Hero, for one of his Webelos projects, needs to have a plant. And he needs to learn about reasons why plants are good. NASA did a study on what plants filter the air most effectively, and I had him read an article on the study. Then we went to the store to see what they had.
I wanted to check out the Mother-in-law's Tongue, but it's much larger than I realized, and they wanted $80 for the one they had in stock. Wow. Probably going to be a while before I have one of those. But they had other things. Ferns and Pothos and succulents and ivys and all kinds of fun plants. I love looking through the plant section.
We set out to get Hero a plant, but it quickly became apparent that Dragon was going to be crushed if he didn't get one, too, and what the boys do, the girl must do, so Peanut wanted one, too. I wondered what this little excusrion was going to cost, but we were in luck: they had some tiny plants in pots maybe 2 inches across for $2, and I let Dragon and Peanut choose one of those. Hero, needing it for a project, got to choose one that was in a 4 inch pot for $4. Not too bad. But all those plants needed to be repotted. Happily, we found some pots that were on clearance, so each kid got to choose a colored pot. And we found trays to put under; those were more than I'd hoped for, and kind of oversided for the pots, but with kids watering, I don't think we'd be ok to do without. All total, it was just under $15, which I feel pretty good about!
So. Now we have plants. Two of the three got names. Hero has a Silver-Veined Fittonia that he's dubbed "Silvy." Dragon's is a Hypoestes. The tag didn't say, but the store people told us when he asked. Anyway, it's got green and pink leaves, so he's calling it "Grink." And Peanut chose a mini spider plant, but didn't name hers, at least not yet. Last night a friend stopped by, and he very kindly consented to introductions to all three plants; the kids were so excited about it, and he was a great sport. Upstairs to the boys' room to inspect two plant-pets there, and then down to the kitchen: I persuaded Peanut that her plant needed more light than is available on her dresser. Which means that I can also see it, and that will help me remember to help her water her plant-pet. I think the kids are almost as excited about these plants as they would have been if I'd got them a puppy or a fish!
This morning, I reminded Dragon that after he got dressed the window needed to be opened so the plants could have some light. No problem. The window was opened before he woke up, and he'd just get dressed in the bathroom so that his plant would be happy in the light.
These kids are so sweet; they crack me up.
3 comments:
Sounds like fun! It will be interesting to see how they fare.
Yay plants! I'm thinking about trying to get another string-of-pearls plant when I come up for thanksgiving since I can't seem to find one around here and I killed the last one I had. Good luck to them with their new charges :)
I've seen string-of-pearls occasionally, but I think they must need a *lot* of light. Grandma kept hers in that window that stuck out from the kitchen, so they had tons of light. I'd love to have one, but right now I can't keep my medium light plants happy: my brightest window is a great place for the low-light ones. So here's hoping that the kids' plants do well: none of them are low-light plants, and I'm hoping that isn't a fatal error.
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