Echeverias Are Growing

We are starting to see more growth inside our  small terrariums. They were planted in the beginning of 5th grade. They all look similar but some are different.

Can you spot the different Echeverias?

Pod 1

Aloes and Echeveria

Pod 3

Pod 4

The tall plants in the second picture is either Aloe kedongensis or nyeriensis.

Wow a Big Beautiful Flower

Our LC. "Miss Wonderful" From Fred Clarke at SVO finally opened.  We have been waiting for it to open for a while. On Friday we stayed at school for a long time to see if it would open. Our teacher cheated a little and blew on the petals. One side opened and we saw the color. We stayed a little while longer and were able to see more of the color. We sent an e-mail to Fred to show him our little plant. It got too late and we had to leave school. A sad that we could not see all of it. But the 7 of us that stayed late each day with our teacher to do a special garden class, she calls us MASTER GARDENERS, got a preview. This morning we all got to see just how wonderful Fred CLARKE is.

Now we know how she got her name. She is a cross of Blc. Mari's Song 'CTM217' x L. anceps 'Ultimo'.


This is the picture from Friday evening.

This is Monday morning

Garden department bought more plants

This morning, our teacher brought some plants to school. The garden department made a decision to buy some of the plants that came in. We got our money out and were able to buy some plants for the garden. We are really happy because now we can propagate some of the plants and sell them to the students in the Horticulture to make more money.  We invested $43.67.  These are the plants we were able to buy :

• 2 Hoyas carnosa with red spots each for 3.75
• Echeveria cetosa 4.99
• Cotyledon  orbiculata lady smith 4.99
• 2 Tradescantia Moses in a cradle each for 3.95
• Geranium Greengold Kleiner Liebling 2.75
• Nepthytis 1.25
• Tradescantia with pink stripe 4.99
• Echeveria  NOID 5.98

We plan to make a lot of money when we grow our new plants. We picked these plants because they will be easy to propagate and easy for people to grow on their own.

Plants that we bought

Our Garden

I would like to show you my garden that me and my grandma grew so far. We started when I was 5. Our garden is more beautiful than before and it just keeps growing. The garden had changed more than I thought because it stared out as seeds and now we have plants. Here are some pictures of the garden now, sorry but I don't have the pictures of our garden before.                                                                       

This my grandmas  lovely plant.





Some succulents

This is our garden that we have so far and it looks nice.

                     

Thank You, Modernfloristry

Dial Jenson and Sean McGowan from Modernfloristry,  on behalf of the Garden Department and the HORTICULTURE CLUB we thank you so much for making a donation to our school. We are students from the school and we use this blog to write about our interests. As you can see we have a Horticulture club that meets on Mondays after school. The Students in the garden clubs are from 4-10 years old and are very interested in growing plants. In the garden department we work before school to take care of the garden areas we started last year. Most of our plants are donated by our teacher and her friends.
We are happy that your business is located so close to our school and one of your employees is connected to the school. She brings us the plants that you have donated to us and we are very happy to get them. The plants that you have donated to us are in our garden area. The plants have changed the way the area looks, they form a nice border. We love that they are so big and cover up empty spaces. We have used the plants to make an empty wall a little bit more beautiful. We put the plants in some nice, big pots that were also donated.

The plants make our garden a big deal! People are giving us new compliments about how much nicer the garden area looks.

Whenever we walk by the plants,  it feels like we are in a proper garden. I am sure that other students at our school feel the same way. You should know that we really appreciate your donation, so THANK YOU!

Plants against the big wall.

The plants by the poles. 

The plants by the wall. 

Beautiful Bromeliads

Oh Bromeliads, how I love your features and that color of your flowers. I am so happy trying to find all the kinds of bromeliads. There are lots in the classrooms and in the garden. There are Guzmanias, Aechmeas, Vrieseas and Neoregelias. What's so interesting is that they all have a type of miniature pool tank and that is were they store water and make a flower.

When I saw it being watered I thought that the plants needed to be watered were the roots were. I was surprised that you needed to put water it in the little pool. So that was when I got my interest in these kinds of plants. One day we were helping one of my friends move and she was giving her plants away. I saw a bromeliad and then I immediately got it and I saw that there was 2 pups.  I was really exited to see them because I am so interested in them.

 I hope in the future I will still enjoy bromeliads and grow a lot of them. I will even make blog of my bromeliad flowering. Maybe I will even hybridize them.

All the bromeliads below are at school.

This is a plant I brought in.

This is a Neoregelia

This is the Guzmania

This is the beautiful Aechmea

       

Hawaiian Vacation

On the 12th of September I went to Hawaii for a vacation with my family. There were 7 of us on the trip. It was strange because I had to miss a week of school. I didn't mind because my family has been planning this trip for a while.

We went to a section of a island called Honolulu. During the trip we did a lot of fun things like going to the beaches.

This beach is one of the most known beach in Honolulu and it is called Lanikai.

Our hotel was cool, it had a beach and a pool. We were there for 8 days. but the view wasn’t that good. All you could see was a roof.

This is the view from the balcony

Another thing we did was go to a Japanese temple. It was called Byodo-In Temple. There was a forest around it and pineapple were growing on the trees. When I saw that I thought I recognized them because the leaves of the pineapple look like some of the Bromeliads that we have at school.

This is the temple

On the 2nd to last day we went to a luau. We got necklaces, got to eat, and saw a music show. It was fun.

This is the luau

The last day wasn’t that fun. All we did was pack, and drive to the airport. The airplane was called American Airlines. It had a tablet built into the seat, and I watched movies on it. That was the end of my trip.
I brought back chocolate for my classmates to share.

Fred's Orchids

On Monday we started emailing one of our teacher's friend, Fred Clarke. We started emailing him to find out more about Orchids, because our teacher brought in two of the plants he created. We were impressed!

 So then I asked him what do some other of his orchids look like. He responded by sending me 3 pictures of orchids on trees. I have decided to share them with everyone else because of their beauty. This is How ORCHIDS SHOULD GROW IN NATURE. My teacher has been telling us that orchids are EPIPHYTES and that means that they want to be mounted on trees and not planted in the ground. So, if you have orchids maybe you should put them in the trees or on a long piece of board to make them thinks they are in the trees

Picture taken by Fred Clarke

Picture taken by Fred Clarke

                                                     

Picture taken by Fred Clarke

The 4 beautiful Orchids

 On Tuesday, when I got home, I sent an email to Fred Clarke. We have been corresponding with him ever since Monday after our teacher and her friends went to his nursery. She brought back plants and now all of Classtopia is mad about orchids. I asked him if he wouldn't  mind sending me pictures of some of his hybridization's or his favorites, and he sent me 4 beautiful pics of orchids.
 I told him that I can't pick between the 4. So, which is your favorite?

Here is Carlos (his worker) holding one of his crossings

I think this is Brassavola?

Unknown

Unknown as well

Beautiful Echeveria

My favorite plant is Echeveria Subrigida. That is the plant I like because it has pink around the edges. It has a nice shape and it is a beautiful plant. I would like to grow it for show and tell. It was the plant I saw first when I came new Classtopia. The Echeveria subrigida in the garden behind the auditorium.

Echeveria  subrigida plant.

                                           

My Mini Terrarium

On Wednesday,  I planted my Aloe seeds and my Echeveria seeds. I planted my Aloe seeds in a big juice bottle, and the Echeveria seeds in two water bottles. Before I went to school yesterday, I checked the seeds and the bottles looked all fogged up because the water was evaporating and condensing. This means that there is plenty of humidity to help them germinate. I made the labels out of paper, makers, and tape.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

                          These are my mini terrariums.

The Stapelia Gigantea Flowered!!!

 On Tuesday, the Stapelia Gigantea flowered. It was really awful smelling. Leslie went and told our principal that it flowered, and that it smelled really good. So, she came and smelled it, but when she put her nose on top of the flower she made a face that indicated that it was stinky. She walked away, shaking her head. We all laughed because she didn't want to smell it anymore. It was really awful. We tired to get other teachers to smell it. One person said he was not going to smell it flies do not like good smelling flowers. He walked away.

 When I smelled it, I almost gagged. It was DISGUSTING! But, I am excited that it finally opened, because it took about a week to fully open.

Terrarium Update

About 2 weeks ago all Classtopians had planted different  seed in pots. The pots were made out of  water bottle that had the top cut off. Then we had cut holes close to the bottom of the pots so that the water in the pots will drain out if there is too much water in them. The holes are not at the very bottom because we want to make sure that as the plants continue to grow that have a supply of water to help keep the moisture in. Then we used the tops of the bottles to put back on the bottles to make little terrariums.

When we first started we thought that it would take a very long time to see germination. Some people said two months and other said one month. It turns out that we were all wrong. We started to check last week and did not see anything. I did see something in one of my pots.

This Tuesday  morning Sept. 19th,  we took out the table containers with the terrariums  and to our surprise we all had something growing. Most people have germination in two of their three pots. Jessica is a great grower because she has germination in all three of her pots. We wrote in our science journals what we noticed. We are planning to do a google spread sheet to track our plant growth.

We are happy to see that most of every body's seedlings are becoming little tiny plants. I really think that our predictions were not very accurate. We will soon have plants to share and grow.

This is a picture of Jessica's Rhypsalis.

These are Jessica's Echeveria buds.

This is a picture of Jessica's Columnea Elmer Lorenz.

Little Terrariums

Today in Classtopia we used our math/science time to put seeds in our terrariums.

On Tuesday, we had cut the water bottles so that they were ready. On Tuesday we also made the soil ready. We mixed the soil with pumice, perlite, and peat moss. We filled the water bottles two thirds full with soil, then we watered them. We left them in the classroom in a bin, to let the water drain out.

Finally, today we put the seeds inside the bottles. The seeds are a little powder, so we used a Q-tip to sprinkle them.  One type of seeds needed moss, Columnea Elmer Lorenz, so we got the moss ready. Then, we just closed the tops, and we were done. For the extra seeds that needed moss, we made a a mix of only pumice and moss on top.  Everything was finally done!

 I hope that everyone's grows.

Here is the list of the choices that each person got to choose from:

Columnea Elmer Lorenz
Anthurium scandens
Tillandsia stricta  (We are going to plant them on a log and a piece of bark.)
Aloe kedongensis
Aloe nyeriensis
Rhipsalis
Echeveria gibbiflora
Echeveria maybe crossed with E. coccinea,  E. rosea
Manfreda

This is how the mix looks in the bottles.

This is the ready sphagnum moss mix.

These are the bottles of a Classtopian.

First Time In Classtopia

Hello my name is Bianca and I am new to Classtopia. My teacher is a nice teacher. I like this class because  they garden. When we garden it is fun to plant. I get to learn about plants.

My teacher is also funny, and a fun teacher. She jokes around with us kids. I also like being in her class because I like learning new things that I did not learn in fourth grade.

I love my teacher because she makes it easy to learn new things. She is also challenging when we do math she gives us challenging math to do and to think about what the answer is.

I like to discover the names of the plants that we are growing in the garden. The class has four gardens where plants are growing.

I am happy to be in Classtopia!

My Plant Experiment

I did a plant experiment back in April this year. I had made it with a water bottle. I cut of the top of the water bottle then filled it up with soil. After that I put the seeds in. I put in more than just one type of seed in them, because I only had 4 bottles and a lot of seeds to plant. So I had to put two types of seeds in one bottle.

Its been a few months now and I have given the plants time to grow. I watered my plants when I thought they looked dry. So they were never too dry. My plants were in good conditions so I knew they were going to grow, and they did! Out of the four bottles three of  them are growing something. I can not see any thing in the 4th one so I will give it more time. I can see some progress in the 3rd one, and 1 and 2 are fine.

My plants grew since April and it is nice to see them grow because then you know how much progress they made.                   

                                             
               

This is pot number 1 Scadoxus.

                                                 

This is pot number 2. As you can see it is kinda small.

                                                 

Pot 3 has just sprouted.

Pot 4 has nothing growing in it.

How My Plants are Doing now

Last school year on Friday, May 6, 2016 our teacher gave us plants to give our moms. My mom loved them. When they got bigger I had to put them in a bigger place. Sadly one of the plants died. My mom is very good in crafts and instead of buying pot she got a gallon jug with no water. Then she cut it in half, we kept one of the halves then we filled it with soil. Then we put the plant in it. We also had a aloe so we put the aloe in with the mother's day plant. This is how it looks like now.

We also had another mother's day plant it looks like this:

Adventitious Growing

This morning our teacher brought in a big leaf. The class was curious to know what plant the leaf was from. She told us that it was a Begonia lotusland. She asked us if we were interested in starting new plants from pieces of the leaf. We all responded "yes". She helped Daniela and Leslie to cut the leaf in smaller pieces.

Daniela and Leslie combined sphagnum moss, perlite, potting mix. First, they got the begonia leaf  pieces and  planted the leaf pieces in plastic bowls.  Before they put the pieces in they sprayed the mix with water and made spaces in the medium to put the leaves in. Finally, they put the lid on the bowl. The leaves will be placed in a shady place in the garden and hopefully grow.

 Now we will wait to see how long it will take for the new plants to start growing.

We did a survey to see how long it will take and most people said it will take between 1 to 2 months.
When they start to grow the garden department will auction some off and keep some for the school garden.

Written by Natalia and Laila
Pictures by Natalia

The center piece of the leaf.

Begonia lotusland

   

This is Leslie making spaces and putting the pieces in the medium.

My Favorite Plants

I really like plants. But I have some favorites that are really cool.

My favorite one is a Geranium. The one we have at school has a pink flower. I remember when it was just in one little tiny spot, but now, it mostly covers one whole side of the garden! I also have a Geranium at my house, but it is smaller than the one at school. I like geraniums because they have beautiful leaves. The leaves are green, but if you look carefully, you can see a little bit of Purple! I think that is a cool trick!

Another plant I like is the Scadoxus. When my teacher brought it to school, I was shocked she even brought it! I really love its flower. I love the bright orange color. The most interesting thing to me is what my teacher is trying to do. She is trying to get a white flower from the Scadoxus. The closest she has gotten was a really light orange. She has given all of us Scadoxus seeds, and I wonder what color my flower will be. If it is white, then I will give it to my teacher..

Succulents can be cool, too. I like how the leaves are kind of thick. When it flowers, the part of the succulent that was curved in will curve out, so it is obvious when it is flowering. The Aeoniums are neat. They are green, or a purple-black color.  I also like that sometimes the leaves can turn a darker shade of purple and black.

I also like Tradescantia. The leaves curl up when it gets too much sun. I wish I could do that, too! It is a darkish purple. I think my mom will like it, since her favorite color is purple.

This is an Aeonium.

These are Tradscantia

These are my Scadoxus seeds.