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AI meets horticulture

Navigating the consumer environment can be quite a challenge for growers, especially those that don’t have a direct pipeline through retail space or a storefront. For some, this may not seem like a barrier to business but for others, this has presented an opportunity.

Bayview Flowers Ltd., based out of Jordan Station, Ont., zeroed in on this seeming disconnect several years ago and has been working ever since to bridge the gap and enhance the end-consumer experience. Earlier this year, the company shared the result of their years-long efforts as they unveiled their new AI-powered plant-care assistant, aptly named ‘Daisy.’

“It became clear to us that there was a need to empower plant purchasers,” said Evan van Staalduinen, Bayview’s marketing manager, in a recent interview with Greenhouse Canada.

“Studies have found that a lack of knowledge is a purchase barrier for the end consumer – so consumers not knowing how to actually care for the plants they purchased. We saw that as an opportunity to try to tackle that barrier.” 

Van Staalduinen references the 2021 ‘Consumer Houseplant Purchasing Report’ from the Floral Marketing Fund which found 15 per cent of those surveyed do not purchase houseplants for themselves because the plant will die. 

Daisy was developed using a closed LLM (large language model) environment, which means that, unlike open-source LLMs, all content is developed, maintained and vetted by Bayview Flowers.
Photos: Courtesy Bayview Flowers Ltd.

Bayview’s early efforts to tackle this knowledge gap resulted in the development of their Living House brand of plants. Plants in this lineup, which launched in 2019, are sold with a unique code that can be found on the product care tag and can then be registered on the livinghouse.ca website where plant-specific care information is readily available. Once registered, users can manage their plant collections and even give their plants names.

The brand was very well received by end consumers and retailers alike, as it added a layer of accountability and quality for the latter and empowered the former with the tools needed to be a successful plant parent. Today, more than 50,000 plants have been registered to the website.

While the popularity of Living House is proof that Bayview was on to something, the emergence of Artificial Intelligence had some at the company feeling even more could be done to support end consumers.

Stewart Cameron, Bayview’s digital marketing co-ordinator, told Greenhouse Canada that by surveying registered users of their Living House website, they came to realize there was a need for more on-demand and specific plant-care assistance.

“Almost like if you had a pet and it was sick and needed an emergency vet on a weekend,” he explains. “There was a need for instantaneous and customized responses; to get plant-care [information] to people right away.”

AI, the company felt, could provide that support but, given that the technology is still in its relative infancy, with a little more human oversight. 

Bayview Flowers unveiled their AI-powered plant-care assistant, called Daisy, at the 2024 Floriexpo held in early June. Photos: Courtesy Bayview Flowers Ltd.

Daisy was developed using a closed LLM (large language model) environment, which means that, unlike open-source LLMs, all content is developed, maintained and vetted by Bayview Flowers. The company has spent the better part of this past year testing and trialing the technology, putting Daisy through the paces to ensure the quality of the information it is drawing on.

“It’s not going to scour the internet for any kind of answer that it finds, it’s only going to learn from the information that we’ve traded on,” said Van Staalduinen.

“We have a lot of direct connections with industry expertise and care guidelines from the breeders we deal with or the suppliers that we deal with. So, we’re getting really good information, direct from the industry experts.”

Cameron cautions, however, that because AI is still learning and improving, there may be some instances where Daisy’s answers won’t be up to snuff and that’s where users can connect with a Bayview representative for support.

“That’s where we really thought it was important to have the human element integrated,” he said. “If someone isn’t satisfied with the response they’re getting, they’re able to get that live agent support.”

Even Daisy’s support was thorough enough to help the end-consumer, Bayview representatives will constantly monitor Daisy’s interactions, especially in these early days, to ensure they’re as accurate and up to date as possible.

“If we see a Daisy response that we didn’t think was really that helpful, we can actually train it on new data so that it gets a better response next time,” Van Staalduinen adds. “So the longer Daisy exists, it’s going to get better through that constant feedback loop and cycle of learning.”

Equipping the end consumer with the knowledge to keep their plants healthier longer may seem counter intuitive for those who hope that same consumer will be a repeat customer when said plant dies, but Bayview, again, sees this as an opportunity and is playing a longer game.

For them, plant parenthood is a lifestyle; one being embraced by younger generations who, with the rising costs of living, are looking to purchase quality products with a much longer life span.

“Plant parenthood is an emotional investment. More people have come to realize there are benefits to caring for plants – there’s a lot of joy that comes from doing that successfully,” Van Staalduinen explains. “The hope is that if more people feel confident to buy plants, the number of plants they buy will go up.” And it’s reasonable to assume, he adds, that buyers will return to the spaces and brands “where they previously had a positive experience.”

Bayview Flowers’ AI-powered plant-care assistant, Daisy, won the Featured Product Competition at the 2024 Floriexpo, the largest B2B floral event in North America.

“The other benefit that comes with building a connection with the consumer is you have a better opportunity to actually listen more directly to their needs,” Van Staalduinen continues.

“We get that direct feedback in terms of how to make our products better, how we make our services better. We can ultimately make our retail partners have a better customer program by building those relationships.”

In early June, the Bayview team took Daisy to Ft. Lauderdale for the FloriExpo tradeshow for its official launch. The reception was incredibly warm, and Daisy even won the Featured Plant Product competition at the show and has been highlighted by organizers in subsequent media coverage of the event.

It is early days for Daisy, but Bayview has their eye on the horizon and is poised to take their new tool to the next level.

“Demand for a mobile application is clear given some of the feedback we’ve gotten from some of our user experience surveys,” Cameron said.

Ultimately, the hope is Daisy will be the starting point for something far greater for Bayview, its business partners and the industry as a whole.

“If this keeps going, you’re going to end up with, hopefully a large network of people who are using this and you can continue to learn as a community and ultimately, provide better products,” said Van Staalduinen.

“That listening aspect is really important. I think more and more companies, are really putting a focus on how they are listening and learning and working to provide better products and experiences through that connection.”

To learn more about Daisy, visit livinghouse.ca.

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