ARE you an aspiring green-thumb or a well-intended but accidental plant murderer?
In the age of ‘plant mums and dads’, many are aching to avoid the small dose of heartbreak that comes with watching a beloved (and probably pricey) plant turn orange and crinkly in the sun.
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Fortunately, plant-loving Amazon Alexa owners have received a major free upgrade that will help stop them killing their plants.
The tech giant has partnered with botanist James Wong to bring some new plant expertise 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 your need to water your cheese plant.
“It is easy to be deterred when a plant discolours or dies,” said Wong.
“That’s why I’ve loved collaborating with Amazon to upskill Alexa on plant knowledge and develop a plant care routine to help Brits gain more confidence in caring for house plants”.
A new routine is also available through the Alexa app, that will note down the optimum growing conditions for whichever potted plant you have.
The new green routine that Alexa can enact goes like this:
- Reminder to check on and/or water your plants
- Turn lights on, and set to go off with a timer
- Turn on heating and set to 20-25-degrees, and set to go off with a timer
- Whisper a positive plant affirmation
- Play plant-friendly music playlist
- Turn off heating
- Turn off lights
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What’s an Alexa routine?
Routines are essentially short cuts for Alexa.
They save users time by grouping together a string of actions under one routine.
It means users don’t have to ask for each one individually.
Users can activate routines by asked to your Alexa verbally or via 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’ from the sliding top menu
- Select ‘’Plant Whisperer’
- Select the devices you wish to feature in the routine
- Select ‘save’
- To get going with the routine, just say ‘Alexa, mind my plants!’
Alexa might not be skilled enough yet to tackle the more rare species.
But it will have much of the know-how for keeping the likes of an aloe vera, spider plant, Chinese money plant, moth orchid, peace lily, cheese plant, rubber plant, and herbs like the fickle basil, alive.
Meryem Tom, Amazon Alexa’s UK’s Managing Director said: “Alexa’s knowledge meets our love for plant care.
“And with the summer coming up, it’s the perfect time for our customers to have a play around with the new Alexa routine and level-up their plant care skills in the process!”
New questions to ask Alexa
Here is the full list of plant care questions Alexa can now answer:
How much light does my aloe vera need?
What kind of compost 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 any babies?
Why does my spider plant have brown leaves?
What is 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 repot my peace lily?
Will my moth orchid flower again?
Why does my peace lily have brown leaves?
Why is my moth orchid not flowering?
How often should I water my peace lily?
Should I cut off the flowers of my moth orchid?
Why is my peace lily not flowering?
How much light does my cheese plant need?
How much light does my rubber plant?
How much water does my cheese plant need?
How often should I water my rubber plant?
Why does my cheese plant not have any holes in its leaves?
How often do I repot my rubber plant?
Why does my cheese plant look unhappy?
Why is my rubber plant losing its leaves?
Why are my cheese plant leaves turning brown?
How do I clean the leaves of my rubber plant?
What are the best plants to clean the air?
How much light does my Chinese money plant need?
What is 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 an “intelligent” personal assistant built by Amazon.
- You can find her on several different devices, including Amazon’s Echo speakers.
- Alexa responds to voice commands, and can talk back to you.
- She can perform thousands of different tasks, including telling you about the news or weather.
- But she can do more complex things too, like ordering a pizza or arranging an Uber taxi pick-up.
- To activate Alexa, you need to say “Alexa” to an Amazon Echo speaker.
- Because she’s powered by artificial intelligence, Alexa is constantly getting smarter.
- Alexa will also get more used to your voice, and better understand what you want her to do over time.