Each ICRA needs to produce a registration form on which it should require all applications to be made. Advice on the general layout and content of the registration form can be provided by the ISHS Commission for Nomenclature and Registration but the detailed format will vary depending on the denomination class (the taxonomic group, usually genus, in which a cultivar name may not be used more than once)concerned. It should be borne in mind that if a registration form is too difficult to complete, returns are likely to be disappointing.

All registration forms should request at least the following information and material:

1. The names and addresses of:
   1. the Originator (it may be necessary to distinguish the hybridizer and the person who grew a plant on to its first flowering from the Originator)
   2. the Nominant who designated (invented or coined) the name.
   3. the Introducer (it may be necessary to distinguish private distribu­tion from commercial introduction)
   4. the Registrant.
      In each case the relevant date(s) should also be requested (the year is usually sufficient).
2. If the cultivar or cultivar-group has been previously established but not registered, the name of the person who originally published the name, together with details of the publication or full reference to its date and place of publication. A copy of the printed page(s) should be requested which might be added to a Standard portfolio.
3. If the epithet to be registered is a transliteration from a language not using the Latin alphabet, the original form (characters) of the name or epithet should also be requested.
4. For hybrids, the parentage, when known or, for spoRrts, the identity of the parent plant or cultivar on which the sport occurred.
5. The location of the original find, if the cultivar results from a plant or plants found growing in the wild.
6. Particulars of any associated trademarks, patents, or Plant Breeders' Rights, together with the results of testing in recognized trials, if applicable.
7. Awards received, with dates and the name of the awarding body.
8. A description including, where applicable, details of colour - the RHS Colour Chart (1966, reprinted 1986 in association with the Flower Council of Holland and in 1995 by the RHS) is now a widely used standard and is strongly recommended. The precise edition of a colour chart should always be stated in publications of an ICRA.
9. Especially when a description might not be full, the registrant should be prompted into giving an account of the likely diagnostic characteristics that differentiate the cultivar or cultivar-group from any closely related cultivars or cultivar-groups.
10. Although not compulsory for registration, material for a Standard such as an herbarium specimen, photograph, painting, or drawing should be requested to be stored subsequently in a Standard portfolio housed in a recognized herbarium or other institution.
11. The preferred method(s) by which any new cultivar should be propagated.
12. An explanation of the etymology, derivation or meaning of the cultivar epithet, especially if this is not immediately apparent from other information given on the form.
13. Registration forms should stress that although the ICRA will ensure eventual establishment for all registered names, their precedence is not fixed until establishment at which point the name will have a date. Registrants may thus wish to publish new names themselves following registration, to ensure that precedence of their epithets is not affected by any delay in publication.