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Educating the Neighborhood

pedersonplants

The Obsessive Gardener
Hi:

I received a nice box of plants today. I was sitting on my front porch steps slowly potting them up. There were 7-8 of those pygmy sundews and I had to use my magnifying glass to even see them clearly.

Three neighbor boys that had wanted to do a garden club with me came up. I found out why their leader hadn't been back with them. Apparently he forgoto he had to spend several weeks in the summer visiting his real Dad.

I gave 3 boys, standing around me on their roller blade, a 1/2 talk on carnivorous plants. 1 had heard of venus fly traps.

It was so much fun. They could see the little tiny hairs on some of the traps and were just fascinated. We talked about where these plants grow and the fact that bogs could be dangerous if you didn't know where you were walking. Then we talked about these plants getting their nutrients from insects. Way cool, was their response.

They know I have more plants on the way.

We did carnivorous plants today. Tomorrow's lesson will be much easier for me: how to propagate and grow hen & chicks and various sedums. No magnifying glass needed.

This made me think. How many of you have taken time to let some kids just watch (and help) you pot up these plants. They even asked me about the "funny names" and I got to explain how scientists name plants.

These boys have said no girls allowed in their garden club. Apparently they aren't old enough to appreciate the girls chasing them. LOL.

Now, for some supper and I have to move my cp plants in at night until I get a hardware cloth cage built to keep the squirrels out.
 
hmm, I am going to give my garden club free small d. capensis when mine mature.
 
I've done two speeches to my class about CP Conservation and the mechanics. The latter was cut off at 2 minutes because they didn't want me to talk, I also brought in a plant and I wasn't even able to talk about it. They deducted me points since I didn't stop at 2 minutes and went to 3 before they had to stop me.
 
Explain, "they didn't want me to talk". If you were giving a speech, you had to talk! LOL. Obviously your speech was longer than the teacher assigned?
 
The closest I've got to letting some kids just watch (and help) me pot up these plants is showing my daughter how it's done. I like pygmy dews and she likes Neps. I blame her mom for that ???
 
Hmmm. Isn't it good that she likes SOME carnivorous plants? Maybe at her age, the neps seem more "cool"?
 
I was saying that as a joke. She actually she likes anything that grows. We went to a yard sale this last weekend and they were selling lemonade with large mint sprigs in it. She now has the mint sprigs setting on the table in a glass of water to root them.
 
The boys didn't know quite what to think about the Utricularias we potted up. They said it looked like "moss" to them.

Jim had included a flower stalk on one -- I think it was Livida -- the one that looks like a rabbit's head. COOL was their immediate response.

I'm an ex teacher so I LOVE helping to teach kids stuff like this. By the time they're in high school, it's not COOL to hang around some lady talking to you about plants.

We're a very well integrated townehouse coop but its only the Black and Spanish kids that seem so interested in learning to garden. The adult Vietnamese are always giving me the okay sign and pointing to my garden. Some of the older ladies LOVE the fact that I use these ligyhtweight foam pots and set them up in a 3-tier arrangement so I can take care of my plants from my walker. They've commented on how much it helps them enjoy them too without having to bend down to the ground level to see them.

The teenagers probably figure I'm just one of those "weird old ladies". I've noticed a lot of neighbors just watching the group around me. They can't begin to see what we are doing. I'm waiting for a few of them to walk across the street to see what is going on.
 
That is SO cool Diana! LOL I am 28 myself and love talking about these plants. I have not had the oprotunity to talk to many children about these plants. I have had the oprotunity to talk to many of my professors at school about them. There are a couple teenagers in my neighborhood, but non that seem interested in plants. I have thought about offering to talk at the local elementary school, but the thing is I am still in school myself. So I am waiting till I am done with that before extending that offer. I for one get real excited when I start to talk about CPs or Orchids!!!
 
  • #10
I have some business-card sized cards I keep in my wallet. If I see a kid at Lowes or the greenhouse looking interested in the CPs, sometimes I approach them, talk to them about the plants and give them a card which directs them to this forum for growing advice.

Nothing like proselytizing for CPs. :D
 
  • #11
That sounds like a good idea. I am getting ready to print up some business cards anyway to direct people to all my websites.
 
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