This morning, I checked my phone to find a message from Eva Green — not the actress, but one of my houseplants, a Chinese evergreen. She’s thirsty, dehydrated, sitting in the dark, and generally having a bad time. My spider plant, Peter Parker, on the other hand, is having a great time and “loving life”.
These notifications arrived via Willow — a system of sensors, a hub, and a mobile app that lets you keep tabs on your indoor plants, lets you know their needs, and helps you keep them not just alive, but thriving.
Just push a sensor into the soil, and you’ll receive live updates on its condition so you can feed, water, re-pot, or move your plants accordingly. Think of it as a Fitbit for houseplants.
I’d call myself an aspiring plant parent. Last year I successfully propagated half a dozen cuttings from a dieffenbachia (Robert Plant), and organized a plant swap at work once they were ready to be adopted. I also tend to anthropomorphize them a little, and they make regular appearances in my reviews of coffee makers, smart lights, and other home tech.
There have been a few casualties along the way though, and Robert has a habit of shedding leaves more often than I’d like, so Willow seems like the ideal solution. It doesn’t integrate with the rest of my smart home tech, so I can’t use it to trigger lights or a humidifier, but it’s nonetheless enlightening to find out exactly what’s going on at root-level.
Setting up the Willow hardware is simple — just plug in the small hub, connect it to your Wi-Fi network, and then pair your sensors, but what really impresses me is the companion app. It’s beautifully designed and packed with an incredible array of features. For example, if you know which plant you have, then you can select it from a database, but if you’re not sure, scan one of its leaves with your phone’s camera, and it will tell you what species it’s likely to be, complete with its degree of certainty. Clever stuff.
The app’s database is packed with information on a vast catalog of common houseplants, including preferred growing conditions, propagation tips, and even toxicity (so you know whether it’s important to keep the plant away from children and pets).
When you’ve identified your plant, you’ll be prompted to enter its pot size, the type of soil it’s living in, which room it’s in, and its name. Decide whether you want your plant to grow and thrive, or just not die, and then choose whether you want its notifications to be straightforward or sassy.
It takes a little while for the sensors to collect sufficient details from your plant babies, but once they do, you’ll start to receive info on their well-being, which is how I learned that Eva Green is “not vibing” with her surroundings and is in dire need of some TLC.
The app even gives you a to-do list, with items you can tick off. For example, although Peter is feeling great, Willow informs me that I should give him some liquid fertilizer next time I water him.
Some of my colleagues have expressed dismay at the idea of ‘being bossed around by a plant’, but I’m quite happy to let Eva and Peter take the lead. A smart humidifier would be one way to make her happier, though another way to improve humidity is to simply get more plants. I think I know which one I’d prefer…
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