Parry’s Agave (Agave parryi). This plant’s immense flower stalk will reach at least 12 feet in height, with bright yellow blooms, but cold weather suppresses the metabolic process that drives upward growth, which is now stalled. When temperatures rise in the spring, the stalk will resume its rise faster than usual. This Mexican native’s leaves have dark brown tips and indentations from previous leaves, and a 30-inch-wide rosette. (Courtesy Tom Karwin)
Ponytail Palm (Beaucarnea recurvata). This Mexican perennial succulent is widely regarded as an ornamental plant for its tufts of leathery leaves and an almost spherical caudex that becomes wider with age. In nature, it grows very slowly to over 20 feet high, but as a houseplant, it will limit its height for several years. Despite its common name, it is unrelated to true palms and is a member of the Asparagus plant family (Asparagaceae). (Courtesy Tom Karwin)
Common Hyacinth (Hyacinthus orientalis ‘Pink Pearl’). A native of western Asia, this bulbous plant was brought to Europe in the 16th century; this cultivar was introduced in 1922. It grows to one foot tall, and produces fragrant flowers in a tubular, six-lobed floral structure (perianth) with an outer whorl of green sepals and an inner whorl of brightly colored petals. (Courtesy Tom Karwin)
Jellybean (Sedum pachyphyllum). This ground-hugging, spreading succulent in the Stonecrop plant family (Crassulaceae) reaches 11 inches in height. A native of Mexico, this drought-tolerant plant grows well in full sunlight. In winter, the tips of its short, stumpy, silvery-green leaves turn red. (Courtesy Tom Karwin)
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Parry’s Agave (Agave parryi). This plant’s immense flower stalk will reach at least 12 feet in height, with bright yellow blooms, but cold weather suppresses the metabolic process that drives upward growth, which is now stalled. When temperatures rise in the spring, the stalk will resume its rise faster than usual. This Mexican native’s leaves have dark brown tips and indentations from previous leaves, and a 30-inch-wide rosette. (Courtesy Tom Karwin)
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Artificial intelligence has been in use online for several years, expanded impressively since 2022, and, predictably, will continue to reach into our lives and global society in 2026 and beyond.
The creators of this technology offer a diversity of important benefits and inspire numerous supporters. Detractors point to AI’s financial, legal and social hazards. We envision AI’s widening capabilities and the broadening of regulatory constraints.
We are focusing on AI’s applications in residential gardens, where interactions with nature are isolated from this technology’s hazards.
Gardeners can use AI technology to manage routine tasks, improve the accuracy and timing of decisions, learn faster from the garden, and free up attention for observation, enjoyment and creativity.
Gardeners who draw upon AI technology will continue to feel the soil, sense microclimates, make long-term observations, and pursue ethical and aesthetic judgements.
Gardening with AI has several dimensions. We begin this column with examples of our AI applications, then focus on convenient, popular uses of this technology: plant identification and diagnosis.
Today’s image gallery
These photos feature recent applications of AI to address my garden issues.
Identifying plants with AI
Common Hyacinth (Hyacinthus orientalis ‘Pink Pearl’). This plant appeared unexpectedly in my garden. It usually blooms early in the spring, and can be forced to flower at Christmas time, but appeared on its own in late December. Cultivars of the Common Hyacinth typically blossom in blue, white, pale yellow, red, or purple, so I used AI to identify this cultivar with pink blossoms.
Jellybean (Sedum pachyphyllum). My garden bed of Mexican succulents has included this plant for a few years. I recognized it as a Sedum, and to be honest, I forgot its specific name. Posting a snapshot of the plant soon revealed its full botanical name.
Solving a puzzle with AI
Parry’s Agave (Agave parryi). This agave’s flower stalk grew to about 6 feet in height with a substantial thickness, then stopped! I have watched other agaves produce tall stalks, blossom, and expire, as monocarpic plants do, but this specimen was behaving differently.
I prompted ChatGPT (the widely used AI tool): “Does an agave flower stalk pause growth during cold weather?”
The 425-word response (with my light editing) opened with: “Agaves are warm-season CAM plants, physiologically tuned to active growth during mild to warm conditions. When temperatures drop … cell expansion slows, carbohydrate mobilization is reduced, and CAM metabolism downshifts.”
The response continued to ensure: “Once temperatures rise consistently, the stalk will resume its dramatic ascent — often faster than expected — and proceed normally to flowering.”
This response included more details that I won’t summarize here and offered to “outline how long different agave species typically take from stalk emergence to bloom under Central Coast conditions, which can be surprisingly variable.”
This response erased my concerns for this agave, but I posted a follow-up prompt: “What are CAM plants?”
ChatGPT responded with 469 words plus a diagram, explaining that certain plants “use a specialized photosynthetic pathway called crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM). This adaptation allows them to conserve water by shifting when they open their stomata (leaf pores), making CAM plants especially successful in arid, seasonally dry, or Mediterranean-climate regions — including California’s central coast.”
The AI response included more details, and this core idea: “Most plants open their stomata during the day to take in carbon dioxide (CO₂) for photosynthesis. CAM plants do the opposite:
• At night, stomata open, CO₂ enters, and is stored as organic acids inside the plant.
• During the day, stomata stay mostly closed, stored CO₂ is released internally, and photosynthesis proceeds with minimal water loss.
This time shift dramatically reduces transpiration, allowing CAM plants to survive in water-scarce or unreliable environments.”
ChatGPT also offered additional details, including, for example, a list of California natives and exotics that use CAM.
The explanation is technical botany, more than is needed to manage a garden, but it expanded my knowledge and respect for some of my plants’ natural processes involved in water conservation.
Designing a plant container
My recent column described plants acquired during the Monterey Bay Cactus and Succulent Society’s annual auction. A friend acquired a Ponytail Palm (Beaucarnea recurvata) at the same event through a raffle and gifted it to me.
I already have a Ponytail Palm in my garden, so I considered growing this graceful plant indoors.
I prompted ChatGPT: “What would be a good container for a Beaucarnea recurvata houseplant? Recommend container color and shape.”
The response included 447 words and six photos, commenting on three shapes, five colors, and three different materials for the container for this plant. At the bottom line, AI recommended a “matte charcoal or warm-gray cylindrical ceramic planter, straight-sided, understated, with drainage.”
My container collection includes a gloss black, cylindrical ceramic container with drainage. This option was close to AI’s top choice, but it is too large for my plant, which would need several years to grow large enough to look right in my container.
As a practical decision, I installed the Ponytail Palm in a blue container.
AI’s input was helpful, but I went in a different direction.
AI in the garden: Plant identification and diagnosis
Gardeners can most often use artificial intelligence to identify plants they discover in nature, a public garden or a friend’s garden. They might even need to recall the name of a plant in their own gardens. A plant’s botanical name provides the key to acquiring a description, cultivation information, or a source for mail-order purchase. If you lack the plant’s botanical name, posting a clear, close-up photo will be the most effective request for AI to identify the plant. Lacking a photo, you can post the plant’s common name.
Here are AI tools for plant identification, cultivation, or diagnosis:
• Google Images: This search engine is freely available for plant identification. This application began by linking to images from keywords. Since 2018, it has included entering images to link to matching images and information. It has been refined since then. While using a computer or smartphone, browse to images.google.com and enter one of your garden photos, or an image from the World Wide Web.
• Pl@ntNet: This citizen science project, launched in 2013, identifies plants from photographs by drawing on its database of 77,000-plus plant species. PlantNet contains 10,112 native species (5,619 illustrated) from the Southwestern U.S. region, which includes the Monterey Bay area. Learn more about this AI tool by searching for PlantNet on YouTube.com. When you use PlantNet, it will add your photographs to its database without including your personal info. Browse to plantnet.org/en/ to download this free AI tool in either computer or smartphone versions (Android, iOS).
• iNaturalist: Wikipedia describes this free resource as “an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit social network of naturalists, citizen scientists, and biologists built on the concept of mapping and sharing observations of biodiversity across the globe.” Visit iNaturalist.org to learn about this resource. Use this AI tool either on your computer or on your smartphone (iOS/Android) by downloading either the “iNaturalist” app (iOS/Android) or the “Seek by iNaturalist” app.
• PictureThis: This “botanist in your pocket” identifies plants, diagnoses plant diseases, provides plant care “tips,” identifies toxic plants, and has positive reviews and many downloads. Available on iOS and Android smartphones. You can download the app for a free trial, but it eventually requires a monthly or annual subscription. Visit www.picturethisai.com/ for more details.
• Plantix: Image-based diagnostic tool that detects plant diseases, pests, and deficiencies (built initially for crops but very useful in gardens too). This mobile resource uses the Android operating system. For more information and access, visit plantix.net/en/.
• Plant.Health: This disease-detection model has recently been expanded and upgraded. Visit www.kindwise.com/ to learn about a group of apps that detect 548 plant-health classes across insects, fungi, bacteria, and abiotic stresses — while maintaining overall accuracy.
This week in the garden
When you use AI to identify a mystery plant, check the response with your own experience or other reliable sources.
In future columns, we will explore other ways you can use AI in the garden.
Tom Karwin is a past president of Friends of the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum and the Monterey Bay Iris Society, a past president and Lifetime Member of the Monterey Bay Area Cactus & Succulent Society, a Lifetime UC Master Gardener (Certified 1999–2009), past board member of the Santa Cruz Hostel Society, and a current member of the Pacific Horticultural Society and other garden-related societies. To review the archive of recent On Gardening columns, visit www.santacruzsentinel.com/ and search “Karwin.” Visit ongardening.com to review columns from 2012–2020 (and eventually) from the following years. Please send comments or questions to gardening@karwin.com.
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