Dracaena fragrans that wants to dry out between waterings or a Spathiphyllum that collapses if it does. A clear register means any technician, contractor or new office manager can pick up the round without a handover meeting.
Know the three planting systems
Office plants usually sit in one of three systems, and each is checked differently. Soil in a slotted liner inside a decorative planter is the most common; the failure mode is water collecting in the bottom of the outer planter where nobody sees it. Sub-irrigation planters have a reservoir and a float gauge; staff topping up a full reservoir is the classic cause of rot. Mineral substrates such as Pon or LECA hold a measured reservoir and resist overwatering, which is why we specify them for high-traffic positions. The sheet records the system for each zone so the technician knows what to look for.
Check the lower third, not the surface
In a warm, air-conditioned office the top two centimetres of a planter dry within a day while the root zone stays wet for a fortnight. That is why surface-led watering kills so many office plants. A long moisture probe pushed into the lower third of the pot, or a clear liner you can lift and look at, tells you what the roots actually experience. Record the result as optimal, dry and topped up, watered and drained, or waterlogged and drained. Two waterlogged readings in a row on the same zone point to a planter with no drainage or a member of staff helping out.
Foliage hygiene and pests
Dust on leaves cuts the light a plant can use, and offices are dusty places. Wiping both sides of the leaves with a damp microfibre cloth every visit keeps plants photosynthesising and lets the technician spot pests early. Look for the fine stippling of spider mites on leaf undersides near air-conditioning outlets, the silvery scarring of thrips and the cotton-wool clusters of mealybug in leaf axils. Fungus gnats are the pest staff notice first. They breed in constantly wet compost, so the real fix is drier substrate, as the RHS notes, with yellow sticky traps to monitor numbers and beneficial nematodes if needed.
Light, heating and the HVAC note
Under the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, employers keep indoor temperatures reasonable for the people in the building, and the HSE guidance discusses that range. Plants have their own limits, and the risks in most offices come from extremes: cold draughts from doors in winter, hot dry air from heaters under windows and cold blasts from ceiling cassettes in summer. Note where these are on the sheet. A plant that keeps declining in the same spot usually needs moving rather than more care. Record the natural light profile honestly, too; deep-plan interiors far from windows need tolerant species such as Zamioculcas, Aglaonema and Epipremnum, or supplementary lighting.
Rotate, prune and replace
Floor specimens lean towards the window; a quarter turn each visit keeps them upright and evenly leafed. Remove yellow or damaged leaves at the base rather than tearing them. When a plant is beyond recovery, flag it for replacement on the sheet rather than leaving a half-dead specimen in reception for months.
Benchmarking the cost of doing it in-house
The preview totals your displays by size and compares them with our maintained rates: £5.50 a month for desk displays, £15 for medium floor displays and £22 for architectural specimens, with a £125 monthly minimum including fortnightly technician visits and free replacements. Weigh that against staff time, replacement plants and the cost of a reception that looks neglected. If you would rather hand it over, the button above sends your plant list to our commercial team; the commercial scheme estimator costs a new scheme from floor area and desks.