Are you an aspiring green thumb or a well-intentioned but accidental plant killer?
In the age of ‘plant moms and dads,’ many are eager to avoid the small dose of heartbreak that comes with seeing a beloved (and probably expensive) plant turn orange and shriveled in the sun.
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Luckily, plant-loving Amazon Alexa owners have received a major free update that will help stop them from killing their plants.
The tech giant has partnered with botanist James Wong to bring new plant knowledge to its Alexa voice assistant.
Alexa can now answer more than 35 questions about plants, from how much light your Aloe Vera needs to how much you need to water your cheese factory.
“It’s easy to be deterred when a plant loses color or dies,” Wong said.
“That’s why I loved collaborating with Amazon to improve Alexa’s plant knowledge skills and develop a plant care routine to help Brits gain more confidence in caring for their houseplants.”
A new routine is also available through the Alexa app, which will note the ideal growing conditions for any potted plants you have.
The new green routine that Alexa can implement looks like this:
- Reminder to check and/or water your plants
- Turn on the lights and set them to turn off with a timer
- Turn on the heat and set it to 20-25 degrees and set it to off with a timer
- Whisper a positive plant affirmation
- Play a playlist of plant-friendly music
- Turn off the heating
- Turn off the lights
What is an Alexa Routine?
Routines are essentially shortcuts for Alexa.
They save users time by grouping a series of actions into a routine.
This means users don’t need to request each one individually.
Users can activate routines by verbally asking their Alexa or through the Alexa app.
To access the routine, follow the steps below:
- Open the Alexa mobile app
- Select ‘more’ from the bottom navigation menu
- Select ‘routines’ from the options
- Tap ‘featured’ in the top slide-out menu
- Select ”Plant Whisperer’
- Select the devices you want to include in the routine
- Select ‘save’
- To continue with the routine, just say ‘Alexa, take care of my plants!’
Alexa may not yet be skilled enough to handle rarer species.
But you’ll have plenty of the know-how to keep plants like aloe vera, spider plant, Chinese money plant, moth orchid, peace lily, cheese plant, rubber plant and herbs like fickle basil alive.
Meryem Tom, managing director of Amazon Alexa UK, said: “Alexa’s expertise resonates with our love of plant care.
“And with summer just around the corner, it’s the perfect time for our customers to play around with the new Alexa Routine and brush up on their plant care skills in the process!”
New questions to ask Alexa
Here’s the full list of plant care questions Alexa can now answer:
How much light does my aloe vera need?
What kind of compound does my aloe vera need?
How often should I water my aloe vera?
How often do I need to repot my Aloe vera?
Why is my aloe vera unhappy?
How much light does my spider plant need?
How often should I water my spider plant?
Why is my spider plant not producing babies?
Why does my spider plant have brown leaves?
What’s wrong with my Chinese money plant?
How do I propagate my spider plant?
How much light does my moth orchid need?
How much light does my peace lily need?
How often do I need to water my moth orchid?
How often do I replant my peace lily?
Will my moth orchid bloom again?
Why does my peace lily have brown leaves?
Why is my moth orchid not blooming?
How often should I water my peace lily?
Should I cut the flowers off my moth orchid?
Why is my peace lily not blooming?
How much light does my cheese factory need?
How much light does my rubber tree produce?
How much water does my cheese factory need?
How often should I water my rubber tree?
Why doesn’t my cheese maker have holes in the leaves?
How often do I repot my rubber tree?
Why does my cheese factory look unhappy?
Why is my rubber tree losing leaves?
Why are my cheese plant leaves turning brown?
How do I clean my rubber tree leaves?
What are the best plants for cleaning the air?
How much light does my Chinese money plant need?
What’s the secret to a green thumb?
How often should I water my Chinese money plant?
Why did my basil plant die?
How do I propagate my Chinese money plant?
What is Alexa?
If you’ve never heard of Alexa, here’s what you need to know…
- Alexa is a “smart” personal assistant developed by Amazon.
- You can find it on a number of different devices, including Amazon’s Echo speakers.
- Alexa responds to voice commands and can respond to you.
- It can perform thousands of different tasks, including telling you about the news or the weather.
- But it can also do more complex things, like ordering a pizza or arranging a taxi pickup on Uber.
- To activate Alexa, you need to say “Alexa” to an Amazon Echo speaker.
- Because it is powered by artificial intelligence, Alexa is increasingly intelligent.
- Alexa will also get more used to your voice and better understand what you want her to do over time.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
