Monstera leaf

My Personal Plant Inventory

A personal houseplant library — store data in your Google Drive or locally on your device

What is this app?

My Personal Plant Inventory is a free web app that helps you photograph, identify, and catalog your houseplant collection. It uses Google's Gemini AI to suggest plant names and care details from your photos. The primary purpose of this app is to help you build a personal inventory of your plants.

You can use the app in two ways: sign in with Google to store everything in your own Google Drive, or use local mode to store data directly on your device without an account.

How to Use

1

Sign in & connect Google Drive

Sign in with your Google account, then connect Google Drive when prompted. This gives the app permission to store your plant data in a folder called "PlantInventory" in your Drive.

2

Add a plant

Tap the orange "+" button to add a plant. You can take a photo with your camera or select one (or multiple) from your gallery. For multiple photos, each one is processed one at a time. Up to 5 photos can be attached to a single plant — swipe through them in the detail view.

3

Crop & rotate

Adjust the photo by cropping and rotating it. When you tap "Done Cropping," the AI will automatically try to identify your plant.

4

Review AI identification

The AI will suggest a name and care details. If it's correct, tap "Looks Correct." If not, you can enter the correct name and the AI will look up care details for you.

5

Edit details & save

Review or edit the plant's details — name, scientific name, watering, light, humidity, temperature, toxicity (with reptile-aware notes), environment (terrarium / household), and growth rate. Then save it to your library.

6

Browse your library

Your library shows all your plants with photos. Use the search bar to find plants by common name, scientific name, **or botanical family** (e.g. typing "Araceae" narrows to the whole family). The **Sort / Group by** picker sets the top-level organization — pick `Name (A → Z)` or `Name (Z → A)` for a flat sorted list, or a grouping field (Family, Type, Watering, Light, Humidity, Temperature, Toxicity, Environment, Growth Rate, Date Added) to group plants by that value. The optional **Then by…** picker adds a secondary organization: e.g. `Name (A → Z) + Then by Family` groups your library by family and sorts plants alphabetically inside each group. The primary choice is remembered across visits; “Then by…” resets each session so you can experiment freely. Tap the **Filter** button to narrow the library to Terrarium plants, Dormant now, or Needs dormancy — filters can be combined and show live plant counts.

7

Edit, archive, or delete plants

Tap any plant card to see its full details. Use the pencil icon to edit. Use the archive icon to mark a plant as archived (kept in history but hidden from the main library) — useful when you give a plant away or it dies. Restore archived plants any time from the Archive view.

8

Export or share your collection

Two places to reach these tools. (1) The Settings gear in the header opens a "Download library" section where you pick CSV or PDF and tap Download — CSV is best for reimporting into other tools, PDF gives a formatted printable copy (auto-detects CJK/Arabic/emoji plant names and renders them correctly). (2) The share icon in the header opens a menu with four options: Share as image — a 3×6 tile card great for social posts; Copy invite link — a compact URL friends can tap to see your collection in a read-only view; Preview invite page to see what friends will see; Show QR code — a scannable code perfect for garden centers or plant swaps where a friend points their phone camera at your screen.

Tips

  • -Batch upload: Select multiple photos at once from your gallery to add several plants in one session.
  • -Add more photos later: Open a plant’s detail view to add additional photos from camera or gallery (up to 5 total). Useful for tracking growth over time or capturing different angles.
  • -Bulk edit: Use the bulk-edit pencil in the header to update a single care field (e.g. "Watering") across many plants at once — great for cleanup after AI variations.
  • -Merge duplicates: If you accidentally added the same plant twice (or the AI split one plant into two entries), a subtle banner at the top of your library suggests likely-duplicate pairs. Tap Merge to open a dialog where you verify the names and pick which photos to keep from the combined pool. Not sure they're the same plant? Tap Compare (or any of the thumbnails on the banner) to open a full-screen side-by-side view — up to 5 photos per plant. On mobile you can swipe left or right in the compare view to swap which plant is Kept vs Merged in. A 5-second Undo toast lets you revert any merge if it was a mistake. Care details are merged silently: the kept plant wins on any field it already has, and the merged-in plant only fills blanks. Dismissed pairs stay dismissed across devices — signing in on a new phone inherits your history.
  • -Complete later: Not sure about a plant? Save it as incomplete and come back to it. Incomplete plants appear in the "Needs Attention" section at the top of your library.
  • -Skip in batch mode: If you want to come back to a photo, skip it and it will reappear at the end of the batch.
  • -Fill missing care details: In the Settings menu, the "Fill any missing care details" button scans every plant for empty care-detail fields (watering, light, humidity, temperature, toxicity, environment, growth rate, family, plant type, blooming) and asks the AI to fill only what’s missing. Existing values are never overwritten. Safe to re-run any time — new fields introduced by future updates get auto-filled too. New plants added from Feb 2026 onward are auto-filled in the background right after you add them, so you rarely need to open this manually. The fill runs on our server so it keeps working even if you lock your phone or switch to another app — a small green "Filling X/Y…" chip in the library header shows live progress, and reopening Settings resumes right where the server left off. If you close Settings while a fill is still running, you can pick "Continue in background" (keeps going) or "Stop now". Drive-mode only.
  • -Family grouping tips: When you have 5+ plants sharing the same botanical family (e.g. six Araceae or seven Cactaceae), the library surfaces a small friendly tip suggesting a shared care routine — like grouping your Araceae near a humidifier or your Cactaceae on a sunny south window. **Tap the tip** to filter the library down to just those plants so you can see who’s being referred to; a small green chip lets you clear the focus with one tap. Not in the mood? The **Hide for 7 days** pill quietly shelves the suggestion, and the ▾ dropdown lets you pick 1 / 3 / 7 / 30 days — or hide **all** grouping suggestions for the same window if several are stacked up. The old **×** button still permanently dismisses a family if you’re sure you’ll never want it back.
  • -Onboarding tour: First-time users get a 4-step tour that highlights adding a plant, filling missing care details, sharing your collection, and finding the icon legend. Want to see it again? Open Settings and tap "Watch onboarding tour" — you can revisit any time.
  • -Install as app: This is a PWA — you can install it on your phone or desktop from your browser's menu for quick access. Look for the "Install on iPhone" hint at the top if you're on iOS Safari.
  • -Share a photo INTO the app: Once installed as a PWA, the app appears in your device's share sheet. From your camera roll, gallery, or a messaging thread, tap Share and pick this app — the photo lands directly on the Crop step, ready to identify and save. Zero friction plant capture from anywhere.
  • -"Grow along" invite links: Every share event also produces a compact link (like personalplants.online/g#…) that a friend can tap to see your plants in a read-only view. Great for showing off your collection, and it doubles as a soft signup channel — your friends land on a "Start your own plant library" CTA.
  • -Personal welcome note: When you share, you can add a short personal note (up to 240 characters) that shows up above the plant grid on the recipient's Grow-Along page. Perfect for a quick greeting, a story about what inspired the collection, or a tip for their favourite plant.
  • -Privacy of invite links: The plant list is packed into the URL's fragment (the part after #), which browsers strip before sending any HTTP request. Nothing about your plants is stored on our servers or in any database when someone opens your invite link. Only your first name is shown (never your full name or email), even in Drive mode.
  • -Data privacy: Your plant data and photos are stored only in your own Google Drive (or on your device in local mode). Nothing is stored on our servers except your login session and a small translation cache.
  • -AI suggestions: AI-provided names and care details are just suggestions. Feel free to edit any field — the app is your personal inventory, and you control the data.

About AI-Powered Identification

The AI plant identification and care details provided by Google Gemini are suggestions only and may not always be accurate. There is no guarantee of correctness — the AI can misidentify plants or provide outdated or incorrect care information.

The main goal of this app is to help you inventory your plants. You are encouraged to do your own research and update any details as you see fit at any time. Every field in a plant's record can be edited whenever you want.

Using Local Mode (No Account)

If you prefer not to sign in, you can use the app in local mode. Your plant data and photos are stored directly in your browser on this device. Key things to know:

  • -Data is stored only on this device, in this browser. It will not sync across devices.
  • -Clearing your browser data will permanently delete all your plants.
  • -You are limited to 100 plants in local mode.
  • -AI features (identification & care details) still work — they use the server without requiring your identity. Each anonymous user gets a modest hourly rate limit, and the app has a hard daily ceiling on total anonymous AI calls to keep costs bounded.
  • -You can sign in with Google later to move your data to the cloud.

Tip for anonymous power users:

If you want to keep using the app without an account but have more than 100 plants, you can export your collection as a CSV or PDF file at any time (using the download icon in the header). Save it to your Google Drive or computer manually, then delete some plants from the app to free up space. This way you maintain a complete record while staying anonymous.

Offline & Sync

Offline you can browse and edit, archive or delete plants — those changes queue and sync automatically when you reconnect. Adding a brand-new plant needs a connection.

Sharing your plants

Share a single plant as a rich image, or your whole library as a PDF — at a glance (photos + names), in full detail (a page per plant), or names only. Every library PDF includes a scannable QR code, a tappable link and your welcome note. Recipients open a read-only “grow-along” view; nothing in your library changes and they can’t edit it.