Planted: A Game of Nature & Nurture Rulebook

Table of Contents

Overview
- Objective
Contents
Setup
Plant Card Overview
How to Play
End of a Round
- Propagation Jars
- When Players Are Finished Feeding...
End of the Game
- Scoring example
Winning the Game
Card References
Credits

Overview

Objective

Make your house beautiful by nurturing your very own collection of plants! In this easy-to-learn board game, you'll collect your favorite plants and then try to feed them every round. Give your plants the right combination of Light, Water, and Plant Food to score the most points and win!

Play happens simultaneously during each round. Players choose one card to play from their hand, then pass the rest to their neighbor. Most cards let you collect Resources that you'll need to feed your plants. Other cards are Tools that give you special abilities or Decorations that score bonus points at the end of the game. When all the cards have been played, the round ends and it is time to feed your plants. Hopefully you have collected everything you need!

After 4 rounds, the player with the most points from growing their plants is declared the greatest green thumb of them all!

A. 60 Resource cards
B. 42 Plant cards – 6 marked with "Beginner"
C. 42 Item cards – 21 Tools, 21 Decorations
D. 80 Resource tokens – 20 Light, 20 Water, 20 Plant Food, 20 Green Thumb
E. 65 Growth tokens
F. 5 player boards
G. 1 nursery board
H. 1 score pad
I. 5 Resource bags (Not shown)

The score pad has a line for each Player, then rows for Plant 1, Plant 2, Plant 3, Plant 4, Plant 5, Plant 6, Propagation, Decorations, and Total.

Setup

Place the nursery board in the middle of the table.
Give each player a player board, which they place on the table in front of them.
Separate the 60 Resource cards (Light, Water, Plant Food, and Green Thumb cards) from the 42 Item cards (Tools and Decorations). All Resource and Item cards share a common card back.
Shuffle the Resource cards together and place them face-down as a draw pile on the indicated space on the nursery board.
Shuffle all the remaining Item cards (Tools & Decorations) together and place them face-down as a draw pile on the indicated space on the nursery board.
Find the 6 Plant cards marked "Beginner," shuffle them together and deal 1 to each player. Each player places their Plant card face-up above their player board.
Return the remaining beginner Plant cards to the box — they will not be used in the game.
Shuffle all the other Plant cards together and place them as a face-down draw pile on the indicated space on the nursery board. Draw 4 of them and place them face-up in the indicated spaces next to the draw pile. This is called the nursery row.
Place all the Light, Water, Plant Food, Green thumb, and Growth tokens in supply piles sorted by type near the nursery board.

Plant Card Overview

Here's how to understand a Plant card:

Type — the icon in the top-left corner shows where the plant lives: pink pot = floor, grey pot = shelf, orange hanging basket = hanging.
Plant name — the common name, with the botanical name printed beneath it.
Beginner mark — only on Beginner plants (6 cards).
Growth spaces — when you feed a plant, you place a Growth token on the lowest empty space and score the listed points for that space.
Resources required to feed this plant — shown along the bottom of the card.

How to Play

Playing a round

The game is played over 4 rounds. In each round players are trying to gain resources to feed their plants, collect special decorations or tools for special abilities, or buy new plants.

To begin a round, each player draws 6 Resource cards and 2 Item cards from the draw piles on the nursery board. They take these 8 cards in their hand. Hands of cards are always kept secret from the other players.

Each round consists of 8 turns. But the players don't take turns one at a time — instead, each turn is played by all players simultaneously as follows. Each player chooses 1 card from their hand they would like to play. They place this card face-down in their "play area", below their player board. (If there are any previously played cards already in this space just place the card on top of them.) After this, each player places the rest of the cards in their remaining hand face-down on the table, to the left or right of their player board depending on which round it is.

In rounds 1 and 3, the players will place their hands to the left of their player board.
In rounds 2 and 4, players place their hands to the right.

Once all players have done this, everyone flips their played card face-up at the same time, and use its action as follows:

Resource Cards

Playing a Resource card allows the player to take Resource tokens from the supply and place them on their player board.

Simply take the 1 or 2 Light, Water, Plant Food, or Green Thumb tokens represented by the icons on the card you played.

There is no limit to the number of Resource tokens a player may have.

Example: A player plays a 2 Light card... and gains these 2 Light Resource tokens.

Note: The player game board features a x4 multiplier area for Resource tokens. If the token supply is running low, a player may place 1 token in the multiplier area and return 3 to the supply. Each token in the x4 area represents 4 tokens. Players may exchange tokens in and out of this area as needed.

Decoration Cards

The purple Item cards are called Decoration cards. When one of these is played, the player places it face-up in the indicated area, below their player board and to the right. Decoration cards will remain there for the duration of the game. Decoration cards do nothing during the game, but score extra points at the end of the game (see "End of the Game" section). A player may have multiple copies of the same Decoration card. There is no limit to the number of Decoration cards a player may have.

Tool Cards

The gray Item cards are called Tool cards. When one of these is played, the player places it face-up in the indicated area, below their player board and to the left. Tool cards will remain there for the duration of the game.

Tool cards give you a special ability that you will use for the rest of the game, as follows:

Grow Light — Whenever you play a 2-icon Light card, gain 1 extra Light token.
Window Planter — Whenever you play a 1-icon Light card, gain 1 Green Thumb token.
Watering Can — Whenever you play a 2-icon Water card, gain 1 extra Water token.
Spray Bottle — Whenever you play a 1-icon Water card, gain 1 Green Thumb token.
Potting Mix — Whenever you play a 2-icon Plant Food card, gain 1 extra Plant Food token.
Fertilizer — Whenever you play a 1-icon Plant Food card, gain 1 Green Thumb token.

A player may have multiple copies of the same Tool card. In this case, they receive its benefit multiple times. For example, if you have 2 Spray Bottle cards, whenever you play a 1-icon Water card you will also gain 2 Green Thumb tokens. There is no limit to the number of Tool cards a player may have.

Buy a new plant

Instead of using their played card as described on the previous pages, the player can decide to buy a new plant. Any Resource or Item card may be used to buy a plant. To do this, the player simply announces "nursery!" out loud as they flip over their chosen card and place it in their play area. They do not take the card's action or trigger the ability of any Tool card. Instead, they choose any 1 Plant card from the nursery row and place it face-up above their player board. Then, a new Plant card is taken from the draw pile and placed face-up in the vacant space in the nursery row.

Players may buy a plant from the nursery row on the nursery board.

If multiple players choose to buy a new plant on the same turn, then they choose their plant in order, based on the number at the bottom of the card they just played. The player who played the card with the lowest number chooses a plant first, then the player with the next highest number, and so on. After each Plant card is taken, the nursery row is refilled as described above.

A player may have a maximum of 6 Plant cards. Once they have 6, a player may no longer use a card to buy a new plant.

End of the turn

After all players have revealed their cards, everyone picks up the face-down cards from beside their neighbor's player board. This forms their new, and smaller, hand for the next turn, which now begins.

Turns continue until all cards have been played for the round.

Reminder: The direction for passing cards will alternate from round to round. That means that after each turn, you place your hand face-down to one side of the player board for that neighbor to pick up for their next hand. In rounds 1 and 3, the players will pass their hands to the left. In rounds 2 and 4, the players pass their hands to the right.

Example of a game in progress

Plant cards are kept above the player board. This player started the game with the Snake Plant beginner card and has since bought 2 more plants.
When you feed a plant, a Growth token is placed on the lowest vacant growth space. This player has fed the Snake Plant twice and Burro's Tail once.
The player has also fed their propagation jars twice and earned two Growth tokens.
Resource tokens you collect are placed on your player board.
Each turn, cards are played below your player board in the "play area".
After playing your card, you place the rest of your hand face-down to the left of your player board (in rounds 1 and 3) or to the right (in rounds 2 and 4).
Your Tool cards are kept here. You might like to place copies of the same card in a splayed column to save space. They will stay here for the duration of the game.
Your Decoration cards are kept here. They will stay here for the duration of the game.
At the end of the game, use the score pad to add up each player's points.

End of a Round

After 8 turns, all the cards will have been played and the round ends. It is now time for the players to feed their plants with Resource tokens they have collected. This is done simultaneously by all players.

At the bottom of each Plant card are the icons that depict the Resources the plant requires to be fed. The player must have ALL the resources shown on the Plant card in order to feed it.

To feed the plant, the player will discard those matching Resource tokens from their player board to the supply. Then they take a Growth token from the supply and place it on the lowest empty growth space on the Plant card. At the end of the game, each Growth token will be worth the points listed in its space. If there are no empty growth spaces left on a plant, it may not be fed as it is fully grown.

A player may feed any number of plants, as long as they have the Resources to do so. Players are free to choose which plants they would like to feed if they have multiple options.

A player may spend 2 Green Thumb tokens to count as any 1 Resource when feeding their plants (or using propagation jars as noted below). A single Green Thumb token does nothing.

(Example: the 3 resources shown are required to feed this plant each time. This plant may be fed twice, earning up to 7 points at the end of the game.)

Important: Each Plant card may only be fed once each round.

Propagation Jars

After feeding their plants, the player may use any leftover Resources to feed their propagation jars on their player board to gain Growth tokens (leaf). Any combination of 2 Resource tokens (Light, Water, Plant Food) can be spent to place a Growth token on the propagation jars space on the player board. A player may do this multiple times in a round. Each Growth token on the propagation jars space will score the player 1 point at the end of the game. There is no limit to the number of Growth tokens that may be on this space.

Again, a player may spend 2 Green Thumb Resource tokens to count as any 1 Resource when using propagation jars (or feeding their plants). A single Green Thumb token does nothing.

When Players Are Finished Feeding...

The round is over and it's time to clean up the board:

All players discard any unused Resource tokens on their player board back to the supply area.
All players discard the cards in their "play area" to the corresponding discard spaces on the nursery board. Keep any cards that were moved into your Tool or Decoration areas.
In a 3-player game, shuffle all the Resource cards together from the discard and draw piles to form a new draw pile after round 3 is complete.
In a 4- or 5-player game, shuffle all the Resource cards from the discard and draw piles to form a new draw pile after round 2 is complete.

Reminder: The direction for passing cards in each round will alternate from round to round.

End of the Game

When round 4 is over it is time for each player to add up the points they have collected in the game! Each player scores points as follows:

On Plant cards, score the points shown for each growth space covered by a Growth token.
Score 1 point per Growth token on the player's propagation jars space on their player board.
Points for each of the player's Decoration cards, as follows:

Decoration card	Scoring
Macramé Basket	Worth 1 point per Plant card with a hanging icon that you own.
Ceramic Planter	Worth 1 point per Plant card with a shelf icon that you own.
Plant Stand	Worth 1 point per Plant card with a floor icon that you own.
Display Shelves	Worth 3 points per set of 3 plant cards you own with 1 hanging icon, 1 shelf icon, and 1 floor icon.
Indoor Greenhouse	Worth 1 point per Plant card you own that is fully grown. That is, every growth space on the card has a Growth token on it.
Workbench	Worth 1 point per Tool card that you have.

A player may score multiple copies of the same Decoration card. A single Plant card may contribute to the scoring of multiple Decoration cards.

Scoring example

This player has the following two plants... Score 3 points, since the 3 growth space is covered with a Growth token. Score 7 points, since the 3 & 4 growth spaces are covered with a Growth token. = +10 points

They have 2 Growth tokens in their propagation jar space... = +2 points

They have 3 Decoration cards to score... = +2 points, since there are 2 Decoration cards that award 1 point for each shelf plant the player owns. = +1 point, since this Decoration card awards 1 point for each floor plant the player owns.

This player has scored a total of 15 points in this example.

Winning the Game

The player with the most points wins the game! If multiple players tie, then the tied player with the most Growth tokens on their Plant cards wins. If there is still a tie, the players share victory.

Card References

Plant Cards (42)

Growth spaces are listed from the top (highest value) down. Resources are the icons required to feed the plant.

Plant	Botanical name	Type	Growth spaces	Resources to feed
Golden Barrel Cactus (Beginner)	Echinocactus grusonii	shelf	3 / 3 / 3	Light, Light, Plant Food
Golden Pothos (Beginner)	Epipremnum aureum	hanging	3 / 3 / 3	Water, Plant Food, Plant Food
ZZ Plant (Beginner)	Zamioculcas zamiifolia	floor	3 / 3 / 3	Light, Water, Water
Lucky Bamboo (Beginner)	Dracaena sanderiana	shelf	3 / 3 / 3	Water, Water, Plant Food
Spider Plant (Beginner)	Chlorophytum comosum	hanging	3 / 3 / 3	Light, Light, Water
Snake plant (Beginner)	Dracaena trifasciata	floor	3 / 3 / 3	Light, Plant Food, Plant Food
Nerve Plant	Fittonia albivenis	shelf	5 / 3 / 2	Water, Plant Food, Plant Food
Arrowhead Plant	Syngonium podophyllum	hanging	5 / 3 / 2	Light, Light, Plant Food
Swiss Cheese Plant	Monstera deliciosa	floor	5 / 3 / 2	Light, Plant Food, Plant Food
Croton	Codiaeum variegatum	shelf	5 / 3 / 2	Light, Light, Water
Heartleaf Philodendron	Philodendron hederaceum	hanging	5 / 3 / 2	Water, Water, Plant Food
Money Tree	Pachira aquatica	floor	5 / 3 / 2	Light, Water, Water
Prickly Pear	Opuntia	shelf	4 / 3	Light, Light, Light
Maidenhair Fern	Adiantum	hanging	4 / 3	Water, Water, Water
Sago Palm	Cycas revoluta	floor	4 / 3	Plant Food, Plant Food, Plant Food
Peacock Plant	Goeppertia makoyana	shelf	5	Water, Water, Water
Wax Plant	Hoya carnosa	hanging	5	Plant Food, Plant Food, Plant Food
Dragon Tree	Dracaena draco	floor	5	Light, Light, Light
Aloe Vera	Aloe vera	shelf	2 / 2 / 2	Light, Light
Inch Plant	Tradescantia zebrina	hanging	2 / 2 / 2	Water, Water
African Mask Plant	Alocasia x amazonica	floor	2 / 2 / 2	Plant Food, Plant Food
Chinese Money Plant	Pilea peperomioides	shelf	3 / 2	Water, Water
Chain of Hearts	Ceropegia woodii	hanging	3 / 2	Plant Food, Plant Food
Parlor Palm	Chamaedorea elegans	floor	3 / 2	Light, Light
Prayer Plant	Maranta leuconeura	shelf	4 / 2 / 1	Plant Food, Plant Food
String of Pearls	Senecio rowleyanus	hanging	4 / 2 / 1	Light, Light
Umbrella Tree	Schefflera actinophylla	floor	4 / 2 / 1	Water, Water
Chinese Evergreen	Aglaonema	shelf	4	Plant Food, Plant Food
Air Plant	Tillandsia	hanging	4	Light, Light
Peace Lily	Spathiphyllum	floor	4	Water, Water
Purple Shamrock	Oxalis triangularis	shelf	7 / 4 / 3	Water, Water, Plant Food, Plant Food
Mistletoe Cactus	Rhipsalis baccifera	hanging	7 / 4 / 3	Light, Light, Plant Food, Plant Food
Bird of Paradise	Strelitzia reginae	floor	7 / 4 / 3	Light, Light, Water, Water
Watermelon Peperomia	Peperomia argyreia	shelf	5 / 4	Light, Light, Water, Water
Boston Fern	Nephrolepis exaltata	hanging	5 / 4	Water, Water, Plant Food, Plant Food
Fiddle Leaf Fig	Ficus lyrata	floor	5 / 4	Light, Light, Plant Food, Plant Food
Begonia Rex	Begonia rex	shelf	5 / 4	Water, Plant Food, Plant Food, Plant Food
Burro's Tail	Sedum morganianum	hanging	5 / 4	Light, Light, Light, Plant Food
Corn Plant	Dracaena fragrans	floor	5 / 4	Light, Water, Water, Water
Venus Flytrap	Dionaea muscipula	shelf	6	Light, Light, Light, Water
Staghorn Fern	Platycerium	hanging	6	Water, Water, Water, Plant Food
Ponytail Palm	Beaucarnea recurvata	floor	6	Light, Plant Food, Plant Food, Plant Food

Resource Cards (60)

Card	Quantity
1 Light	x10
1 Water	x10
1 Plant Food	x10
2 Light	x7
2 Water	x7
2 Plant Food	x7
2 Green Thumb	x9

Item Cards (42)

Decoration cards (21)

Card	Quantity
Macramé Basket — Gain 1 point for each Hanging plant that you own.	x4
Ceramic Planter — Gain 1 point for each Shelf plant that you own.	x4
Plant Stand — Gain 1 point for each Floor plant that you own.	x4
Display Shelves — Gain 3 points for each set of 1 Hanging, 1 Shelf and 1 Floor plants that you own.	x3
Indoor Greenhouse — Gain 1 point for each full-grown plant that you own (all growth spaces occupied).	x3
Workbench — Gain 1 point for each Tool card that you own.	x3

Tool cards (21)

Card	Quantity
Grow Light — Gain 1 Light token for each double Light card played.	x3
Watering Can — Gain 1 Water token for each double Water card played.	x3
Potting Mix — Gain 1 Plant Food token for each double Plant Food card played.	x3
Fertilizer — Gain 1 Green Thumb token for each single Plant Food card played.	x4
Window Planter — Gain 1 Green Thumb token for each single Light card played.	x4
Spray Bottle — Gain 1 Green Thumb token for each single Water card played.	x4

Credits

Buffalo Games, LLC, 220 James E Casey Dr., Buffalo, NY 14206

Gameplay © Phil Walker-Harding

Game Art by Hannah Bailey

Special thanks to... Meredith Walker-Harding and Susan Bell

Questions or Comments? buffalogames.com

Item #291_rev4_062422