Cheerful Plants Complete Guide

This guide covers every feature in Cheerful Plants. If you’re brand new, start with the Getting Started guide first, then come back here once you’ve added a few plants.

Account & Authentication
Navigation
My Plants Page
Managing Plants
Plant Detail Page
Photos
Watering
Care Schedules
Task Reminders Page
Organizing Your Collection
Arrangements
Activity Log & History
- Plant Activity History
- Account-Wide Activity Log
Statistics
Notifications
Subscription
Data & Privacy
Help & Support

Account & Authentication

Your account is created automatically on first sign-in. Cheerful Plants supports three sign-in methods:

Google Sign-In – Uses your Google account. Tap “Continue with Google” and select an account.
Apple Sign-In – Uses your Apple ID. Authenticate with Face ID, Touch ID, or your password. Available on iOS and web.
Phone Sign-In – Enter your phone number (include country code if outside the US). You’ll receive a text message with a 6-digit verification code. Enter the code to sign in.

Syncing across devices:
Sign in with the same account (Google, Apple, or Phone) on another device. Your plants sync automatically – no manual steps needed.

Your Sync Key

Your Sync Key is a unique identifier that connects all your plant data. You can find it in More > Account Settings.

What it does:

Links your plants, photos, and care history together
Enables you to share your plant collection with another person, or another device with a different sign in method
Used for customer support to help diagnose problems

Sharing with another person:
If you want someone else to see and manage your plants:

Copy your Sync Key from More > Account Settings.
Share it with the other person.
They enter your Sync Key in their own Account Settings.
Both accounts now see and edit the same plant collection.

Each account also has an Original Sync Key that never changes, even if you switch to someone else’s Sync Key. This is your permanent identifier.

Account Settings

Access these from More > Account Settings:

Setting	Options	Default
Date Format	MM/DD/YYYY, DD/MM/YYYY	MM/DD/YYYY
Default Watering Interval	1–90 days	7 days
Theme	Light, Dark, System	System

The default watering interval is used for new plants when you don’t set a specific interval. After a plant is watered twice, if no interval is set for that plant on the Plant Details page, the app will calculate and set reminders based on the average number of days between watering.

Navigation

The app has four tabs at the bottom of the screen, also called the “dock”:

Tab	Purpose
My Plants	Your full plant collection with search, grouping, and sorting
Reminders	All care tasks organized by timeline, type, and group
Add a Plant	Create a new plant entry
More	Settings, statistics, activity log, help, and support

Tapping a tab always returns you to the top of that screen. However, your scroll position and search state are preserved when navigating to a plant detail page and back.

My Plants Page

The My Plants tab is your home screen – a grid of all your plants.

Plant Cards

Each card shows:

The plant’s featured photo (or a placeholder silhouette if no photo has been added).
The plant’s name – nickname if set, otherwise common name, cultivar, or scientific name.
A colored status badge in the corner showing how many days since the plant was last watered.
An arrangement link icon if the plant belongs to an arrangement.

Tap any card to open the plant’s detail page.

Status Badges

The badge color tells you at a glance whether a plant is due for watering based on the schedules you’ve set. The number tells the days since the plant was last watered.

Color	Meaning
Red	Overdue or due today
Teal	Due soon (1–2 days)
Green	Not needed yet (3+ days out)
Orange	Snoozed
Gray	Watering reminders disabled

Note: If you’ve selected “Watering Days Overdue” either from the top sort menu or the “Sort Within Group” option, the badge will show the number of days until the plant needs water (or is overdue for water).

Quick Actions

Tap the status badge to instantly record a watering. A spinner appears briefly while it saves. Tap again to undo a watering recorded today.
Press and hold the status badge to snooze an overdue watering reminder.

If the plant is part of an arrangement, watering or undoing watering applies to all plants in the arrangement.

Search, Grouping & Sorting

The filter bar at the top of the screen provides:

Search – Find plants by name. When viewing a grouped layout, you can tap the icon at the right end of the search bar to toggle between searching all plants or jumping to a specific group.
Group By – Organize plants by location (Indoor/Outdoor), genus, tags, arrangement, or view them all in a flat list.
Sort By – Order plants by genus, displayed name, days overdue, or date acquired. A direction toggle switches between ascending and descending.

Whatever sorting and grouping options you select will persist (even after closing the app) until you change it. If you want the app to show “Indoor” every time you open, just make sure that’s the group option when you close the app.

For full details on these features, see Organizing Your Collection.

Group Actions

When plants are grouped, each group header shows the group name, plant count, and a three-dot menu with these options:

Sort Within Group – Set a different sort order for within the group. This will apply to other groups and will persist app-wide until changed.
Record Activity for Group – Apply an action (water, fertilize, prune, etc.) to multiple plants in the group at once. You can select which plants to include.
Rename Location – Available when grouped by location. Updates the location name on all plants in the group.
Rename Tag – Available when grouped by tags. Updates the tag on all plants that use it.

Renaming a location or tag to a name that already exists will offer to merge the two groups. See Tags and Locations for details.

Managing Plants

Adding a Plant

Tap the + icon on the dock to open the Add Plant screen.

Photo – Tap the photo area to capture or upload a photo. You’ll be asked to choose between the camera and your photo gallery. Note: Photos taken with the camera will not be saved to your device only added to the app.
Scientific Name — Genus, species, and cultivar (you can add your own or type to choose from the auto-suggest list provided). The app has a variety of Genus and species already in the list, catered toward succulents and houseplants. If you add a new name it will show up as an option for other plants you add later.
Common Name
Nickname — Give your plant a name (e.g., “Kitchen Fern” or “Gertrude”).
Date Acquired — When you got the plant.
Location – Where the plant lives (e.g., “Living Room”, “Balcony”). The app will suggest locations you’ve already added for other plants. Mark it as Indoor or Outdoor.
Arrangement – Group plants that are all in the same planter (e.g., “Windowsill Trio”). More on this in the Arrangements section.
Tags – Custom labels to organize your plants (e.g., where you bought it, lighting needs). The app suggests tags you’ve used for other plants.
Watering Interval – How often this plant needs water. If you skip this, the app uses your default interval (7 days by default, adjustable in settings) and then calculates an average after the plant is watered twice.
Date Acquired – When you got the plant. Defaults to “today”.

When you’re done, tap Add Plant to save. Your plant appears on the My Plants screen.

Editing a Plant

Open the plant’s detail page by tapping its card.
Tap the three-dot menu (top-right corner).
Tap Edit Plant.
Modify any fields.
Tap Save Changes.

All changes are saved immediately and synced across devices.

Deleting a Plant

From the plant detail page, scroll to the very bottom and tap the Delete Plant button. You’ll see two options:

Memory Garden – The plant is removed from your active collection but its care history, photos, and data are preserved. You can restore it later. Optionally add a note (e.g., why the plant didn’t make it).
Delete Forever – Permanently removes the plant and all its data. This requires a second confirmation step and cannot be undone.

Memory Garden

The Memory Garden is a dedicated archive for plants that are no longer with you. Instead of losing all your care history, you can preserve it here.

Moving a plant to the Memory Garden:

Open the plant’s detail page.
Scroll to the bottom and tap Delete Plant.
Choose Memory Garden.
Optionally add a note (e.g., “Overwatered” or “Gave to a friend”).
Tap Move to Memory Garden.

Viewing Memory Garden plants:
Go to the More tab on the dock and tap Memory Garden. This opens a dedicated screen showing all your archived plants in a grid view. You can group, sort, and search your Memory Garden plants just like your active collection.

What you can do with Memory Garden plants:

View their full photo gallery and activity history
Restore them to your active collection

What’s hidden for Memory Garden plants:

Care schedules and watering reminders are not shown
You cannot edit the plant, record actions, or add photos
The plant does not appear in your active My Plants list or on the Reminders page

Restoring a plant:
Open a Memory Garden plant’s detail page and tap the Restore Plant button at the top of the screen. The plant returns to your active collection with all its history intact.

Note: Plants in the memory garden are counted toward the free plant limit. There is not a plant limit for paid accounts.

Plant Detail Page

Tap any plant card on the My Plants screen to open its detail page. This is the central hub for viewing and managing everything about a single plant.

Page Overview

The page is organized top-to-bottom:

Photo carousel – Swipe through all photos. See Photos for details.
Plant information – Nickname, scientific name, location, and tags.
Watering schedule card – Current interval, last watered date, and due status. See Watering for details.
Care schedule cards – Any other reminders you’ve set up (fertilize, prune, repot, etc.). See Care Schedules for details.
History – A timeline of all care events. See Activity Log & History for details.
Delete / restore buttons – At the very bottom. See Deleting a Plant.

If the plant is in the Memory Garden, the page is read-only – you can view its history and photos, but editing, recording actions, and watering are not available.

Plant Information

Below the photo carousel, you’ll see:

Plant name – The app displays the most specific name available: nickname first, then common name (in quotes), cultivar (in single quotes), or scientific name (in italics).
Secondary name line – If you’ve set a nickname, the scientific name and/or common name appear below it as additional context.
Location – Where the plant lives (e.g., “Living Room”) with Indoor or Outdoor in parentheses next to the location name.
Tags – Your custom labels displayed as small chips.
Arrangement – If the plant belongs to an arrangement, the name of the arrangement will show here, plus a count of plants in that arrangement that links to the arrangement view. See Arrangements.

If you tap on any area in the Plant Information card, it brings up the “Edit Plant” screen so you can make changes.

Three-Dot Menu

In the upper right corner of the screen, tap the three-dot button to access:

Option	What It Does
Edit Plant	Opens the edit form to change any plant fields
Add Photo	Capture a new photo or choose from your library
Record Action	Record a care activity (see below)

Recording Care Activities

The Record Action feature lets you manually log any care activity – useful for recording something you did earlier or logging an action that isn’t tied to a schedule.

Tap the three-dot menu and select Record Action.
Choose an action type: water, fertilize, prune, repot, treat, add note, or a custom event.
Optionally add a note with details about the activity.
Change the date if you’re recording something from a previous day.
Tap Record to save.

For custom events, you can type any name (e.g., “Rotated”, “Misted”). The app suggests custom event names you’ve used on other plants.

Editing Past Activities

You can edit any entry in the activity history:

Scroll down to the History section on the plant detail page.
Tap an event to open it.
From there you can:
- Change the date of the event.
- Edit or add a note.
- Delete the event (with a confirmation step).

Photos

Taking and Adding Photos

You can add photos to any plant from its detail page:

Tap the three-dot menu on the featured photo or in the upper-right corner of the page.
Select Add Photo.
Choose between Take a Photo (uses the camera) or Choose from Library (pick an existing photo).
Crop and rotate the photo to frame it how you like.
Tap Use Photo to save.

Photos are stored in the cloud and sync across devices. Photos taken with the camera are not saved to your device.

Photo Gallery

Each plant has its own photo gallery visible on its detail page:

Swipe through photos in the carousel at the top.
Tap the three-dot menu on the photo for options: add a new photo, set as featured, edit the date, or delete.
Photos load progressively as you scroll through the gallery.

Featured Photo

The featured photo is the main image shown on plant cards throughout the app (My Plants grid, Reminders, etc.).

By default, the most recently added photo becomes the featured photo.
To change the featured photo: swipe to the photo you want to feature, tap the three-dot menu on the image, and select Set as Featured Photo.

Watering

How Watering Works

Each plant has a watering interval – the number of days between waterings. The app uses this to calculate when the next watering reminder is due:

Next watering reminder = Last watered date + Watering interval

How the interval is determined:

You set it when adding or editing the plant (most precise).
Calculated average – After two watering events are recorded, the app calculates the average time between your actual watering events and uses that.
Default interval – If the plant has only been watered one time and you have not manually set an interval, the app uses the default set in the Account Settings. Unless you change it in the account settings, this is set to 7 days by default.

Quick Watering

The fastest way to water a plant:

My Plants screen: Tap the colored status badge on any plant card.
Reminders screen: Tap the water badge next to a watering task.
Plant detail page: Tap the water button on the schedule card.

A spinner briefly appears on the badge while the watering is recorded. The badge updates immediately across all screens. Tapping the button a second time will undo the watering action.

Watering can also be recorded individuall for the plant on the Plant Details page by tapping “Record an Action” and selecting Water. Plants can also be watered as a group from the My Plants page (three dot menu, record activity for group).

Snoozing Reminders

If a plant is due or overdue for watering but you don’t want to water it yet you can “Snooze” the reminder. There are three ways to do this:

Press and hold the quick water badge on the My Plants or Reminders page.
Press and hold the watering can button on the watering schedule card.
Tap the watering schedule card on the Plant Detail page, then press Snooze Reminder.

Any method opens the snooze selector. Choose how many days to postpone using the stepper control, then tap Snooze to save.

Snoozed plants show an orange badge instead of the normal status color. The reminder reappears after the snooze period ends.

Snoozing is only available when a task is due or overdue – you can’t snooze something that isn’t due yet.

Editing the Watering Schedule

From the Plant Details page:

Tap the watering schedule card.
Choose the watering mode: Set Interval for a fixed schedule, or As Needed to use the average to trigger reminders.
If using Set Interval, adjust the number of days between waterings using the stepper or quick-select buttons.
Toggle Schedule Enabled on or off. Disabling pauses watering reminders for this plant, but you can still record watering events.
Tap Save Changes.

Care Schedules

Beyond watering, you can set up recurring reminders for other care tasks.

Schedule Types

Built-in types:

Fertilize
Prune
Repot
Treat for Pests
Photo (reminder to photograph your plant’s progress)

Custom schedules:
Create your own schedule type with any name (e.g., “Rotate”, “Mist”, “Check roots”). The app suggests custom schedule names you’ve used on other plants.

Creating a Schedule

Open the plant detail page and scroll to the Reminder Schedules section.
Tap the Add a Reminder Schedule card (a dashed-border card with a plus icon at the end of the list, on the right).
Choose the schedule type (or select Custom and enter a name).
Choose between Recurring (repeating on an interval) or One-time (a single task).
For Recurring: set a start date and a repeat interval using the stepper or quick-select buttons. For One-time: pick a due date.
- The app may auto-fill this from your care history if it has a corresponding action in the history
- The start day is the day the app will use to determine when the next reminder is due. It defaults to today (if an event is not auto-filled) so the reminder would be set for the number of days selected counting from today.
Tap Create Schedule.

The schedule appears on the plant’s detail page and generates tasks on the Reminders screen.

Managing Schedules

From the plant detail page, tap any schedule card to:

Edit – Change the interval, toggle enabled/disabled, or update dates.
- When the toggle is disabled, reminders will be triggered but the schedule information will be saved
Snooze – Postpone the next occurrence by 1–30 days.
Delete – Remove the schedule entirely (with confirmation).

Schedule Status Colors

All schedules use the same color system:

Color	Meaning
Red	Overdue or due today
Teal	Due soon (1–2 days)
Green	Not needed yet (3+ days away)
Orange	Snoozed
Gray	Disabled

Task Reminders Page

The Reminders tab shows all care tasks across all your plants. It combines watering and any care schedules you’ve set up.

Timeline Filters

Use the dropdown at the top to filter tasks by urgency:

Filter	What It Shows
Due Today	Tasks that are overdue or due today
Soon	Tasks due in 1–2 days
Not Yet	Tasks due in 3+ days
Completed Today	Tasks you’ve finished today
All Upcoming	All upcoming tasks, including today, soon and not yet

Type Filters

Narrow down to a specific task type:

All (default)
Watering
Fertilize
Prune
Repot
Treat
Photos
Custom events

Grouping Tasks

Organize the task list using the grouping dropdown:

Group By	Effect
Task Type	All waterings together, all fertilizing together, etc.
Location	All task types grouped by the plant’s location
Genus	All task types grouped by plant type
Tags	All task types grouped by your custom tags
All	One flat list, no grouping

Sorting Tasks

Within any view, sort tasks by:

Days Overdue – Most urgent first
Genus – Alphabetical (A–Z or Z–A)
Displayed Name – Alphabetical (A–Z or Z–A)

Completing and Undoing Tasks

To complete a task: Tap the button with the task icon. A spinner shows briefly then a gray arrow. If you tap the gray arrow it will undo the task.

The plant stays on screen until you change screens or sorting. Then (if the task was completed), the plant will move to the Completed Today filter.

To undo a completion: Switch to Completed Today, find the task, and tap the gray arrow button on the task card.

Organizing Your Collection

Whatever grouping/sorting you select will stay selected until you change it, even after closing the app.

Grouping in My Plants

Use the grouping dropdown on the My Plants screen to organize your view.

Group By	Effect
All	No grouping – all plants in one list
Location	Plants grouped by their location (Indoor/Outdoor)
Genus	Plants grouped by Genus (if no genus is added, plants will show as “Unknown”)
Tags	Plants grouped by your custom tags
Arrangement	Plants grouped by their arrangement. Plants not in an arrangement will not show on this list.

Each group shows a header with the group name and the number of plants in it.

Sorting in My Plants

Sort your plants using the sort dropdown:

Sort By	Effect
Watering Days Overdue	Most overdue plants first
Acquired Date	Newest or oldest first
Genus	Alphabetical (A–Z or Z–A)
Displayed Name	Alphabetical (A–Z or Z–A)

When using a grouped view, you can also sort within each group independently using the group header’s menu. The “sort within group” will apply to groups on the My Plants and Task Reminders pages and will remain the same until changed.

Searching

The search bar at the top of My Plants and Reminders lets you find plants quickly. Search matches against plant names, nicknames, common names, scientific names (genus, species, cultivar), locations, and tags.

When viewing a grouped layout, you can tap the icon on the right hand side of the box to toggle between

Search – Searches within the plants on the selected sort/group
Jump to – Allows you to easily jump to a specific group name and lists the groups available

Your search query is preserved when you navigate to a plant detail page and return.

Locations

Each plant has a location (e.g., “Kitchen”, “Balcony”) and a type (Indoor or Outdoor).

Renaming a location: When viewing plants grouped by location, tap the group header menu and select Rename Location. This updates the location on every plant at that location.

Merging locations: Renaming to an existing location name merges the two groups.

Arrangements

What Are Arrangements?

An arrangement is a group of plants that physically live together – typically in the same pot – where you’re caring for them exactly the same. Arrangements let you manage these plants as a unit. Actions applied to one plant in the arrangement will apply to all (eg. watering, fertilizing, etc.).

Creating an Arrangement

When adding or editing a plant:

Scroll to the Arrangement field.
Type a new arrangement name (e.g., “Blue Planter”) or select an existing one from suggestions.
Save the plant.

Add more plants to the same arrangement by following the same process and typing the same name into the arrangement field (the app will suggest names of arrangements already in your collection).

Managing Arrangements

From the My Plants screen (grouped by Arrangement) or a plant’s detail page:

View members – See all plants in the arrangement.
Rename – Change the arrangement name (updates all member plants).
Record activity for all – Fertilize, prune, repot, or treat every plant in the arrangement at once.

Caring for an Arrangement

All plants in an arrangement will show as a separate “card” on the Task Reminders page. When you record an action for an individual plant in the arrangement:

The action is applied to every plant in the group simultaneously.
Each plant’s “last done” date is updated.
You can undo the action for the entire arrangement if you change your mind by undo the action for one plant (or deleting the action from the history on the Plant Details screen for an individual plant).
You can also snooze the reminder for an arrangement’s care action by snoozing the reminder for an individual plant.

Activity Log & History

Every care action is automatically recorded with a timestamp. This action is visible in two places: the plant details screen for the plant and the Activity Log.

Plant Activity History

On any plant’s detail page, scroll down to see its History:

Activity types tracked: Watered, fertilized, pruned, repotted, treated, photo added, note added, location changed, tags changed, arrangement changed, acquired, moved to Memory Garden, restored from Memory Garden.
Filter by activity type using the filter dropdown.
Sort by newest or oldest first.
Edit an event’s date or note by tapping on it.
Delete an event (with confirmation).

Account-Wide Activity Log

To see activity across all your plants:

Tap the More tab.
Tap Activity Log.

Events are grouped by date (Today, Yesterday, then by month and day). Each entry shows the plant name, activity type, and time. Tap an entry to navigate to that plant’s detail page.

The list loads progressively – tap “View More” to load older activities.

Statistics

View insights about your plant care habits at More > Plant Statistics.

What you’ll see:

Collection Overview – Total active plants and Memory Garden count.
Session Tracking – Estimation of time spent in the app.
Daily Tasks Chart – Bar graphs showing how many tasks you’ve completed in a given time period, broken down by activity type. Toggle between 7-day and 4-week views.
Activity Distribution – A donut chart showing the proportion of each care type (based on the time frame selected for the Daily Tasks chart).
Most Cared For Plants – The plants in your collection that have had the most care events recorded for them.
Oldest Plants – The plants that have been in your collection the longest.

Notifications

Setting Up Notifications

Tap the More tab.
Tap Notifications.
Toggle notifications on.
Set your preferred reminder hour (e.g., 9:00 AM).
Set your Time Zone.

Your device will prompt you to allow notifications if you haven’t already. If you don’t see reminders on your phone lock screen or notification center after enabling notifications, make sure your phone has notifications enabled for the Cheerful Plants App.

How Notifications Work

The app sends one push notification per day at your chosen time.
The notification lists all plants that are overdue or due that day.
Notifications are sent based on your timezone setting (from Account Settings).
If no plants need care, no notification is sent.

To stop notifications, toggle the switch off in More > Notifications.

Subscription

Free Plan

Up to 5 active plants.
All features are available – there are no locked features, only the plant count limit.
Memory Garden plants don’t count toward the limit.

Premium Plan

Unlimited plants.
Available as a Monthly or Annual subscription.
Billed through the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

Managing Your Subscription

View status: More > Account Settings shows your current plan.
Restore purchases: If you reinstall the app or switch devices, use the Restore Purchases option in Account Settings.
Cancel: Subscriptions are managed through your device’s subscription settings (Apple App Store or Google Play), not within the app.

Data & Privacy

Cloud Sync

Your plant data syncs automatically whenever you’re connected to the internet. The app has limited offline functionality, but if you do make changes while offline, they sync when connectivity returns.

Deleting Your Account

Go to More > Account Settings.
Scroll to the bottom and tap Delete Account.
Confirm the deletion.

This permanently removes your account and all associated data. This action cannot be undone.

What’s New

More > What’s New shows a changelog of recent app updates, so you can see what’s been added or fixed.

Help & Support

In-App Help

More > Tips and Help includes a link to this guide as well as the Getting Started guide. You can also enable in-app tips that show up on different pages to provide information about app functions.

Sending Feedback

More > Send Feedback lets you submit:

Support requests – Report a problem (please include as much detail as you can to help us solve the problem).
Feature ideas – Suggest a new feature or function you’d like us to add to the app

Device information (OS version, app version, plant count, subscription type) is automatically included to help with troubleshooting.

This guide reflects Cheerful Plants as of February 5, 2026. Features may be updated over time – check More > What’s New in the app for the latest changes.