Loosen the soil in the bottom of your hole and a spinkle of dragon dung followed by a light shower of water-- just enough to moisten the soil, it should NOT look like mud?, Gwen repeated in her mind. I don’t get it!

She was very confused, but decided to take it slow…it can’t be so hard. Ok, so, first I have to loosen the soil at the bottom of the hole. The girl did exactly like the instructions say.

Then, she added the dragon dung thing and the water. And now, I need to make sure it’s not muddy. Please, please, please be all right, I don’t want to start over… Fortunately, she didn’t have to. Everything seemed all right.

Ok…moving on

Finally! The last step.

Uhh not dragon dung again!

...

Helena put on her gloves, then took a little bit of that smelly and disgusting dragon dung and sprinkled it around the base of the Flutterby Bush. So... that was it? Yup.

After she took off her gloves and cleaned them again, the girl took a green ribbon and a tag, to write her name and house on it, then attached it to the bush. There. She was done.

Gwen finished loosening the soil around the edges of the pot and began removing the Flutterby Bush. Is there any chance I could tear it?Hopefully not…

The girl finished removing it, and started shaking it in order to get that soil off the roots.

3. Loosen the soil in the bottom of your hole and a spinkle of dragon dung followed by a light shower of water-- just enough to moisten the soil, it should NOT look like mud.


Penny checked the instructions again (she was very determined not to do this wrong)...
With her small shovel, she loosened the soil at the bottom of the hole as indicated, then with her gloved right hand, put in a sprinkle of dragon dung....wrinkling her nose at the smell..

She lightly watered the soil, making it damp but not wet...

Finally a step that doesn’t sound confusing to me. However… I don’t get one thing- We took out the plant in order to…replant it? That is weird!

Oh, well- do as it says, Gwen told herself. She placed the Flutterby Bush into the hole. Ah, not the soil again!

She took the soil and patted it gently, and then she checked out the instructions once again to see what she had to do next.

Merlin help her...

Her Flutterby Bush was NOT happy about her pruning. Either that, or the spell was similar to tickling someone on the bottom of their feet with a feather. Was that it, maybe the Flutterby Bush was just very ticklish? She continued to point her wand at the different leaves, but each time she thought that she had a clear shot at one, it moved again. Not wanting to prune a leaf that shouldn't be pruned, Kurumi folded her arms and realized that she really needed to think of another way of going about this.

After drumming her finger on her lips for a few moments, Kurumi picked her wand back up again and flicked it towards the plant. "Immobulus!" she commanded. Instantly, the plant froze and Kurumi took a deep breath. NOW she could get to finishing up her pruning.

Now with a non-futtering Flutterby Bush, Kurumi began turning the pot around slowly and swished her wand over each of the dying leaves and twigs. "Flipnsnipwitit!" turn, turn, turn. "Flipnsnipwitit!" turn, turn, turn. "Flipnsnipwitit!"

When the last dead leaf had fallen and twig on the table, Kurumi looked over her plant once more. Yep, that would do it.

Kurumi glanced at her parchment again and then carried her potted Flutterby Bush over to the flowerbed, set it down on the ground, and took out her wand once more. "Defodio," she whispered as a medium-sized hole appeared before her. Yep, that looked like an appropriate size, she decided as she lowered the plant - pot and all - into the hole to test.

Once Simon had got everthing that he needed he decided it was time to give this a try and hopefully he wouldn't hurt anyone or the plant. "Flipndssnipwitit." Simon said though it didn't sound and so he tried again. "Flipnsnipwitit." That was better and he watched as the leaves and dead twigs where trimmed.

Gwen wanted to jump around when she saw what she had to do next. Water the plant! That I can do!

She immediately watered the plant, stopping after each time she poured a drop of water to see if it was enough and if the plant didn’t drawn.

Simon looked at the next instruction, so he had to dig a hole in the flowerbed did it have to be perfectly measured like last time though there wasn't an amount on this one so he decided to dig the hole to the level that everyone else had it.

Pocketing her wand now, Kurumi figured that these next few steps ought to be done with her hands to make sure that she didn't mess anything up. Sure, Aguamenti would be very useful in this instance, but using a small watering can would give her a little more control.

Kurumi poked the soil at the bottom of the hole she had made with her fingers and twisted the ground here and there until the soil became lose and no longer looked like an elephant had sat down.

Dragon dung...right...

She took a deep breath before going over to collect the brown stuff and struggled to continue to hold her breath as she carefully sprinkled it over the hole. When her lungs burned, and her face was probably a light shade of purple from the lack of oxygen, Kurumi took a deep breath and her nose wrinkled. Yep, certainly was potent stuff.

Next, Kurumi grabbed a small watering can, rushed over to the sink where she filled it with water, and returned to her hole where she poured a very thing layer of water over it. She then set the watering can down and squatted on the ground next to the hole to examine just how damp it was. No...it still looked rather dry, so Kurumi poured one more layer which seemed to do the trick.

4. After loosening the soil around the edges of the pot, remove the Flutterby Bush, roots and all and shake off the excess soil from the roots-- this will allow it to breathe.


Checking the instructions again..Penny moved onto stage four...
Carefully loosening the soil around the edges of the plant, she removed the bush carefully, holding it around the base near the soil..

Shaking all the extra soil away from the roots....

Louisa beamed when the teacher liked her progress. And that was something she'd never do to a person with authority, beaming I mean. Something definitely was in her dinner last night, she so shouldn't have grabbed anything from the table. Pranksters were on the loose in here.

Moving on.

She grabbed one of the small bushes and dragged it to where she sat. The plant was quivering slightly and Louisa liked it. Even with the dead twigs and bad leaves. She shrugged and held her wand tightly, she didn't want hers go flying in the air like that Huffie boy. "Flipnsnipwitit." She muttered swishing her wand but thanks to the moving bush a perfect twig got trimmed instead of the dead one.

Louisa frowned and paused for a minute. "Professor? Can we stun the bush first?" She suggested coldly, it wasn't as if the plant was alive… no matter what the books said, Louisa had her own theories to go by. Freezing the plant, particularly this one, would only make it easier to trim, right?

Riley shot his head up from his notes with a jerk. He and Mani had been in the student greenhouses taking care of the Flutterby bushes not too long ago. This was pretty neat, he loved those little plants. He copied the spell down onto his paper, having already known it from use at home, he still decided he sould practice it. There was no room for mistakes when you actually got the little plant in front of you.

So first the Gryffindor just did the wand motion, a nice and slow swish over the practice tree branch. Ok so he had that, next Riley reset his wand at the start of the branch and spoke clearly, "Flip-n-snip-wit-it." The first little twigs at the top were trimmed back but the spell lost power about half-way down the specimen. He had lost focus. 'Ok Riley, come on. You can do this.'

Shaking his head and clearing his mind further, Riley spoke the incantation again, "Flip-n-snip-wit-it." He held his wand and began to swish over the practice branch again...this time making it all the way across. He did it!
Ok so away with the practice branch and helloooo Flutterby bush. Riley walked over and retrieved a nice medium sized plant and took it back to his work station. He smiled at it and touched a branch here and there. It was a bit 'scruffy' looking. "You need to shave buddy!" he laughed at his own joke. He quickly wrote down the list of instructions and set his quill down.

"Ok so step number one. The trimming, easy enough." Riley read, put on his gloves, and then pointed his wand at the top of the plant, watching warily as it flitted and swayed here and there. "Ok no jerking around too much." And he was off. "Flipnsnipwitit." Here and there excess twigs and leaves floated to the work surface and the Flutterby bush began to take a more appealing shape. After a few more spells and trimming sessions the bush was finally starting to look presentable.

Simon looked at the next instruction, he was glad he was wearing gloves but he still didn't want to touch the dung but he knew he had to do it, so he didn't argue with the instruction and just did what he had to do and then he put a small amount of water in the hole.

5. Place the Flutterby Bush into the hole and fill it in with the soil you dug out. Pat it down gently-- not too firm otherwise you may suffocate the roots.


Penny placed the bush into the newly dug hole, and covered it with the soil she had removed....

She then patted the soil down gently to make sure the Flutterby Bush was secure in the hole..

Simon looked at the next instruction this was going to be good he couldn't wait to shake the flutterby bush it would be fun to see if it liked it or not, he loosened the soil around the edge of the pot like he was told then grabbing hold of the Flutterby Bush he started shaking the bush until all the excess soil ws away from the root and then he gave it one more shake for good measure now he had to see what the next instruction was.

[QUOTE]

After having trimmed Goliath, that's what he had decided to name his Flutterby bush, Riley left him on the table and headed over to the flowerbed on the left side of the greenhouse. Goliath's new home. He looked at the dirt and pointed his wand at the center of the empty space. "Diffindo." The dirt shot a small bit in the air and a hole was left behind. Crouching down beside the roughly dug out spot, Riley took a spade and began to fix it to a better more appropriate size for his plant.

The next step is probably the easiest one.

Loosening the soil around th edge of the pot, Aiden hopes that the roots will not scream like Mandrake roots when she pulls the plant out off the pot. Aiden pulls the Flutterby Bush from it's pot carefully. Then, she shakes it off to remove the soil left on the roots.

Four steps down, three more to go.

Checking the soil one more time to make sure that it was damp, but not to the point of threatening to turn into a swamp, Kurumi turned her attention to her potted Flutterby Bush that was beginning to move once more.

Well, if it was going to wiggle a bunch on its own she supposed that that could help her remove the excess dirt on its roots, right?

Kurumi turned her attention back to the pot and stuck her fingers around the edges and began massaging the dirt to loosen it up. She stopped every now and again to test and see if she could pull the plant out easily, and had to do so a few times until she could pull it out without much effort.

Holding the bush in her right hand, Kurumi used her left to massage the roots and allow clumps of dirt that were not needed to fall off.

6. Water the plant -- but don't drown it.



Looking at the board again, Penny read what she had to do next...

Pointing her wand at the newly planted Flutterby Bush, she said "Aquamenti", and some water flowed from her wand...taking off her glove, she felt the soil with her fingers and it still felt dry, so she tried again...

"Aquamenti".. more water flowed...she felt the soil again - it was moist but not soaking...."Uhm, I think that should do"

Standing back to admire her work so far - Penny was pleased

When she was satisfied with how the plant looked she knelt down beside the flowerbed and began to dig. Piling the soil up next to the hole. When it looked deep enough she checked that the flowerpot fit then she took a little more soil out to leave some extra room.

Carefully, Aiden puts the Flutterby Bush into the hole she dug earlier. Next, she covers the hole with soil and pats it gently. Plants need to breathe too, thus leaving "pores" on the soil for the roots to breathe is the best idea.

Only a couple more steps left.

Simon placed the Flutterby Bush in the hole though he had wanted to keep shaking it but he knew he would get in trouble for it so he just fallowed the instructions, he then filled it with soil and looked at the instruction again, he had to read it four time before decided it was on the sheet, he patted the Flutterby Bush down gently.

7. Sprinkle a little dragon dung around its base. Tag your plant.


Checking the instructions for the last item on the list, "almost finished" she thought.... Penny put her dragon hide gloves back on her hands again..

Lifting some dragon dung and sprinkling a little around the base of the bush she had just watered...

Taking a tag off the long table at the front of the greenhouse.. the wrote out the details needed...
Attaching the tag with a ribbon to the base of the plant..

Penny breathed a sigh of relief, she had finished the task

SPOILER!!: Tag

Plant: Flutterby Bush
Student Name: Penny Laughgood
House: Hufflepuff

Nearly there...

It is time to water the plant now. Aiden pours water onto the patted soil under her Flutterby Bush till the soil becomes moisturised. Then, she stops, not wanting to drown the fascinating plant.