At the peak of the coronavirus in New York City, I let two strangers into my home to help me kickstart my houseplant habitat (virtually, of course). They looked around, then drew me a map of my living room and bedroom. The tutorial was for Steward, a new app that uses your phone’s camera to create a map that shows variations in light distribution within your home, the end goal being light- and heat-appropriate homes for houseplants.
Married couple Alexi and Brendan Coffey started Steward at NASA’s Ames Research Center through the Global Solutions Program, which lends entrepreneurs a space to ideate and execute plans to address climate change.
The app works on a subscription basis: $13 a month billed every three months, or $10 a month billed annually. Users then take a scan of the room where they’d like to place plants, and the app analyzes it to generate a map that shows how light impacts them. The map takes into account doors, walls and even radiators and other obstructions.
Plant maps are divided into zones — up to nine — with one being the area with the most direct light to zone nine having the least amount of direct light. Steward has a database of plant species, with each type having a designated range of zones where the plants will flourish. Trying to place a plant in a less-than-ideal spot? The app will warn you before you place it in an area that may jeopardize its life.
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Steward does not sell plants directly, but it does connect users to local flower shops. As part of my trial with Steward, they connected me with Tula, a plant store in Brooklyn. My first two plants were a calathea ornata (sometimes called prayer plants) and a rubber tree, both of which were assigned their respective home in my room dependent on Steward’s recommendation. After following a recommended watering cadence, I found my plants were alive and kicking (literally for the calathea, which I dubbed Cacio, since its leaves shift throughout the day) after a couple weeks. The encouraging results led me to bringing two more plants into the mix, both of which continue to thrive.
